It was on September 17 1968 that the sitcom
Julia, starring Diahann Carroll, debuted. The show centred on Julia Baker, the widow whose husband had died in Vietnam, and her young son Corey (Marc Copage). Julia worked as a registered nurse for Dr. Morton Chegley (Lloyd Nolan), a physician for an aerospace company. For the first two seasons Hannah Yarby (Lurene Tuttle) was Dr. Chegley's clinic manager. Other regulars included neighbour boy Earl J. Waggedorn (Michael Link) and his mother Marie Waggedorn (Betty Beaird),
Julia was historic as the first sitcom to star an African American since
Amos 'n' Andy and
Beulah in the Fifties. It was also the first sitcom to feature an African American woman as a professional. Beulah on the show of the same name had been a domestic.
Julia was created by Hal Kanter, who already had an extensive career at the time. He had written the screenplays for such films as
Road to Bali (1952),
Casanova's Big Night (1954), and
Move Over, Darling (1963), among others. He had also worked on the TV series
The Ed Wynn Show and
The George Gobel Show.
Julia was not the first show he had created. Mr. Kanter also created the sitcom
Valentine's Day, which was historic in featuring the first East Asian American in a supporting role on an American sitcom (Jack Soo as Rocky Sin).
Hal Kanter's inspiration for
Julia emerged from a luncheon honouring NAACP Executive Director Roy Wilkins. He was greatly impressed by what he described as Mr. Wilkins's "calm, objective appraisal of what was happening in America." Hal Kanter then pondered what he could do himself with regards to race relations, and the result was the script for the pilot of what was then called
Mama's Man, which was later changed to
Julia. Hal Kanter's agent was impressed with the script and pitched it to NBC. NBC would buy
Julia as a series.
Hal Kanter auditioned several actresses for the role of Julia, but upon noticing Diahann Carroll decided that she must be Julia. Miss Carroll already had a highly successful career. She was the first Black woman to win a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in
No Strings. She had already appeared in such movies as
Paris Blues (1961) and
Hurry Sundown (1967). Miss Carroll was initially reticent to do the series, as she did not think it would work. It was David Tebet, NBC's vice president for talent relations, who convinced her to sign on to the series.
Despite Hal Kanter's well intentions,
Julia would become the source of controversy well before it even debuted. In April 1968, a full five months before the show's debut, Robert Lewis Shayon wrote in
The Saturday Review that
Julia was "...a far, far cry from the bitter realities of Negro life in the urban ghetto." Not only would criticism of
Julia continue after the show debuted, but throughout its three year run. In
Time magazine it was remarked that Julia "...would not recognize a ghetto if she stumbled into it, and she is, in every respect save colour, a figure in a white milieu." Much of the criticism of
Julia centred on the fact that the show lacked a Black male figure, the lead character being a widow. Other critics claimed that the show did not recognize the racism faced by African American every day. Much of the criticism also centred on the fact that Julia belonged to the middle class and lived in an impossibly nice apartment. Many felt that the life Julia led on the show was far removed from the reality of the lives led by many African Americans. Similar criticisms would be directed at
The Cosby Show in the Eighties, which portrayed an upper middle class Black family.
As the star of the show, much of the criticism of
Julia was directed at Diahann Carroll herself. To her credit, Miss Carroll fought for changes on the show behind the scenes. She was able to win some battles, while she lost others. Miss Carroll objected to a scene in which her character said her first experience of racism was at her high school prom, knowing as a Black woman that African Americans experience bigotry much, much earlier, and she even left the set in protest the day the scene was to be shot. While she ultimately won that battle, she was not able to convince the producers to let her wear an Afro. The stress from the controversy over
Julia would ultimately lead Diahann Carroll to be hospitalized twice during the show's run.
Seen today, much of the criticism towards
Julia during its original run must be considered valid. Julia lived in a lavish apartment that a nurse, even one working at an aerospace company could not possibly afford. Similarly, her wardrobe would have been out of reach not only of many Black women, but of nurses living a middle class lifestyle as well. Her friends (Marie, Dr. Chegley, and Hannah) were all white, as were her neighbours in her apartment building. Aside from Julia and Corey, the only other Black characters to appear on the show were Julia's two boyfriends during the run of the show (Fred Williamson as Steven Bruce and Paul Winfield as Paul Cameron). Julia's apartment was devoid of anything related to Black culture, and could easily have belonged to any white character of the era.
For all the criticism
Julia received, it did receive support from
Ebony and
Jet, although both magazines admitted it was a slight, sugary confection. And for all the criticism that
Julia did not address the prejudice faced by African Americans every day, some episodes of the show did tackle the subject. In the episode "Romeo and Julia," there are awkward moments when Julia drops Corey off at a white classmate's birthday party and the mother did not realize Corey was black. In the episode "Paint Your Waggedorn," a neighbour accuses Corey and Earl of crayon drawings made in the hallway and even complains that " "turning into a ghetto" because of "those people." This leads Julia to explain prejudice to Corey. While it is true Julia did not encounter some of the more severe instances of prejudice experienced by not only African Americans, but other minorities, it was not entirely absent from the show.
