Jerry Springer shrugs and America shudders. Guests appear on Springer's daily Roman circus of sleaze to expose themselves and each other as unfaithful, untruthful, shameless, tasteless, and unrepentant. They shout, they brawl, they cuss, they flash their breasts and genitals. Springer lifts his shoulders up around his ears and his eyes to the studio ceiling, abdicating any judgment or responsibility for the daily hour of car-wreck TV that bears his name.
On her half-hour syndicated program, Judith Sheindlin does the shouting. She barks, she glowers, she lectures, she sneers. But when it comes to bad behavior, wrongful acts, and immorality, she does not shrug it off--in fact, just the opposite.
For three seasons now, Sheindlin has taken to the air and, within the confines of her People's Court—esque televised small-claims court, proved herself willing to pass judgment. During recent ratings periods, Judge Judy's show beat Springer's in the daytime syndicated-programming race; she sometimes even beats out Oprah Winfrey's long top-rated, touchy-feely fests. (Judge Judy is so popular that WBFF and WNUV, which run the program locally, sandwich their weeknight newscasts between episodes--one at 6 p.m. and one at 7 p.m.) The Anti-Springer has come.
Like Judge Wapner before her, Sheindlin earned her right to dress up in black robes. The fiftysomething Brooklyn native studied law at New York University after getting her undergraduate degree at American University in Washington, D.C. Right out of school, she prosecuted child-abuse cases in Manhattan; current People's Court judge and former New York Mayor Ed Koch appointed Sheindlin to a judgeship in Manhattan family court in 1982. She won attention during her tenure on the bench for her outspoken zest for simple justice and her intolerance of the usual excuses.
Sheindlin went on to write a 1996 bestseller filled with her views on, and solutions for, America's many social problems. The title came from a remark Sheindlin once made to a drug dealer who tried to use his grandmother's death to justify his misdeeds: Don't Pee on My Leg and Tell Me It's Raining. Fans of the show have grown used to some of her other bon mots--variations on, "They don't keep me around because I'm gorgeous, they keep me around 'cause I'm smart!" show up nearly every week. With her sardonic wit and timing, you get the idea that Sheindlin could have retired to the Catskills and made a second career as an insult comedian. But after 60 Minutes profiled the judge, she was approached by Big Ticket Television about her own program.
Watch her show even once and Sheindlin's shoot-from-the-hip quality comes through loud and clear. The supplicants before her bar-of-the-air often mirror the Springer guest pool--irresponsible teenage mothers, trifling punks, and bitter, battling exes. But unlikely stories, spatting, and tit-flashing don't wash with Judge Judy. Litigants make their claims and counterclaims while Sheindlin asks questions; any equivocating or disrespect and she accelerates from zero to pissed in seconds. Regular viewers can attest to Sheindlin's verbal beat-downs and most have watched her eject mouthy relatives, drunk witnesses, and other miscreants from her "courtroom." You very rarely see Springer have someone dragged off for not behaving.
In these days, when we are awash in equivocal lawyerspeak and endless spin on everything, it's almost shocking to witness how quickly Sheindlin will cut someone off and call them on the particulars of their story, telling them she doesn't believe a word they say. "Look at me," she commands when a defendant launches into an implausible explanation with their eyes scanning upward, their body language screaming "lie." "Baloney!" she erupts when someone makes a statement that rings untrue. Sheindlin's snap judgments can seem harsh, but more often than not the litigants' weak reactions signal she has caught them unable or unwilling to prove her wrong. Sheindlin, the mother of five children (two of her own and three from her second husband's previous marriage), seems to have cultivated the kind of maternal soul X-ray that sees through all excuses--her poor kids must never have gotten away with a thing.
If the show consisted of nothing but Sheindlin browbeating guests, it wouldn't be much fun to watch, and it certainly wouldn't provide the vindicating sense of rights wronged that makes a good episode. For all of her glares, for all of her stern admonitions, there's definitely a tough-love aspect to Judge Judy. Many of the cases center around petty material things--an unreturned engagement ring, reimbursement for damage done in a car accident, unpaid phone bills--and once testimony gets underway it often becomes obvious that the suit has been filed as much on emotional grounds as legal ones.
As a former family-court judge, Sheindlin has heard and seen it all before, and she is sympathetic, especially when children are involved. But she is not afraid to wade into a dispute and tell the participants that despite their hurt and resentfulness, they need to grow up and move on and act responsibly. (She once zinged a feuding couple with, "I have a feeling you two people deserve each other because both of you are irritating me!") Even when she rules in favor of a defendant, she is likely to slip some advice in with her decision. She might rule that a shiftless ex-boyfriend owes his former girlfriend the money he borrowed to buy a car, but the girlfriend can expect a lecture on being stupid enough to loan it to him in the first place. Whether or not the parties involved take her advice, it is usually sound.
Judge Judy is not necessarily a good model for a new American legal philosophy--all awards are paid out of a fund provided by the show, and once defendants and plaintiffs agree to air their grievances on-air, they waive all rights to appeals or further suits. The star's decision is final, and even with her overarching common sense, Sheindlin seems to jump to conclusions every now and then. But in this age of endless legal paralysis, rudderless values, and a Congress that is getting ready to spend months and millions trying to draw and quarter a sitting president for a few venal acts, Judge Judy's call-'em-like-I-see-'em justice carries an enormous appeal.
Watching Springer's show causes a certain queasiness: Is this what we have become? Judge Judy answers "no"--there is right and wrong; there is such a thing as proper behavior; stupidity, irresponsibility, and shamelessness are not amusing and do not deserve reward or applause. Amid the chaos of premillennial American life, Judge Judy offers a glimpse of order restored. Not bad for a half-hour syndicated TV show.
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