Heartwarming / Night Court

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• Florence's goodbye to everyone in "Flo's Retirement" really stands out.
• Dan revealing his true opinion of Harry's style of justice in "The Wheels of Justice: Part II."
  Dan: You were good, Harry! Very good. You were impartial. You were fair. Patient. Compassionate. Understanding. And I admired you. (Harry looks at Dan with surprise) That's really hitting below the belt, isn't it?
• Roz, the first to be snarky and the last to ever get sentimental, talking at Dan's funeral with frank honesty about how Dan once risked his life to save her and what a good person he was deep down.
  • Oddly enough Christine, who was the target of Dan's lecherous advances for years, took his apparent death the hardest of anyone.
  • This was doubly touching as everyone else who spoke at the service was either unable to think of anything nice to say about Dan or wound up cracking wise about what a pervert he was.
    • To be fair, knowing Dan that's exactly what he would have wanted anyway.
    • Eh, sorta. He did rib Harry pretty hard about the ceremony after revealing himself, saying "This wasn't a funeral, Harry. It was a roast." He was smiling when he said it though, so odds are he did appreciate the sentiment.
• Dan gets a couple of these for the episode "Hurricane pt. 2". First, he comforts a pregnant woman during her delivery. Doubles as a Funny Moment when he also gently asks her to take her teeth out of his chest. Then, after things are settling down, and the woman indicates that she wants to name the child after Dan, he tells her the truth about his real name, Rheinhold Fielding Elmore, which he had legally changed when he went to school. It was something he'd never told any of his friends before.
• Bull getting drunk and lamenting Selma's death, and his subsequent bittersweet welcoming of Florence.
  • A later episode shows that Harry was very grieved when Florence eventually died too.
• In one Season 8 episode, Dan began having severe insomnia problems as a result of his guilt about sneaking money out of a charitable organization he had been put in charge of managing by Bumbling Sidekick/Eccentric Millionaire Phil the Bum. A hallucinating Dan starts having a Villainous Breakdown in the middle of his speech at a fundraiser, eventually seeing Phil's ghost on the stage. Dan confesses his wrongdoing and immediately begs forgiveness. Phil grants it, saying the whole reason he put Dan in charge of the foundation was because he knew how badly Dan needed a chance to improve himself. Dan promises to change and the two hug.
  • Turns into a Funny Moment as we then see the breakdown from everyone else's perspective and see Dan hugging empty air and sobbing piously.
• Season 8 ended with Phil the Bum's con-man brother Will swindling the charitable foundation Dan oversaw of over ten million dollars, leaving Dan to take the rap as the authorities were led to believe the two had been working together the whole time. To add insult to injury, he left a note mocking Dan for being a sucker. At the end of the two-part episode which opened Season 9, Will ultimately came back, admitting that Dan's own Heel–Face Turn had inspired his own. He returned all the money with interest, as he'd invested the money wisely over the past few months. Dan was cleared of all charges, dropped all the charges against Will in return and everyone's faith in Dan and human goodness was restored. Rousseau Was Very, Very Right.
• The final few minutes of "Death of a Bailiff", after Bull gives away his life's sayings after mishearing things Art said to him after he was struck by lightning as God commanding him to give away all his material possessions. View them here.
  • To Summarize: Bull prays to God, admitting that he is upset he gave away all his money but realizes that helping others is how one gets closer to God. He just wishes he hadn't ended up with nothing for his troubles. Cue a government employee arriving to give Bull a check (equal to exactly his life savings) if he agrees to not sue and claim that the accident was 'An Act Of God'. Bull happily does so and thanks God... and Mac finds a message from God on his computer, saying 'You're welcome'.
    • A minor one but the government employee is so scared that Bull is going to attack him for the settlement offer. Bull is just delighted and the man is left happy that for once someone didn't get down on him.
• Harry's behavior towards Dan in Part 2 of "Dan's Operation". After his argument with Dan before the latter lapsed into a coma, he watches over him, begs him to wake up and after he does, he even tells him what a good friend he is and that he loves him. Of course, this ends up becoming hilarious due to Dan's inability to tell him he loves him back.
