Judging Amy is an American television drama that was telecast from September 19, 1999,
through May 3, 2005, on CBS-TV.
This TV series starred Amy Brenneman and Tyne Daly.
Its main character is a judge who serves in a family court; in addition to the family-related
cases that she adjudicates, many episodes focus on her experiences as a divorced mother
and on the experiences of her mother, a social worker in the field of child welfare.
This series was based on the life experiences of Brenneman's mother.
After six seasons, Judging Amy was canceled by CBS on May 18, 2005.
In the United States, re-runs were telecast on the Turner Network Television cable TV
channel for about four years, but this series was replaced by others in the schedule for
the fall of 2007.
Its final telecast was on August 31, 2007.
Starting July 17, 2011 Gospel Music Channel began telecasting the show, starting with
the pilot episode.
GMC aired the show with edits to some of the language, out of order, and some episodes
missing.
Plot Amy Gray, a New York attorney, separates from
her husband and returns with her young daughter to her childhood home in Hartford, Connecticut.
She becomes a judge on Connecticut's family court at age 34 and gets a divorce.
Her mother, Maxine Gray, with whom Amy lives, is a caseworker for the Connecticut Department
of Children and Families.
In the de facto series finale, Amy quits the judiciary to run for the U.S. Senate.
Critical reception
Several reviewers have suggested the show took inspiration from the formula established
by Providence.
Reviewers also cite the relationship between Brenneman and Daly's characters as the selling
point of the show.
Amy Gray makes reference to Providence in episode 3.18, "The Justice League of America".
In this episode, Amy is attending her Harvard Law School class' tenth reunion, and her old
friends cannot seem to remember Amy has moved to Hartford.
They think she resides in Providence.
Finally, Amy is pushed to state, "It's Hartford, David.
Providence is a whole other universe."
The characters
Main characters Judge Amy Madison Gray, played by Amy Brenneman:
After separating from her husband, Amy Gray returns to her childhood home with her daughter,
becomes a judge on Connecticut's family court, gets a divorce, and tries to get on with her
life.
Balancing her new job, her family, and trying to rebuild her love life is not easy, but
she keeps trying.
She makes a name for herself in family court for her unusual methods and sentences and
her stubbornness, which sometimes gets her in trouble.
She dates several men.
Her longest and more serious relationships are with lawyer Stuart Collins and David McClaren.
Amy and Stuart dislike each other at first, but when she asks him to be Eric Black's lawyer,
they get closer and eventually get engaged.
However, Amy leaves him at the altar on their wedding day, saying he has a way of always
convincing her to do things she does not want to do.
She meets David McClaren during her short stint in the criminal court, and things are
rocky from the start.
Amy becomes pregnant by him and they plan to marry, but things fall apart when she miscarries
and they part ways soon thereafter.
In the last episode of the series, she quits the judiciary to run for Senate, to try to
prevent the passage of a law that will effectively end the juvenile justice system by allowing
the State's Attorney's office to try teenagers as adults at their own discretion.
Maxine McCarty Gray, played by Tyne Daly, is Amy's widowed mother.
A social worker for the Department of Children and Families, she had retired, but she returns
to the job at the start of the series.
She is willing to do whatever it takes to help the children in her care, even bending
the law.
She is an opinionated, strong-willed woman, very set in her ways, and capable of holding
long grudges, but loving to her family.
Her relationship with daughter Amy is often not easy, since they are so much alike.
After a troubled courtship, she becomes engaged to a wealthy businessman, Jared Duff, but
he dies 48 hours before their wedding.
By the end of the series, she becomes engaged to Ignacio Messina.
She has two heart attacks in the last season and has to undergo open heart surgery, but
makes certain lifestyle changes and recovers well.
Vincent Gray, played by Dan Futterman, is Amy's gifted younger brother, with whom she
has always been closest.
Vincent is the winner of a Pushcart Prize for a collection of short stories titled A
Fortunate Son.
At the beginning of the series, he becomes roommates with Donna, with whom later he becomes
best friends.
