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The Best Episodes of Judging Amy

Every episode of Judging Amy ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Judging Amy!

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Judging Amy is an American television drama that was telecast from September 19, 1999, through May 3, 2005, on CBS-TV. This TV series starred Amy Brenneman and Tyne Daly. Its main character is a judge

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 3 - Trial By Jury
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #1 - Trial By Jury

    S1:E3

    Sitting in for a friend who's undergoing chemotherapy, Amy presides over her first jury trial and clashes with a former law school classmate who represents the parents of a murdered girl who are suing the parents of her teenaged killer; Maxine shops for a new car for the first time in her life; Vincent feels that Maxine doesn't take his writing seriously after she interrupts his work to ask him to babysit the six rambunctious first graders attending Lauren's sleepover party.

    Director:James Hayman
    Writer:Natalie Chaidez

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  2. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 4 - Victim Soul
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #2 - Victim Soul

    S1:E4

    Amy must determine if a comatose boy who is believed to have healing powers is being abused by his grandmother; Maxine clashes with her supervisor over taking an underfed little girl away from her anorexic mother; Vincent begins a relationship with an older woman.

    Director:James Frawley
    Writer:Barbara Hall

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  3. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 5 - Last Tango in Hartford
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #3 - Last Tango in Hartford

    S1:E5

    A death threat, coupled with Maxine's disapproval, puts a crimp in Amy's blossoming relationship with Tracy; Vincent begins to feel like he's Chris's pet project; Maxine rekindles an old friendship; Amy officiates at Donna's wedding to a convict; Maxine helps a second generation foster teenager keep her infant son out of the system.

    Director:James Frawley
    Writers:Nicole Yorkin, Dawn Prestwich

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  4. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 2 - Short Calendar
    8.5/10(2 votes)

    #4 - Short Calendar

    S1:E2

    Short calendar day drops 54 cases on Amy's docket, and the long day stretches into night when she's forced to make a life and death decision about the fate of an abused child; Maxine decides to return to work; Amy's confrontation with Lauren's obnoxious new teacher leaves her with yet another responsibility in an already jam-packed calendar.

    Director:Jack Bender
    Writers:Nicole Yorkin, Dawn Prestwich

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  5. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 6 - Witch Hunt
    8.5/10(2 votes)

    #5 - Witch Hunt

    S1:E6

    A woman fights for custody of her son after the boy's father claims that her practice of the Wiccan religion makes her an unfit mother; Vincent gets an agent; in the week before Halloween, Lauren gets spooked by some older boys; Amy confronts narrow-minded attitudes at the P.T.A. meeting; in direct defiance of Susie's orders, Maxine pursues the search for a boy missing from a family with a history of child abuse.

    Director:Ken Olin
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 1 - Pilot
    8.0/10(2 votes)

    #6 - Pilot

    S1:E1

    Amy Madison Gray struggles to adjust to the new circumstances in her life as she separates from her husband and becomes a single mother to her young daughter, Lauren; moves from Manhattan to Hartford, CT to live with her opinionated mother Maxine, a retired social worker; and starts a new career as a superior court judge in family court. The first case on her docket, the placement of a child abandoned by a drug addicted mother, introduces her to the shortcomings and political realities of the juvenile justice system.

    Director:James Hayman
    Writers:Barbara Hall, Bill D'Elia, John Tinker

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Judging Amy

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  7. Judging Amy Season 6 Episode 18 - Sorry I Missed You
    8.0/10(1 votes)

    #7 - Sorry I Missed You

    S6:E18

    No description available

    Director:Alan Myerson
    Writers:Barbara Hall, K.J. Steinberg

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  8. Judging Amy Season 2 Episode 8 - Waterworld
    7.3/10(3 votes)

    #8 - Waterworld

    S2:E8

    When Donna's birthing center burns down the night before she goes into labor, the Grays offer the use of their house for her baby's water birth; the family becomes concerned at Maxine's curiously dispassionate response to the news of Socrates's death; Amy is upset when Vincent decides to spend Christmas alone with Carole rather than with the family; as she begins to suffer from burnout on the job, Maxine shifts some of her caseload onto her colleagues and finally takes Amy's advice to see a therapist; Amy gives four girls who filed a false molestation complaint against their teacher a taste of their own medicine when she has them taken into custody.

