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Judge Judy Sheindlin has spent three decades on television, but she stopped watching her own episodes after realizing she was paying more attention to her appearance than to the cases.<\/p>\n
The 83-year-old told People<\/a> that she initially watched Judge Judy<\/em> after the syndicated courtroom show began in 1996. She eventually found herself studying her face, neck, hair and camera angles instead of evaluating whether her reasoning from the bench was sound.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t watch myself on TV,\u201d Sheindlin said. She remembered thinking, \u201cYour face doesn\u2019t look good,\u201d and worrying that becoming aware of which angles she preferred could change the way she naturally positioned herself during future cases.<\/p>\n Sheindlin will nevertheless be revisiting parts of her television career as CBS marks its 30th anniversary with Judge Judy: Unfiltered, Unforgettable<\/em><\/a> on Sept. 22. The retrospective arrives as she prepares to leave the on-camera courtroom when Judy Justice<\/em> concludes in October.<\/p>\n Sheindlin does occasionally encounter short clips from her courtroom shows on social media, and she told People that some still make her appreciate the decision or response she delivered.<\/p>\n One exchange from 2019 remains a favorite. A woman was suing an ex-boyfriend over $5,000 in loans, and the man had described himself in court papers as her former \u201cboy toy.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheindlin told him that if a dictionary needed a photograph illustrating the term, his picture would appear under the antonym rather than the definition.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was so nasty,\u201d she said while laughing about the remark years later.<\/p>\n Sheindlin said lines like that were not prepared in advance. Her quick responses during cases became a defining part of Judge Judy<\/em>, which ran for 25 seasons from 1996 through 2021. CBS Media Ventures<\/a> says the series remained the No. 1 courtroom program throughout its original run.<\/p>\nShe Still Laughs at One Particularly \u2018Nasty\u2019 Judge Judy Zinger<\/h2>\n