'' is a 138-episode
Television Drama that aired from
September 19 ,
1999 until
May 3 ,
2005 on
CBS . The show starred
Amy Brenneman of ''
NYPD Blue '' and
Tyne Daly of ''
Cagney & Lacey ''. In the
US ,
Rerun s air on the
TNT cable channel.
Brenneman played Amy Gray, a young New York attorney who, after divorcing her husband, returned with her young daughter to her childhood home in
Hartford, Connecticut . She became a judge on that city's family court. Her mother (with whom she lived), played by Daly, was a caseworker for State of Connecticut Department of Children and Family Services. In what turned out to be the series finale, Brenneman's character quits the judiciary and runs for the
U.S. Senate , presumably as a liberal
Democrat .
After six seasons, the show was cancelled by
CBS on
May 18 ,
2005 . It still had solid ratings in its time slot, but the network felt the other pilots for the new season would garner even better ratings, especially among younger viewers.
(
Amy Brenneman ) - After divorcing her husband, Amy Gray returns to her childhood home with her daughter and becomes a judge on Hartford's family court, trying to go on with her life. Balancing her new job, her family and trying to rebuild her love life isn't easy, but she keeps trying. She makes a name for herself in family court for her unusual methods and sentences and her stubborness, which sometimes gets her in trouble. She dates several men, but her two longest and more serious relationships are with lawyer Stuart Collins and ADA David McClaren. With Stuart, they dislike each other at first, but when she asks him to be Eric Black's lawyer, they get closer and finally get engaged. However, Amy leaves him at the altar on their wedding day, saying he has a way to always convince her to do things she doesn't want to do. She meets ADA David McClaren during her short stint in the criminal court, and things are rocky from the start. Eventually, 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 passing of some laws that will efectively end the juvenile justice system by allowing the District Attorney office to try teenagers as adults at their own discretion.
(
Tyne Daly ) - Amy's widowed mother. A social worker for DCF (Department of Children and Family), she retired once but returns to the job at the start of the series, and she's willing to do whatever it takes to help the children in her care, even bending the law. She's an opinionated, strong willed woman, very set in her ways and capable of holding long grudges (she hasn't spoken to her brother in over 12 years) but loving to her family. Her relationship with daughter Amy is often not easy, since they're too much alike. After a troubled courtship, she becomes engaged to rich businessman Jared Duff, but he dies 48 hours before the wedding. Later, she becomes engaged once again to Ignacio Messina. She has a
Heart Attack in the last season and has to undergo
Open Heart Surgery .
(), who gets breast cancer, and leaves with her for San Francisco, parting with Amy on very bad terms. His cousin Kyle arranges for him to arrive as a surprise to Amy's wedding to Stuart Collins. The wedding is annulled, but he patches things up with Amy. He returns home soon after, explaining than Carole has left him for her oncologist. Still stuck on his new book, he gets a new job as a social worker.
(
Kevin Rahm , episodes 53-118) - Amy's cousin, the son of Maxine's estranged brother Richard. A former resident doctor who was expelled after his addiction to drugs was found out. Shunning his family, he comes to his aunt Maxine for help. She gives him a home and gets him a job as a social worker. 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 internship. 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's in rehabilitation.
(
Marcus Giamatti ) - Amy's older brother. He inherited the family business from his father and he's good at it, even if it wasn't his first choice in life. He's a good but grey man who sometimes surprises people with some outbursts. He's married to Gillian and they been trying to have a children for a long time. They agree to adopt the son of a pregnant girl called Evie, even after 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 as far as dating other people, but they finally reconcile.
(
Jessica Tuck ) - Peter's wife. A controlling, often obsessive and nerve-wracking, woman with a good heart who totally loves her husband. After being unable to get pregnant, they adopt baby Ned. Some time later, however, she gets surprisingly pregnant, but things go wrong during the delivery of her son Walt, and she falls into coma for a while. She and Peter have problems soon after, and she even dates another man, but they finally reconcile.