    Director:Bob McCracken
    Writers:Nicole Yorkin, Dawn Prestwich

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  9. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 22 - Not With a Whimper
    7.0/10(1 votes)

    #9 - Not With a Whimper

    S1:E22

    After going on the date from hell with a Yale professor, Amy has one last fling with Michael the day their divorce becomes final; Maxine returns a stowaway boy to his mother; when Donna and Vincent persuade a reluctant Evie to deliver her baby in the hospital instead of home, she insists that they, instead of Gillian and Peter, act as her birthing coaches; Amy assigns a unique condition of probation to a bright and feisty teenager; Maxine fears that she's contracted Alzheimer's after suffering cognitive lapses, and is relieved to discover that it's only a concussion sustained when she bumped her head on a piece of furniture; Evie's son is born, surprising the family with his interracial heritage.

    Director:David Platt
    Writers:Nicole Yorkin, Dawn Prestwich

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  10. Judging Amy Season 6 Episode 4 - Consent
    7.0/10(2 votes)

    #10 - Consent

    S6:E4

    Amy has difficulty dealing with Lauren's need for privacy; blinded by Anthony Bird's loss, Maxine lies to Sean and makes all the wrong choices in dealing with a teenaged boy who's holed up in a hotel room after discovering that he was kidnapped by his mother as a child; Amy must determine if aggravated sexual assault occurred between two teenagers attending a sex party, but can't seem to leave the case in the courtroom when she encounters Lauren at home; Gillian takes the news of their financial difficulties well, and offers Peter her support; Vincent confesses to Gillian that he's no longer working on his book; Amy resists David's attempts to redefine their relationship.

    Director:Alan Myerson
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 7 - An Impartial Bias
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #11 - An Impartial Bias

    S1:E7

    Maxine fights to keep a deaf boy in the care of his teenage brother after they are orphaned; Bruce disagrees with Amy's decision in an interracial adoption case; Vincent gets a job teaching writing; Donna seeks Amy's assistance in getting a conjugal visit with Oscar; Vincent learns something surprising about his father.

    Director:James Hayman
    Writer:David W. Zucker

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  12. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 8 - Near Death Experience
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #12 - Near Death Experience

    S1:E8

    Amy presides over the sentencing hearing of an emotionally immature teenager convicted of the murder of a ten year old girl during a drive-by shooting; Vincent is shot when he attempts to rescue a woman who's being assaulted; Maxine investigates a mother who claims that she was abducted by aliens; a divorced couple asks Amy to resolve a dispute about the care of their five-day-old son.

    Director:Kevin Dowling
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 9 - The Persistence of Tectonics
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #13 - The Persistence of Tectonics

    S1:E9

    Amy juggles preparing Thanksgiving dinner, being on call, and coping with a surprise announcement from Michael; Gillian asks Maxine for help in financing another in-vitro procedure; Amy presides over an adoption in which the biological father shows up at the last minute to claim his child; Hillary tries to settle the score with Vincent during a Thanksgiving party at Alan's; Amy sentences two boys convicted of animal cruelty.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 10 - Crowded House
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #14 - Crowded House

    S1:E10

    Amy hears the case of an extremely abused, mentally ill teenager who has stabbed a teacher; Vincent's agent finds him a publisher who will sign him only if he completes another short story in the next four days; Maxine tries to help an overstressed young mother who is afraid that she will hurt her baby; Lauren strains Amy's patience as she waxes enthusiastically over Michael's girlfriend; Maxine faces a house full of her children for a week as Vincent moves back home to devote all his energies to writing, and Gillian takes a much-needed break from the strain that infertility has placed on her marriage; Vincent's short story inspires Gillian to return home to Peter and reconsider adoption.

