My wife and I like to pick an older sitcom every once in a while and rewatch it, those shows we watched when we were kids. Sometimes the humor ages well, sometimes the jokes are to "period specific" to work. Like a joke about someone predicting a "Mondale Landslide Victory" is going to be a hard one to land even if you were around for the actual election back in 1984.

Night Court is one of those that, while admittedly does have pop culture references peppered in that will not land today obviously, was still a wonderful show and still is fun to watch even today. It made me think about how some people remember certain aspects of the show, and how some things change.

First, the cast. The first season featured only three that would remain throughout the full run of the show:

Harry Anderson as the Judge, Harold T. Stone
John Larroquette as the Assistant D.A, Dan Fielding
Ricard Moll as one of the Bailiffs, Nostradamus 'Bull' Shannon

While others are remembered fondly as part of the show, the other characters that were there until the end did not join until later seasons:

Charles Robinson as the Clerk, Mac Robinson (Season 2)
Markie Post as the Public Defender, Christine Sullivan (Season 3*)
Marsha Warfield as the other Bailiff, Rosalind "Roz" Russel (Season 4)

Of the final cast, only two of those cast members are still alive today - John Larroquette and Marsha Warfield.

The first season had a cast that most would likely not recognize today. The court clerk was played by Karen Austin (probably best known for playing John Candy's wife in Summer Rental), and was the first initially intended to be Harry's love interest and a love foil for both him and Dan. According to at least one article on why she was not retained for the show:

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However, Austin was diagnosed with Bell’s palsy, and according to the producers of the series, it was affecting her performance.

The other cast member only present for Season 1 was the Public Defender, played by Paula Kelly. No specific reason was given for Kelly's departure, but some think it was because the show lead (Reinhold Weege) always wanted Markie Post (who did appear as her character in E1 of S2 in a guest appearance) but had to wait for her contract with "The Fall Guy" to finish before bringing her in. Others think it might be because they switched over the love interest from being in the position of Court Clerk to Public Defender (allowing Charles Robinson to take the role of Clerk), which one can see in some storylines in S2.

At the end of the day, one can see the evolution of the show as the cast became more set. The reason for the bailiff positions change is, as most know even today, that the bailiff for seasons 1 and 2 (Selma Diamond) and season 3 (Florence Halop), both of which died from lung cancer. This is probably why the series chose to move away from the older, smaller female bailiff (who, admittedly, made for a great contrast to the youthful, optimistic, and massively tall Bull) and hired Marsha Warfield in S4.

One interesting thing of note: The show had no issue with showing the various female defendants in tantalizing outfits, the female leads were almost always dressed very modestly (Christine Sullivan almost always has one something that even hides her neck, at least through S3). Despite this Christine Sullivan (Markie Post) was still seen very much as a sex symbol of late night.

All of this is just to say - the show is still fun to watch. Dan is still the loveable sleaze, Harry to goofy cornball, Christine the heart-on-her-sleeve helper, Bull and Flo/Selma with their commentary from the side, and Mac's role as "straight man" in a whirlwind of absurdity and chaos. Even the side characters (Art the janitor/handyman, Quon Le - Mac's Wife that he didn't expect, and Phil Sanders the bum, are all great additions).

I will say that I am very grateful they got rid of the semi-recurring character of the sleazy reporter.

Trivia note:

The two actors/actresses that appeared in the most episodes after Marsha Warfield were Dorothy Andrews, who played the cashier and appeared in 106 episodes, and Charlotte Portney who played the older court stenographer and appeared in 60 episodes.

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I am going to guess that Charlotte was actually a trained stenographer, as her acting credits include the following shows ALSO as a court stenographer:

Matlock
LA Law
Falcon Crest
Jagged Edge
Dynasty
Hunter
Quincy M.E.
Lipstick
Police Story

As for Courtney Andrews, her only other acting credit was a bit role in the Incredible Shrinking Woman
Batman (1960s series)