(
Karle Warren ) - Amy's daughter, 6 years-old at the start of the series. A mostly well-adjusted girl going through the pains of childhood and pre-adolescence with divorced parents but a loving family. As a young girl, she struggles over her father's relationship with Leisha, 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 more hip shoulder-length cut. Her boyfriend Victor turns out to be the son of her mother's boyfriend David McClaren, which really grosses Lauren out. When Amy and David become pregnant, Lauren reveals what a total blow to her social life that will be and is furious, but later becomes accepting and supporting to her mother when she miscarries.
(
Richard T. Jones ) - Amy's
Court Services Officer , who eventually becomes her friend. The series addresses a number of issues of their cross-racial friendship and how each feels differently 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 also 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 become a psychologist, something he always wanted to.
(
Jillian Armenante ) - Amy's clerk. An eccentric woman from a wealthy family, from whom she's estranged. Donna is intellectually a genius (she finishes her law degree in one and a half years) but socially awkward. She is married to a convicted murderer, Oscar Ray Pant. She 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. Maxine ends up getting in the pool with Donna. Later Oscar confesses to Donna that he's really guilty and she divorces him. Upon passing the
Bar , Amy fires her so she would go to work as lawyer, and she becomes a court-appointed minor counsel for the Hartford Youth Advocates, whose office is across the hall from Amy's.
- ( Timothy Omundson ) - Maxine's boss and friend, who has his hands full dealing with Maxine's unorthodox methods.
- ( Blake Bashoff ) - A teenaged gay boy who has been abused several times. Maxine takes him into her house, where he becomes friend with her family, and afterwards Sean adopts him. Eventually, he kills a stalker who's after Amy and Lauren. He gets declared not guilty, but as Maxine no longer trusts him, he decides to run away to Canada with his boyfriend.
- ( Sarah Danielle Madison ) - A doctor on Kyle's hospital with a recurring alcohol and drug habit who gets busted by drug test and gets a job as a Bartender . She has an on/off relationship with Kyle, until she gets pregnant. Kyle says he'd help economically, but that they shouldn't be together. Finally, Kyle decides to accompany her to Minnesota and take care of their son while she's in rehabilitation.
- (#1 John Slattery , #2 Richard Burgi ) - Amy's ex-husband. Michael remarries to Leisha, a younger and blonder woman than Amy, who at first tries without success to befriend Amy. Later, he tries to get full custody of their daughter Lauren, but after some time he drops the case. It turns out Leisha wanted Lauren to help his marriage, but then she left him. His words to Amy are, even though he stands by what he said about her in court, she's still a better parent than he.
- ( Tom Welling ) - Lauren's karate professor with whom Amy has a short affair.
- ( Reed Diamond , episodes 3, 11, 38, 46-48, 85-100) - A lawyer who, after several on/offs, gets betrothed to Amy. They rekindle their relationship when she asks him to be Eric Black's lawyer, but she ends by leaving him at the altar. 6 months later, she learns that he has married a 22 years-old Polynesian woman that he met on the trip that was supposed to have been their honeymoon.
- ( Adrian Pasdar , episodes 94-138) - A recently widowed ADA and the father of Lauren's boyfriend Victor. His relationship with Amy is rocky from the beginning. At first, he is still dealing with the fact that his wife had been murdered, and he attends victim's support group meetings, one of which he asks Amy to attend. Later, she becames pregnant by him and they buy a house together. However, Amy miscarries and they separate without ever living in the house.
- ( Richard Crenna ) - A wealthy businessman who Maxine meets at a local diner, which he later purchases for her. Things between them become rocky several times, one being due to his son's opposition to the relationship. But they do finally get engaged. Unluckily, he dies 48 hours before the wedding.
- ( Cheech Marin ) - The Landscape Designer Maxine hired to work on her garden. The two of them become close, but Maxine discovers he is not divorced from his first wife. They stay friends, and he remains very supportive through her health problems. Finally he divorces his wife and asks her to marry him.
Judging Amy is internationally broadcast by the following stations under the following names:
