Big Bang Theory's Melissa Rauch and Mayim Bialik Dish on Their 'Clever'Night CourtReunion: 'It's Like Home' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Mayim Bialik (left) and Melissa Rauch on ‘Night Court’.Photo:Nicole Weingart/NBC

Nicole Weingart/NBC

Amy and Bernadette have found their way back to each other.

Mayim Bialikhas reunited with herThe Big Bang TheorycostarMelissa Rauchfor an upcoming episode of NBC’sNight Courton Tuesday, Jan. 14.

Since NBC rebootedNight Courtin January 2023, Rauch tells PEOPLE “it’s been a dream of mine for Mayim to be on the show.”

Mayim Bialik (left) and Melissa Rauch on ‘Night Court’.Nicole Weingart/NBC

Bialik insists it was a more of a patience game. “I never want to be presumptuous and assume that Melissa would want to have me on her show,” she explains. “But I also was a hugeNight Courtfan, and so much of the crew that Melissa works with, I know either fromBig Bang Theoryor fromCall Me Kat.”

“So I was just so excited at the idea that she would want to have me on,” Bialik continues. “I thought maybe I would do a scene or a little cameo. I didn’t know it would be like a full episode, and I get to interact with all of the cast members, which was really fun.”

The storyline for the episode actually stemmed from Rauch’s real-life experience with Bialik. “When I first met Mayim, I had to wrestle with the notion of informing her that I was a hugeBlossomfan growing up,” Rauch recalls.

Once the two joinedBig Bang Theoryas regulars, Rauch admits “I was in this dilemma of, ‘Do I let her know now that I am a super fan?’ I have pictures of me asBlossomfor Halloween as a kid, I knew the whole dance.”

It was especially prudent for Rauch to disclose her fan-girling because the two women shared a bathroom on set. “It was an very intimate situation and I just thought, ‘If I don’t tell her now, and then she finds out later that I’ve been harboring this secret all this time, it could make it more weird,” Rauch says. “So we walked off the stage together and I told her. And she was so kind and gracious.”

Once Rauch shared her story with theNight Courtwriters, the team got to work for the reunion episode and “kicked it up a notch,” Rauch adds. “And Mayim was so game and just absolutely brilliant at every turn.”

The guest role also allowed Bialk to have a mini-reunion withJohn Larroquette, having played his daughter inThe John Larroquette Showyears ago when she was onBlossom.

“So it was just like all these things kind of combining.” Bialik adds. “I don’t even know why but I suggested to Melissa, ‘You can do whatever you want with me. Make me drunk.’ But they did something much better and much more clever with this sort of elaborate twist.”

Mayim Bialik (right) with John Larroquette in ‘Night Court’.Nicole Weingart/NBC

Though the two are close friends, reuniting for theNight Courtepisode marked the first time they had worked together since wrappingTheBig Bang Theoryin 2019, in which Bialik played Amy, an accomplished neuroscientist who marriesJim Parsons’ Sheldon, and Rauch played mircobiologist Bernadette.

When Bialik first came to theNight Courtset, Rauch admits, “I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to just giggle or sob. So I opted for the former so that it didn’t make it weird, but I was just so happy. And all week, I was just pinching myself that we were getting to work together. It’s like home. It’s just so wonderful getting to have that time with her.”

Mayim Bialik (left) and Melissa Rauch on ‘The Big Bang Theory’.

There was also a shared history between the women as both were series regulars together onThe Big Bang Theory.

“It changed both of our lives forever, and we got to be part of that together,” Bialik says. “But also there was so much behind the scenes kind of among the whole cast, like things that went on in our lives that we got to share together. So I love that I not only got to be part of this incredible experience ofThe Big Bang Theorywith Melissa, but I really did gain a friend through all those experiences. We were there almost a decade together. I mean, I definitely saw her more than my own children.”

When Rauch first started working onThe Big Bang Theory, “I think I was engaged and then I got married and then also became a mother. So it was really just life cycles for all of us and just a special moment in time,” she says. “I’m very, very grateful for the friendships I was able to take with me.”

The cast of ‘The Big Bang Theory’.Monty Brinton/CBS

Bialick is the second of Rauch’s mainBig Bang Theorycostars to appear onNight Court. In an episode titled “A Crime of Fashion" that aired in February,Kunal Nayyartook on the role of an A-list fashion designer and Rauch’s love interest.

As for more formerBig Bang Theorycostars guest-starring on her show, Rauch could never pick just one. “If we’re lucky enough to get more, I would be very excited,” she says. “For the seven of us, that’s a Sophie’s Choice because I love them all.”

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Night Courtairs Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC and can be streamed the following day on Peacock.

source: people.com