The Judge

I used to watch this show in my early teens and really liked it. True, it was all a dramatization, but I think that the show also portrayed some good moral values (Respect, honesty, caring...etc.). Also, I kind of liked Judge Franklin. He managed to get his points across without doing anything really outrageous. He seemed like a nice, upstanding, well-respected guy. He seemed to enjoy serving his community. Also, I think he was very compassionate and gentle, especially with children. Some of the cases portrayed on the show were interesting, at least what I remember of them.

The only criticism that I would have is that there were moments when the show became so unrealistic and so...I don't know, sentimental, that it got on my nerves.:( It didn't really have anything to do with Judge Franklin or any character in particular. Just the show in general. Sometimes I would watch an episode, and as I followed the story line, I would be thinking, "Get real." (Feeling some annoyance). But other than that, it was a show that I liked even better than I like some of the court shows that are on now.

I wouldn't mind seeing a few reruns of or chatting with others about this show.:) I have fond memories of watching it, among other childhood memories.:)

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 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.

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.