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Hartford? You Judge
Hartford Courant - October 1, 1999
By James Endrst
Finally, your town is the setting for a prime-time series. It's a good show. Solid. Successful, even.
Only when you turn it on, you can't help noticing one thing's missing.
Your town.
I'm speaking in this case, of course, about CBS's "Judging Amy," a new hourlong drama (Tuesday nights at
10) starring Glastonbury's Amy Brenneman as Judge Amy Gray, a recently separated mother who leaves New York, returns
to her hometown of Hartford and becomes a judge.
But if you're a Nutmegger looking for a shot of the Wadsworth Atheneum, don't bother. You won't be seeing it.
And that building you might mistake for the State Capitol?
Nope. That's city hall in Pasadena, Calif.
That charming little Cape Cod in the suburbs -- the one where Amy now lives with her opinion-heavy mama Maxine, a
part played with the usual vigor by TV and stage veteran Tyne Daly?
Gotta be in West Hartford or Farmington, right?
Pasadena again.
So what's the deal? Just when you were getting all puffed up with municipal pride.
Well, like so many TV series, the setting in "Judging Amy" is secondary -- a generic and barely drawn
sketch of the area, despite the fact that Brenneman, who helped create the hour, based the show in large part on the
life of her mother.
And unlike NBC's surprise hit of last season, "Providence," to which "Judging Amy" is most often
compared, Brenneman's show doesn't contain one frame of film shot in the state it's supposed to take place in.
That's right. No scenes where Amy cries out in frustration over the endless construction on I-91 or 84; no
tete-a-tetes with Maxine at the Mark Twain House; no city skyline with the Gold Building gleaming in the afternoon
sun.
Not even stock footage. ("Providence" is filmed in Los Angeles and Rhode Island.)
Which leaves us with what?
Impressions. The occasional local reference to the capital city.
In series television, most cities might as well be any city -- unless you're talking about cop shows set in New York
or Los Angeles (where most programs are produced).
In fact, during my recent visit to the set, Brenneman, one of the show's executive producers, said she keeps telling
her colleagues it's East Hartford but that, for the most part at this early stage of the game, they don't much care.
During that same visit, as I sat in Judge Gray's faux courtroom, one of the people responsible for the look of the
show turned to me (knowing my affiliation) and asked me if everything in the show, in essence, looked run-down
enough.
Ouch.
I was impressed, however, by the golden bands of light that flooded the room. Though it was summer in California, in
here it felt like leaf-peeping time in New England.
Nobody from "Judging Amy" -- which has been doing well in the Nielsen ratings, besting ABC's more
critically acclaimed "Once and Again" -- is heading east, cameras in hands, anytime soon.
But if you look closely enough, there are some subtle signs of the state to be found.
For instance:
Attitudes -- There's plenty of Yankee spunk and cut-to-the-chase determination, primarily embodied by Daly. In one
early exchange, Maxine -- who is in the habit of dressing down her daughter (though Amy asks for it by living with
her) -- gets her dander up after Amy indulges her 6-year-old daughter, Lauren (Karle Warren), with a "poopie"
twist on "The Secret Garden."
As grandma diligently muscles through her ironing, she reminds her daughter, "This is not New York City.
Everyone knows us here."
"You mean everybody knows YOU here," says Amy, who seems a little less ecstatic about returning to her
roots than Melina Kanakaredes' Sydney Hansen character does in "Providence."
Then there's that old Yankee dedication to practicality since the show's Sept. 19 debut. In one of her first cases,
Judge Amy, charmingly and convincingly played by Brenneman, calls for a "court-ordered perspective check."
The dress code -- Well, they've got that pretty much down. Again, you'll notice it most when Daly is on screen.
Heavy wools, conservative fall fashions. No one really drawing attention to their outfits a la "Ally McBeal"
(which, come to think of it, looks a lot more like L.A. than it does Boston). No one is drawing attention to
themselves except Amy. And that's as it should be; she's wearing the big black robe.
That country kitchen -- It's not Martha Stewart Living, but if you look closely around the Gray household (which is
frequented by Amy's brother Vincent, played by Dan Futterman), you'll catch a glimpse of some classic New England
accoutrements -- the copper baking tins hanging on the kitchen wall, the bread box, the old bottle collection, a
quilt that looks like it has more than a few years on it. And there's wood, wood everywhere.
The great outdoors -- Lots of leaves. That's what stands out most in "Judging Amy." That's what brings the
people who know Connecticut home.
The people and the street -- There are African American faces, Hispanic faces, white faces, flinty-eyed old geezers
who look as if they'd crack before they'd crack a smile. Urban living, to date, however, gets the broad brush stroke
-- a wall of graffiti that's instantly supposed to project the idea of poverty and despair (Amy's mom is a social
worker).
It's a start. With luck, if "Judging Amy" makes it into a second season, maybe CBS will spring a few
bucks, come to Hartford and put its money where its series is.
Copyright © 1999 Hartford Courant. All rights reserved.
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