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Gentle Justice
TV Guide - December 11 - 17, 1999
By JANET WEEKS
With star Amy Brenneman presiding, the surprise hit Judging Amy makes a case for a new, heartfelt kind of courtroom drama.
When Amy Brenneman fell in love for the first time, she fell hard. It happened on a school stage in her hometown of Glastonbury, Connecticut. She was 11, all curly hair and big smile, the bright
and curious daughter of two Harvard Law School graduates: Russell, an environmental attorney, and Frederica, a superior court judge. Little Amy, it was assumed, would follow in her parents'
footsteps — first to Harvard and then the courtroom. But that night on that stage, singing gleefully in the chorus of a children's theater production of The Music Man, she discovered an
overwhelming passion that would send her on a different course.
"I was in two numbers and the show ran two nights," she recalls. "After the second night, I was holding on to my dad and sobbing because it was over. He had on a white shirt and his
shirt got kind of wet." She remembers being puzzled by her strong reaction until it came to her — she had fallen for the footlights. Brenneman, now 35, is sitting in a nearly empty
coffeehouse near her home in Encino, California. She is still all curly hair and big smile, despite working the night before until 4 am on her new passion, her hit CBS drama Judging Amy (Tuesdays,
10 pm/ET).
The show is a triumph for Brenneman, who is both executive producer and star: It is the No. 1 rated new drama of the season, quieting critics who called it cloying and predicted an early demise.
It's also beating ABC's highly touted Once and Again, a show that explores similar adult themes. And it has brought Brenneman's path full circle, returning her to both her Connecticut roots and to
that other life she may have led had The Music Man not come along.
In the heartwarming series, Brenneman plays Amy Gray, a New York City corporate lawyer who chucks both marriage and career and moves back to Hartford, Connecticut, to take a job as a judge in
juvenile court. For convenience, she and her 6-year-old daughter, Lauren (Karle Warren), move in with Amy's widowed mother, no-nonsense social worker Maxine (Tyne Daly). With its deft balance of
humor and edge, Judging Amy honors the often thankless work of juvenile court judges, social-services workers and parents. More directly, it is a tribute to Brenneman's trailblazing mom. Indeed,
Brenneman got the idea for the show while reflecting on her mother's career.
Frederica Brenneman was among the first women graduates from Harvard Law in 1953. She later became only the second woman judge in Connecticut's history when she was appointed to the bench in 1967.
Frederica spent the next 32 years presiding over juvenile court and remains active as a semiretired judge today. "When I was growing up, less than half of my friends' moms worked, and the
ones that did tended to find jobs shaped around the home," says Brenneman, who was 3 when her mother took the bench. "And my mom had this big, fat career."
Although the actress grew up visiting the courthouse, she says she only came to fully appreciate what her mom did three years ago, when she and her husband, director Brad Silberling (City of
Angels), spent a few days in Connecticut making a video for her mother's birthday. They interviewed dozens of her mom's friends and coworkers, from clerks to prosecutors. "We sat in this
little room with big old fluorescent lights," Brenneman says. "And these people came in, these people who have devoted their lives to the toughest stuff there is.
They had humor and wit, and I was so moved." Frederica, reached at work in a Norwalk, Connecticut, courthouse, says she has been equally moved by the success of Judging Amy. "I think
what we do is very important and gets very little coverage," she says, referring to the juvenile-justice community. "Through the stories in Judging Amy, maybe people will understand how
hardworking we are. It's been a morale booster. All the court people talk about it every Wednesday. It makes you feel like what you're doing is worthwhile."
When asked if the show has made a difference in her life, Frederica laughs. "Yeah. Now people come up to me and say, 'I have this great case that would make a really good episode.'"
Pitching scripts to Frederica makes sense: She serves as a technical adviser on the show and, according to her daughter, isn't shy about setting writers straight on how things work. "She gets
really involved, really passionate about her critiques," says Brenneman.
