NBC’s Night Court reboot hasn’t signed Brent Spiner – yet – but they do have an impressive roster of guest stars slated to appear on the show’s first season.

Rami Malek, Melissa Villaseñor, Faith Ford, Pete Holmes, Kurt Fuller, Stephanie Weir, Lyric Lewis, Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski will all join returning cast member John Larroquette and the show’s new star, Melissa Rauch, in what Rauch calls a “newboot” of the show that aired on NBC from 1984 to 1992 and starred the late Harry Anderson.

New faces for the show include Kapil Talwalkar as Neil, Donna Gurgs as Lacretta, and India de Beaufort as Olivia. Marsha Warfield and Richard Moll, the only other living cast members of the original show, have yet to be added to the cast, though Larroquette says he and Warfield “have talked” about original cast members returning, and the producers are on board with their return.

In the new version of the show, Abby Stone (Rauch), is following in her late father Harry Stone’s footsteps as she presides over the night shift of a Manhattan arraignment court and tries to bring order to its crew of oddballs and cynics, most notably former night court prosecutor Dan Fielding (Larroquette). The show has been in the works since December of 2020 and will finally premiere on January 17th.

Rauch’s character, Abby Stone, is Harry Stone’s daughter. Faith Ford will play Abby’s mom. In the show’s pilot, Abby recruits Dan to join her in court as the public defender.

Larroquette told Deadline that even though the show probably won’t bring back some of its more famous guest stars like Stephen Root and Michael J. Fox, viewers will be very happy with who they see turning up in court.

“I get a lot of calls about Brent Spiner in particular coming back as Bob Wheeler,” Larroquette shared. “I don’t think the principal budget is there. It is 30 years later and I shouldn’t be there either but I am. We have all new people; the world is still going on. It’s still Night Court, so you’re still gonna have a rowdy circus of perpetrators that wind up there at like 3 o’clock in the morning who will be just as impressive to the audience as the old guest stars.”

The new show’s theme song is almost the same as the original, with the added twist of being done by someone in the Night Court family, but you may not have much time to recognize the tune, says Larroquette.

“The theme song is the same tune, modernized. Actually my son, Benjamin Larroquette, who is the series’ composer, re-recorded it. Just him in his recording studio.  Back in the day, with show like ours, Cheers, or Family Ties, you had much longer opening credits. This is, like, nine seconds showing a couple of shots New York, the cast members and get into the show. You just don’t have a lot of time to play with it. It’s just a different time, 30 years later.”

Laroquette also revealed that he had the chance to reprise his role as Dan Fielding years ago, but he didn’t feel the show’s concept was appropriate. Speaking to the media at Sunday’s Television Critics Association winter press tour, the actor revealed that he was asked to play Fielding in a Night Court spinoff that would have aired on NBC after the original series wrapped its run in 1992.

Laroquette told reporters that he ultimately sees himself as an actor who works best as part of an ensemble, and that he is at his happiest when he can nail a joke or two before sharing the spotlight with someone else.

Rauch, who is producing the show along with her husband Winston, said she chose to reboot the show she watched as a kid because it mixed emotional resonance with a touch of sitcom magic.

“The show was sitcom gold because it was vaudevillian with this emotional pocket,” she says. “And I loved the idea of developing a new version from a female perspective.”

Rauch believes that if you enjoyed Night Court back in the day, you will find a lot to love in the new version. “There will be surprises throughout the season for fans of the original. We’re paying respect while also creating this fresh new world.”