1st Season
1999-2000
#1 The Pilot
#2 Short Calendar
#3 Trial by Jury
#4 Victim Soul
#5 Last Tango in Hartford
#6 Witch Hunt
#7 An Impartial Bias
#8 Near Death Experience
#9 The Persistence of Tectonics
 		#10 Crowded House
#11 Presumed Innocent
#12 Spoil the Child
#13 Zero to Sixty
#14 Shaken Not Stirred
#15 Culture Clash
#16 The Wee Hours
#17 Drawing the Line
#18 Human Touch
 		#19 The Out-of-Towners
#20 The God Thing
#21 Gray vs. Gray
#22 Not With a Whimper
#23 Blast From the Past
Other seasons
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Executive producers Barbara Hall & Joseph Stern, Executive producers Amy Brenneman & Connie Tavel

Music by Peter Himmelman, Edited by Anita Brandt Burgoyne A.C.E. or Tracy Curtis, Production Designer Michael Mayer, Director of Photography Kenneth D. Zunder A.S.C., Producer Natalie Chaidez, Co-executive producer James Hayman, Co-executive producers Nicole Yorkin & Dawn Prestwich

#1 The Pilot: Aired Sunday, September 19, 1999

Amy Gray, a successful lawyer, moves back to her home town of Hartford, CT, becomes a judge and juggles judicial and single-mother duties. Amy deals with a child's placement and with her relationship with her mother.

top
#2 Short Calendar: Aired Tuesday, September 21, 1999

Amy is pushed to the limit when she is forced to deal with several cases that must be decided upon within one day. She goes to fight for her daughter at school, and ends up getting roped into early-morning volunteer work, but in the middle of the night she has to decide whether an abused baby with pneumonia lives or dies. Maxine is having trouble with her retirement, and is offered her old job back as a social worker, so she gives up her never-ending travel plans and takes on a few cases.

top
#3 Trial by Jury: Aired Tuesday, September 28, 1999

Amy is handed her first jury trial in which the parents of a murdered girl are suing the parents of her murdering boyfriend. She suffers from a lack of confidence, a lack of respect from the lawyers on the case (one of which went to law school with her) and a jury that lets their decision be swayed by emotion and not fact. Amy ends up getting up the guts to overturn the jury's decision. Maxine's car breaks down. Lauren has a sleepover, and Amy asks Maxine to help take care of the girls since she's busy with this important trial. Maxine has to deal with buying a new car, so she passes the rambunctious girls off on Vincent, even though he's busy writing. Vincent feels that his mother doesn't take his writing seriously.

top
#4 Victim Soul: Aired Tuesday, October 5, 1999

Amy is caught in ugly politics when she is handed a case involving the possible abuse of a comatose boy who supposedly has healing powers. Maxine meets her new supervisor at DCS, Susie Nixon, and immediately butts heads with the humorless woman over taking away a child from an anorexic mother. Vincent meets and starts dating a successful older woman named Chris, who has a daughter about Vincent's age.

top
#5 Last Tango in Hartford: Aired Tuesday, October 12, 1999

There is a threat on Amy's life, and just after she decides she no longer wants around-the-clock protection, a psychotic woman pulls a gun on her in her garage. Amy thinks she wants to sleep with Tracy, but then can't go through with it. Vincent feels like too much of a project to Chris, and they break up. Maxine rekindles an old flame, and counsels a sixteen-year-old girl on how to take care of her baby. Donna, one of Amy's assistants, marries a prison inmate and Amy performs the ceremony.

top
#6 Witch Hunt: Aired Tuesday, October 19, 1999

A husband sues his wife for custody after she joins a coven of witches, and Amy can't understand why the wife is willing to give up. Amy clashes with the overly protective parents at Lauren's school. Maxine assures Lauren that contrary to a ghost story she heard, little children do not get locked up in dungeons. She then investigates a family that is missing a son, and finds the boy locked in the basement of the family home. Vincent has to go over the head of an old college enemy to get a contract with an agent.

