brucebaskin 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.

movie-132 The complaints about the show not "reflecting black life" miss the point. It was intended a light-hearted entertainment with a strong dose of moral uplift.At a time when white folks across the country were seeing cities torn apart by riots, Jewish TV and movie producers in Hollywood wanted to do their duty to heal the world (Hebrew: "tikkun olam") by persuading white gentiles that black folks were "just like them".So they presented this squeaky clean high achieving black woman, who was married not to a black radical, but to a Great American Hero, who sacrifices his life for his country (and therefore we white folks really owe his widow and orphan son a lot, don't we?). It was a brilliant move. A complete lie (as black folks recognized at the time) but very, very effective is swaying white gentile attitudes in the USA.

gcapp-1 I enjoyed the series and was sorry to see it canceled... apparently Diahann Carroll was finding it too stressful.The episodes list is extremely fouled up. I checked another series (Hogan's Heroes) for a hint of the episode numbering format, so here goes.First, delete all cast occurrences of Diahann Carroll (Julia Baker), Marc Copage (Corey Baker), Michael Link (Earl J. Waggedorn), Betty Beaird (Marie Waggedorn) and Lloyd Nolan (Dr. Chegley) as they appear in most or all episodes. Correct spelling of Hannah Yarby in some episodes.Second, re-sequence episodes so they're in date order, probably by renumbering some episodes (none should be higher than Episode 30!).Season 1, Episode 8 has a non-conforming date.Season 2: Episode 10 and Episode 40 should be merged as Episode 10. Episode 33 should be Episode 3. Ep 34 should be Ep 4. Episode 36 should be Episode 6. Episode 38 should be Episode 8. Episode 42 should be Episode 12. Episode 12 ("Hilda's No Help") should be Episode 13. Episode 46 should be Episode 16. Episode 48 should be Episode 18. Episode 52 should be Episode 22. Episode 53 should be Episode 23. Episode 54 should be Episode 24. Episode 57 should be Episode 27. Episode 59 should be Episode 29.Season 3: Episodes 61/62/63 should be Episodes 1/2/3 respectively. Episode 6's air date should probably be 20 October. I don't know where Episode "66" belongs. Episodes 67/68/69 should be Episodes 7/8/9 respectively. Episode 74 should be Episode 14. Episode 80 should be Episode 20.Missing episodes total 36, which would include the three at the bottom marked "Unknown Season", would be: Season 1, Ep 3 (1 October 1968), Ep 4 (8 October), Ep 5 (15 October), Ep 8 (5 or 12 November), Eps 9 to 13 (5 of the 6 dates from 12 Nov to 17 Dec), Ep 15 (31 Dec 1968), Ep 16 (7 Jan 1969), Ep 17 (14 January); Ep 19 (28 January), Ep 22 (18 Feb), Ep 23 (25 Feb), Ep 25 (11 March), Ep 26 (18 March), Ep 27 (25 March). (18 missing) Season 2, Ep 1 (16 Sept 1969), Ep 7 (4 November), Ep 14 (23 or 30 December), Ep 15 (30 Dec 1969 or 6 January 1970), Ep 17 (20 January), Ep 19 (3 February), Ep 20 (10 February), Ep 25 (17 March), Ep 28 (14 April). (9 missing) Season 3, Ep 10 (24 November 1970), Ep 11 (1 December 1970), Ep 13 (15 or 22 December 1970), Ep 15 (5 January 1971), Ep 18 (26 January), Ep 21 (16 February), Ep 22 (23 February), Ep 24 (9 March), Ep 26 (23 March). (9 missing) One of the missing episodes is titled "Father of Bribery", and might be Richard's first appearance. Another missing episode featured Corey's television hero, Captain Blastoff. That would leave 31 still missing.I hope the episode numbers can be corrected, while leaving gaps, of course, for the missing episodes.

raysond Long before she became Dominique Deveraux on "Dynasty",she set ground here as being the first African-American woman to star in her own weekly TV series which was a milestone when it premiered in the fall of 1968. Julia was just that: a single parent and nurse who raised her son and working for Dr. Chegley,who was in charge of the hospital where she was employed. The show was brilliant in depicting the role model of the family and the single parent which had some good moral values which you don't find that in some shows today. Marc Copage was absolutely adorable as her son Corey,and I really like Micheal Link as Corey's playmate Earl J. Waggedorn. To this day,the show is rarely seen on some stations,but Diahann Carroll was one of the most beautiful women in the world when this show made its mark on the NBC network. I had very good memories of this show,and I wish they would do a TV movie on "Julia",bringing back the original cast for a reunion. Note: Lloyd Nolan who played the Doctor on the show recently passed away,but his status will live on with this landmark series.