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Viewer's verdict: 'Judging Amy' is a hit
Cincinnati Enquirer - February 14, 2000
BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Even Amy Brenneman misjudged the hit potential of her Judging Amy.
"I knew it was going to be a good show," Ms. Brenneman says, "but I didn't know whether people would
watch it!"
Judging Amy is the highest-rated new drama (No. 22) in a season loaded with great new dramas. It's more popular than
CBS' Family Law (No. 27), NBC's The West Wing (29), NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (40), NBC's Third
Watch (53) and ABC's Once and Again (55).
On average, 14.3 million viewers watch Judging Amy at 10 p.m. Tuesdays (Channels 12, 7). So on this Valentine's Day,
we can declare Ms. Brenneman America's sweetheart.
"I like a lot of things that people don't like, so I'm not always in touch with the Zeitgeist of what's going
on," says the actress, whose character, Judge Amy Gray, in based on her mother, a Connecticut juvenile court
judge.
CBS Television President Les Moonves also says he was surprised by the show, particularly its dominance over Sela
Ward's Once and Again divorce drama on Tuesdays last fall. CBS bought the show based on a 15-minute
"presentation" film, not a complete one-hour episode.
"When we put Judging Amy on the schedule, everyone was skeptical. We really didn't know what we had," Mr.
Moonves says. "How many of you (TV critics) thought that Once and Again was going to be the hit, and Judging
Amy was the failure — 98 percent? 100 percent?"
TV miracle
So what happened?
Judging Amy is one of those TV miracles, where all the pieces fell into place — great cast, great scripts, timely
topics and a multigenerational appeal in a season saturated in teen-age dramas.
"I think Judging Amy is one of the finest-written shows on television, week after week," Mr. Moonves says.
"I'll put the writing on that show against any drama on TV, including The Practice and Law & Order. It's
that good."
Much of the credit goes to executive producer Barbara Hall (I'll Fly Away, Chicago Hope) who created the series in
five days after Ms. Brenneman had failed to click with several other writers. The actress had been kicking around
the idea since spending some time with her mother, Frederica Brenneman, a few years ago.
Ms. Hall "just found this incredible intelligence to all the characters. They were very funny, very vulnerable
and very tough at the same time. And they were all very smart," says Ms. Brenneman, 35, whose mother is a
consultant for the show.
"They are real characters. And the issues they were dealing with are real. It's not like teen-age angst,"
says Nancy Tellum, CBS Entertainment president.
Earnest performances
Adding to the realism are the earnest performances of Ms. Brenneman, NYPD Blue's former Officer Janice Licalsi, and
Tyne Daly (Cagney & Lacey), the five-time Emmy-winner who plays her mother Maxine, a social worker.
"If I do my job correctly, people believe (my character). They believe her as somebody real," says Ms.
Daly, who turns 54 next Monday. "That's my act; my act is "real.' Other people's act is glamour or
mysteriousness. Well, I'm not very mysterious, and I'm not very glamorous."
Ms. Brenneman, also an executive producer of her series, says her first choice for her mother was TV's former
Detective Mary Beth Lacey (1982-88).
"I'm a pretty strong performer, and my fear was that (the (actress playing) the mother might be intimidated.
With Tyne, there's no question of that," says Ms. Brenneman, who is married to director Brad Silberling (City
of Angels).
Another reason for Amy's success is the child custody fights and child abuse stories right out of the headlines.
Maybe some day Judge Amy will be deciding whether a 6-year-old Cuban boy should live in the United States with his
grandparents or be returned to his father in Havana.
From "Judge Freddy"
Some of the cases have come from the courtroom of "Judge Freddy," as they call her mother. Frederica
Brenneman was among the first women graduates from Harvard Law School in 1953. Amy's father, Russell Brenneman, an
environmental attorney, also is a Harvard Law grad.
"My mother has this whole private relationship with our researcher," she says. Her mother makes sure the
case law is accurate.
Many of the personal stories come from Ms. Hall, who was a divorced mother at 35.
"It really is not just a single-mother show," Ms. Hall says, "but it's a generational show, and it's
the idea of your life constantly expanding (and) ... constantly changing."
Even Ms. Brenneman knows it was pure luck that she was introduced to Ms. Hall last February, less than a week before
she had to make a decision about going ahead with the project or chucking it.
"I had tried to develop it for about six months, with some writers that didn't really get it. And I thought,
well maybe it's not a good idea. And then Barbara came in and found the voice, and it just fell into place,"
Ms. Brenneman says.
She harbored no illusions that Judging Amy would become a hit.
"We've all done projects because people said, "Oh, it's going to be a hit!' And they never are. And then
you hate yourself, because you didn't want to do it anyway," she says.
"This was just absolutely a project of love. We just did it because we found it interesting."
Copyright © 2000 The Cincinnati Enquirer. All rights reserved.
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