Julia

I was born white in 1963 in a WASP neighborhood in Indiana. But I remembered this show when they came out recently with the new "Nurse" shows--Nurse Jackie and HawthoRNe. I looked it up b/c I couldn't remember the star's name and I was telling a friend about it at work. But I remembered this show that I watched when I was all of 5 years old. Because it mattered. And even then, it pulled me toward where I am now. I have been an RN since 1984, and now work as a nurse practitioner. I am proud to be a nurse. I cried when Obama won the election, because I felt like it was a win for MY side. A huge win--and this show was part of that, the beginnings. I am proud that I have been a part of the "I'd like to teach the world to sing..." generations. That what we have all worked toward is the equality, not just of black and white but of everyone. That we all have value that deserves to be heard and witnessed equally. And I think the fact that this rather brave for the time show (and actress) was able to influence the 5 year old white child of an Alabama bigot to spend a lifetime in the same line of service to others says a hell of a lot about its "epochal" effects on the minds and people of that time. Even today, I think I'd rather be "Julia" than "Jackie". I would feel more respectable. Thank you Ms Carroll and company. You made a difference. I hope today's shows can stand up to the same test. We need nurses, and we need people who cross the lines.

As I write this, the death of Mary Tyler Moore was announced within the last hour. While MTM is rightfully lauded for her role as a single career woman, Diahann Carroll's role in "Julia" broke more ground on more fronts. Ms. Carroll depicted a black woman trying to balance a job as a nurse with raising a 6-year-old son after her husband in the Vietnam War. Add the fact that this series debuted in 1968, there were a LOT of glass ceilings shattered when NBC began airing it and even though it apparently drew criticism, the network stuck with it for three years until Ms. Carroll had had enough.

On top of that, it was a good show, a "dramedy" that was presented in understated fashion without laugh track but with a nice chemistry between the core cast of Ms. Carroll, Marc Copage as her son and old pros Lloyd Nolan and Lurene Tuttle as her doctor boss and charge nurse, respectively. I rate "Julia" a 9 because it could be a little flat at times, but it deserves far, far more attention than it receives even today.

I understand all the 'ground breaking' that this show accomplished. For me it is a warm memory of a different albeit somewhat ironic nature. It is the first TV show I ever watched on our new first time ever colour TV set. This show was in colour and it blew us away. We were pretty much 'the first on our block' to get a colour TV. Man, life was a lot simpler then. I remember Julia and Lloyd Nolan but, have forgotten pretty much everything else about this show. But, at the time we loved it. Of course we also loved the smarties commercials too.

At the time we couldn't care less if the characters were black or white. As I think about it now though. That simple fact that a black woman was portrayed as a person. Not black not white. Was probably a very notable thing to do. Whenever I see Lloyd Nolan in an old TCB movie I always remember him as the doctor on the TV Show Julia.

Diahann Carroll (Dynasty "Dominique Deveraux Lloyd") played "Julia Baker" a single parent and a nurse who had one son "Corey Baker" Marc Copage (The Wave). "Corey Baker" was an adorable little boy. Lloyd Nolan (Peyton Place, Hannah and Her Sisters) "Dr. Morton Chegley" was Julia's boss in the hospital where she worked. This show portraits a role model family of a single parent. Diahann was and is a beautiful woman. I watched the show when I was growing up, dubbed and black and white. I used to look forward to finding the show. I don't think that they dubbed that many episodes, and soon I found myself watching the reruns. But it was ok, because is the show had good values. I have very good memories of the series.

Just for the record, no one seems to have commented on the social importance of this show. It was the first television series to star a black woman. (And one of the few of its time to star any black actor or actress.) It was also important in that it did not play to stereotypes of of the role of black women, let alone single black mothers. Julia was a successful single parent with a career as a nurse at a major hospital where she was respected.

As I recall, while her race was not ignored, it was not the crux of the program.

The content of the show was not terribly exciting, but the matter-of-fact way in which Julia's middle-class life was portrayed was a major step forward for television. In a sense, the somewhat bland quality of many of the episodes was a de facto recognition of the fact that the day-to-day lives and concerns of most people (even fictional TV people) don't really differ based on external factors like race.