The John Larroquette Show (1993-6)

[cosmichobo]

G'day,

In the era that brought us Frasier, Mad About You, and Friends, there were great expectations for John Larroquette's new "star vehicle", named after himself by order of the NBC execs due to his repeated acclaim in "Night Court" - The John Larroquette Show.

Sadly, the series arrived about a decade too early for its own good, with the dark humour, and non-main-stream characters drawing critical acclaim and a solid core crowd, but failing to attract the masses who were expecting something a little more light. Even after retooling the show for its second season - and in fact because of the retooling, alienating the core fans - this show failed to gain speed, and was cancelled early in its 4th season after limping along as a shadow of its initial dark and wondrous glory.

To fans of the show, this would be an amazing release on DVD - particularly the first season. John himself tweeted that DVDs were on their way on his (verified) twitter account... just before it was deleted... The DVDs never eventuated, except for dodgy off-air copies that several websites sell for $$$$. Aside from feathering those pockets, the only way to view this show is when stories occasionally pop up on YouTube, or other means that no doubt cannot be discussed here. Unfortunately, the source material is all the same - poor quality off-air recordings.

Hopefully one day this oversight will be corrected...

cheers

cosmic
--

PS - January 2022! The John Larroquette Show is back! Well, repeats are finally screening again, on "Rewind TV" in the USA. So Jealous!

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

I remember watching this show a couple times as Night Court was one of my favorites as a youth. In fact, I've considered buying DVDs of Night Court as I'm sure I'd get far more of the humor now as an adult. The only thing I remember about The John Larroquette show was that it was set in my hometown of St. Louis and also had Bobcat Goldthwait in it. At least, I think that's right.

 

[eyoungren]

Never got to see the show during it's entire run as the job I had at the time started at 9pm and I wasn't out until 1-4 am.

Too bad, I might have liked it had I been able to see it.

 

[cosmichobo]

Bobcat definitely guest starred at least once... maybe a couple times from memory.

At the moment, there's a few YouTubers with full or partial episodes on offer... But looking at them - I guess to try "defeat" the copyright filters, they have distorted the (already bad) picture, and even distorted the sound... SO - just... don't...

That first season though... pure gold IMO...

Opening to Episode 3:

A young punk with very bright, multi-coloured mohawk walks into the bus station, drawing a fair bit of attention, including from manager, John Hemmingway.

PUNK
What are you looking at
old man? You never done
anything crazy?

JOHN
Yeah! 20 years ago
I slept with a parrot.
Just wondering if you
might be my kid.​

 

[maflynn]

I saw the show and was surprised it lasted as long as it did. Night Court was a great show, because of the great cast, it was funny and great thanks to everyone. Not so with John Larroquette, now its been a very long time since I saw it, so much of the details are gone from my mind but if I do recall correctly, I didn't think it was very good.

 

[cosmichobo]

Most critical reviews I have seen on the show, suggest that the first season was well written, mostly well acted, but sadly completely poorly matched to the mainstream audience that it was targeted at. As such, it was retooled for its second season, removing much of the dark humour, attempting to be more like Friends et al. This presumably improved the ratings to some degree as it was renewed for S3 and S4, though was cancelled 4 eps into that last season, with about 7 unaired episodes.

Sure, Larroquette was the highlight in the acting stakes, but he did have some good offsiders, including Chi McBride in probably his first main gig. Daryll "Chill" Mitchell, now a paraplegic (semi regular on NCIS New Orleans), was great as the main antagonist.

 

[cosmichobo]

This channel on YouTube is restoring the off-air copies of the show.

The Pilot Episode

 

[cosmichobo]

UPDATE!

The John Larroquette Show is returning to broadcast tv, this coming week!

Episodes 1, 2 and 3 will air on Sunday, 9 January 2022!

https://rewindtv.com/title-item/the-john-larroquette-show/

It's on "Rewind TV". No idea how you watch it, but it's a free to air digital channel. Tune in, then - tune in on Sunday!

So jealous! Am in Australia.. no chance of watching...

 

[cosmichobo]

Titles, taken from Rewind TV. Not great resolution... but much cleaner than what I've seen since the 90s.

 

[decafjava]

Well I had no idea this show existed. I have my palte full but seeing as John Larroquette was one of the best parts of Night Court I may give it a watch if I can find it.

 

[cosmichobo]

I never saw Night Court... have watched a few clips on YouTube... can see its appeal. And love that John refused to be nominated for any more Emmys after getting 4 in a row.

The John Larroquette Show for me was just this stand out comedy. It wasn't like other shows at the time. Ultimately, it was "too" different for the 90's US mainstream audience... so they tried to retool it to fit better, which just removed all the goodness.

But, the first season is amazing.