“I done decided.” — James Carville
Well here is a newly discovered nugget born out of the Sony hack: a Judge Judy/People’s Court-esque TV show starring famed political consultant/pundit James Carville titled Carville’s Court was in development at one point. Even better: video of the pilot for that show is on the internet and embedded below. Seriously, you need to take a few minutes out of your and watch this…it’s more incredible the veal at Eleven 79, the mobbed-up Italian joint in my ‘hood Carville frequents (that’s owned by Louis Prima’s former manager).
“I’m bringing that same no nonsense common sense to every day Americans, people from all over America who come to New Orleans, my home turf,” Carville proclaims in the show’s opening. “This court room is unlike anything you’ve ever seen on TV, and so am I. So get ready for some plain spoken justice and a whole lotta Cajun common sense.”
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The highlight for me is the way that Carville announces his verdicts: “I done decided,” which seems like a line straight out of “Maine Justice,” arguably the greatest SNL sketch of all time. Hell, there’s part of me that wonders if the sketch didn’t inspire someone to think, “Hey, you know what would be great? An actual courtroom show featuring a crazy Cajun judge! GET ME CARVILLE ON THE PHONE!!!”
The plan for the show was discovered by Politico in the latest round of documents from the Sony hack…
The On Media blog first learned about the show while reviewing emails from the Sony hack that were released by Wikileaks on Thursday. Sony executives appear to have met with Carville over the summer and taped pilots in October. Rachel Mizuno, senior vice president of marketing for Sony Pictures Television, wrote in an email that “James was great” and that what makes “him unique is that his court is not just ‘the court of law’ but also ‘the court of life,'” a reference to the line Carville says ahead of each ruling. “Every case involved a legal ruling but also a piece of advice about life,” Mizuno said.
Holly Jacobs, executive vice president of reality and syndication programming at Sony Pictures Television, wrote: “James was so good and natural. He loved the experience and feels this is his calling. You’d think getting a man elected to be President might be his high point, but it seems that hosting a court show has trumped that — we all had a lot of fun together and will have a good pilot to share.”
Oh God please let this show see the light of day. We live in an era where something like Sex Box can get greenlit, after all. There’s no reason in hell why this can’t be.
