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Amy's Family Matters: Will 'Judging Amy'
make Hartford another 'Providence'?
Hartford Courant - September 20, 1999
By JAMES ENDRST, Courant TV Critic
In television, the jury is rarely out for very long before it renders its verdict, and right now Amy Brenneman, the
star of CBS's new series "Judging Amy," is making her case in chambers -- that is, in her trailer on the
lot at Twentieth Century Fox Television studios.
In her pajamas.
It's not a tease -- nothing to do with the fact that the Glastonbury native made her biggest impression with TV
audiences when she appeared in the altogether in the maiden voyage of ABC's barrier-breaking "NYPD Blue"
in 1993.
Brenneman, who now plays Judge Amy Gray in CBS's Hartford-based answer to NBC's "Providence," has just
finished a scene in which she is getting out of bed. Now she's talking about continuity.
"This is what I [wore]to go to sleep in in the first episode," she says. "and then I came in for
wardrobe today [for the second episode], and they had something different to wear."
Brenneman says that strikes a false note with her and that she's mentioned it to the producers because, in real
life, she tends to wear the same favored clothes on a regular basis.
Keeping the clothing on track is pretty much a side issue for the series (which had its premiere Sunday night and
now moves to Tuesdays at 10 p.m.). The show has gone through its share of changes since being one of the last picked
up by the network for its fall lineup.
Originally based to a large extent on the life of Brenneman's mother, Frederica, a Connecticut trial referee,
"Judging Amy" is set (but not as yet filmed) in Hartford.
The concept "has happily jumped elsewhere," says Brenneman, 35, who plays a single mother who leaves New
York and her husband (though she is separated, not divorced), moves in with her mother, Maxine, played by Tyne Daly,
and becomes a family court judge in Hartford.
"I think, yes, I started with this idea that Maxine definitely was like my mom. But it's become its own thing
now," says the actress, whose husband, Brad Silberling, directed the pilot.
Now executive producer Barbara Hall, whose credits include "Chicago Hope" and "Northern
Exposure" and is an accomplished novelist, appears very much in charge -- though Brenneman is also one of the
show's four executive producers.
"We went through a couple of writers before we met Barbara because they basically missed the mark," says
Brenneman. "So to watch Barbara actually make this thing come alive was quite extraordinary."
"It was already a script that I rewrote," Hall says during an interview in her office. "And we really
just started over."
Says Hall: "It was a woman's story that needed to be told by a woman. And the previous writers had been men.
"It was basically the merging of Amy's and my vision. What I think I brought to it was the fact that Amy Gray
is a single mother -- and I was a single mother for a couple of years -- and that part of the show really parallels
a lot of my life. I got divorced exactly at that same age. My daughter was very young, and it was that sense of
having blown your whole life up and then having to start it over." (Except that Hall moved from Los Angeles to
New York.)
Brenneman, who was born in New London and whose parents now live in Westport, still has a lot to say about the
series, using her mother, she says, as a consultant.
"Where I feel very committed to the original idea is that these cases about neglect and delinquency are really
interesting," says Brenneman, whose on-screen brother is played by Dan Futterman ("The Birdcage"),
though she is quick to say that it doesn't follow the rules of procedure in terms of the structure of the
Connecticut court system.
The writers, she said, felt limited, "So we kind of opened it up so it more represents a family court that
you'd find in Massachusetts or Rhode Island."
So far there isn't even stock footage of Hartford being used in the show, though everyone associated with the series
hopes that will change if the hour is a hit.
That's no mean feat, either.
The competition will be intense, particularly with "Judging Amy" going up against ABC's well-received
"Once and Again," starring Sela Ward and Billy Campbell as two single parents and their post-divorce love
affair.
"Once and Again," however, will move to a different time slot once ABC's Emmy-winning "NYPD
Blue" returns in November.
Nevertheless, "Once and Again" is having some impact on "Judging Amy." Judge Amy is separated
for the moment but not yet divorced.
"I still think I'm in love with my husband," says Brenneman of her character and her spouse. "The
network had this thought that we really don't see him at all for the first six or seven episodes."
Or we may never see him at all.
"Barbara Hall wants me to have sex with a lot of people as soon as possible," says Brenneman, invoking her
sexy TV past and giggling. "'NYPD Blue' girl [goes wild]. Yippee."
And what about that now semi-infamous career blastoff?
Brenneman recalls, "We weren't sure exactly what we were going to do. We just sort of went for it. And I had
this raunchy little old white bra that was mine, right? And I think about it now, like, 'Oh, my God, I could have
asked for something like a sexy satin push-up bra. But friends of mine have actually commented [that they
appreciated the look] because it was a real bra. It was a cop bra."
For her part, clearly comfortable with her body and her "NYPD Blue" legacy as rookie Janice Licalsi, she
says: "I never thought the scenes were particularly sexy. I thought they were sort of interesting and shocking.
When we get into that [on 'Judging Amy'], I'd actually like to have this be more truly sexy, romantic and
quirky."
As for the actress who will play Brenneman's opinionated TV mother, Daly -- an Emmy and Tony award-winning actress
who will forever be remembered as Mary Beth Lacey of "Cagney & Lacey" -- is borderline blunt about her
reasons for working in another series.
"I want to be able to afford [to work in] the theater again, like Long Wharf, and I can't afford the theater
or, in fact, my rent, on the salaries they pay for independent movies."
Daly says it's important to her that her character Maxine, a woman she describes as "innately grumpy,"
will have "an actual reality rather than just be an opinion that her children hold -- which is what the parents
on sitcoms get to be."
Viewers will, as always, make the final ruling.
Copyright © 1999 Hartford Courant. All rights reserved.
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