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Viewers will soon be Judging Amy
People - September 3, 1999
Fall Faces: Amy Brenneman
Why We're Watching: The NYPD Blue vet stars in her own show. Could be this season's Providence
Amy Brenneman picked up an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Officer Janice Licalsi on the explosive first season
of NYPD Blue, where her steamy romance with Det. John Kelley (David Caruso) set a new standard for frank adult
content on television.
In her new show, Judging Amy, Brenneman dons judicial robes and tones down the steam content. In a story drawn
straight from her own history, she plays a New York City lawyer and a single mother who moves back to her Hartford,
Conn., hometown become a juvenile court judge. Judge Amy and her young daughter are also living with her
strong-willed mother (Tyne Daly), a former social worker who knows everyone in court.
A Connecticut native and Harvard grad, Brenneman is also one of the executive producers of the series, loosely based
on the experiences of her own mother, a superior court judge. Brenneman also sees a lot of herself in her character,
as she says in a studio press release: "I know for me, a lot of my 20s was about going off and proving that I
wasn't like my mother. I was so different, I wasn't going to do anything like her. And then, we all know, you fall
flat on your face, because you're exactly like your parents."
Brenneman -- who's acted with everyone from Robert De Niro to Sylvester Stallone and briefly played Kelsey Grammer's
latest love interest on Frasier -- is happy that the networks are ready to let a woman be the focal point for an
hourlong drama series. "Providence's success was really good for us," Brenneman told Entertainment Weekly.
"It showed that there was an audience for shows about women at the crossroads of their lives."
Copyright © 1999 Time Inc. All rights reserved.
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