We're in Los Angeles, Kole is with PaPa and Gram (my dad and Kay), in our first big get-away together since Kole was born. It's Kathy's big 1-year get-out-of-the-house vacation gift for being cooped up as a stay-at-home mom for a year. I told her back in March to pick anywhere she wanted to go, to do anything she wanted. She mentioned some options - among them was an all-time "Bucket List" item of actually being in the studio audience of a Judge Judy taping. Well, I felt like my TV credentials were being challenged, so I got to it. Hey, regional sports cable television may be the alcoholic step-cousin to legitimate show biz, but it's close enough. Needless to say - I made it happen.
Seeing a TV show taping is just part of the LA experience for some people - sort of like going to Miami and hitting a beach. The late-night talk shows and game shows are popular. There are studio audiences for sitcoms. But it was quite the experience being among the 56 courtroom/studio spectators of the Judge Judy show. Kat and I sat in on Wednesday and were in the audience for 10 cases, roughly 5 shows - as they average about 2 cases per show. We showed up at the CBS Studios in north Hollywood at 9:00am, as we were told the first case would start at 9:30. We went through a metal detector and had our cell phones taken. We were considered "guests", as 95% of the audience are semi-regular IATSE members (a TV/screen performer union - which I am also a member, though it had nothing to do with this day). The union people are called on to fill seats. That's about it. They're paid a union day rate of $8/hour. After hearing the chatter between cases and by the bathrooms, most of these people are career wannabes of the acting business. If they're not in the audience of Judge Judy, then they're fill-ins or background performers of soap operas or sitcoms. Anything to get a little stage make up and be on set. These are also the people standing in line for every reality show that comes down the pike. We were among less than 10 non-union "guests" on this day.
This is treated like an authenic court experience. Nothing is really jazzed up for TV, and it would be easy to forget that it wasn't real court - except for the lack of a ceiling, instead replaced by hanging studio lights. There are 6 total cameras that are used - two behind Judge Judy's head that shoots the litigants, one behind the courtroom that is Judy's straight-on camera. Then to Judy's right, the audience's left, is another hard camera and one "jib" camera, which is a camera on a long arm that does big sweeping panning moves. Plus, there's a guy with a hand-held camera on the other side of the courtroom. A stage manager's only instructions to the audience is not to applaud decisions - Judy hates that. Next, keep alert at all times - stay engaged with Judy and the litigants. Too often audience people can be caught picking at their fingernails, staring off somewhere else, etc. - and anyone watching notices. The only real staged part of the entire process was just before the litigants enter the courtroom. The crowd is instructed to talk to neighbors, standing or sitting, do their own thing, then be ready to abruptly stand at attention when Byrd the baliff calls on everyone to rise as Judge Judy enters the court.
Kathy and I were on the front row, at the far end - furthest to Judy's left, or the far right of the audience seating. I was in the last chair of the front row. The plantiff's witnesses sat close enough in front of me to where I could smell their perfume. The 10 cases were pretty standard Judge Judy fare - girlfriend "loans" money to boyfriend, who considers the exchange a "gift" not a loan, and girlfriend wants money back ... lots of boyfriend/girlfriend or ex-spouse conflict. There was one son suing his father. The son's wife had a surgery and was having mental issues and their dog got neglected. The dad came and got the dog, which was sorely underweight with matted hair. When the wife was better, the dad didn't want to give the dog back and the son sued. They say so at the beginning of each show, but it can be easily dismissed because it is television, but - these are real people, not actors, with real situations and disputes. Off-camera, they get legitimately pissed off! The cases take much longer in reality - there is lots of editing done on the show. Judy takes her time to read contracts or other documents. At one point, in a case where a woman said she was sexually assaulted at work, Judy asked if she told anyone that these grabbing and fondling incidents had taken place. The girl said she told her mother. Judy asked for the mother's phone number. The girl gave them and Judy ran off stage to call the mother an authenticate the story (the mother wouldn't answer two different numbers, further complicating and authenticating this woman's story, especially when she was an admitted drug addict who had her son taken from her). This case easily took more than a half-hour. Only 15 minutes or less may end up on the show. Let there be no mistaking, there are plenty of screwed up people and conflicts going on in this country for this show to have to create one with actors. It is truly all very real.
Actually none of this is technically a legal court. Many of the litigants are flown in from all over the country. Judy lives in Florida and this all takes place in California. So there are no real state laws followed. What happens is that both litigants sign an agreement to settle their dispute in Judge Judy's court, signing a very legal contract that names Judge Judy as an arbitrator to their dispute. So, legally, you are seeing Judy arbitrate a dispute with her legal background; not an actual court proceeding following any state law. Again, all very real with a real result. Part of the arbitration contract states that the litigants agree not dispute her decision in actual court back in their home state. But, if Judy says you owe the other party money - you've signed an arbitration contract that is legally binding, so pay it!
Too many interesting stories to tell about all the cases, but it was really a fascinating day. The shows we were a part of are supposedly going to first air in September.
Kole is still a few days, officially, from his first birthday. But last weekend he got together with Noah and Sarah - whose parents we became friends with while attending birthing-related classes last year offered by Arlington Memorial Hospital. Noah was born on June 15, Sarah on June 16 then Kole on the 18th.
11 years ago