top
#7 An Impartial Bias: Aired Tuesday, November 2, 1999

Maxine fights to keep a young deaf boy and his older brother together after the death of their mother. Amy clashes with Bruce while ruling on an interracial adoption case. Vincent gets a job teaching English and investigates his father's happiness in life selling insurance.

top
#8 Near Death Experience: Aired Tuesday, November 9, 1999

Vincent is shot while trying to stop a robbery. Although at first he seems to be handling it well, he has bad flashbacks, and is upset when he has trouble writing and sleeping. Maxine drives everyone crazy with telling them what to do about everything, and is incredibly scared by the fact that she almost lost her son. She also has to deal with a case in which the mother of a very normal family believes that she was abducted by a good strain of aliens. Amy not only has to deal with an amicably divorced couple that can't make decisions about their five-day old son, but also with sentencing a teenager convicted of manslaughter.

top
#9 The Persistence of Tectonics: Aired Tuesday, November 23, 1999

Amy is disturbed by two upstanding boys who torture and kill their neighbor's cats after their neighbor calls the cops on their loud late-night party. Amy invites her ex-husband to Thanksgiving dinner, and the night before the dinner he tells her that he thinks it's time they got a divorce. On Thanksgiving a day, a couple in the process of adopting a two-year-old baby is in distress because the biological father has just shown up for the first time. Vincent goes to a party his agent is throwing in New York, and his ex-agent Hilary sets him up with a gay man named Justin. Vincent tells Justin that he's straight, but they get along really well, so when they both cut out of the party Vincent brings Justin back to Maxine's for Thanksgiving. Peter is ready to give up on having a baby with Gillian after the third and last in-vitro process that their insurance company will pay for fails. When Gillian comes crying to Maxine, Maxine offers to help out financially so they can try again.

top
#10 Crowded House: Aired Tuesday, November 30, 1999

Vincent will get his book of short stories published if he writes one more killer tying-it-all-together story, so he moves into his mom's house to get some serious writing done. Gillian and Peter are fighting all the time, so Gillian moves in with Maxine for awhile to escape her husband. Peter and Vincent do their first bonding in a long time. Vincent's story, which his agent loves, is about his own family, including Gillian and Peter's infertility problems. Gillian reads the story and realizes how selfish she's being. Maxine ends up with an eight-month-old baby when a mother who doesn't want her baby, but also doesn't want to hurt it, comes to her for help. Amy adjucates a case involving a young woman with multiple personalities who was tortured as a child.

top
#11 Presumed Innocent: Aired Tuesday, December 14, 1999

Amy denies a mother access to her dying child when it is believed that she is the cause of the mysterious illness. Due to the fact that one of her previous cases is currently being appealed, Amy questions her own judgement, but she turns out to be right and her decision is upheld in the appeal. Maxine deals with a brilliant homeless boy who refuses to listen to anyone and won't stay with a foster family. Amy's assistant Donna moves in with Vincent when he needs a new roommate.

top
#12 Spoil the Child: Aired Tuesday, January 11, 2000

While facing disclipinary issue with her own daughter, Amy faces a difficult case in which a father charged with abusing his son maintains that he was only disciplining him. Amy turns down a job offer in criminal court. Maxine feels overworked and depressed by her job. Peter and Gillian meet with a young woman who is interested in giving her baby up for adoption. Vincent is not sure his living situation with Donna is going to work out, but ends up sharing personal information with her when she cries about a bad conjugal visit with her jailed husband.

top
#13 Zero to Sixty: Aired Tuesday, January 18, 2000

Amy's about-to-be-ex-husband, Michael, wants increased custody of their daughter. Amy is fighting him every step of the way, and Vincent gets dragged into the argument as an old friend of Michael's. Maxine insists she doesn't want a party for her 60th birthday, and when Amy tries to throw her one she doesn't show up. Maxine has to deal with divorced parents who can't exchange their three children without getting into a screaming argument. Amy has to decide whether a very well-to-do, charitable, 20-year-old Harvard student should have to face charges for a hit and run accident when he was 15. Amy forces a father to keep to his divorce agreement and pay for his daughter's college education when he wants to prioritize his new sons' education over his daughter's.

