How long is judge judy been on the air

People stopped whistling at me as I passed a construction site decades ago. But people are accustomed to seeing you look a certain way … hair up, black robe, lace collar. This is so much easier. And as each hour in every day we have becomes more precious, the less you want to spend time patshkeing over the way you look.

It means messing around. We have to deliver a certain number of episodes by December, and then Amazon will make the determination how and when they want to release this show. I had wonderful people producing and directing the Judge Judy program, and a couple of them will be following me to Amazon. That will keep my life on a steady keel.

In moving from one era of your career to the next, how much do you think about legacy? You take a risk when you return a baby to a mother who had been a crackhead. But you never want to see that baby on the front page of a newspaper having been abandoned, abused or killed by that parent. Well, [the law] is supposed to be even-handed. Did you see the case that I did with a little white dog? This man, who had a dog for five years, said his dog was stolen from his yard.

The defendant said she had the dog for over a year, said she had a bill of sale. But I know that when my husband and I come in, my dog runs to me. So I knew — at least I hoped — that the dog would know who it loved. The length of time that it takes for people to get a conclusion to whatever is interfering with their life.

Civil or criminal, cases take too long — primarily as a result of lazy judges or lawyers who have a financial interest in keeping a case going.

And the judge, I think he was pretty straight-up. The country wanted a resolution. I thought the furious pace would ease when she announced one Sunday that she and Jerry were taking a Caribbean vacation.

No such luck. While I had lunch at my desk the next day, the phone rang. It was Judy. HarperCollins bought the book, but we needed a snappy title. She loved the idea, but the publisher balked, saying TV shows would not interview her with such a title. Judy prevailed, and the book has sold , copies. Today, she owns beautiful homes in several states and no longer inhales Tylenols to start her day.

Judy threw a bash for family and friends one night in aboard the World cruise ship, docked in Manhattan. When our daughter, Alex, turned 1, Judy and Jerry came to her birthday party in judicial robes. When Heidi expressed a vague yearning to have a second child, Judy ruled her out of order, saying that one kid was a full-time job and that she already had a second full-time job at the Daily News.

Get a dog. Over the years, we gathered at her home in Greenwich, Conn. One night, Judy took Alex, then 8, by the hand to meet Michael Feinstein, a Grammy-nominated performer and music historian, who was a friend. The judge was there that night, cheering her on. The show is comfort food for those who love it when the bad guys get their comeuppances.

Her focus on personal responsibility also resonates. At the same time, the national conversation around criminal justice, especially juvenile justice, has changed since her battles as a hard-liner in Family Court. Respect the community where you live. Judy knows from next steps. She continued her education at American University's Washington College of Law, where she was the only woman in a class of students.

In , Judy obtained her law degree, passed the New York bar exam and took a job as a corporate lawyer for a cosmetics firm. Dissatisfied with the role of a corporate lawyer, she left within two years to raise two children, Jamie and Adam. In , a friend from law school told her of a job opening in the New York courts.

She took the job and found herself in the role of prosecutor for the family court system. Judy prosecuted juvenile crime, domestic violence and child abuse cases. She was quickly recognized as a sharp, no-nonsense attorney. Judy's professional success, though, was being achieved at a high private price. In , she left her first husband after 12 years of marriage. She struggled to be present for her children, even while handling her heavy workload of emotionally draining cases in the family courts.

By , Judith Sheindlin's growing reputation for assertiveness inspired Mayor Ed Koch to appoint her to a seat as a judge in family court.

As a judge, she continued to blend sympathy for the underdog with withering contempt for the arrogant or devious. Four years later, she was promoted to the position of supervising judge in the Manhattan division of the family court. In , Judy's father, Murray Blum, died at age 70; his death took a remarkable toll on her marriage to Jerry. They divorced, but a year later, feeling the tug of family ties—aside from her two children and his three, they now had two grandchildren—along with pangs of loneliness, Judy and Jerry remarried.