"Y su nombre es 'Brent'"

I am not a fan of any incarnation of Star Trek. Never have been. I am aware of characters and actors associated with the franchise simply because they are a part of the pop culture vernacular. But never in a million years would I have ever guessed that one of the single most memorable lines ever delivered in an episode of Night Court was done so by a future Star Trek actor.

The down-on-his-luck West Virginian Bob Wheeler character always amused me in that sort of uncomfortable non-politically correct way most of Night Court did back in the ’80s. The whole show was sort of risqué for a kid who had only recently entered his teens and was getting to stay up late on a school night to watch TV with his parents. But Wheeler had a line that I still quote today as often as I do a line from Ghostbusters or Animal House or WarGames or any other pop culture touchstone of my youth. And I was surprised when I recently found out that Bob Wheeler was portrayed by Brent Spiner, who would gain geek fame on Star Trek: The Next Generation in the late ’80s and early ’90s, but I will now think of him every time I deliver the line “y su nombre es ‘Bob.’”

Check out the 5:58 mark of this clip from the classic "Hurricane" two-part episode from 1986. (And, yeah, that's Pam Grier as one of the pregnant ladies going into labor.)