My Ten Favorite TV Characters: Reinhold F. Elmore (#1)

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I'm closing out my list of favorite TV characters with my all-time favorite, Reinhold Elmore. That's right, the best TV character, to me, ever created was Reinhold Elmore. And you're probably going, WHO??? Hey, Scott (@teamfreak16 ) nailed it a few days ago in one of his replies. And, if you ever watched all of this series, you know that's his real name. #1: Dan Fielding There's nobody even close. Not only brilliantly written by the team of loonies that wrote the classic TV series Night Court he was brought to life in the most amazing way possible by the great John Larroquette. Larroquette held the record for most consecutive Emmy awards until he took his name out of consideration. If he hadn't, he'd still be winning Emmys for his portrayal of the sex obsessed, money hungry assistant district attorney who was given the name Reinhold Fielding Elmore at birth. That's right. In the second season, when Ellen Foley (the woman who sang the female part ["stop right there! I gotta know right now!!"] in Meat Loaf's "Paradise By the Dashboard Lights") was the defense attorney (I loved her as the defense attorney because she was street wise and usually got the upper hand on Dan), Dan's parents visited from Louisiana. They revealed that their last name was actually Elmore and that Dan, when he went to college, started using his middle name of Fielding as his last name. In the third season, when one of the pregnant women trapped in the courtroom by Hurricane Mel ("bet ya Manilow never even had a stiff gust named after him!" Harry gloated [and Christine jumped to Barry Manilow's defense, causing Manilow to send flowers and a card of gratitude to Markie Post after that episode aired!]) decided she wanted to name her son after "the real Dan," named the kid Reinhold. That was an inside joke, of course, because the series creator's name was Reinhold Weege. (That's his laugh at the end of the closing credits. And can you tell I know way too much about this series? ) Later in the series Dan's name was listed as "Daniel R. Fielding," with "Reinhold" being his middle name (but his name was "Daniel K Fielding" in the first season...yeah, I watched too much). Enough of the name game. Let's talk about this marvelous character. A brilliant prosecutor (he had one of the highest conviction rates of any DA in New York City), he was also a little on the smug side. His day began and ended with the thoughts of women (a constant source of plots in the series, such as the time he saved Christine's life when she was choking, then insisted she repay him by sleeping with him). He was also the best bootlicker in TV history: he continually admitted to sucking up to Harry, other judges, and his boss (the 4'3" Vincent Daniels). But, unlike other milquetoasts of the past (Larry Tate, Darren Stephens' boss on Bewitched, was particularly annoying), Fielding could stand on his own two feet. He had an impressive list of credentials that really didn't require the kowtowing....which actually made it funnier. And there wasn't a thing Larroquette wouldn't let the writers do to him for a laugh. He took a pie in the face in one episode. In the aforementioned episode about Hurricane Mel he walked in with his jockey shorts around his neck, complaining that the wind had negated their "guarantee not to ride up." And in one episode Mac gave him a cup full of soda to "cool him off" after he'd watched a female nudist volleyball player demonstrate her technique in Harry's office. The willingness of the writers and the actor to work together to give the audience a good character resulted in the audience getting a great character, one of the funniest of all time. Dan Fielding (ne Reinhold Fielding Elmore) Portrayed by John Larroquette From Night Court NBC, 1984-1992 Dan being taunted by his boss Vincent's temptress niece: