It’s not unusual in Philadelphia to have a neighbor who’s a cat lover. Some even feed stray cats and flip their houses right into a refuge for feral kittens. It may be cute. But that’s till these cats get into the neighbor’s garden forcing the resident to mow an urine-infested garden and breathe in mud from a pile of cat feces accumulating for years.
That is strictly what occurred between East Germantown resident Marice Johnson and the neighborhood’s resident cat girl Jean Galliano, in July 2024.
An incident that’s now the idea for a lawsuit, a Judy Justice episode, and an episode of the HBO reality present Neighbors.
It was the final straw for Johnson. He requested Galliano to preserve all 9 of her undomesticated cats from crossing over property strains and defecating on his household’s garden.
“My daughter is 4 going on 5. She’s never been able to enjoy her front yard,” Johnson says on the HBO present.
Galliano refused, Johnson stopped the lawnmower, and walked over to one of her make-shift cat shelters and beat it right into a pile of scraps.
“I don’t know what he’s going to do next,” Galliano says in Neighbors. “He’s very unpredictable. If my husband wasn’t dead, he’d go over there and kick his a—.”
She sought retribution by taking their neighborly dispute to a small claims court docket final fall. Then she dropped these costs earlier than in search of justice from one other courtroom; this one helmed by famed justice Judith Sheindlin, higher referred to as Judge Judy on TV.
The dispute makes up the second episode of HBO’s new reality TV sequence. Created by Dylan Redford and Harrison Fishman, the present explores intense and wildly-bizarre disputes amongst neighbors throughout the nation.
Titled “The Farm,” the episode additionally follows a rift between a retiree named Darrell and his neighbor Trever, who begins elevating livestock on his grandmother’s property, a lot to the dismay of his neighbors in a small suburban group in Kokomo, Ind.
Redford (who’s Robert Redford’s grandson) and Fishman, who’ve beforehand labored on 2021’s The Big Parade, share an obsession with on-line neighbor battle movies. When they acquired an opportunity name from an organization in search of TV present concepts, the two administrators thought centering actual neighbor-to-neighbor clashes would make for nice tv.
For months, casting director Harleigh Shaw and story producer (and Redford’s sister) Lena Redford sifted by small claims court docket filings throughout the nation and looked for individuals who would agree to air their neighborly linen on digicam.
“This was a story with a lot of layers and really interesting people, and we thought we should really look into this,” Dylan Redford stated of Galliano and Johnson’s case.
Fishman, a Philly native, stated the two neighbors are consultant of his hometown in two very alternative ways.
“[Galliano] really embodies what I love about Philly. She’s just shamelessly herself, and so excited to tell us about it. And [Johnson] is so funny, and his family was so fun to hang out with.”
They began filming with the neighbors final fall.
Their dispute, the crew discovered, began shortly after Johnson and his spouse Amala moved into their Northwest Philly rowhome practically six years in the past. But with the beginning of their daughter, Johnson stated his and Galliano’s quarrels intensified.
“I said ‘Ma’am, we just moved here and have a newborn’,” Johnson says on the present. “I just don’t want the cats on my property at all.” From Galliano’s standpoint, Johnson was a disgruntled, cat-hating neighbor whose “berserk” conduct led to the civil case submitting.
She recorded a video of Johnson slamming and kicking the cat shelter she had constructed for one of her cats, named Butter. She claimed it resulted in practically $2,826.90 value of damages. Galliano additionally tried to file prison costs in opposition to Johnson, but “they wouldn’t let me do it,” she stated on the present.
But she quickly discovered a manner to litigate the dispute when she and Johnson acquired an surprising invite to Judy Justice final fall. Turns out, Judy Justice producers have been additionally, coincidentally, sifting by the identical court docket claims and Johnson and Galliano’s battle stood out.
The two neighbors quickly flew out to Los Angeles quickly after.
Confident that she would earn the favor of Judge Judy, Galliano stated she’s going to go from 9 to 500 strays as soon as she secures a authorized victory.
“[Judy] is an animal activist,” Galliano says within the present, earlier than getting to LA. “She’s going to help me.”
Redford and Fishman have been barred from filming on the Culver Studios set, but the Jan. 18 episode of Judy Justice, titled “Catty Neighbors Caught on Tape,” shows Galliano struggling a crushing loss.
In her classically stern and blunt tone, Judge Judy stated Galliano’s reckless take care of un-collared and unvaccinated cats had grow to be a “community problem,” one immediately impacting Johnson’s livelihood. She urged a noticeably combative Galliano to promote the house she’s become a “crack hole,” and buy land the place her cats can roam free with out interference.
Until then, the reality TV choose stated, “be a better animal caretaker.”
“Judge Judy ate her for f–ing lunch. It was so bad,” Galliano’s friend Nina Medley, who tagged along for the hearing, says on the show.
Judge Judy’s judgment awarded Johnson $2,000, and Galliano a total of $0.50.
The Neighbors episode shows Johnson and his wife celebrating outside the court room, while Galliano silently drives out of the studio lot.
Redford and Fishman made sure to show the lives of Johnson and Galliano outside of the dispute.
Growing up in Philadelphia, Johnson said he was kicked out of middle and high school. He, along with his three brothers, faced incarceration in his youth. In the years since, he has transformed into a dedicated family man and the owner of a clothing line. During the episode, he pulled out a rack of his custom designs; shirts with the words “God Bless Whoever Hating On Me.” He additionally spoke about how significant it was for him to purchase his three bed room home; he wished to give his household the type of life he and his siblings by no means skilled.
Galliano, on the other hand, lives a very different lifestyle.
When she’s not praising a Jesus Christ hologram, or absorbing “life-enhancing energy” from a close-by Quantum Healing Room, the screenwriter makes an attempt (and usually fails) to collaborate on movies with the likes of Mel Gibson and producer Paul Michael Ruffman.
“If our show was just doing funny gag stuff, it would be no different than any other prank show or TikTok video,” Redford said. “Part of what defines our show against all that is that we provide the kind of emotional context that makes people understand why someone cares about their home or neighborhood so much.”
Now back from the West Coast, Johnson and his daughter are able to play in their front yard, for the first time in six years. As is evident from the episode, there is now a pergola and fence around Johnson’s yard that keep Galliano’s cats out.
“As weird as it may sound, blessings are coming out of something that felt like a curse at one time,” Johnson says in the show.
Galliano, standing just outside the fence’s barriers in the episode, says Judge Judy’s ruling won’t stop her from feeding cats or from getting them into her house.
“Wood fences can’t keep cats out. Cats climb wood,” she says with absolute certainty.
Fishman, who recently spoke to Galliano, said she now feeds cats less frequently, and that her colony of strays has dwindled in size.
“It sounds like the [dispute] has completely died down from [Galliano’s] perspective,” said Fishman, who is hopeful that the show shines a brighter light on Galliano’s screenwriting career and Johnson’s clothing brand.
As for season two of Neighbors, which was renewed last month, he desires to embrace extra tales of Philly neighbors, who, like Galliano and Johnson, will embody the “berserk” qualities that make his hometown people so distinctive.