    Director:Martha Mitchell
    Writer:Lyla Oliver

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  15. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 11 - Presumed Innocent
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #15 - Presumed Innocent

    S1:E11

    Amy takes it personally when Stuart appeals her decision to overturn the jury's verdict; Maxine arrives at a creative solution in placing an extremely gifted teenager who chronically runs away from his foster placements; Donna becomes Vincent's new roommate; Amy must decide whether to remove a child from the care of a mother suspected of suffering from Munchausen by Proxy syndrome; after her verdict is upheld, Stuart asks Amy out on a date, and she royally disses him as she turns him down flat.

    Director:James Hayman
    Writer:Natalie Chaidez

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  16. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 12 - Spoil the Child
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #16 - Spoil the Child

    S1:E12

    Amy threatens to remove a young boy from the custody of a father who asserts his right to beat his son regularly with a belt, leaving welts; Maxine becomes frustrated by her ever-increasing case load and a system that doesn't seem to care about the children it should be serving as she struggles to get placements for two orphaned and mentally ill siblings; Gillian and Peter begin the adoptive process; Vincent and Donna work out some roommate issues; Amy's assertiveness in dealing with a judge who disrupts her courtroom lands her a job offer; Donna turns to a reluctant Vincent for advice after her conjugal visit with Oscar goes badly; Lauren goes into a full-tilt brat meltdown when the dancing supply store runs out of her recital costume after Amy waits too long to order it; Amy stays up all night to make the costume after spurning Maxine's offer to help.

    Director:Kristoffer Tabori
    Writers:Nicole Yorkin, Dawn Prestwich

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  17. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 13 - Zero to Sixty
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #17 - Zero to Sixty

    S1:E13

    Michael's insistence upon joint custody of Lauren after Amy requests an increase in child support payments dooms the divorce mediation process, and they each retain high-powered and aggressive attorneys; Maxine wants nothing to do with any celebration of her 60th birthday; Amy must decide whether a college senior should be charged as an adult for a fatal hit and run accident that occured when he was fifteen; Michael's attempt to win Vincent over to his side in the custody battle ends badly; Amy hears a father's petition which contests the divorce agreement requiring him to pay for his daughter's college education; Maxine deals with combative divorced parents who can't seem to manage a peaceful exchange of their three small children.

    Director:Anita W. Addison
    Writer:David Adam Silverman

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  18. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 14 - Shaken, Not Stirred
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #18 - Shaken, Not Stirred

    S1:E14

    Amy must decide if a young boy accused of shaking his infant sister to death is guilty of murder; Maxine fights to keep a 10 year old girl away from her abusive stepfather; Vincent struggles with the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder; Amy finds herself in a sticky situation when she accepts a date with the father of one of Lauren's classmates, and then learns that he's a child advocacy attorney who's scheduled to appear in her court; Vincent gets better acquainted with Lisa.

    Director:David Semel
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 15 - Culture Clash
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #19 - Culture Clash

    S1:E15

    Amy is assigned to a Judicial Conduct Commission panel which will decide the fate of a judge accused of demanding sexual favors from a prostitute in exchange for a reduced sentence; Maxine faces a culture clash when she tries to help a Yemeni teenager who was stabbed after being accused of dishonoring her family; Amy presides over the case of a woman who fears that her ex-husband may have abducted their children; Vincent's book is published and reviewed by The New York Times; Evie moves in temporarily with Maxine and Amy, and proves to be quite a handful; Michael's parents come to visit Lauren, and rebuff Amy's attempts to discuss the divorce.

    Director:Jack Bender
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 16 - The Wee Hours
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #20 - The Wee Hours

    S1:E16

    Amy gears up for the custody battle over Lauren; Vincent takes a job at the local newspaper to help him overcome a severe case of writer's block; Amy suffers from a bad bout of insomnia that's coupled with some interesting dreams in the few hours that she's able to sleep; Maxine investigates why a boy from a loving family persists in sleepwalking far from home; Amy decides the fate of a teenaged athlete when her parents disagree on how her gymnastics training is affecting her life; Lauren and Amy have an ongoing battle over bedtime; Amy must decide if she'll allow the children of combative parents to be represented by their own attorney.

