Upholding the rules by day. Breaking them by night.
Bad Judge is a Sitcom, co-created by Chad Kultgen and Anne Heche. It first aired on NBC from 2014-2015, for one season.Judge Rebecca Wright (Kate Walsh) is a Los Angeles County Circuit Court Judge, known for a wild party-lifestyle off the bench. Aiding her are her loyal Bailiff, Tedward (Tone Bell) and her overly-clingy stenographer, Judy. The rest of the cast includes Dr. Gary Boyd (Ryan Hansen), a psychologist who regularly testifies in court as an expert witness, and Judge Wright's on-again-off-again boyfriend; Tom Barlow, a meek prosecutor who regularly appears in her courtroom, and Judge Hernandez (Miguel Sandoval), the Chief Judge of the court who regularly pushes Rebecca to adopt a more professional manner.
Bad Judge contains examples of:
- Aborted Arc: Judge Wright looking after Robbie in the pilot episode; this arc doesn't continue beyond that, but could be excused by the fact that his mom got out of prison not long after the events of the pilot.
- Bad "Bad Acting": One defendant makes a show of himself playing both defendant and defense attorney.
- Intimate Marks: The defendant is being sued for mooning someone and as evidence his lawyer presents a picture of his buttock covered with a massive tattoo that the plaintiff didn't remember seeing. Rebecca requests that he drop his pants and show it, and he finds it painful just to stand up, which she takes to mean he just got his butt inked to tamper with the "evidence."
- Lawful Stupid: The prosecutor has a touch of this, though more anal than stupid. Some of the humor comes from the clash between his legalism and Rebecca and Tedward's pragmatism.
- Serious Business: Judge Wright has a habit of doing this, much to Judge Hernandez's exasperation.
- Tom does this as well, with many of his more trivial cases.
- Short-Runners: It ran for one season from 2014 to 2015.
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Spiritual Successor: To Night Court. - Stepford Snarker: Most of the characters have their moments, but Judge Wright falls into this category the most.
- Will They or Won't They?: Judge Wright and Gary, who have a very casual on-again-off-again relationship. The last episode seems to suggest they do.