top
#14 Shaken Not Stirred: Aired Tuesday, February 8, 2000

Amy hears the testimony of an 8-year-old boy who claims he shook his baby sister to death, and suspects that he's covering for one of his parents. She gives the boy an extremely harsh sentence and succeeds in drawing out the confession of his mother. Maxine fights to keep a 10-year-old girl in her foster family and away from her step-father who admitted to beating her while drunk, but never admitted to the sexual abuse that Maxine suspects. The day the girl is returned to her mother and step-father, she shoots her step-father with a gun she took from her foster parents. Vincent, on the advice of his psychiatrist, looks up Lisa, the woman he saved in the supermarket, so that they can commiserate over their post-traumatic stress syndrome. They have such a good time together that it scares Vincent, and he dodges her calls until she finally tracks him down, and with some prodding from Donna, he asks her out on a real date. Amy is excited for a date with a cute father of one of Lauren's classmate, until he appears in her court and it turns out he's a child advocacy lawyer. She says that she can't date him, but they share one kiss before bidding adieu. Amy finds out that Bruce has a daughter, and his daughter's mother has just returned from Europe and wants to try to be a family.

top
#15 Culture Clash: Aired Tuesday, February 15, 2000

Maxine questions a Yemeni family whose daughter has been stabbed repeatedly following allegations of premarital sex. The daughter claims her wounds were self-inflicted, but it turns out to be her brother who thought he was carrying out his father's wishes. Vincent's book is published and gets good reviews, but Vincent is still not comfortable with it. Amy realizes her relationship with her soon-to-be-ex-in-laws is unsalvagable. Maxine is frustrated with the way Evie is treating Peter and Gillian while holding the adoption of her baby over their heads. Amy is on a panel judging another judge who is known to be gay, but is being accused of soliciting a female prostitute. Amy hears a custody case that turns into kidnapping when the father takes his children to Germany.

top
#16 The Wee Hours: Aired Tuesday, February 22, 2000

Amy is beginning her own custody battle over Lauren while ruling on a number of difficult custody issues in her own court. Amy is having trouble sleeping and is having strange sexual and romantic fantasy dreams. Maxine investigates a boy's sleepwalking and discovers that the boy is being tortured with well-meaning tickeling. Vincent decides to try doing some reporting for a local newspaper to work through his writer's block and ends up writing an incredible story that's picked up by the AP.

top
#17 Drawing the Line: Aired Tuesday, February 29, 2000

Amy is teaching a class at Yale law school while also judging whether or not a mentally challenged mother can care for her baby. Amy feels unworthy to be teaching the law students whose questions baffle her, but feels validated when she rules in favor of the young mother. Her renewed spirit and confidence transform her class and her students are left in awe. Amy has it out with Michael's passive-aggressive girlfriend, Leesha, when she takes Lauren to get her ears pierced without Amy's permission. Maxine helps a teenage boy who has been seduced by his therapist. Vincent has difficulty with the dirtier aspects of his new job as a reporter, and is aggravated when Maxine puts him down for it. Donna has started dressing like Amy. Gillian and Peter are excited about their upcoming adoption.

top
#18 Human Touch: Aired Tuesday, March 21, 2000

A father with obsessive-compulsive disorder sues for custody of his daughter despite the fact that his condition keeps him from touching the child. Amy awards custody to the girl's step-father who raised her, but does give the biological father visitation. Amy makes sure that an immigrant family, still recovering from violently losing their daughter in Croatia, gets their son back as soon as possible. Maxine is having money troubles since she lost so much money playing on the stock market on the internet, and Peter is upset that Amy doesn't pay Maxine any rent. Amy starts to pay rent and sells some stock to pay for roof repairs. Vincent and Lisa try to move beyond her lingering fears so that they can have a sex life. Amy has to put up with an annoying court stenographer. Maxine finds out that her boss, Susie, has been embezzling funds, and gets her taken away by the cops.

