‘Night Court’ Star Melissa Rauch Unpacks Season 3 Finale, Shares Season 4 Hopes After That Simon Helberg Bombshell

Note: This story contains spoilers from “Night Court” Season 3, Episode 18.

After following the dating life of judge Abby Stone (Melissa Rauch) across three seasons of “Night Court,” viewers were in for a surprise when when “Big Bang Theory” alum Simon Helberg introduced himself as Abby’s husband in the Season 3 finale.

Helberg’s introduction in the finale happens just as Abby’s boyfriend, Jake (Ryan Hansen), prepares to propose to her after going through several hurdles of his own planning the perfect proposal with the night court crew. Rauch told theWrap it appeared as though Abby and Jake “were well on their way” to a potential engagement, but admitted, “Now, knowing that this little nugget was in the back of Abby’s head, it’s hard to know for sure.”

With no mention of Abby’s husband throughout the show until now, Rauch said the Season 3 finale sets up for Helberg to appear in an extended arc in a potential fourth installment. “This wouldn’t just be a one-off assignment. He would come back in and we can really do an arc for the storyline, and not only reveal what the story is behind what we saw in the finale, but sort of move forward,” Rauch said. “It would be so thrilling to get to work with Simon more.”

The finale marked another “Big Bang Theory” reunion on the show for Rauch, after the NBC sitcom welcomed Mayim Bialik in an earlier episode. Rauch and Helberg played husband and wife Howard Wolowitz and Bernadette Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz on the CBS comedy.

“We haven’t been on set together, of course, since we wrapped ‘Big Bang,’ and although we’re super close and have stayed in touch, to get to be on set together on the Warner Brothers lot, where we last were together, felt like going home,” Rauch said. “It was really, really special.”

Below, Rauch also discusses incorporating Abby’s sobriety into the season, teases what she hopes to explore in a potential Season 4 and how long the series could go.

TheWrap: This season gave more a look into Abby’s sobriety, but still in a very Abby way. How do you find the line of being honest about the difficulty of sobriety while still remaining joyful?

Rauch: When we were originally developing Abby, we knew that we wanted her to be this eternal optimist who really wanted to make a difference in the courthouse. Not only following in her father’s footsteps, but also helping people along the way. It was paramount to us that optimism was rooted in this life experience, and knowing that she was actively choosing that light, because the dark is something that she’s fighting against.

Even though it’s not something that we bring up in every episode, it’s always boiling under the surface that she’s helping people, because in recovery, it’s very important to pay that forward and helping other people helps you. The episode we did [this season], we were really passionate about telling this version of sobriety where it’s through the loved ones’ perspective, and our writers just did such a wonderful job at finding that balance with the humor and the heart — something that the original “Night Court” did so well was like having this heightened comedy and then pulling in these little emotional pockets and grounding everything in humanity.

What were some storylines you enjoyed digging into this season?

I love any of the episodes where we’re able to go back to these seeds from the original — we do try not to over saturate each episode … although there’s Easter eggs throughout. But when we do get to go back to a storyline … it’s a really neat way to connect us back to the amazing cast that built this entire foundation of what we’re getting to play off of. The musical episode this season was such a blast to get to do. We had so much fun together.

Having Wendy Malik join this season was just a dream come true. Everywhere you look, there’s someone who is just hitting it out of the park and I’m just so happy that I get to do it with them.

What have you heard about a potential Season 4 and how confident are you feeling about your chances? How long are you interested in continuing the show? 

I would do this show until Abby Stone was a geriatric judge. I’m having the time of my life getting to do it, and I truly feel like a little kid who got to step through my TV screen into a show that I love so much. I’ll do it for as long as they’ll have us. I’m hopeful. I love what we’ve created this season, and I feel like, as we saw from the cliffhanger, there’s so many more stories to tell. I’d love to be able to wrap up what I feel is one of the best season finales I’ve ever had the chance to be a part of.

What are you excited to dig into in a potential next season?

In addition to figuring out what this major bomb dropped in Abby’s life and how that will unravel everything, I’m really excited to continue telling the story of where we leave off with Dan and Julianne and their friendship. I love that we’ve started to learn more about Wyatt’s professional life, and the fact that he just passed the bar and getting to see him try some cases. Now, with Gurgs as chief bailiff, I feel like there’s so much more that we could do. All these characters have such rich inner life, and I’m really excited for the opportunity to dive more into all their stories, and then, of course, how all their relationships play into that.

Across the past couple seasons, there’s been a bit of movement among series regulars. Do you envision all the main cast staying the same for next season?

Absolutely. We’d love to pick up right where we left off.

You’ve had some pretty great guest stars this season. Is there anyone you’d like to have back, or any others you’d want to come on?

I’m just ecstatic with the people that we’ve had. It has become this revolving door of comedy greats who have wanted to come and play in this sort of comedic playground. Of the guest stars that we’ve had this season, what’s really cool is any one of them can be a recurring on this show. The beautiful thing about those courtroom doors, as the original creator of the show, Reinhold Weege, said, they just can usher in any story at any given time. I’d love to have on some more “Big Bang Theory” cast members in addition to the ones we’ve already had.

It’s also been great to see Marsha Warfield come back. Would you like to keep having her return?

Whenever Marsha is there, it makes my heart so extremely happy. I feel like from her first episode on this incarnation, it’s been one of my favorite appearances of anyone we’ve had, because there’s this palpable feeling when you’re watching her in the studio audience and watching the studio audience watch her, there’s this excitement that not only I’m feeling, but they’re feeling. She’s just a comedic laser. Getting to work with her is it’s such a master class — you’re just in awe from start to finish.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

“Night Court” Seasons 1-3 are now streaming on Peacock.

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