He was the face of the daytime staple 'The People's Court' from its premiere in 1981 to 1993, and he's dusting off his gavel and robes for one more episode. The currently presiding judge of 'The People's Court, Marilyn Milian, will relinquish the bench to Judge Joseph A. Wapner on Friday, Nov. 13, as he hands down one more ruling in honor of his 90th birthday.

Wapner, who served on the bench for the LA County Superior Court for 18 years before retiring and dispensing justice on TV, was the first judge in a pantheon of notables who ruled on the long-running small claims court TV show, including Ed Koch from 1997 to 1999, Jerry Sheindlin from 1999 to 2001, and presently Milian.

Not to worry -- this isn't about Simon, Randy, or Paula. I'm not talking American Idol here. Nah, I'm talking real people, real cases, true litigants ... and so much more! You see, I'm generally off from my day job one weekday a week. Of course I have to watch television. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it, right?

I just never got into soap operas. Well, there was that period decades ago when I spent the summer home with a broken foot before the advent of the internet. But I digress. What I watch these days during the daytime hours tend to be the judge shows. Well, to digress a moment again -- WGN airs Homicide: Life on the Street at noon here. I can't miss that, of course. But then it's justice served. Who judges the judges? I do, naturally!

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They are there to maintain order, or just add to the chaos, but they are an essential part of the television's fake judicial system. Today we honor the people we call "your honor." It's time to judge the judges, but not too harshly. Here we go:

Judge Wapner (The People's Court): Long before there was Judge Judy or any number of cranky old people in robes bellowing from the bench, there was Joseph A. Wapner, who didn't tolerate any shenanigans from anyone and sometimes ruled the court room like a drill sergeant. Nevertheless, his decisions always seemed fair to me, and I often saw him decide for the party he seemed to personally dislike the most. A much mellower version of him turned up years later on Animal Court, but I liked the old surly Wapner better.