Frederica's take: "Well, I try." Brenneman admits that she needs all the help she can get when it comes to comprehending law. Although she did go to Harvard, her 1987 degree was in
religion. "I have this sort of block against legal stuff. It's like, 'Ah, that's their stuff,'" she says, referring to her mother, father (now retired) and older brother Matthew, also a
lawyer. (Andy, another older brother, is an interactive-software producer.) "Literally every week on the show I learn something that's hard for me. But I have to learn it because I know my
mom will kill me if I don't get it."
She gets more joy from the personal stories in the series, especially her scenes opposite Daly, who plays Maxine with both warmth and Yankee stoicism. "She spins the whole thing,"
Brenneman says of her costar. "The true love story in the series is me and Tyne. When we come together, it's bliss." Emmy winner Daly (Cagney & Lacey) says she was
"terrified" of returning to weekly television but overcame her reluctance because "I like Amy Brenneman. She's intimidatingly smart and very fun to get to know."
Viewers who remember Brenneman from her compelling turn as sexy-but-sour police officer Janice Licalsi on NYPD Blue's first season (1993–94), for which she earned an Emmy nomination, might be
surprised by just how fun she is. Although known for playing intense characters (she starred in both the 1995 cops-and-robbers film Heat opposite Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, and last year's
acidic relationship movie Your Friends and Neighbors), she is sunny and even silly in person. In fact, Brenneman was frustrated that her film and TV roles didn't reflect her goofy side, and she
rejected the first Judging Amy pilot script because it was too intense. "I was like, 'I've done intensity and darkness! I want irony!'"
She found what she was looking for in a script from Barbara Hall, a former coexecutive producer of I'll Fly Away who is now a Judging Amy executive producer. "She has a twisted point of view
that I love," says Brenneman. "She writes characters that are too smart for themselves. They talk, talk, talk — 'Oh, we're sooo smart' — but they're totally messed up!" In
January, Brenneman will pit this lighter version of herself against gritty NYPD Blue when the cop drama returns to its Tuesday time slot. Of the competition with her former show, Brenneman says,
"It's funny. Dennis [Franz] is a buddy so it's not acrimonious. It's just totally hilarious."
On the Judging Amy set one afternoon, Brenneman loosens up between scenes by dancing around bemused costar Richard T. Jones, who plays court officer Bruce Van Exel, and later lets out a wild,
earthy laugh when, posing for a cast photo, Daly jokingly grabs Brenneman's breast. It is not the behavior one expects from the executive producer of a network drama. But it is typical of
Brenneman, says close friend Chris Gullotta, director of Glastonbury's Creative Experiences program, the group Brenneman performed with as a child. "When Amy smiles, which she does a lot, you
feel it," says Gullotta, who says she saw Brenneman "blossom from pollywog to princess" during her six years with the group. And about that production of The Music Man, Gullotta
remembers it well: "Amy auditioned for the part of Amaryllis, but another girl got the part. And Amy was so gracious. Instead of being critical, she was trying to see how come this person got
the role. She was like a sponge."
Brenneman continued acting in college and later was a founding member of Cornerstone Theater Company, a touring repertory troupe based at Harvard. She put off trying her luck in Hollywood because
she was "fearful and snobbish" about the business aspects of the entertainment industry. When she finally decided to leave the East Coast theater scene for Los Angeles after landing NYPD
Blue, she found not only a successful career, but a life partner: She met Silberling when he directed an episode of the drama. "I remember thinking, 'I cannot believe I found my mate on a TV
show! Who would have thunk it!'"
Silberling got the chance to help his wife "launch this dream of hers" when he directed the Judging Amy pilot. The only project they have yet to work on together, says Brenneman, is
starting a family. But that may have to wait now that her show is off to such a strong start. "The beauty of a TV series is that you get to develop a relationship with the character you're
playing," she says. "It's like a marriage." And for Brenneman, finding marital bliss with her first love is a happy thing indeed.
Copyright © 1999 TV Guide. All rights reserved.
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