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Joseph A. Wapner, 97, 'People's Court' judge

Joseph A. Wapner, 97, a retired California judge whose flinty-folksy style of resolving disputes on TV's The People's Court helped spawn an entire genre of courtroom-based reality television, died Sunday at home in Los Angeles.

Joseph A. Wapner, 97, a retired California judge whose flinty-folksy style of resolving disputes on TV's

The People's Court

helped spawn an entire genre of courtroom-based reality television, died Sunday at home in Los Angeles.

A grandson, Gabriel Wapner, confirmed the death but did not know the immediate cause. Judge Wapner had had several strokes in recent years.

The People's Court, which the silver-haired judge hosted from 1981 to 1993, was a syndicated half-hour show that turned private arbitration of small-claims cases into engrossing entertainment.

Within a few years of its debut, the program regularly attracted 20 million viewers.

Judge Wapner so permeated the popular culture that he became a reference point in the Oscar-winning film Rain Man (1988), in which Dustin Hoffman's autistic character is addicted to The People's Court.

For a viewing audience weaned on courtroom dramas such as Perry Mason, the Judge Wapner's program was a stark departure. Instead of invented murder and mayhem, The People's Court featured unscripted, real-life grievances between plaintiffs and defendants who could be tangent-prone, inarticulate, or alarmingly naive.

Disputes centered on nonpayment for goods and services, lending of money to friends and family, purchases in which the buyer did not beware, and altercations between neighbors over pets.

The parties, selected from the dockets of Los Angeles-area small-claims courts, agreed to have their matters settled outside a normal court of law and to sign a legally binding arbitration contract. Each litigant was paid about $250 to appear on TV.

The courtroom set - the only fictional component of the show - was presided over by a judge who had spent 18 years on the bench of the Los Angeles Superior Court and brooked little tolerance for unpreparedness and interruptions.

He brought basic judgment and a sense of perspective to thorny legal feuds. Evidence such as receipts and written contracts were often a deciding factor.

Although he could be gruff, Judge Wapner also displayed a sense of fairness.

The judge was frequently mentioned - often for laughs, but often not - as a candidate for the Supreme Court. He tended to dismiss such talk, and he turned down requests to appear as himself on shows he considered undignified, such as Saturday Night Live. (He said his children never forgave him for that.)

Instead, Judge Wapner parlayed his celebrity into speaking engagements on Ivy League campuses and before legal groups. He took his picture with anyone who requested it. His rationale for doing the show in the first place was to enlighten as many people as possible "in the judicial process of arbitration and how to conduct yourself in court."

Judge Wapner's influence extended not only to imitators who followed - Judy Sheindlin of Judge Judy, Judge Mills Lane, Judge Joe Brown, or even "Judge" Julie on Playboy TV's Sex Court - but also to TV personalities such as Dr. Phil, who often viewed guests as squabbling children in need of a stern talking, said Robert Thompson, a television and pop culture scholar at Syracuse University.

Joseph Albert Wapner was born in Los Angeles. After graduating in 1941 from the University of Southern California, he saw Army combat in the Pacific. His decorations included the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

He received a law degree from USC in 1948 and spent 10 years in private practice before receiving a judicial appointment to the Los Angeles Municipal Court.

Survivors include his wife, Mildred Nebenzahl; two sons; a sister; four grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter. His daughter, Sarah Wapner, died in 2015.