Trivia / Judge Judy

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• California Doubling: The entire show has New York touches around it, such as scenic footage of New York, the New York state seal and flag on the set, and goes more by the New York law books for their arbitration. However, the show is taped at the Sunset Bronson Studios in Los Angeles, and Judy flies in from the East Coast to tape a cluster of shows at a time several times a season.
• Cast the Expert:
  • Though she's not acting as a sitting judge on the show, Judith Sheindlin is a member of the New York bar and really did spend many years as a judge. There is a reason why she has given talks at prestigious institutions such as the Oxford Union, despite being a host for what is essentially a daytime reality television show: she legitimately does know the legal system and is a brilliant lawyer.
  • Byrd counts as one, as he was a court bailiff for many years, sometimes with Judge Judy in court. He was also a Special Deputy U.S. Marshall in California later on. When he read that Judith Sheindlin was getting a show, he sent a letter giving his congratulations and joked in the letter saying that his bailiff outfit still fit if she needed him. Judge Judy called him when she got the letter and offered him the job.
    • Byrd expanded on this in an interview. While it was said that she offered him the job, what she did was offer him a spot to audition for the job. Almost everyone else who showed up were actors with no real bailiff experience and the producers thought he was the best fit for the job.
• Edited for Syndication: Certain episodes of Season 25 feature reruns of earlier cases, with Kamer dubbing over Bishop’s voice, in addition to new ones, perhaps due to fewer episodes being taped because of the pandemic. They've also been airing full episodes from as far back as 2012. As this is the final season and Judge Judy will henceforth be airing only in reruns while Judge Judy does Judy Justice starting next season, this may be part of the transition.
• He Also Did:
  • In the first season, the show's supervising producer was Doug Llewelyn of The People's Court fame.
  • 1970s Game Show fans may recognize announcer Jerry Bishop from The Cross Wits, while 1980s child viewers may instead recognize him for announcing various promos on the Disney Channel. His replacement Steve Kamer is no slouch, either, having announced Inside Edition since 1997.
• In Memoriam: Done for Bishop and executive producer Timothy Regler in two separate Season 25 episodes after they died in 2020.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Only a handful of official DVDs have ever been released since the show started, which now are extremely expensive. While there are clips that float around, older full length episodes were very hard to find on the internet for the longest time. In June 2021, Pluto TV began airing episodes of the show's first season.
• Reality Subtext: A side effect of the above California Doubling was revealed in a 2008 episode when an earthquake struck during filming.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: While most cases that are shown are typical court cases, there have been a few that have fallen to this due to the fact that court case is on TV. One case involved a collection of vintage Star Wars toys that was suppose to be split up between the two parties. Judge Judy wanted to talk about each toy on their own but the producers did not get the rights to broadcast the images and names of the toys. She explained to the parties why she couldn't do that. She told the parties involved to go back to Civil Court. She also called out her producers for bringing this case to her without having the rights cleared.

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