Fans of the TV shows “Night Court” and “Barney Miller” might remember its head writer and executive producer Reinhold Charles Weege.
Weege was born on Dec. 23, 1949, in Chicago and died on Dec. 1, 2012, in La Jolla at 62 years old of natural causes.
MANY SHOWS
The popular “Night Court” ran from 1984 until 1992 and was based on a bunch of kooky characters in the courtroom of an oddball judge, Harry T. Stone, played by Harry Anderson.
“Barney Miller” was set in a Greenwich Village police station, starring Abe Vigoda; other Weege shows include “M*A*S*H,” “Park Place,” and “Fish,” a short-lived spinoff of “Barney Miller.”
Weege wrote more than 100 episodes of the “Night Court” series and: “My specialty is being funny and substantial at the same time,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 1998. “I want people to watch a half-hour and give a damn about it afterward.”
Weege said he had seen actual courtrooms that were more bizarre and based the show on this premise.
The series was a midseason replacement and joined the popular Thursday-night lineup for NBC that included “The Cosby Show,” “Family Ties,” and “Cheers.” It won seven Emmys, including four consecutive wins for supporting comedy actor awards for John Larroquette.
“We do great jokes,” Larroquette said of “Night Court” in a 1988 Times interview. “The show may not be in any way intellectual, and we do not make any pretense of dealing with issues that are impossible to address or solve in the sitcom format… But if you just want to forget it all for a minute and laugh at pies in the face and pants around the ankles, that is what we do very well.”
Larroquette paid tribute to Weege in a Twitter post when he died in 2012: “In life, there are those who impact us with such force everything changes. Reinhold Weege was that in mine. May he truly rest in peace.”
AWARDS AND EDUCATION
Weege received three Emmy nominations for “Night Court” and one for “Barney Miller,” the long-running ABC sitcom starring Hal Linden. Warner Bros. also won Emmys for multi-camera editing, sound editing, and technical direction.
Weege attended several colleges, including DePaul and Illinois Wesleyan, then served in the military. His big break came in 1976 when he was hired to write for “Barney Miller.”
LASTING LAUGHS
Weege leaves behind a legacy of having created one of TV’s oddest shows that many are still watching today thanks to reruns on networks around the world for a new set of fans.
A memorial service was held on Dec. 16, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park-Hollywood Hills where Weege is buried in the Court of Liberty section, Gardens of Heritage.
