Happy Birthday: John Larroquette

John Larroquette

Born: November 25, 1947 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Married to: Elizabeth Larroquette (4 July 1975 – present) (3 children)

(2008, on The John Larroquette Show) When I finished Night Court, I didn’t work for a year and a half, and I stayed at home, and we had our youngest son in 1987, Benjamin. And about six to eight months into that hiatus, I started thinking, because I had a deal with NBC, after leaving Night Court, to do a series. I started reading scripts, and thinking about what I would do if I did another sitcom. I decided it would be a lot different from Dan Fielding. I came across this script that Don Reo had written, called Crossroads, about an alcoholic, and I thought, since I was one, that this would be a very funny arena to investigate. And so I contacted NBC and gave them the script. Don Reo was working with the production company, which had done the show Blossom, which was a success for them. He and I got together and said, “This would be interesting to do.” I really did not want The John Larroquette Show to be the title, but the network pushed for that. I said, “I would really rather not have my name on the show.” I knew that if it wasn’t successful, I was going to look at the Nielsen Ratings with the number 77 and my name next to it. But that turned out to be the name. And the first season was very, quite, without modesty, one of the best seasons of sitcom television for a long time. It had a diverse cast. It was the only show on television at the time that had a racially mixed cast. It had a Spanish woman, it had two African-American men, it was quite remarkable, the first season of that show. And then it sort of changed, because the network was not as fond of the dark comedy and quotes of it, so we tried to continue it with a lighter tone. It lost its soul at some point during the second season. But we did 97 episodes of it. For most practical purposes, it was a success. I loved doing it. I was one of the executive producers, and had a lot to do with it.

The Search for Spock: Star Trek III 1984 dir. Leonard Nimoy Starring Shatner Leonard Nimoy SOUTHLAND TALES 2006 dir. Richard Kelly Stars: Dwayne Johnson Sarah Michelle Gellar The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 1974 dir. by Tobe Hooper starring Marilyn Burns Edwin Neal JFK 1991 dir. Oliver Stone Starring Kevin Costner Tommy Lee Jones

Stripes 1981 dir. Ivan Reitman starring Bill Murray Harold Ramis

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