Behind Amy

CBS 2 News - November 30, 1999

A CBS 2 News Special Assignment

Judging Amy is one of the most popular new shows of the season. CBS has a winner on its hands with actress and executive producer Amy Brenneman.

CBS 2 News' Pamela Wright reports how Judging Amy has plenty of courtroom dramas but still has room to show the reality of family life.

Special Assignment: Behind Amy aired Tuesday, November 30, 1999 at 11 p.m. (Coming Home aired Nov. 23)

Amy Brenneman doesn't need to explain the success behind her hit drama, Judging Amy. The show attracts over 15 million viewers each week and it's all in the writing.

"We worked with two writers who at the end of the day did not come up with anything. Then at the eleventh hour we found Barbara Hall," Brenneman told CBS 2 News' Pamela Wright.

Writer and now producer Barbara Hall bases her writing on her life.

"This is the most personal job that I have had and partly because it's my show. I've done a lot of pilots before but this is the first that has gotten on air, and because it reflects a lot of stories that are a lot like my own life," Hall told Wright.

But for Richard T. Jones, who plays Bruce Van Exel, a courtroom co-worker, the writing may be more of a reflection of where he would like his real life story line to lead.

"I'd (make my character) be rich, secretly rich," Jones said.

But witty writing and the engaging story lines always begin with a premise, and with Judging Amy, the premise is personal.

Amy Brenneman's character is modeled after her mother Judge Frederica Brenneman in Hartford, Conn.

Recently divorced and with a young daughter, Judge Amy Gray moves in with her very opinionated mother and free-spirited brother and tries to start fresh with a new job in a new place.

The character of Brenneman is not just found in Amy Gray as a judge, it is also reflected in the many roles of motherhood found in the show, said Wright.

Amy's combination of law and family connections are creating such a dramatic force in television that some are speculating a major duel over ratings when police drama NYPD Blue returns opposite Judging Amy in January.

That concern however, Brenneman says, is more hype than reality for both her and Blue's creator, Steven Bochco.

"I actually went to a concert with Steven Bochco the other night and I got a big hug and I said, 'I am so glad that there is room for both of us on network TV,'" said Brenneman.


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