|
|
Family examples help Brenneman go courtside with 'Amy'
Kansas City Star - October 5, 1999
By JUDITH MICHAELSON - Los Angeles Times
HOLLYWOOD -- In the pilot of CBS' new drama series "Judging Amy," when Amy Brenneman as the title character is about to be sworn in as a superior court judge in Hartford, Conn., some
rather sage advice is given her from her social worker mother, Maxine Gray, played by Tyne Daly.
The senior Gray, who, after all, has appeared before the juvenile court bench countless times, admonishes: "(Use the bathroom) before you take the bench, don't wear perfume, always make sure
there's no food in your teeth" and, perhaps most significantly, "use your instincts."
While the food bit is executive producer-writer Barbara Hall's, the rest is precisely what actress-executive producer Brenneman heard growing up in Glastonbury, Conn., a Hartford suburb, as the
daughter of Superior Court Judge Frederica Brenneman. Dad is also a lawyer.
So when the chestnut-haired, gray-eyed, Harvard-educated (class of 1987) actress -- who was sexy officer Janice Licalsi on ABC's "NYPD Blue" -- decided she wanted to go back into series
television, she trusted instinct and partly modeled the role after her mother.
With her colleagues -- three of the four executive producers are women -- Brenneman crafted the story of a recently separated, single mother of a 6-year-old (Karle Warren), who has left a
high-powered corporate practice in New York and high-powered-lawyer husband and moved back home. That puts three generations of females under one roof, along with Amy's floundering but talented
younger brother Vincent (Dan Futterman).
Brenneman dismisses comparisons to NBC's "Providence," which also has a daughter giving up a high-profile, big-city job to return home. Besides the single mother aspect, "Judging
Amy" had its genesis before "Providence" debuted last season.
"About three years ago my mother had a big birthday, big decade (70)," she said. "I made her a videotape. I went to the Hartford court and spent about two days interviewing people
-- social workers, lawyers, probation officers. I thought: `This is a television show. But the cases are so intense, especially of neglect and abuse and incest, that it's got to have the right
tone. (It) has to be human and funny, but these are better stories than most of the ones I see on television.' So it did spark my brain."
Then last year, with several movie projects ("Your Friends & Neighbors," "Nevada") done, Brenneman and producer Connie Tavel refined the concept and started pitching the
series. Its lighter, more human tone derives from the mother-daughter interplay between Brenneman and Daly, as well as the atmosphere within the more informal juvenile court.
It's Daly's character, Maxine, whom Brenneman says most reflects her mother: "Maxine is a force of nature. She loves her children fiercely but can't always express it." Daly, who says
she's still trying to figure out who Maxine really is, sees "a sticky relationship with her daughter. ... What's emotionally clear to them is their need for each other; what's harder is the
day-to-day of how their personalities grate against each other."
Copyright © 1999 The Kansas City Star. All rights reserved.
|
