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Mayim Bialik & Melissa Rauch's Night Court Reunion Has a Big Bang Theory Spirit
Amy and Bernadette are back together again in Judge Abby Stone’s courtroom in Night Court Season 3.
From Blossom to The Big Bang Theory, Mayim Bialik has been a Hollywood mainstay for decades. As an actress, author, game show host, and IRL neuroscientist, Bialik’s resumé is seriously impressive, dating back to the ‘80s when she was just a pre-teen. And she’s not slowing down anytime soon.
For starters, as a guest star in Season 3 of NBC’s Night Court, Bialik is reuniting with her beloved Big Bang Theory co-star Melissa Rauch. Read on to take a look back at Bialik’s long acting career, how she started playing Amy Farrah Fowler, and what to expect during her nostalgia-packed Night Court episode.
RELATED: Melissa Rauch Talks Which Big Bang Theory Stars Could Stop By Night Court
When did Mayim Bialik start acting?
Bialik started acting professionally when she was just 12 years old. Her first television role was in an episode of the series Beauty and the Beast in 1987, and she landed roles in other popular television shows including The Facts of Life, Webster, Empty News, MacGyver, Doogie Howser, M.D., and Murphy Brown.
In 1988, Bialik also appeared in her first movie roles: the horror film Pumpkinhead and the dramedy Beaches.
By 1990, Bialik rose to fame in the lead role of NBC’s popular sitcom, Blossom. For the show’s five seasons, Bialik starred as Blossom Russo, a smart and opinionated teen girl living with her single dad and two older brothers. Throughout the series, Blossom dealt with the typical teenage challenges and relatable family issues.
Bialik told TODAY that Blossom was a “special” and “groundbreaking” television show of that era.
“The funny thing is, we see so many females on TV now, and young women are a much bigger part of our culture, but at the time we really had to fight hard to even produce a show about a girl,” she said in 2015. “I think it’s important for people to realize that while we weren’t curing cancer and we weren’t doing Shakespeare, that was very groundbreaking at the time to have a show that was about a girl, simply because we were told, ‘People won’t watch a show about a girl.’”
RELATED: Everything to Know About Night Court Season 3
When did Mayim Bialik join The Big Bang Theory?
Roughly three years after the series premiered, Bialik joined the cast of The Big Bang Theory as Amy Farrah Fowler in 2010. Until the series ended in 2019, Bialik played Sheldon Cooper’s neuroscientist love interest and eventual wife.
In real life, Bialik is also a scientist. After taking a break from acting following the success of Blossom, Bialik earned a bachelor’s degree and PhD in neuroscience from UCLA. “I left the industry for 12 years,” she said on The Graham Norton Show in 2021. “I come from an immigrant background, my grandparents were immigrants, so I was raised that you go to college no matter what.”
Following the birth of her two sons and a few years of teaching neuroscience, Bialik returned to acting to secure better health insurance for her family. “Literally, was running out of health insurance and figured if I could just get a couple parts, I could get my SAG insurance back,” she shared on The Graham Norton Show. She added that she had never seen The Big Bang Theory prior to her audition and when she got the role, “literally my life changed.”
Mayim Bialik's TV roles and acting credits beyond Blossom and The Big Bang Theory
Bialik has an extensive list of acting credits including starring in the sitcom Call Me Kat and hosting the long-running game show Jeopardy from 2021 to 2023. She reprised her role as Amy Farrah Fowler as a guest star in Young Sheldon and made her directorial debut in 2022’s drama As They Made Us.
Bialik is also set to star in the upcoming family dramedy film, Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, alongside Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, and Vicky Krieps.
Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch reunite on Night Court Season 3
Six years after they last shared the screen together, Bialik will reunite with her Big Bang Theory co-star in a Season 3 episode of NBC’s Night Court.
RELATED: Where Is the Original Night Court Cast Now?
In “Mayim Worst Enemy” — Season 3, Episode 5, airing on Tuesday, January 14 — Bialik plays a exaggerated version of herself as a defendant in Judge Abby Stone’s (Rauch) courtroom. Abby, who we find out is a Blossom superfan, is thrilled to meet her celebrity idol, but discovers something rather sinister about the actor.
Rauch revealed during an appearance on TODAY that the idea actually came from her own experience loving Blossom as a kid. “[The episode] was based on the idea that I, myself, growing up was the hugest Blossom fan. Like level 10 Blossom fan,” Rauch shared. “When we first met, I was sitting next to her at a table reading and I was like, ‘Do I tell her that there’s pictures of me on Halloween dressed as her as a kid?’”
Watch a preview, below:
Rauch and Bialik’s Night Court episode is full of Blossom nostalgia — the two recreate the iconic dance from the show’s opening credits and Abby sports a very recognizable sunflower hat. Bialik also revealed to Entertainment Weekly that there are “meta references” to The Big Bang Theory.
"The episode is kind of meta in the most meta way. Not fully breaking the fourth wall, but breaking the fourth wall of the mind of the audience,” Bialik said, adding that it was “a lot of fun” to play a “really funny, evil version of myself.”
Watch Bialik’s and Rauch’s reunion on Night Court on Tuesday, January 14 at 8:30/7:30c on NBC and the next day on Peacock.
