What began as a fight over cats in East Germantown last July has now been turned into TV. Marice Johnson and Jean Galliano’s dispute is the second episode of HBO’s reality series Neighbors, an installment titled “The Farm.”
Johnson said Galliano’s nine undomesticated cats kept crossing property lines and defecating on his family’s lawn. He said his daughter is “4 going on 5” and had never been able to enjoy the front yard. In the middle of the argument, Johnson stopped his lawnmower and beat one of Galliano’s make-shift cat shelters into a pile of scraps.
That episode is only the latest turn in a feud that started after Johnson and his wife, Amala, moved into their Northwest Philly rowhome nearly six years ago. The conflict later spilled into small claims court last fall, when Galliano filed charges and then dropped them. By then, the fight had also drawn the attention of the crew behind Neighbors, who started filming with the neighbors last fall.
The series, created by Dylan Redford and Harrison Fishman, looks at bitter disputes between people living side by side across the country. “This was a story with a lot of layers and really interesting people, and we thought we should really look into this,” Redford said. Fishman said Galliano “really embodies what I love about Philly” and called Johnson funny, adding that his family was fun to hang out with.
Galliano has said she did not know what Johnson might do next and described him as unpredictable, saying that if her husband were alive, he would have gone over there and confronted him. The dispute also became the basis for a Judy Justice episode, a sign that what played out on one Philly block has traveled far beyond it.
“The Farm” also follows a separate rift between a retiree named Darrell and his neighbor Trever in Kokomo, Indiana, but the Philadelphia story is the one that now carries the most local weight. A backyard argument that began with cats and a lawnmower has become part of a national entertainment package, and Johnson’s front yard, once a private grievance, is now part of the public record.
