Today, we look at the time that Bull from Night Court showed up on My Two Dads to protect the Judge.
This is Somewheres in This Universe, a feature examining when characters from TV shows make guest appearances on other TV shows (in non-crossover stories), thus establishing that the two shows share a universe.
November is Someewheres in the Universe month!
My Two Dads was a relatively short-lived sitcom about two old friends who had fallen out of touch, Michael (Paul Reiser) and Joey (Greg Evigan) who find out that one of them fathered a child with a woman that they had both dated (their rivalry over her is what led to their childhood friendship breaking apart). The woman passed away, and she left her 12-year old daughter, Nicole (Staci Keanon) in the custody of both men, as ordered by a local judge, Margaret Wilbur (Florence Stanley), who then decided to buy the building where Joey lived to keep an eye out on them.
In the Season 2 episode, “Playing With Fire,” Judge Wilbur is receiving death threats from someone that she put into prison, so Bull Shannon (the late, great Richard Moll) from Night Court shows up to be Judge Wilbur’s bodyguard all episode long (it turns out that the guy sending her the death threats just wants to be sent to prison because he can’t write books outside of his prison cell).
Here’s the episode on YouTube (for NOW, I dunno if it will be pulled later. Don’t come crying to me when it gets pulled!)….
Wilbur previously had appeared on Night Court, as well, a month earlier. I might feature that one in the future! This is definitely not a crossover, though, as the episodes were a month apart and totally unrelated, plot-wise.
Okay, folks, if you have suggestions of times characters made guest appearances on other shows (in NON crossovers), drop me a line at brian@poprefs.com!
I’m pretty sure George Clooney and Noah Wylie guested as their ER characters on Friends.
No, George and Noah did not play Dr. Ross and Dr. Carter on Friends, they played two doctors who worked at a hospital in NYC. But I always thought it was interesting that Friends and ER , which premiered the same year on the same network, each included a character named Rachel Greene whose father was a doctor.
Yeah, those guest spots were more examples for my My Name It is Nothin’ column, where people guest-star without OFFICIALLY being Character X, but everyone knows that they’re meant to be Character X.
Florence Stanley also played Judge Wilbur on Night Court just to double down to the connection!
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I had completely forgotten how odd but fun those NBC crossover moments could be. Bull being brought in to protect Judge Wilbur feels like such a perfectly late-’80s sitcom move, especially with My Two Dads already leaning into that quirky family-court setup.
I love how the article highlights the quirky yet meaningful crossover between *Night Court* and *My Two Dads*—especially the fact that Judge Wilbur had already appeared on *Night Court* just a month earlier. It’s fascinating how these small, unconnected appearances suggest a shared universe without any official crossover. I remember watching that *My Two Dads* episode as a kid and thinking Bull’s gruff but gentle presence was the perfect counterbalance to the show’s lighthearted chaos. His moment when he quietly stands guard outside the apartment door still stands out—it wasn’t just about protecting the judge, but about showing that even in a world of sitcoms, there’s room for quiet loyalty and protective instincts. It’s the kind of detail that makes these universe-building moments feel real.
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