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'Judging Amy' star modeled series after mom
San Antonio Express-News - September 27, 1999
By David Martindale
Praise her new show or pan it mercilessly. It won't make any difference to Amy Brenneman.
As far as she is concerned, "Judging Amy," a series in which she stars and co-produces, is a success already. The fact alone that it is part of the new CBS fall lineup makes it
successful.
"I don't know if it's that I'm a realist or a pessimist," Brenneman says. "But every step of the way, I just never thought it would go. I thought, 'Well, we'll pitch the show and
see what happens.' And because I was happy with my movie career, I thought, 'Whatever happens happens.' I just wasn't desperate about it. Maybe that's a little lesson in life, to let go a little
bit."
Brenneman stars as Amy Gray, a single mother who leaves New York to become a juvenile court judge in Hartford, Conn. The premise was inspired, Brenneman says, by her mother, a judge.
"My mom is a Superior Court judge," she says. "Most of her career, she has done juvenile matters, delinquency and neglect. She had a birthday a couple of years ago and I spent two
or three days in the Hartford court interviewing people, social workers and probation officers and attorneys general.
"I was really struck by the atmosphere in that building and how these different professions sort of bump up against each other in the pursuit of something that I think is really interesting
and important, which is the benefit of these kids. And I know enough about TV to know you need an inexhaustible flow of stories. And I'd grown up all my life with my mother and her friends telling
these war stories and I thought, 'I think there's a show here.'"
Her mother, Frederica, is a technical adviser on the show. But if Mom had her way, Brenneman notes, the show would be "like a 'Law & Order' for juvenile justice. But I want it to be part
work and part personal," Brenneman says. "Because there are two fascinating sides to her. When on the bench, she's refined, very smart, very soothing. But when she takes off her robe,
she's just Mom."
Copyright © 1999 San Antonio Express-News. All rights reserved.
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