Julia was a masterful series and a ground-breaker of major importance. Herbie J tells us why.
Julia Set the Standard
by Herbie J Pilato
Julia literally changed the face of television with a series of firsts.
It was the first TV series to feature a non-stereotypical African-American, specifically, a sophisticated African-American female, in the lead of a 30-minute comedy or a one-hour drama. It was also the first show to combine those genres, becoming an inaugural weekly half-hour dramedy, filmed with a single camera, without a live studio audience, or a laugh track.
A ground-breaking program across the board, Julia originally aired on NBC from 1968 to 1971 and starred Diahann Carroll as nurse Julia Baker. She was widowed and the single parent of a six-year-old son named Corey played by Marc Copage. After Julia’s husband, an O-1 Bird Dog artillery spotter pilot, was killed in the Vietnam War, she and Corey moved into a stylish, integrated apartment building.
Their neighbors included Marie Waggedorn, played by Betty Beaird, and her son, Earl J. Waggedorn, Corey’s same-age best friend played by Michael Link.
In what essentially was an extended pilot over three episodes with an arc storyline (another first!), Julia was hired to work in a high-end medical office in the aerospace industry. She and supervising nurse was Hannah Yarby, played by Lurene Tuttle, were managed by Lloyd Nolan’s crusty-minded but soft-hearted Dr. Mortan Chegley.
Like the Waggedorns, Julia’s colleagues were Caucasian. Football star Fred Williamson, an African-American, would join the series in the third season as Julia’s romantic interest, Steve Bruce.
Julia was the result of series creator Hal Kanter’s desire to right the wrongs of his less-worthy previous TV depiction of African-Americans: CBS’s Amos and Andy (1951–54), which actually began on NBC Radio (in 1928). The TV edition was canceled due to racist portrayals, and series leads Alvin Childress and Spencer Williams were devastated, financially, because of that decision.
But ending Amos and Andy was ultimately a noble choice that led to the eloquence of Julia.
As Kanter explained in an archived video interview with the Television Academy, Jack Valenti, longtime president of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), had invited him in 1967 to a fundraising gala for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)….
Herbie J Pilato, host of Then Again, a classic TV talk show streaming on Amazon Prime, is the author of several books about television. For more information, visit HerbieJPilato.com.