Yesterday, The Boyfriend and I attended a taping of The Judge Mathis Show.
If you're not familiar with the "judge" type show that pervades the US airwaves, here's a little primer. Basically folks who are suing someone in Small Claims Court get the chance to tell their case in front of the judge. There are at least 6 Judge programs on the air now (Judge Judy, People's Court, Moral Court, Divorce Court, Judge Mathis, Texas Law to name a few), it seems that whenever you flip the channel it's some judge.
They tape a few shows here in Chicago, most notably Oprah, Judge Mathis and Jerry Springer (we're going to see him on the 29th). So about a month ago I decided I'd give a call and see if we could get tickets, I was surprised when I got straight through and was able to make reservations that weren't 6 months away.
We only worked a half day yesterday because we had to be there at 3:00 to stand in queue. They finally let us upstairs about 3:45 and we sat in a holding room until 4:30. At that time they took us over to the "Courtroom" which is really just a big set, but of course I knew that. Everyone was clamoring to be "the first in line" but it really didn't matter because they told us where to sit. We actually got choice seating, the back row right next to the door where the Plaintiff (that's the person who is suing) walks in (so keep your fingers crossed I may have a lot of air time), but as we were sitting there this one security girl we were joking with comes up and says "Where were you, I was trying to find you to put you up front." GAH! We really missed that one! Perhaps she'll be working when we go see Jerry Springer and she'll hook us up then.
We saw a total of 6 cases, well I should say, we saw the backs of heads of 6 cases, I guess that was the only downfall of the thing. Plus the people were mic'd directly into the soundboard so sometimes it was difficult to hear them.
This post was long enough on it's own, so I broke each case down independently.
Posts
1 comment:
The wife and I just went to go see a live taping of the Judge Mathis Show and it was really nice. It was way too cold on that courtroom-style set, but the experience was worth it. We had dressed really nice for this event. At first, when we got into the courtroom, they had set us in the back close to the door where the defendant enters, but towards the end, they asked us nicely if we'd move our seats to the front row! And they made two people from the front row sit in the back. Now that was cool. Dress nice if you plan to go. If you want to be seen on tv you must wear bright colors: yellow, green, etc etc.
The judge is real. The cases are real and come from all over the world. Doyle, the Bailiff, if just a hired actor but the guy is hilarious off camera. He had the crowd dying laughing in between cases.
So, the cases are real but sometimes Judge Mathis sort of uses his character power over them to make a better show. Ya know: the yelling, the funny smart remarks, the hilarious but mentoring type of style he has is apart of the act. So if you're one of those type of people who gets too serious when watching stuff like this and who wants equal rights and all that jazz, then please do not go. It almost pissed me off just a little because it was a tad bit corny but funny at the same time!
Post a Comment