There has been a lot of talk about the Night Court revival needing to redeem the character of Dan Fielding, but this ignores how the original series already accomplished that in its final seasons. While Night Court was a comedy first and foremost, the show also tackled serious issues and took the emotional arcs of its core characters seriously. Dan Fielding epitomized this strange balance and the character evolved as the show progressed to become, if not quite a good man, than one who was honestly making an effort to be better.
Running for nine seasons as part of NBC's now-legendary Must See TV line-up on Thursday nights, Night Court centered around the hijinks that ensued during the night shift in a Manhattan criminal arraignment court overseen by Judge Harold T. Stone (Harry Anderson). Dan Fielding (John Larroquette) was the Assistant District Attorney assigned to Stone's court. Originally presented as an uptight intellectual to act as a foil to the more unorthodox and emotional Judge Stone, Fielding quickly evolved into an entirely different character, who was humorously defined by his lusty life outside the courtroom. Despite this, Night Court also showed a softer side to Dan Fielding, allowing the character a surprising amount of nuance for a sitcom that frequently descended into slapstick and once featured a cameo by Wile E. Coyote.
Today, Larroquette is widely recognized as both a great dramatic actor and a talented comedian, having won four consecutive Emmy Awards for his performances as Dan Fielding. While Dan Fielding was undeniably a pervert, he was also presented as an outstanding jurist who did not play games with the law, no matter what shenanigans occurred in his love life. This odd dichotomy forced the character to evolve as the show went on, transforming Dan Fielding during Night Court's final seasons and bringing him some degree of redemption as the series concluded. Given that, the Night Court revival does not need to arrange Dan Fielding's redemption so much as it needs to showcase how he changed for the better in the three decades that followed.
Why Dan Fielding Is So Problematic Today
The chief reason why Dan Fielding is seen as problematic today is that he engaged in activities that would be defined as sexual harassment by any reasonable standard. Most of this misbehavior was aimed at Christine Sullivan (Markie Post), who was the defense attorney in Judge Stone's courtroom through most of Night Court's run. Fielding continually flirted with Sullivan (despite her repeated disinterest) and went so far as to steal her underwear on one occasion. Fielding was also said to have worked his way through the courthouse's pool of stenographers. While this was presented as a humorous character quirk in the 1980's, any man who did half of what Dan Fielding did today in most workplaces would be subject to a serious talk with Human Resources, if not immediate termination and arrest.
Dan Fielding's Womanizing Was Never Meant To Be irable
One key point that has been overlooked in the discussion of Dan Fielding's character is that he was never meant to be ired. This stood in marked contrast to another infamous womanizer from NBC's Must-See TV Thursdays, Sam Malone from Cheers, who was similarly disrespectful in his treatment of women but held up as a hero by the regulars at the bar that he owned. By contrast, Fielding's farcical antics made him an object of ridicule among his peers. More often than not, Dan Fielding was presented as a figure to be pitied and his sex addiction was shown to be symptomatic of a deep-seated longing for true love.
Dan Fielding Was An Honest Lawyer, Despite His Sleazy Love Life
The one thing that saved Dan Fielding was that his boorish behavior was strictly limited to his love life. While there was little Dan wouldn't do for a good time in private, he was the epitome of professionalism in his work. Three separate Night Court storylines centered around various attempts to bribe Dan Fielding and on each occasion, he went through proper channels to try and address the breach in legal ethics. While Dan Fielding's attitude towards women was highly questionable, his respect for the law was beyond reproach.
No storyline better captured the duality of Dan Fielding's character than the two-part Night Court episode "Branded." The season 7 storyline found Dan brought up on ethics charges and facing disbarment after he accused a prominent lawyer of offering him a job in exchange for recommending the criminal charges against the spoiled son of one of his law partners be dismissed. This came about after Fielding was counter-accused of fishing for favors and his womanizing held up as proof of his being morally unfit to be a lawyer. The general tone of "Branded" was surprisingly dark and more appropriate to a Dick Wolf legal drama than Night Court.
Ultimately, the lawyer that had tried to bribe Dan was guilted into confessing the truth, after Dan was suspended pending his disbarment hearing and forced to work as a waiter to make ends meet. This led to perhaps the greatest summation of Dan's character in Night Court history when the presiding judge said that he was still inclined to disbar him because of his tomcatting. "Fielding is still a slimeball," said the judge, when Harry Stone (who was acting as Dan's advocate) suggested he reconsider his verdict. "True," itted Harry, "But he's a law-abiding slimeball."
How The Original Night Court Redeemed Dan Fielding
Despite his womanizing ways, Dan Fielding was often shown to have a heart of gold and an honest desire to be a better man. In the Night Court season 4 episode "Paternity," Dan was fully prepared to take financial responsibility for a young boy who might be his son, without the formality of a blood test. Dan also risked his life to save a hallucinating Roz Russell (Marsha Warfield) in the Night Court season 5 episode "Constitution (Part 2)," getting bruised and bloodied for his trouble, as he pretended to be Roz's father and talked her off of a rooftop ledge.
Night Court season 8 found Dan Fielding truly change for the better after he was placed in charge of istrating a charitable foundation. As the season went on, Dan became as nauseatingly polite and cheerful as he had once been sleazy and sarcastic. The original plan was for this to lead to Dan becoming a Catholic priest in the series finale, but the plans were changed with the series' last-minute renewal and Dan lapsed back into his old ways early in Night Court season 9.
The two-part finale of Night Court, "Opportunity Knock-Knocks," offered Dan Fielding another shot at redemption, as he ended his engagement to a young socialite after discovering that her mother was a woman he had loved and left during his youth in Louisiana. After a nightmare in which he was put on trial for his crimes against women and sentenced to hang, Dan had a revelation that Christine Sullivan was the only woman who had ever understood him and that he truly loved her. Night Court ended with Dan quitting his job to follow Christine as she started a new position as a congressional representative, hoping he could prove himself worthy of her.
How The Night Court Revival Can Continue Dan's Redemption
Given this history, the Night Court revival does not really need to redeem Dan Fielding as he comes to serve in the court overseen by Judge Stone's daughter, Abby Stone (Melissa Rauch). However, the new series will need to explore just how Dan has spent the last three decades since leaving New York City and if he was successful in staying on the straight and narrow, if only because fans of the original series will want to know if he was successful in his efforts to win Christine over or if Christine wound up with Harry Stone, as was originally planned. In either case, the dynamic between Abby Stone and Dan Fielding should be interesting, regardless of what their personal relationship might be.