The Judge

I watched this show as a young kid and I want to know where I can get epsiodes. I would love it to be released on DVD. Every day at 4 PM, I was watching Superior Court and then The Judge at 5. I remember one episode of superior court that upset me as a kid and it was a 16 year old girl convicted of murder getting sent to the gas chamber and her mother pleaded with them not to kill her daughter but they did anyway. I remember one episiode of the judge where a young boy who I think had been beaten severely by his father or stepfather testified from his hospital bed via satellite. Those shows were part of my childhood and if anyone knows where I can get my hands on them, let me know.

You had family court cases that were unbelieveable. There was one case in which an elderly man is caught in a undercover vice sting with an explaination he was there for a legitimate massage while another defendant a district attorney has an lame excuse. The attorney was played by the actor who played Elizabeth Shue's father in the Karate Kid. Well the parlor was bugged and you hear the elderly man complaing about his condition while the attorney brags why he's there. Another case had a pizza delivery person accuse an African Amercan youth of robbing him. It turns out he was playing pool and was hustled. He remarks to the Judge: "Well I won the first game I thought I had a chance to win my money back."

Of course the cherry on the top was a child custody case where the father filed suit for custody of his daughter because his ex-spouse and her husband is taking her to Elvis conventions claiming she has the ability to "channel" the "King". If you looked up the definiton of "Trailor Park People" you'd see their picture. As for the "channeler" it was sooo fake. My father really enjoyed it though.

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 used to watch this gaudy show when I was younger and even then I could tell how fake it was. It tried to play itself off as 'real' but the absence of the fourth wall on the set was so obvious. Bob Shield was apparently some goofy 'actor' who 'played' a heartfelt weenie of a judge who tried to help people with their problems.

Of course, this was time filler during the midday and it wasn't even good on a bad level. In fact, I think all the master tapes of this series are now gone, a testament to time-wasters of time past. Not even worth mentioning about, really.

I used to watch this show as a kid and I really enjoyed it. The judge, Robert J Franklin isn't your typical powertripping judge. He is a man that tries to enforce justice with mercy. This show didn't have the sleeze that other shows would have, it was just good stories handled in a very diligent manner. It showed what society should be like; descent, truthful, honest, and courageous. True, they are all fake, but it provided plenty of enjoyment while I was growing up. I truly miss this show and hope that reruns will come back.