Section B · Page 10
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, February 7, 2001
TV judge popular despite bad choices
The Associated Press
DETROIT — Judge Greg Mathis isn't kidding around when he says: been there, done that.
The tough-talking, popular television judge says he did what everyone else was doing to make it in the projects in his west side Detroit neighborhood during the 1970s. At age 11, he joined a gang.
"I chose survival over what appeared to be the pie-in-the-sky American Dream that I never saw anyone reach." Maths said.
As leader of about 40 gang members, Mathis got into fights and stole cars. He was expelled from a public elementary school, two church schools and three high schools before he dropped out in 10th grade.
He was spiraling downward fast.
He turned his life around, though, and now, a year and a half after the start of his nationally syndicated television show, he is taking his message of hope to 29 cities in a musical production loosely based on his life called "Been There Done That."
It has been drawing large audiences since opening Jan. 2 in Dallas. Before the stage show closes June 11 in Houston, it is scheduled to appear in St. Louis, Atlanta, New York, and Chicago.
"It's all part of my effort to get out and inspire people in overcoming their obstacles," says Mathis, who portrays, of course, a judge.
"Many people's minuses pull them down," says the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who met Mathis in the late 1970s. "But his minutes became pluses. His minutes became evidence of his capacity to overcome odds."
Mathis, 40, credits his mother for working two jobs to send him to private school and for coming to visit him when he was sitting in a jail cell at age 17, convicted of carrying a concealed weapon.
When she made her first trip to the jail, she told Mathis he had been bad all his life and had
humiliated her, adding, "Now I'm going to die."
She had colon cancer. The news shocked him. He felt as if he had caused her cancer and thought, "If I could turn my life around, I could save her life."
He read "The Autobiography of Malcolm K" while waiting to get out, and that was an inspiration, too.
Fulfilling his mother's request and the judge's probation condition — to get himself together, Mathis obtained his high school equivalency degree within six months of leaving jail and entered Eastern Michigan University in 1978. His mother, Alice Lee, died during his third month in college.
In December 1982, he graduated with a degree in public administration and enrolled at the University of Detroit Law School.
While attending law school at night, Mathis married his college sweetheart (they now have four children) and worked on a city councilman's staff. After graduating, he served as a national assistant and Detroit campaign manager for Jackson's presidential run in 1988, then went on to work as an assistant for Detroit Mayor Coleman A. Young for four years.
"Malcolm wanted to be a lawyer and he couldn't, and he was a great role model of mine," Mathis says. "I just saw myself in Malcolm. He was in jail. I had been in jail. He did what I aspired to do, made a difference in public service."
After passing the bar exam, the state bar denied him a license, citing his juvenile record. It took Mathis three years and three appeals to get it.
In 1994, he was elected a Superior Court judge in a campaign where his opponent tried to use his criminal record against him.
"It turned out to be a positive, political success story," he says. "That is how Hollywood became interested."
Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet
"We ought to have a counter for how many times I'm going to cry during the broadcast," Gibson said. "That's incredible."
"Super Baby Tuesday" was the culmination of a week-long series on maternity trends timed for the February
Within 18 minutes, three more babies were born — one each in Boston, Dallas and Houston. Charles Gibson, who wiped a tear from his eye after Kelsey's birth, and Diane Sawyer could barely keep up.
"sweeps," when ratings are closely watched to set advertising rates.
Viewers didn't have to wait long. At 7:05 a.m., Kelsey Nolan made her debut at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital and was wiped down for the cameras.
All three morning shows are trying gimmicks to lure viewers this month. At "The Early Show" on CBS, the preoccupation with "Survivor" continues: The program is sponsoring a "Survivor investment contest," with 14 teams competing at the market for a potential prize of up to $500,000.
"Today," which last year had viewers plan a wedding, will beseach them to build a house starting next week. Viewers will decide the floor plan and decorations for a house being built in Florida, which will be auctioned off when done.
There was a different kind of screaming on NBC's "Today" show. Despite the slushy February morning chill, it hosted an outdoor concert by the Backstreet Boys, drawing hundreds of fans to New York's Rockefeller Plaza.
Morning TV shows fighting for ratings during 'sweeps'
As part of a sweepsmonth stunt, the morning news show stationed cameras at three hospitals Tuesday in an attempt to record a live birth.
NEW YORK — It was a mini-baby boom on ABC's "Good Morning America."
The Associated Press
Crossword
ACROSS
1 Work stretch
2 Act part
1 E-mail symbol
1 Bet
1 John H. or
Peggy
1 Nature grp.
1 Nitrogen, once
1 In the midst of
1 Diarst Anais
1 Cherystones
1 Dairst perfectly
1 Catch of the day
1 Dwarflike
creatures
1 Jamie Curts
10 Award recipients
1 OK Corral
participant
1 Magnitude
1 City on the Ruhr
1 Seed covers
1 Profit figure
1 like nostalgic
fashion
1 Fabric fold
1 Doorkeeper
4 Symbol
1 Bridge support
5 Lobster eggs
1 Fries lightly
4 Clues
5 Side by side
5 Reduce to a fine
spray
6 Hold up
6 Deserve
5 Velocity detector
6 Oklahoma town
6 Harden
6 Ms. Verdugo
6 Coop denizen
6 Exudes a strong
coolness
7 Dispatches,
biblical style
DOWN
1 Exchange
2 Indistinct
3 Stravinky or
Sikorsky
4 Gala
celebrations
5 Sapper's
creation
© 2001 Tribune Media Services, Inc All rights reserved
2/7/01
Salt and pepper, e.g.
7 Variable motion producer
8 Collar choice
9 Period of immaturity
10 Stage-manage
11 Jeans fabric
12 Express a sweatshirt
13 Sharp tastes
14 Son of Aphrodite
15 Setbacks
16 Last of twelve
17 of faith
18 Viscount's superior
19 Cleveland's lake
1 gets even
1 Nebraska river
1 Mix
2 Cogito __ sum
3 Zilch
4 Decorative strip
5 They __ thataway!
48 Member of a
48 Member of a monastic Jewish sect
59 Picks away for a rainy day
51 Abraham's wife
52 Residence
53 Of a city
55 Diminutive
57 Test option
59 Conception
60 Daft
61 Important times
64 Exasperate
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