Courthouse (TV series)
| Courthouse | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Drama |
| Created by | Deborah Joy LeVine |
| Written by | Ian Biederman Dennis Cooper Dan Levine Deborah Joy LeVine Roger Lowenstein Gina Prince-Bythewood |
| Directed by |
Ron Lagomarsino Michael Fields James Frawley Dan Lerner Alan J. Levi Martha Mitchell James Quinn Jesús Salvador Treviño |
| Starring | Patricia Wettig |
| Composer(s) | Jay Gruska |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 11 (2 unaired) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Deborah Joy LeVine |
| Producer(s) | Dan Levine Vahan Moosekian |
| Cinematography | Michael Gershman |
| Editor(s) | Susan B. Browdy David Post Ron Rosen |
| Running time | 60 minutes (with commercials) |
| Production company(s) |
Kedzie Productions Columbia Pictures Television |
| Distributor | Sony Pictures Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Original release | September 13 – November 15, 1995 |
Courthouse is a drama television series that ran from September to November 1995 on CBS. The series was created and executive-produced by Deborah Joy LeVine. The Courthouse plot centered on a tough female judge, and was partially inspired by NYPD Blue and the television coverage of the O. J. Simpson murder case.Patricia Wettig led the cast which also included Bob Gunton and Robin Givens. Wettig intended to leave the show due to "creative differences", with sources saying that she wanted the show to be more of a star-vehicle for her, rather than an ensemble cast, but the show was cancelled before her character could be written out.
The show included Jenifer Lewis and Cree Summer as the first recurring African American lesbian characters on TV, but the role was ordered to be toned down for broadcast. Lewis played Juvenile Court judge Rosetta Reide, who was having a relationship with her housekeeper Danny Gates (played by Summer).
The show failed to catch on with audiences, the pilot ranked 47 out of 108 shows, according to the Nielsen ratings for that week, with 9.2 million viewers (16% share), and it was cancelled two months after it premiered. One critic described the show as "a hopeless amalgam that strains the senses".
Courthouse is a TV drama with lots of sex and violence; it follows the lives of the judges and lawyers and all the staff at a big-city courthouse in fictional Clark County. The court has a limited budget and an overcrowded case load, and the courthouse itself is falling into disrepair.
The court is led by the no-nonsense presiding judge, Justine Parkes. Then, amid all the turmoil, Wyatt Jackson, a hunky new judge, arrives from Montana. He gets off to a shaky start with Parkes as he is not used to the way big-city courts are run, but there is a hint of romantic tension between the two.
There are several romantic couplings among the staff, including an interracial coupling of two prosecutors in Moore and Graham and a lesbian affair between Judge Reide and her housekeeper.
New York magazine described the show as follows:
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Wikipedia