The Ending Of The Original Night Court Finally Explained

"Night Court" didn't have to wait three decades for the events of its final episodes to be undone, though, as it only took a couple of weeks, a stray unaired episode, and a hole in the NBC programming schedule. The series finale was a two-parter titled "Opportunity Knock Knocks," which was aired in a one-hour block on Wednesday, May 13, 1992. The episodes were promoted on NBC as the end of an era, and the episodes could not be mistaken for anything but a show's final bow in both form and content.

Yet, on a Sunday night more than two weeks later, what does NBC put on the air? A brand new episode of "Night Court." Sunday evening programming on NBC in those years was a hodge-podge of special events, movies-of-the-week, and sitcom reruns. This particular episode, "The 1992 Boat Show," was produced earlier in the season, with a production number falling between the February episodes "Party Girl (Part 2)" and "To Sir with... Ah, What the Heck... Love," but for whatever reason was knocked from its planned premiere date. 

Directed by series regular Charles "Mac" Robinson (the third of three episodes he directed for the series), the episode sees another one of Dan's social climbing schemes blow up in his face when he gets a fancy columnist (Glenn Shadix) out of jury duty in exchange for a write-up in the society pages — only for the reporter to become entranced with Roz instead.