Night Court Harry’s 5 Best Pranks (& His 5 Worst)

Night Court: Harry’s 5 Best Pranks (& His 5 Worst)

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Harry was one of the most beloved characters on night court, and was known for his magic and practical jokes. Here are his best and worst pranks.

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Night Court Harry’s 5 Best Pranks (& His 5 Worst)

Night Court was one of the best sitcoms of the 80s, due to its innovative setting peopled with an eclectic group of eccentric main characters whose interactions were comedy gold. The show centered around Judge Harold T. Stone, whose affinity for the fashion and films of the 40s, the music of Mel Tormé, and show-biz magic was loosely based on the personal tastes of the actor who portrayed him, the late Harry Anderson.

A magic aficionado and a lover of practical jokes, Judge Stone often played gags on his colleagues that were hilariously inspired, though some of them fell flatter than a judge’s gavel.

10 BEST: The Old Handcuff Trick

Night Court Harry’s 5 Best Pranks (& His 5 Worst)

Many times, Harry had to sentence people to jail, but surprisingly, he also spent some time behind bars. In the season 3 episode, “The Night Off,” Harry ran afoul of the substitute judge who replaced him when Harry had to perform case reviews.

Not in his proper faculties, the substitute judge sentenced Harry, Mac, and Dan to jail on the flimsiest of pretenses. Handcuffed and escorted to a holding cell, Harry managed to impressively free himself of his constraints in seconds, using nothing but sleight-of-hand.

9 WORST: I Got Something In My Eye …

Night Court Harry’s 5 Best Pranks (& His 5 Worst)

Harry was nothing if not spontaneous, and his friends and colleagues quickly learned to expect the unexpected from the Manhattan criminal court judge. This ranged from something as innocuous as a shock from a joy buzzer to something as elaborate as a Halloween bailiff decapitation.

Walking into Harry’s office became somewhat of a risk to his friends and colleagues, who never knew what they would see or find. One such instance saw Harry playing with a fake corkscrew in his eye. This was particularly gruesome and unsettling, despite being completely safe and harmless.

8 BEST: Fortune Teller Switcheroo

Night Court Harry’s 5 Best Pranks (& His 5 Worst)

Taking a page out of Barney Miller, Night Court’s cast was supported by a litany of off-beat and conspicuous characters who showed up, every week, as defendants in Harry’s court. One of the most memorable was Madame Loretta, a spirtual medium who ended up cursing the entire courtroom and rendering Bull immobile.

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Recognizing a fellow practitioner of sleight-of-hand and a probable con artist, Harry had a confrontation with Loretta by his bench. She seemingly was able to get the upper hand on him by lifting his card in a quick game of three-card monte, but he quickly impressed her by lifting one of her earrings without her even noticing.

7 WORST: Lacrosse Team Loss

Night Court Harry’s 5 Best Pranks (& His 5 Worst)

Harry may not have been as in shape as Mac or as freakishly strong as Bull, but he was an avid follower of lacrosse, having played it extensively during his college years. When his old team vied for a championship, Harry gathered his friends for a viewing of the game at Christine’s house, having wagered heavily on the outcome.

Although the party was cut short by Christine’s (mis)adventures in babysitting, a newspaper article proved his team’s victory the following day, allowing him to collect his winnings. Unfortunately for him, Roz uncovered the deception, which was unbefitting for a judge and a friend.

6 BEST: The “Prank De Resistance”

Night Court Harry’s 5 Best Pranks (& His 5 Worst)

When Harry lost his job at end of season 4, he retreated to an apartment building to plan a prank that would capture the attention of the entire city. Secluded with an inventory of ridiculously outlandish materials, Harry fashioned himself a mock-superhero suit in an attempt to hangglide a pair of Groucho-style glasses and a fake mustache onto the Statue of Liberty.

Fortunately, a combination of him meeting and saving a suicidal man and getting reinstated as a judge stopped him from going ahead with the prank. However, it still got accomplished (albeit by the man Harry saved who had stolen his hang-glider) and the notoriety the man received for that act is indicative of its effectiveness.

5 WORST: Juvenile Antics

Night Court Harry’s 5 Best Pranks (& His 5 Worst)

Harry’s penchant for practical jokes was amusing for the audience to watch, but oftentimes his colleagues were less than thrilled with his antics. Even Harry himself had no idea how annoying he could be until a trio of prepubescent Harry doppelgängers, Christine, and Dan walked into the court.

Harry soon found himself the butt of the kid’s practical jokes and realized the irony of the situation. Not one to be out-joked, Harry pinned a kick-me sign on the child’s back at the end of the episode. Regardless of how aggravating the kid was, encouraging bodily harm to befall him was just not funny.

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4 BEST: Practical Joke-Off

Night Court Harry’s 5 Best Pranks (& His 5 Worst)

With his unconventional approach to jurisprudence, Harry quickly established himself as a maverick amongst the municipal court judges in New York City. However, he was far from the only one.

In the season 5 episode, “Top Judge,” an uncharacteristically somber Harry agreed to a practical joke contest against Judge Jimmy Cleaver, who shares Harry’s love of the offbeat. Allowing Cleaver to believe he had won, Harry gave him his robe as a trophy. However, the robe was booby-trapped, inflating Cleaver within the confines of a huge balloon. To add insult to injury and establish himself as the true maven of judicial mischief, Harry popped the balloon as the credits rolled!

3 WORST: Caught, But Not Red-Handed …

Night Court Harry’s 5 Best Pranks (& His 5 Worst)

Harry Stone was both compassionate and loyal, traits which not only served him well as a judge, but earned him the respect and friendship of his colleagues. The feelings were reciprocal, and Harry was always willing and able to help out a friend.

This is why he organized an elaborate sting to catch Christine’s boss, Arthur Thursby, in an act of sexual harassment. Sprinkling magic powder on an envelope, Harry hoped to reveal Thursby’s fingerprints on Christine. An unfortunate mix-up, instead, left Dan red-handed, which thwarted Harry’s attempt to incriminate a sexual predator.

2 BEST: The Pilot’s Coin-Flip

Night Court Harry’s 5 Best Pranks (& His 5 Worst)

Sometimes, Judge Stone would pull the wool over the eyes of the defendants to get at the truth of the case, as he did in the pilot episode. When a woman was accused of the attempted murder of her husband following her discovery of his infidelity, Harry questions the couple, letting the scenarios he mentions be dictated by a coin flip that always comes up heads.

When the decision to send the woman to jail is left to a heads-called coin flip, the man protests, revealing he still loves his wife. Fortunately, Harry reveals why – the coin is double-headed!

1 WORST: Locked, Safe

Like every magician, Harry was inspired by the career and feats of the great Harry Houdini, whose tricks he tried to emulate. One Halloween, Harry attempted to perform Houdini’s famous “escape from a locked safe” trick, but instead got accidentally locked in it.

Rapidly losing air and consciousness, Harry came face-to-face with his mortality and wrestled with his own reckless and impetuous nature. Although he was eventually freed, Harry’s brush with death forced him to reevaluate some of his choices … for a time.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/night-court-harry-best-worst-pranks/

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