Night Court’s Wendie Malick Talks Julianne’s New Gig, Romantic Sparks With Dan — Plus, Grade the Premiere!
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Tuesday’s Night Court season premiere.
There’s a dangerous criminal roaming the halls of Night Court… and no, we’re not talking about the defendants.
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Sitcom veteran Wendie Malick — who guest-starred previously on the NBC comedy as Julianne, an erratic ex-convict who swore vengeance against Dan — joined the cast full-time in Tuesday’s Season 3 premiere. And surprise, Julianne is the court’s new prosecutor! (It turns out she did corporate law before landing behind bars.) Dan, of course, thought this was just another scheme of hers to ruin his life, but he relented when he saw Julianne’s impressive law credentials. She hasn’t forgotten about the kiss they shared last season, either (“That kiss did rock my face”), but the two legal eagles agreed to keep things professional… for now, at least.
It’s quite a big career change for Julianne, and it even took Malick by surprise. “I sort of was a little confused about how you could have an ex-con be a regular on this show,” Malick tells TVLine with a laugh. But the showrunners “said, ‘No, apparently, she has a law degree, so she’s really smart. She just needs to stay on her meds.’ If she doesn’t get her meds… that’s when I go cuckoo.”
Malick doesn’t blame Dan for being wary of Julianne reentering his life: “Initially, I think he’s terrified, and rightly so. Because I still sometimes want to kill him.” But there is a romantic spark between them as well, clearly. Dan and Julianne are “realizing that they’re not healthy for each other,” Malick notes, so “they’re going to try to just take their frustration out in the courtroom and just be the best lawyers they can be and beat each other there.” But she admits “there is some sort of attraction and chemistry going on. We’ll see where that goes.”
But how does Julianne get along with judge Abby and the rest of the courtroom staff? “Well, it depends on the mood Julianne is in that day,” Malick teases. “Sometimes she can be generous and helpful, and other times, you can’t quite know what is on her mind, and if she has ulterior motives.” In the early going, “I think I charm people,” she adds, “but then they see that there are some chinks in the armor.”
We will get to learn a little bit more about what Julianne’s damage is, exactly, as the season goes on as well. Malick hints that in an upcoming Season 3 episode, “I’m finding out something about Julianne’s past. So they’ve built some of my backstory into it, which is really hugely helpful. Where did I come from? How did I get this way? So I now have a little window into my background, and it’s starting to make sense.”
Surprisingly, this marks the first time Malick and her Night Court co-star John Larroquette have ever worked together, and she says “that was one of the tempting possibilities” in joining the cast, “to get to work with him, who I always have admired.” But the whole cast has welcomed her with open arms, she reveals. They “just made room for me to come in and join them, and were very gracious about it. I love a happy set where you walk in and you’re just glad to be there, and you get to laugh with your friends all day and make each other look good, and they do that there. So it’s working out very nice.”
Give us your verdict, Night Court fans: Grade the premiere in our poll, and hit the comments to tell us what you thought of Julianne’s arrival.
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