• Dan actually had several Hidden Heart of Gold moments. In the episode "Married Alive" he courts a homely rich woman but genuinely falls in love with her, and explains to his colleagues:
  You know that crazy stuff that we all carry around inside of us? That stuff that eats little holes in your brain and churns at your insides? That stuff that you know you cannot possibly tell another living human being? ...I can tell her. And she listens, and she understands. And she says, "It's all right. It's... all... right." ...and, it is. Poof! Just like your magic, Harry! She makes my problems disappear! My anxieties subside. God's in His Heaven, and all is right in the world. There's nowhere to go but up! Look for the silver lining! Don't give up the ship! And I'll be damned if that's not what each and every one of us'' is looking for. And I happened to find mine, so the best of luck to the rest of you.
  • When she breaks it off he feigns indifference, but falls apart when everyone but Harry leaves. This leads to another heartwarming moment:
    Dan: (cracking) ...Harry?
    Harry: (Putting his arm around Dan) It's all right.
• The season 4 episode "Paternity" saw Dan confronted by a young boy who claims the lecherous D.A. is his father. When it is determined that he is not, Dan befriends the boy anyway and takes him to a baseball game - after of course convincing his coworkers that he is going off on another tawdry escapade.
• In "Constitution", Dan saves Roz's life by injecting her with insulin when she goes into diabetic shock. While Dan writes it off as no big deal, Roz calls him (and herself) out on their feigned indifference towards each other, saying they should be able to admit they care about each other as friends. Then gives him a kiss on the cheek for saving her life. Dan cheekily adds "I saw your butt", which makes Roz smile warmly.
• In "Strange Bedfellows", Dan falls in love with Joan Hopkins - his opponent in the run-off election for a State Assembly post. They discuss him quitting his job to follow her, but the idea is dismissed. As a token, she leaves him her lucky charm - the compass she'd had since she was a Girl Scout. She notes that a compass is special among navigational tools in that it won't tell you where you are but it can tell you where you're going. The episode concludes with Dan running into another of his semi-regular "girl-friends" who offers to take his mind off the election and Dan turning her down, walking off alone as he stares wistfully at the compass in his hand.
• In "Snoop and Nuts, Part 2", the story of how Buddy and Harry's mom met and fell in love in a mental institution is romantic enough but it also conveys how much all three of Harry's parents loved him. Harry Sr. is made out to be a virtual saint, given that - with the timeline involved - he would have been marrying a single mother fresh out of a mental hospital at a time when both mental illness and pregnancy out of wedlock were looked down upon. Later, when Buddy was released and tracked Harry's mother down, the three of them agreed that they should tell Harry the truth once he was older. Unfortunately, both Harry's mother and Buddy relapsed and were recommitted to the hospital, with Harry Sr. dying before he could tell his son the truth. When Buddy and Harry's mom were released the second time, they elected to stay out of Harry's life once they got released for fear that public knowledge that his parents were ex-mental patients might hurt Harry's legal career. Even after making contact, Buddy was still ready to take the secret that he was Harry's birth father to the grave, relenting only when he became worried that Harry was depressed over not having a family and was one step away from becoming a criminal.
  • Buddy, describing his relationship with Harry's mother, not only shows how much he loved her, but also what makes the loneliest and saddest people take heart just because he's around:
    ''Your mom was really pretty messed up when she first moved into the hospital. To give you an idea, I actually helped her. It was just the two of us. We clung to each other for support... and that support grew into friendship... and that friendship grew into love.
  • There's also Buddy's ultimate compliment to Harry - "Even if you weren't the son I always knew I had, you'd still be the son I'd always wished I'd wanted!"
• In "Could This Be Magic", an old stage magician who was once an icon of Harry's steals all of Harry's belongings. When he is caught, Mac makes a point of telling the magician in not very subtle terms that he would be more than willing to run him down with his car. While it also doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny, it also demonstrates just how far Mac would go for Harry.
• When we're introduced to his mother, it becomes apparent why Bull had such a close bond with his fellow bailiffs, Selma and later Florence and Roz, with the three of them, like his mother, being a very short, but loud women with dominating personalities. Bull clearly finds that comforting.
• Bull willing to take the blame and resign when his cute, but ditzy bailiff-in-training, Rhoda (played by former SNL cast member Denny Dillon) accidentally lets a psychotic woman go out on a date with Dan.