As he attempts to continue his writing career, he holds a number of jobs: dogwasher, reporter,
and free-lancer.
He eventually marries his girlfriend, Carole Tobey, who has breast cancer, and leaves with
her for San Francisco, parting with Amy on very bad terms.
Some time later, his cousin Kyle arranges for him to arrive as a surprise to Amy's wedding
to Stuart Collins.
The wedding never happens, but he patches things up with Amy.
He returns home soon after, explaining that Carole has left him for her oncologist.
He later explains that this was a lie, and that he left his wife because he could not
handle the struggle of taking care of her.
Still stuck on his new book, he gets a new job as a social worker.
Kyle McCarty, played by Kevin Rahm, is Amy's cousin, the son of Maxine's estranged brother
Richard.
He is a former medical student who was expelled because of problems related to his drug addiction.
Shunning his father, he comes to his aunt Maxine for help.
She gives him a home and gets him a job as a counselor at a facility for runaway teens.
He later moves in to share a flat with Donna after Vincent leaves and finds a hospital
willing to give him a new chance to finish his medical residency, and gets into a complicated
on/off relationship with fellow doctor Heather Labonte, as well as fighting an attraction
to his supervisor, Dr. Lily Reddicker.
After his father dies, he quits his job and finds a new path in life as a medic with the
SWAT unit.
He finally decides to accompany his ex-girlfriend Heather to Minnesota and take care of their
son while she is in rehabilitation.
Peter Gray, played by Marcus Giamatti, is Amy's older brother.
He inherited the family business from his father and he is good at it, even if it was
not his first choice in life.
He is a good man who sometimes surprises people with some outbursts.
He is married to Gillian and they have been trying to have children for a long time.
They agree to adopt the son of a pregnant girl called Evie, and he turns out to be half
African-American.
Some time after adopting Ned, Gillian gets pregnant and gives birth to Walt.
Things get rocky after Walt's birth and they separate for a while, even dating other people.
Peter goes through a "rebellion" phase, trying to recall his teenage dreams, until he finds
out his business is almost bankrupt.
Soon after, he reconciles with his wife.
Gillian Gray, played by Jessica Tuck, is Peter's wife.
A controlling woman with a good heart, she completely loves her husband.
She is usually well-meaning, but also often obsessive and nerve-wracking.
After being unable to get pregnant, they adopt baby Ned.
Some time later, however, she gets pregnant, but things go wrong during the delivery of
Walt, and she falls into a coma for a while.
She and Peter have problems soon after but they reconcile.
Lauren Cassidy, played by Karle Warren, is Amy's daughter, six years old at the start
of the series.
A mostly well-adjusted girl, she is going through the pains of childhood and preadolescence
with divorced parents, but a loving family.
She struggles over her father's relationship with Leesha, whom she likes at first.
When Lauren is 12, her uncle Peter takes her for her haircut and she returns home with
her long straight hair cut into a hipper, shoulder-length cut.
Her boyfriend Victor turns out to be the son of her mother's boyfriend, David McClaren,
which causes Lauren to feel awkward and disgusted.
When Amy becomes pregnant with David's child, Lauren reveals what a total blow to her social
life this will be and is furious.
She later becomes accepting and supporting of her mother after she miscarries.
Toward the end of the series, Lauren begins to hang out with a group of friends who embrace
the straight edge culture, which puts her at odds with her mother.
Bruce Calvin van Exel, played by Richard T. Jones, is Amy's court services officer, who
becomes her friend.
The series addresses a number of issues of their cross-racial friendship and how each
feels about it.
Bruce is a stubborn man with strong convictions, whose advice Amy comes to find invaluable.
He has a daughter, Rebecca, whose mother breaks up with him after he gives her an ultimatum
to move in together.
At one point, Bruce is suspended from work for punching a man.
He performs community service in a soup kitchen before returning to work with Amy.
He is a fairly devout Catholic and not thrilled when his sister Winnie takes Rebecca to her
more traditional black church with 'more interesting prayers'.
