Tv judges non fictional characters 1980s

Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Thursday, August 21, 2003

Page 15

REMINISCING (Column)

1980s: Judges Played Judges, Actors Played Judges

By ROGER M.

GRACE

“People’s Court” was the ratings-grabbing, premier courtroom simulation show of the 1980s. Then, there were the others.

“ ‘Superior Court’ kind of was there with the others,” its executive producer, Stu Billett, said.

Billett was also executive producer of “People’s Court” which began in 1981.

In light of the success of that series, starring retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joseph Wapner, “Divorce Court,” a long running show which began in the black-and-white era, was brought back in 1984.

Another retired Los Angeles Superior Court judge, William Keene, presided over it. Billett called that show “a joke, almost.”

Plots were often hokey, and centered on sex.

“Superior Court” went on the air in the fall of 1986, as did “The Judge,” a show taped not in Hollywood but, of