When we learn about history (American, world or otherwise), we consume it as life changing events that shape the world we live in today. The history of television is no different. When studying the history of African- American television, I look with a prideful eye on the hit sitcom, Julia. I'll admit that it's partially because that's my name, but the fact that it was the first show with an African America woman as a lead that lasted beyond its premier season also makes me smile (being an African American woman myself). However, that's me looking back on a historical fact. Just like I know that during the same year that Julia first aired, Kennedy was assassinated, Dr. King was assassinated, the U.S. was in the latter part of the Vietnam War, and African Americans were fighting a war of their own for civil rights all history stuff, all stuff that has affected the world today. All of this history was at one point present and occurred during the same times and all of them worked together v/s including Julia v/s in impacting their own significance and the world around it.
After its pilot episode in September of 1968, Variety magazine printed, "One of the more dubious benefits in the long hard struggle for civil rights has got to be a situation comedy featuring Negroes. This show biz genre is an embarrassment to the entire human race." Julia (Diahann Carroll) was an African American woman, widowed after her husband died in a tragic helicopter accident in Vietnam. She inherited $10,000 which provided here with enough money to move her and her son into a very nice apartment in an integrated community. The statement printed in Variety magazine implied that the show was a shameless tactic to promote ideas of civil rights and black integration. Still, the article went on to praise the effort, only pointing out one negative criticism. The exposure of prejudice was found to be too blatant.