Rebecca and Lauren attend the same middle school.
In the second-to-last episode, he quits his job to complete his master's degree in family
counselling, something he always wanted to do.
The attraction between Amy and him is sometimes acknowledged, but never really explored.
Donna Kozlowski, played by Jillian Armenante, is Amy's clerk.
An eccentric woman, she is from a wealthy family, but estranged from them.
Donna is a genius and socially awkward.
She is married to a convicted murderer, Oscar Ray Pant, and becomes roommates with Amy's
brother Vincent.
While living with him, she has a daughter by Oscar, Ariadne Gray Pant, to whom she gives
birth in a plastic pool in Amy's living room.
Her mother arrives while Donna is in the pool, but is unable to offer her support and leaves.
Maxine ends up getting in the pool with Donna.
Later, Oscar confesses to Donna that he is really guilty and she divorces him.
Upon passing the bar examination, Amy fires her so she would go to work as a lawyer; she
becomes a court-appointed minor counsel for the Hartford Youth Advocates, whose office
is across the hall from Amy's.
Sean Potter, played by Timothy Omundson, is Maxine's boss and later friend, who has his
hands full dealing with Maxine's unorthodox methods.
Initially a bit green in his supervisory role, he loosens up over time after his exposure
to and friendship with Maxine.
Sean and Bruce become friends and work together to establish alternative treatment programs
for youthful offenders, and Sean is revealed in one episode as an avid karaoke singer,
which comes in handy for entertaining the guests at Amy's and Stuart's wedding.
Sean also dates Courtney Messina, the daughter of Maxine's beau, Ignacio, for a while, entertaining
her elderly grandmother with a rendition of "Vaya con Dios".
Secondary characters Eric Black, played by Blake Bashoff, is a
gay teenager who has been abused several times.
When all else fails, Maxine reluctantly takes him into her home, where he rapidly bonds
with the family; afterwards, Sean becomes his foster father.
Eventually, Eric protectively confronts and kills a stalker after Amy and Lauren.
He is tried and found not guilty, but as Maxine no longer trusts him, he decides to run away
to Canada with his boyfriend, Mark.
Dr. Lily Reddicker, played by Kristin Lehman is the hospital chief of staff who takes a
chance by hiring Amy's cousin Kyle.
She is a no-nonsense supervisor who recognizes Kyle's superb medical skills and his need
to return to medicine, which he tries to hide behind a sarcastic view of the world.
She fights an attraction to Kyle because of their professional relationship and her fears
that pursuing it create problems for Kyle because of his addiction problems.
Kyle soon becomes troubled by his attraction to both Dr. Lily and a fellow resident, Heather
Labonte.
Heather Labonte, played by Sarah Danielle Madison, is a doctor at Kyle's hospital with
a substance abuse problem, who gets busted with a drug test and gets a job as a bartender.
She has an on/off relationship with Kyle, until she gets pregnant.
Kyle says he would help economically, but that they should not be together.
Finally, Kyle decides to accompany her to Minnesota and take care of their son while
she is in rehabilitation.
Louann "Crystal" Turner, played by Jennifer Esposito, is a former meth addict who runs
an outreach program for homeless teenagers.
She had a relationship with Vincent and worked with him until she arranged for him to work
at a youth detention center to teach a creative writing class.
Graciela Reyes, played by Tara Correa-McMullen, is a gang member Amy counsels.
As time passes, she makes progress, though she is arrested one day for criminal facilitation,
as she was in the car with her cousin when she was involved in a drive-by shooting.
Graciela is tried and found guilty, thus being sent to prison, where she is murdered.
Rob Holbrook, played by Jim Parsons, is a young clerk hired by Amy to replace Donna
after her departure.
Innocent and extremely eager to please, he proves his worth when his knowledge of Spanish
comes into play in a case.
Later, when Amy is banned from Graciela's trial, he goes in her stead and reports back
to her all that happens.
He enjoys cake and playing ball.
Courtney Messina, played by Jossara Jinaro, is Ignacio Messina's daughter and Sean Potter's
girlfriend.