    Director:James Hayman
    Writer:Hart Hanson

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  21. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 17 - Drawing the Line
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #21 - Drawing the Line

    S1:E17

    Amy must decide if a brain-injured woman is fit to be a mother; Maxine discovers that a teenaged client is being abused by his therapist; Leisha meets Amy, and faces her ire for piercing Lauren's ears without permission; Vincent and Maxine clash over his journalism career; Amy faces a class of insufferable law students when she's asked to teach a seminar at Yale; Donna takes modeling herself after Amy a bit too far when she begins to show up for work dressed and coiffed exactly like her mentor; it's all bark and no bite when Amy decides to dismiss the case of a drug dealer sniffed out by a four-legged member of the neighborhood watch.

    Director:Jack Bender
    Writer:Lyla Oliver

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  22. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 18 - Human Touch
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #22 - Human Touch

    S1:E18

    Amy presides over a custody case between a young girl's stepfather and her biological father, whose severe case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder may interfere with his parenting ability; after an unsuccessful experiment with day trading puts holes in her financial situation, Maxine has difficulty fixing the holes in her roof; the court reporter from hell, who is also Donna's nemesis, is assigned to Amy's courtroom; Maxine uncovers systematic fraud at D.C.F. that leads directly to Susie's desk; Amy realizes that she needs to assume more of the financial burden at home after she and Peter quarrel over their mother's monetary predicament; Vincent and Lisa work through their relationship fears; Amy orders D.C.F. to cut through the bureaucracy and the paperwork so that Croatian refugees can find a home and be reunited with their son.

    Director:Martha Mitchell
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 19 - The Out-of-Towners
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #23 - The Out-of-Towners

    S1:E19

    Heeding the request of counsel to deliver one of her ""rants"" at a sentencing hearing, Amy lectures a young drug dealer whose mother has made tremendous sacrifices to provide him with a better life; much to Peter's dismay, Maxine accepts a date from an attractive man she meets at the diner; Amy gets ""backwater detail"" subbing for another judge, and travels with Bruce to a small town to hear a case centered on the misdiagnosis and overmedication of its teenage boys; as her abductor's case comes to trial, Lisa and Vincent argue when her fears for the possibility of acquittal, and thus her safety, increase; pending the outcome of an investigation, Susie is back at work after a one week paid suspension and, over Maxine's objections, sets in motion a chain of events which eventually leads to the death of a young mother; Amy and Bruce have divergent reactions when confronted with intolerance during their trip; Maxine unsuccessfully tries to resign, and ends up being blackmailed into acceptin

    Director:Unknown
    Writers:David W. Zucker, Hart Hanson

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  24. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 20 - The God Thing
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #24 - The God Thing

    S1:E20

    Amy decides the fate of two teenagers arrested for possession of a date rape drug; Greta returns to work with a newfound appreciation of her spirituality, causing Amy to question her own; while working on the case of a neglectful mother, Maxine discovers that management isn't all that it's cracked up to be, especially when it gets in the way of her time with Jared; Donna ropes Amy into having coffee with Leisha, who in turn ropes Amy into going shopping for bathing suits; Vincent breaks up with Lisa after she perjures herself on the stand; after Donna delivers some very sad news, Amy seeks some answers, and some consolation, at Bruce's church.

    Director:Kevin Dowling
    Writer:Karen Hall

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  25. Judging Amy Season 1 Episode 21 - Gray vs. Gray
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #25 - Gray vs. Gray

    S1:E21

    Maxine gets a new supervisor at D.C.F.; Donna becomes stressed when Oscar's attorneys petition to have his conviction reversed; Amy and Maxine are at odds over having Maxine's terminally ill client testify in a case that Amy is hearing; Vincent counsels Donna against telling Oscar about her attraction to other men, and reassures her that her feelings are normal.

    Director:James Hayman
    Writer:Unknown

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Best Episodes Summary

"Trial By Jury" is the best rated episode of "Judging Amy". It scored 9/10 based on 1 votes. Directed by James Hayman and written by Natalie Chaidez, it aired on 9/28/1999. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "Victim Soul".