Courtside With Amy

In the pilot of CBS’ new drama series “Judging Amy,” when Amy Brenneman as the title character is about to be sworn in as a superior court judge in Hartford, Conn., some rather sage advice is given her from her social worker mother, Maxine Gray, played by Tyne Daly.

The senior Gray, who, after all, has appeared before the juvenile court bench countless times, admonishes: “Pee before you take the bench, don’t wear perfume, always make sure there’s no food in your teeth” and, perhaps most significantly, “use your instincts.”

While the food bit is executive producer-writer Barbara Hall’s, the rest is precisely what actress-executive producer Brenneman heard growing up in Glastonbury, Conn., a Hartford suburb, as the daughter of Superior Court Judge Frederica Brenneman. Dad is also a lawyer.

So when the chestnut-haired, gray-eyed, Harvard-educated (class of 1987) actress--who was sexy officer Janice Licalsi on ABC’s “NYPD Blue”--decided she wanted to go back into series television, she trusted instinct, and partly modeled the role after her mother.

With her colleagues--three of the four executive producers are women--Brenneman crafted the story of a recently separated, single mother of a 6-year-old (Karle Warren), who has left a high-powered corporate practice in New York and high-powered-lawyer husband and moved back home. That puts three generations of females under one roof, along with Amy’s floundering but talented younger brother Vincent (Dan Futterman).

As the series opens, Brenneman’s character is experiencing emptiness. “I go to Harvard Law, I excel, I do this money law thing, and nothing means anything,” she said. “I see that reflected in my marriage, and so I go home and start applying my legal background to something with more substance than making rich people richer.”

Brenneman dismisses comparisons to NBC’s “Providence,” which also has a daughter giving up a high-profile, big-city job to return home. Besides the single mother aspect, “Judging Amy” had its genesis before “Providence” debuted last season. “About three years ago, my mother had a big birthday, big decade [70],” she said. “I made her a videotape. I went to the Hartford court and spent about two days interviewing people--social workers, lawyers, probation officers. I thought, ‘This is a television show. But the cases are so intense, especially of neglect and abuse and incest, that it’s got to have the right tone. [It] has to be human and funny, but these are better stories than most of the ones I see on television.’ So it did spark my brain.”

Then last year, with several movie projects (“Your Friends & Neighbors,” “Nevada”) done, Brenneman and producer Connie Tavel refined the concept, and started pitching the series. Its lighter, more human tone derives from the mother-daughter interplay between Brenneman and Daly, as well as the atmosphere within the more informal juvenile court.

Now semi-retired, Judge Brenneman is a technical adviser on the series but declines interviews as she is still on the bench. With pride, Brenneman notes that her mother was in the first graduating class at Harvard Law to admit women in 1953, and the second woman in Connecticut to get a judgeship in 1967. “She wrote a lot of the [case] laws that are in use today about neglect and crack babies . . . “

The actress’ parents were also the first couple at Harvard Law to get married in 1951. “That’s the better statistic,” grinned Amy, who’s married to director Brad Silberling. They met on “NYPD Blue.”

As a judge’s daughter, Brenneman witnessed the contrast between courtroom and living room. “I would watch my mother in her robe--not unlike an actress on a stage, and all of her most wonderful qualities come out. She is the smartest person in the room, she has this incredible capacity for communication and compassion, and then she takes off the robe and [it’s]: ‘Where are the car keys? What are we eating for dinner?’ ”

Actually it’s Daly’s character, Maxine, whom Brenneman says most reflects her mother: “Maxine is a force of nature. She loves her children fiercely but can’t always express it.” Daly, who says she’s still trying to figure out who Maxine really is, sees “a sticky relationship with her daughter . . . What’s emotionally clear to them is their need for each other; what’s harder is the day-to-day of how their personalities grate against each other.”

Bruce Van Exel (played by Richard T. Jones) is the court services officer, a position her mother helped create to monitor neglect cases. In the series, he’s likely for story’s sake to have a broader role. “He’s my right-hand guy,” says Brenneman, “so we’re trying to figure out a reason for him to be there [more often].”

Judge Brenneman’s reaction to “Judging Amy?” While “she loves it,” her daughter said, “there’s been definite bumps along the road. I mean her concern is never about character stuff. It’s more getting the legal stuff correct.”