The Judge

Despite of the success of Ralph Edwards' "People's Court" with Joe Wapner, there was a brief, golden era during the mid-to-late 80s when scripted courtroom dramas like "The Judge" and a revival of the old daytime staple of the 60s/70s "Divorce Court" made a comeback.

To this day, when I see local Los Angeles news correspondent Toni Guinyard file a report, I can't help but wax nostalgic about her brief stint as host of the 80's incarnation of "Divorce Court".

The perverse charm & hilarity of these shows lies in the fact that they were so unintentionally cheesy in every respect: the lousy scripts, the amateurish acting, the cheap sets, the two-bit camera work, and the feeble attempts at pontificating some "relevant social message".

Like him or not, Wapner was nevertheless a savvy, camera-friendly judge with real experience and an astute knowledge of civil law.

"Judge Franklin", on the other hand, was obviously a community theatre bumpkin plucked from the plains of Ohio---dispensing his own special brand of folksy grandfatherly "wisdom". Hence, the whole camp appeal of the show.

There doesn't seem to be any mention in the notes about the show moving production to Canada toward the end of its run. However, it is obvious that it did, as all of the actors involved in the show (save the "Judge") possessed a distinctly Canadian dialect.

The only "crime" surrounding these courtroom dramas is that they are not available to the small, yet devoted fan base like myself who find a (granted, somewhat twisted) appeal in reliving this tiny slice of Reagan-era banality.

This show was corny and cliched. You watched it and had a good laugh because you realized that real life court isn't at all like they portrayed. Actually I thought Judge Franklin was a cliche-spouted, pompous windbag! I liked Sergeant Fox better then I liked him. At least he was more down to earth (he sort of reminded me of that character that Gene Hackman played in The French Connection, a tough, cynical but honest cop). There were two episodes that I saw that really turned me off and sort of made me hate Judge Franklin. One episode was where there was this teenager who slashed two people to death and Judge Franklin gave him life in prison instead of the death penalty. The other episode was about this woman named Susan Farrell and her young son Bobby. A rich snotty doctor had let his assistant tend to her sick husband and he killed him. I thought it was terrible the way Franklin treated this poor woman. It just shows how our justice system pities the poisonous spider and ignores the innocent fly.

I almost forgot about this show until I heard clips of Ralph Garman on the Kevin & Bean show on KROQ! I used to watch this show almost religiously after school on Channel 9 Los Angeles (back when it was KHJ-TV) along with the other court dramatization shows like Divorce Court and Superior Court. For a while, I thought these were actual court cases (hey, I was really young!). But soon came to realize they were only actors, and many times not very good ones. Some of the episodes I sorta recall was the one about an interracial couple. I think the Korean wife's parents shunned the couple and their kid, but in the end they accept her and her African-America husband. Another involved a defendant taking the courtroom hostage. I would love to see some of these shows released on DVD just for old time sakes!

My sister and I used to see this show on late at night. I guess it was late-night time filler but even though it was not meant to be a "comedy", the acting alone made this show one of the funniest things I ever saw! One show even had a story line about a fat boy who ate too much and his mom was taking him to court to force him to have surgery! Bob Shield was "the judge" in a courtroom that very much replicated the ever popular "divorce court", all the way down to the acting. The judge would give practical advice before and after his ruling. It was actually good advice, better than I've heard in most REAL courtrooms. The judge himself was not a bad actor but the "guests" on each show were obviously reading Q cards as they spoke and the acting was so bad my sides hurt from laughter.

I saw this show a lot when I was 7 years old and thought that it was very entertaining. I remember one episode it was about this boy I think his name was Wally I think he was suppose retarted or something like that, no offence and when he got called to the stand I thought it was funny when he was threating to beat up everyone in the court room including the judge if anybody knows where I can find that episode click on my email address above to let me know. if you like court shows than this is the show for you even though it is fake but very entertaining.