Night Court

- Season 6

(1988)

Dan has been rescued by an Eskimo family, but is cut off from the outside world. Back in New York, the court staff reads his will and tries to cope with his death. When Dan accidentally shoots down a small plane trying to signal it with a flare gun, the doctor inside breaks both hands, leaving Dan as the only one who can operate on a young Eskimo woman who has come down with appendicitis.

Dan operates on Kista, and after a tense night of waiting, finds that she has survived. At the same time, radio contact is made, and Dan is on his way home. He arrives, disguised by his beard, winter clothes, and scruffy appearance, in time to attend his own funeral.

On election night, Dan is running as a candidate for the state assembly. Christine is furious to learn that Harry has voted for him, touching off a fierce argument between them about what she sees as sexism. Then a fire consumes an upper floor of the courthouse, driving the staff to the basement morgue.

Harry needs a date to attend a banquet where he will accept a humanitarian award. He is pleasantly surprised by a chance meeting at the newsstand with a woman who shares some interests with him, and she accepts his invitation. But Harry gets cold feet when he finds out that Diane is an adult film actress.

While handling a group of trainee bailiffs, Bull becomes smitten with one, Rhoda, smitten enough to overlook her spectacular incompetence. One thing he can't ignore is when she accidentally loses custody of a psychotic woman who acts out roles in movies. The woman is next reported entering a cheap hotel with Dan.

An attractive classmate of Mac's goes after him and Christine does too much preparing Thanksgiving dinner for the courthouse.

Dan is elated to be offered membership in New York's most exclusive lawyer's club, but he wrestles with his conscience when the leading member romances Christine as part of a club competition.

Two eccentric defendants pass through the courtroom: a man who has awakened from a 20-year coma, and an obsessed inventor attached to his self-aware computer.

While collecting for Toys For Toddlers, Bull accidentally takes a truckload of toys belonging to a Scrooge-like factory owner, who demands that they be returned. Since Roz has already passed them out, she refuses to take them back, and Harry has no choice but to jail her.

After the court staff participate in a research study for a think tank, Bull is diagnosed with a super-genius intelligence, and is offered a post at the think tank.

Christine gladly agrees to take care of a friend's baby for the weekend, but the experience turns out to be the opposite of what she expected. Harry enthusiastically pulls the staff into an office bet on his old college LaCrosse team.

A city accountant audits the court's expenses, leading to a series of flashbacks. Near the end of the audit, the staff and the accountant are taken hostage in Harry's office by a circus clown with a gun.

Even under Beepo's gun, the audit continues, as do the flashbacks.

While a cable show is filming the proceedings in the courtroom, a sweet old lady appears in court with a hand grenade, asking for the staff's help in freeing her husband from prison. When they realize that her "husband" is a character on a soap opera, they are not sure how to deal with her.

Bull is encouraged to appear on a game show to win enough money to save his boys' club's gymnasium. To help him get over his jitters, Dan hypnotizes him, but inadvertently plants an obscene trigger phrase in his mind.

Everyone pokes fun at Christine's relationship with Ted, a senior citizen.

On election night for the state assembly race, Dan, to his own surprise, has a passionate affair with his opponent, Joan Hobson.

Harry plays up the role of an embittered judge hurting for cash, as part of a sting to nail gangster Marty Cologne. Christine, following Harry around, is taken in by the act, and tells Buddy, who reveals to Harry that he is his biological father. When Buddy lets slip the truth about the sting to Cologne, the gangster sends a pair of hit men to the courthouse.

Harry must deal with his inept government handler, evading Marty Cologne's hit men, and confronting Buddy about his revelation.

Christine has a prison pen pal who escapes and Roz falls for him.

Mac loses his story in the justice computer and Christine accepts then rejects a date from the janitor.

Dan hopes to catch the last plane out of town on a day when the courtroom is flooded with cases, and with water.