top
#19 The Out-of-Towners: Aired Tuesday, April 18, 2000

Amy and Bruce travel to a small town to hear a case, and Amy is astounded by not only the racial intolerance, but also the huge number of boys who are on Ritalin. Maxine becomes the new head of DCF after Susie Nixon is re-instated and her personal agenda against Maxine results in the death of a mother of two sons. Maxine goes out on a date with a charming stranger she meets in a local diner, and believes that she's being financially preyed upon until she finds out that the man is actually millionaire. While Amy is out of town, Gillian and Evie care for Lauren, and Gillian worries that Evie's maternal instincts will kick in and Evie will change her mind about giving up her child. Vincent and Lisa argue over the case of the man that shot Vincent.

top
#20 The God Thing: Aired Tuesday, May 2, 2000

After surviving cancer and chemotherapy, Amy's colleague and close friend Greta returns to work with a newfound appreciation of God, causing Amy to question her own spirituality. Amy finds out that Bruce is also devout, and attends Mass every Wednesday evening. When she hears the news that Greta suddenly died from a suspected heart-attack, Amy needs someone to talk to. No one is at home, so she seeks out Bruce at church and ends up attending with him. Vincent can't deal with Lisa's obsession with her attacker anymore, and when she starts lying on the stand during the trial to try to make herself look better, he breaks up with her permanently. Maxine is incredibly busy as the manager of the DCF office, and is frustrated with the fact that she no longer has time to work in the field or have dinner with her new beau, Jared. She helps solve a case of a busy mother who is neglecting her two teenagers that is brought to DCF's attention by the kids' step-mother. She also decides to resign her position as manager. Amy judges a case in which two teenage boys are caught with a date-rape drug that they are about to slip into some girl's drink.

top
#21 Gray vs. Gray: Aired Tuesday, May 9, 2000

Just when Amy is reaching out to Maxine for comfort over Greta's death, mother and daughter find themselves on opposing sides of a case. Amy needs a drug-dealer's testimony to free a teenager wrongfully accused of murder. Maxine finds herself as the guardian of said drug-dealer, and wants to protect him from having any more stress on his already twice-arrested heart. Although the drug-dealer dies before he is able to give his testimony, Maxine manages to testify on his behalf post-mortem. Donna's husband Oscar might possibly be released from jail on a technicality, but when she has unpure thoughts about another man and Oscar's petition is refused, Donna thinks God is punishing her. Vincent convinces her that occasional thoughts, left at that, are not a sin.

top
#22 Not With a Whimper: Aired Tuesday, May 16, 2000

Amy and Michael have a last fling in bed when their divorce becomes final. Amy helps a girl who violated her parole by making her write a report on Eleanor Roosevelt. Evie has her baby and Peter and Gillian are shocked to find that it's half black. Evie has trouble giving up the child, which stresses Gillian out, but finally does so. Maxine gets bumped on the head while moving furniture, and starts forgetting things. She's relieved to find out it's just a concussion and will heal itself, and she doesn't have Alzheimer's like a friend does. Maxine helps a boy who runs away from home by walking onto a plane.

top
#23 Blast from the Past: Aired Tuesday, May 23, 2000

Amy finds herself having to take away the kids of Vincent's old best friend, Russ. Russ loses it and threatens to bomb the courthouse if he can't speak to Amy. Vincent tries to talk him down and gets caught in the blast for his trouble. Amy and Bruce are accused of having an innappropriate personal relationship. Bruce wants to transfer rather than fight the charges but Amy says she needs him as her CSO. One of Maxine's success stories, Celeste, is about to get her kids back after going through successful rehabilitation, but she sabotages herself by shooting heroin right before her meeting with Maxine's boss. Maxine meets Jared's son whom she gets along with really well, but then he basically tells her to leave his father and his father's money alone. Amy is horrified by the fact that her mother is dating. Donna finds out she's pregnant, and at first she thinks it must be God's child until Vincent explains the ins and outs of conception to her.

top
Other seasons
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6