The former co-stars are reuniting on an episode of 'Night Court,' airing Feb. 6 on NBC.
Kunal Nayyar and Melissa Rauch's time on The Big Bang Theory may have ended years ago but the same cannot be said for their friendship.
During a recent visit on the set of Rauch's show, Night Court, ET's Denny Directo spoke with the pair, who are set to reunite on the Feb. 6 episode of the NBC comedy. While it has already been four years since Rauch, 43, and Nayyar, 42, saw their hit CBS comedy come to a close, time has not separated them or the friend group at large.
"We've never fallen out of love," Rauch said of maintaining a relationship with Nayyar and the other cast members, including Kaley Cuoco, Johnny Galecki, Simon Helberg, Jim Parsons and Mayim Bialik.
"No, never," her former co-star agreed. "We've never stopped loving each other."
"I think, yeah, I think we'll always be a part of each other’s lives," Rauch, who plays Judge Abby Stone on the Night Court reboot, said. "We're just always in each other's hearts and it's just family forever."
"One hundred percent," echoed Nayyar. "Yeah, it's even deeper than family, to be honest. It's difficult to explain but yeah, of course, we're always -- we're all in each other’s lives."
It's not surprising as the cast spent more than a decade with each other day in and day out, playing the lovable bunch of nerds that made the long-running series the iconic show that it is known as today. Rauch joined the cast in season 3, playing Bernadette Rostenkowski -- the love interest of Helberg's Howard Wolowitz-- while Nayyar, an original member of the cast, played astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali.
The Big Bang Theory aired its first episode on CBS in 2007 and officially came to a close in 2019, racking up a total of 55 Emmy nominations and 10 wins. It also spawned the Young Sheldon spinoff focused on the origin story for Parsons' character, Sheldon Cooper, which will end with its seventh season in May.
For Rauch and Nayyar, however, when the chance arose for them to pull off a reunion on Night Court -- which is currently in its second season -- the answer was obvious and things fell into place like no time had passed.
"It definitely feels like we're in a time machine, for sure," Rauch said.
For his part, Nayyar told ET that he may have had a hand in forging a role for himself on the show as he had been pleading with his friend since her show was picked up to bring him on.
"He's been so incredibly supportive, I just didn't know if I wanted to work with him again 'cause he's such a monster," Rauch said jokingly about waiting until the second season to have her friend co-star.
"Can you tell?" Nayyar responded.
As for what viewers can expect from their on-screen reunion, the friends played it coy as to what the upcoming episode entails but said that there appears to be a potential love connection between their characters.
According to TVLine, Nayyar is playing fashion designer Martini Toddwallis. During his time at night court, he finds inspiration "and maybe even a new muse," the outlet shared.
"I have to say what was very exciting about this is this week there is a bit of romance between the fashion designer [and Abby.] The role that he plays and Abby, it's very fun to play 'cause we haven't done that since," she said, before Nayyar chimed in with "The Bollywood dance number."
The Big Bang Theory alums are, of course, referencing a scene from season 4 of their CBS series, where Raj daydreams a musical number with Bernadette, whom he is secretly in love with. In fact, in an Instagram promotion for the upcoming episode of Rauch's NBC comedy, Nayyar dramatically recites a poem his Big Bang Theory character wrote to Rauch's character.
"Oh Bernadette, please play my clarinet," Nayyar says as the camera pans to Rauch sitting at her judge's bench.
Will Nayyar and Rauch's characters on Night Court repeat history as lovers not meant to be? Only time will tell when the episode airs on Feb. 6.
As for what it was like to be an outsider watching the longtime friends and co-stars come back together, Rauch's current co-star, John Larroquette, said it was "great" to see them back in action.
"It's great, it's lovely to see two old friends who spend so much time together in a very successful time together," the actor and original Night Court star, 76, said. "You can't help but enjoy their rapport and their camaraderie."
Night Court airs Tuesdays on NBC at 8 p.m.
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