Two East Germantown neighbors and their dispute made it to not one but two reality shows

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 might 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 precisely what occurred between East Germantown resident Marice Johnson and the neighborhood’s resident cat woman Jean Gallianoin 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 hold 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 her neighborly dispute to a small claims court docket final fall. Then she dropped these expenses earlier than in search of justice from one other courtroom; this one helmed by famed justice Judith Sheindlin, higher generally known 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 Fishmanthe 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 neighborhood in Kokomo, Ind.

Redford (who’s Robert Redford‘s grandson) and Fishman, who’ve beforehand labored on 2021’s The Big Paradeshare an obsession with on-line neighbor combat movies. When they obtained 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 via small claims court docket filings throughout the nation and looked for individuals who would agree to air their neighbors 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 mentioned of Galliano and Johnson’s case.

Fishman, a Philly native, mentioned the two neighbors are representatives of his hometown in two very other ways.

“[Galliano] really embodies what I love about Philly. She’s just shamelessly herself, and so excited to tell us about it. And [Johnson] “It 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 came upon, started shortly after Johnson and his spouse Amala moved into their Northwest Philly rowhome almost six years in the past. But with the beginning of their daughter, Johnson mentioned 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” habits 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 almost $2,826.90 price of damages. Galliano additionally tried to file legal expenses towards Johnson, but “they wouldn’t let me do it,” she mentioned on the present.

But she quickly discovered a manner to litigate the dispute when she and Johnson obtained an sudden invitation to Judy Justice final fail. Turns out, Judy Justice producers have been additionally, coincidentally, sifting via the identical court docket claims and Johnson and Galliano’s combat stood out.

The two neighbors quickly flew out to Los Angeles quickly after.

Confident that she would earn the favor of Judge Judy, Galliano mentioned she is 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 Justicetitled “Catty Neighbors Caught on Tape,” shows Galliano struggling a crushing loss.

In her classically stern and blunt tone, Judge Judy mentioned Galliano’s reckless look after un-collared and unvaccinated cats had develop into a “community problem,” one straight impacting Johnson’s livelihood. She urged a noticeably combative Galliano to promote the house she’s was a “crack hole,” and buy land the place her cats can roam free with out interference.

Until then, the reality TV choose mentioned, “be a better animal caretaker.”

“Judge Judy ate her for f–ing lunch. It was so bad,” Galliano’s pal Nina Medley, who tagged alongside for the listening to, says on the present.

Judge Judy’s judgment awarded Johnson $2,000, and Galliano a complete of $0.50.

The Neighbors episode shows Johnson and his spouse celebrating exterior the court docket room, whereas Galliano silently drives out of the studio lot.

Redford and Fishman made positive to present the lives of Johnson and Galliano exterior the dispute.

Growing up in Philadelphia, Johnson mentioned he was kicked out of center and highschool. He, alongside along with his three brothers, confronted incarceration in his youth. In the years since, he has reworked right into a devoted household man and the proprietor of a clothes line. During the episode, he pulled out a rack of his customized designs; shirts with the phrases “God Bless Whoever Hates 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, alternatively, lives a really totally different way of life.

When she’s not praising a Jesus Christ hologram, or absorbing “life-enhancing energy” from a close-by Quantum Healing Roomthe screenwriter makes an attempt (and typically 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 mentioned. “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 again from the West Coast, Johnson and his daughter are ready to play in their entrance yard, for the primary time in six years. As is clear from the episode, there’s now a pergola and fence round Johnson’s yard that retains 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 within the present.

Galliano, standing simply exterior the fence’s obstacles within the episode, says Judge Judy’s ruling will not cease her from feeding cats or from getting them into her home.

“Wood fences can’t keep cats out. Cats climb wood,” she says with absolute certainty.

Fishman, who lately spoke to Galliano, mentioned she now feeds cats much less often, and that her colony of strays has dwindled in measurement.

“It sounds like the [dispute] has completely died down from [Galliano’s] perspective,” mentioned Fishman, who’s hopeful that the present shines a brighter gentle on Galliano’s screenwriting profession and Johnson’s clothes model.

Ace for season two of Neighbors, which was renewed last month, he needs to embody extra tales of Philly neighbors, who, like Galliano and Johnson, will embody the “berserk” qualities that make their hometown of us so distinctive.