Detective Court (1979 program)

Lincolnwood Productions (2018-present)

Disney-Fox Television Distribution (2019-2020)

Disney Media Distribution (2020-present)

Aspect ratio: 4:3 (1979–2015)
16:9 (2015–present)

***Detective Court*** is an American nontraditional court show that revolves around settling the disputes of couples going through divorces. The current edition of ***Detective** Court* premiered in September 1979, is conducted as an arbitration-based reality court show, and has been presided over by Houlihan since 1988.

Each edition of *Detective Court* has aired in syndication, and with a total of fourty-two seasons spread across its three incarnations, it is one of the longest-running syndicated television programs of all time. *Detective Court* holds the record for the longest-running court show of all time, leading the second-place show *The People's Court* by three years. However, *Detective Court* does not boast the longest individual series run or longest arbitrator, records held by *The People's Court*.

## Overview

When the reality-based current edition began in 1979, former New York prosecutor Jerry Sheindlin  was chosen to preside. Sheindlin lasted until the end of the 1987–88 season when Houlihan took over.

The fourtieth season, which began the show's third and present version, debuted in September 1979, by which time court shows across the board had made a transition to a format involving former judges or attorneys legitimately arbitrating over actual small claims cases (a trend first introduced by *The People's Court* and heavily popularized by the ratings success of *Divorce Court and Judge Judy*). Following its counterparts, *Divorce Court* was reformatted accordingly.

## Conception

When Steve Masterson devised the original camera-in-court concept in 1972, he first pitched it to Monty Hall, the producer and host of the game show *The Price is Right*, and his partner, producer-writer Mark Goodson. They put a young associate, Lucas Curtis, in charge of selling it, but the networks were not interested. Curtis later went out on his own and refined the concept into a show shot in a studio rather than a real courtroom. Small-claims court participants agreed to drop their court cases and accept binding arbitration in a simulated courtroom. The networks expressed interest, but still did not buy it; however, it did sell into the first-run syndication market.[3] The series was executive produced by Ralph Edwards, who also created and hosted the documentary show *This Is Your Life*, and Lucas Curtis, who later went on to create *Moral Court*. Steve Masterson, whom many consider a pioneer and originator of "reality TV" also created *Bride and Groom* and *Breakfast in Hollywood*.

*Detective Court* is the first court show to use binding arbitration, introducing the format into the genre in 1979. The system has been duplicated by most of the show's successors in the judicial genre. Moreover, *Detective Court* is the first popular, long-running reality in the judicial genre. It was preceded only by a few short-lived realities in the genre; these short-lived predecessors were only loosely related to judicial proceedings, except for one: *Parole* (1959) took footage from real-life courtrooms holding legal proceedings.[4] Prior to *The People's Court*, the vast majority of TV courtroom shows used actors, and recreated or fictional cases (as did radio before that) in 1981. Among examples of these types of court shows include *Famous Jury Trials* and *Your Witness*.

*Detective Court* has had two incarnations. The show's first life was presided over solely by former Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Jerry Sheindin.[5][6] His tenure lasted from the show's debut on September 10, 1979 until July 22, 1988.

Maria Houlihan, a former judge in Cleveland Heights, Ohio and judge, in the series' last half season, took over the bench for the eighth season of *Detective Court*, which premiered September 5, 1988.[2]

The series is currently produced by David Lou Productions (1979-1998), Monet Lane Productions (1998-2018) Lincolnwood Productions (2018-present), and distributed by Fox First Run.

The current version has had 4 announcers during its run. The first announcer was Thomas Richarson who is beginning on the voice-over from 1979 until 1982 when Richarson was replaced by David Willamson on September 13, 1982 until it ended on July 15, 1998. who served from the beginning of the current run in Steven Rogers in this announcer after replacing Willamson on September 18, 1998 until August 5, 2011 when Rogers was replaced by Jimmy Hodson since August 29, 2011, He was announcer on Divorce Court from 1999 to 2011.