• Season 3, "Dan's Escort", Dan has been trying to recover from his financial losses by working as a male escort (no sex involved and perfectly legal). The client, and elderly woman, offers to "tip" him in order to have sex with him. Dan is initially repulsed, but willing to go along for his own financial security. The woman, Rebecca, turns out to be unable to go through with it because of the memory of her late husband, whom she'd been Happily Married to for 35 years. Listening to her story, Dan actually sympathizes with her, and when she describes the relationship with her late husband, Dan sincerely said that she had what so many others had longed for, including himself. He even goes so far to say that when she shows her vulnerable side, she has definite sex appeal. She says he's only saying that because he's being paid, to which he declines to take her money, and offers to take her to dinner on his dime. Later, she tells an incredulous room of Dan's co-workers, who know his sleazy reputation, that he was a gentleman who they were fortunate to be working with. And when they press him for details about what happened, Dan tells them that it was personal and private, and that they should all be ashamed for even asking.
• The end of "The Night Off" has a couple. Earlier, Judge Drayton ordered the prisoners released from the holding cell during one of his breaks, adding that they only do so on their word of honor that they would clean up the park nearby if released. Once Harry confronts Drayton and gets him to realize it’s time to step down, he’s listening to the radio in his chambers about how police were called to stop a riot in a park... only to find that they were the prisoners Judge Drayton had released earlier, cleaning it up just as he asked. The newscaster reports that the prisoners did it as part of a “court order.” Upon hearing of this, Harry takes down the Ronald Reagan photo on his desk and puts up the coloring book picture that Judge Drayton had given him moments before.
• Overlapping with an Awesome Moment, Dan sacrificing his chances of joining a prestigious club in “The Law Club” when he reveals to Christine that the leading member is only trying to romance her to have sex with her and get points in a club competition. His genuine consoling of her afterwards and offering to take her for coffee afterward seals it.
  • In particular, Christine cries that her "naive" romanticism and willingness to trust means she's destined for a life of being taken advantage of by men; Dan - under any other circumstances the ultimate opportunist - firmly tells her that her compassion and open heart is her greatest strength and what makes her truly worthy of being loved.
• A sweet moment at the end of "Giving Thanks", when Dan refuses to go through with blackmailing Christine into sleeping with him, and she says she knew all along that he was a decent person deep (well, really deep) down.
  Christine: Dan? I still really do want to thank you for saving my life.
  Dan: (smiles) ...I think you just did.
• "The Jung and the Restless", mixed with plenty of Tear Jerker: Roz manages to talk a scared teenager, fleeing a failed armed robbery, into surrendering his gun and giving himself up to the police:
  Roz: You're just a baby.
  Jack: Hey, I'm sixteen!
  Roz: Sixteen... I remember when I was sixteen and was all broken up, over some boy or something. My mother took me aside. "Roz," she said, "it breaks my heart that I can't fix all your problems... but it fills my heart that God gave you to me to try."
• At the conclusion of "No Hard Feelings", Dan returns to the courthouse after turning down a job with a prestigious law firm, when he found out that the junior partner only wanted him as an office gigolo:
  Harry: Hey, Dan. Did you get the job?
  Dan: (cheerfully) Nope!
  Harry: Well, I'm sorry. All the same, it would have been a shame to lose you.
  Dan: Thank you, Harry.
  • They're both being entirely sincere.
• "World War III" Circumstances have brought a member of the State Dept., Martin Glasscock, and the Soviet Govt., Nickolai Karpov, together in Harry's office. When they're left alone they mention how their work has made everyday objects look like missiles to them, soda bottles, pencils, the darts from Harry's dartboard, reminding Glasscock of Soviet SS-18s.
  Karpov: What SS-18s?
  Glasscock: Oh, come on, you know, the ones you just deployed near the Aral Sea. Say, if we were to stop deployment of those nine Pershings in Germany, would you pull them out of there? (Karpov turns to look at him) I mean, no big deal.
  Karpov: I could,uh, bring it up for discussion. But it would be difficult to verify!
  Glasscock: But if you could verify, would you?
  Karpov: As I said, I could recommend...
  Glasscock: (interrupts) No, no. Would you?
  Karpov: I would ((Beat)) For a friend.

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