Goodbye Markie Post

Giving a Fond Farewell to Night Court’s Christine Sullivan

Sometimes in our life, we get to know people through that device called TV. These people become your defacto “friend” in the loosest of terms of what may be considered a friend. There defacto “friends” are found in television series, especially long-running series. Such is the case of Markie Post who played the ersatz Christine Sullivan for several seasons on the

comedy, Night Court. It came as a surprise this morning. It was announced that she had succumbed to a long battle with cancer. She never revealed her struggles with the public as she kept working through her chemotherapy treatments. Of late, we’ve witnessed several actors not letting on to the fact that they are in the throws of battling cancer. Two of them come to mind. The actress, Kelly Preston, and the actor, Chadwick Boseman. Each went through their cancer battle in quiet reserve and each announcement on their deaths hit us hard with the revelation.

Now, Markie Post has been added to the list of actors who have quietly battled cancer out of the public eye and the public isn’t ready to confront that loss. For me, it’s Night Court that brings me back to those moments. In recapping her resume, the trades list the former shows she’s been on.

I remember the Chicago P.D. episodes as she portrayed police detective (Sophia Bush) Erin Lindsay’s mom. I had forgotten though that she did a 30 Rock episode reprising her Night Court role in a B-plot storyline. I decided to go back and revisit that episode from Season 3, Episode 3 that was appropriately titled: The One with the Cast of ‘Night Court’.

It was bittersweet watching it again as we are reintroduced to her character and in a bit of eeriness, we also see Harry Anderson and Charlie Robinson, who recently passed away on July 21, 2021. Harry Anderson passed away on April 16, 2018. In this episode, when the camera did a three-shot of Harry, Markie, and Charlie, that’s when it hit me hard that they were too were gone now. Night Court is now left with only two original cast members, Richard Moll and John Larroquette. But this episode was special thanks to the Tracy Jordan character who wanted to bring joy to the NBC page, Kenneth Parcell by having Judge Stone marry Christine Sullivan because the show was canceled before that could happen.

Even though there was an A-plot going on surrounding the Jack Donaghy character and the Jennifer Anniston character, I wished that was the A-plot storyline because that was the most engaging. Tracy did Kenneth a solid but he also gave Night Court fans a solid by bringing back these beloved characters one last hurrah fur us to enjoy. Time is becoming more unforgiving as we lose more stars to a variety of causes. It’s a cruel world but our memories can be satisfied with episodes like these. Goodbye, farewell, and amen, Markie Post.