Superior Court (TV series)

Superior Court
Genre	dramatized court show/Reality legal programming
Judges	Williams D. Burns Jr. (1986-87) Jill Jakes and Louis Welsh (1987-88) Raymond St. Jacques as Judge Clayton C. Thomas (1988-90)
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	Approximately 760
Production
Executive producer(s)	Stu Billett
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Stu Billett Productions Ralph Edwards Productions
Distributor	Lorimar-Telepictures (1986-89) Warner Bros. Television Distribution (1989-90)
Release
Original network	Syndication
Original release	September 7, 1986 – September 1990

Superior Court is a dramatized court show that aired in syndication from 1986 to 1990, and featuring fictionalized re-enactments of actual court cases.

Former real-life judge William D. Burns Jr. presided for the first season, while actress Jill Jakes presided the second season and Raymond St. Jacques as Judge Clayton C. Thomas served as the presiding judge during the last two seasons.

Reruns were later aired on the USA Network during the early 1990s.

Superior Court was one of a series of dramatized court shows that were created in the mid- to late-1980s, on the heels of two successful programs in the genre: Divorce Court and The People's Court. Of the two, Superior Court was more like Divorce Court, which involved recreations of actual proceedings.

On Superior Court, actors portrayed the attorneys, the plaintiff(s) (in civil proceedings where compensation was demanded), the defendant(s) (in both civil and criminal stories) and key witnesses. As the stories were set in a single urban area (the city was called Madison Heights), often attorneys, law enforcement officials and others became semi-regulars on the show.

Each episode followed a basic formula, as follows:

Both criminal and civil proceedings were presented. Like Divorce Court, the writers of Superior Court tended to focus on "shock value" rather than routine cases (to maintain viewer interest).

Some episodes had one case, which lasted the entire show, while others had two. While most of the cases were serious, there was the occasional case—unusual or quirky by its circumstances, but could happen—that was played more for comedic value.

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