While many of the other criticisms of
Julia are valid, today they can easily explained by the shape of American television at the time. Portrayals of poverty in American sitcoms were virtually unknown in the Sixties. Even when a sitcom did not portray wealthy or upper middle class characters (such as the Stephens on
Bewitched or Bill Davis on
Family Affair) sitcoms characters were portrayed as living more lavishly than they would have in real life. On
That Girl Ann Marie (Marlo Thomas) was a struggling actress who realistically have lived below the poverty line, but she lived in a fancy apartment and had a very posh wardrobe. The absence of a father on
Julia can also be viewed through the lens of television in 1968. In the Sixties, the single parent was something of a sitcom standard. Andy Taylor on
The Andy Griffith Show, Steven Douglas on
My Three Sons, Doris Martin on
The Doris Day Show, and Carolyn Muir on
The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, among others, all raised children without a spouse. In portraying Julia as a widow,
Julia was once again conforming to sitcom tropes of the 1960s.
It must also be pointed out that in the Sixties it was exceedingly rare for American sitcoms to address any sort of social or political issues.
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. centred on the Marine of the title and took place on a military base, yet the Vietnam War was not mentioned during the entire run of the show.
The Andy Griffith Show took place in small Southern town, but there were no Black regulars (although Blacks did appear on the show) and it never dealt with racial issues (the Civil Rights Movement was never addressed at all). In the Sixties American sitcoms were devoted to escapism, and any political or social issues were avoided for the most part. That Julia's husband is acknowledged to have died when his helicopter was shot down in Vietnam was then a major break from other sitcoms of the era. And while
Julia may have been timid in its approach to racism, the fact that it acknowledged its existence at all was also a major break from other sitcoms of the era.
While audiences may have well been ready for a realistic portrayal of African Americans living in the ghetto in 1968, it would seem that most television producers and the broadcast networks were not. It would not be until
All in the Family debuted in 1971 that a sitcom would actually address political and social issues, and even then CBS felt it had to include a warning before its first several episodes. Many of the criticisms of
Julia at the time are valid, but at the same time one has to wonder if the show would have even made it to the air if Julia and Corey had been living in a ghetto and had experienced more extreme forms of prejudice than they had. In 1968 both the networks and TV producers were very cautious with regards to programming. While I am not certain that the theory of the least offensive program was as dominant in the late Sixties as some would lead one to believe, given the emphasis on escapism during the Sixties, network executives and television producers tended to avoid anything that might be too controversial.
Regardless of the controversy,
Julia proved to be a popular show. In its first season it ranked no. 7 for the year in the Nielsen ratings. For its second season, facing new competition in the form of the
ABC Movie of the Week (which ranked no. 22 for the year), it came in at a still respectable no. 28 for the year. In its third season NBC moved
Julia to an earlier time slot (although it remained on Tuesday night) opposite
The Mod Squad. It dropped out of the top thirty for the year, but still it did well enough to warrant renewal. Sadly, the stress over the constant criticism of
Julia, some of which included personal attacks on herself, led Diahann Carroll to ask to be released from her contract in 1970.
Julia then ended its run after three seasons on the air. Its last original episode aired on March 31 1971.
While today
Julia might seem to an unrealistic, if innocuous, sitcom, it can be considered groundbreaking given the shape of television in the Sixties. As mentioned earlier, it was the first sitcom with an African American since
Amos 'n' Andy and
Beulah (the latter of which had gone off the air 15 years before
Julia debuted). What is more, while
Amos 'n' Andy featured gross, racist stereotypes, Julia and the other Black characters on the show were not caricatures. While this might not seem particularly remarkable now, one must consider the fact that for most of the Sixties regular, African American characters were virtually unknown on American sitcoms. In fact, the only one that comes to mind is Sgt. James "Kinch" Kinoche (played by the great Ivan Dixon) on
Hogan's Heroes.As a nurse, Julia Baker was also the female African American character who was a professional on American television. Earlier female Black characters (such as Beulah) were domestics. As mentioned earlier, in having Julia's husband die in Vietnam the show broke with the sitcom tradition of avoiding any important issues.
Julia certainly did have its flaws. Belonging to the middle class, living in a nice apartment, and wearing posh clothing, Julia Baker had little in common with many African Americans in the late Sixties. The show failed to address more extreme types of prejudice even as the Civil Rights Movement was under way.The show lacked a black male lead, something which led to much of the criticism of the show. Still, the fact remains that
Julia proved that a show with a Black lead could be successful. In this way
Julia led to the many, more realistic sitcoms with Black characters in the Seventies. Controversial in its day and in some ways not very revolutionary,
Julia id change American television.