Amy's love interests Michael Cassidy is Amy's ex-husband.
He divorced Amy and married a woman named Leesha, who was younger and blonder than Amy.
Michael tried to obtain full custody of Lauren, hoping his daughter would help him to mend
his second marriage.
He dropped the case when Leesha left him.
He told Amy, though he stood by what he said about her in court, she was still a better
parent than he.
Rob Meltzer is Lauren's karate teacher, with whom Amy had a short fling.
She dumped him for Tom Gillette.
Tom Gillette lasted only four episodes, as Tom left Amy so he could return to his estranged
wife.
Barry Krumble is a fellow judge, whom Amy dated briefly.
He "saved" her from embarrassment at her 10-year college reunion, but the relationship fizzled
out when she realized they were not meant for each other because he could not "live
in the moment" the way she did.
Stuart Collins is a lawyer who, after several on/offs, became engaged to Amy.
They rekindled their relationship when she asked him to be Eric Black's lawyer, but she
ended the relationship by leaving him at the altar.
Six months later, she learned he had married a 22-year-old Polynesian woman whom he met
on the trip that was supposed to have been their honeymoon.
David McClaren is a recently widowed assistant state's attorney and the father of Lauren's
boyfriend, Victor.
His relationship with Amy was rocky from the beginning, as he was still dealing with his
wife's murder.
He attended victims' support group meetings, one of which he asked Amy to attend.
Amy became pregnant by him, and they planned to buy a house together.
Amy had a miscarriage and, in her grief, kept David at a distance.
This resulted in him breaking up with her.
Maxine's love interests Jared Duff is a wealthy businessman who met
Maxine at a local diner, which he later purchased for her.
Things between them became rocky several times, once because of his son's opposition to the
relationship.
They became engaged in 2003, but Jared died two days before the wedding.
Ignacio Messina is the landscape designer whom Maxine hired to work on her garden.
The two became close, but Maxine learned he was not divorced from his wife and he had
two children: Courtney Messina and Raul Messina.
They broke up, but decided to continue their friendship.
He remained very supportive during Maxine's health problems, finally divorcing his wife
and proposing marriage to Maxine.
Murdered cast member On October 21, 2005, 16-year old Tara Correa-McMullen
was shot to death outside an apartment complex in Inglewood, California.
Suspected gang member Damien Watts, 20, was charged with her murder on March 1, 2006;
he was convicted on January 23, 2009.
When charged, Watts was in custody for a separate shooting.
Watts was sentenced on February 27, 2009 to life imprisonment, with no chance of parole.
Location Judging Amy takes place in Hartford, Connecticut.
Although the show often shows the Hartford Judicial District Court as having the address
of 1265, the actual address of the Hartford Judicial District is 95 Washington Street,
family matters are heard on 90 Washington Street and the Superior Court Juvenile Matters
of Hartford is in 920 Broad Street, Hartford, CT 06106.
Episodes Season One: 1999–2000
Broadcast Judging Amy is broadcast in Australia on channels
ELEVEN and 111 Hits and in New Zealand on Prime.
In Canada, the show aired on channel Séries+.
Ireland's TV3 carried the show, as did UK stations Living TV, Hallmark, Channel 4, and
CBS Drama.
DVD release Judging Amy has been released on DVD in Scandinavia
and Australia.
All Season One episodes are available from retailers in these countries.
All releases contain subtitling in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish.
Although all discs on the Australian set are encoded to Region 4, the first three discs
menu shows Season One Box One, whereas the last three discs menu shows Season One Box
Two.
This is the same as the split season Scandinavian releases.
Ratings Season 1: 21st – 14.1 million viewers
Season 2: 28th – 13.3 million viewers Season 3: 21st - 13.9 million viewers
Season 4: 26th – 13.1 million viewers Season 5: 39th – 10.7 million viewers
Season 6: 37th – 10.6 million viewers References
External links Judging Amy at AllMovie
Judging Amy at the Internet Movie Database Judging Amy at TV.com