She was an icon in our house in the late 1960s. I didn’t realize what a groundbreaking TV ‘Julia’ was when I was a kid. Amidst the issue of race, what was sort of overlooked is that the character was one of the first prominent single (widowed) working moms on TV.
More recently, she had a recurring role many years ago on Grey’s Anatomy as the mother of Preston Burke ( Isaiah Washington) and before that as Dominique Deveraux, the half-sister of Blake Carrington (John Forsythe) on Dynasty. Truly a remarkable woman. RIP Diahann.
“Julia” was groundbreaking, altho I had no idea at the time. RIP.
Add me to the list of people who were influenced by her work back in the day. RIP.
I had a friend next door to us and her name was Julia. I was so jealous that she had the same cool name as that cool woman on TV.
Trivia test: Julia was the first major network series anchored by a woman of color.
Name the next one.
Scandal with Kerry Washington.
I watched Julia every week and loved Corey! I also had no clue at the time how groundbreaking the show was; just knew I had to watch it.
Nope.
Get Christie Love! predates Scandal by 38 years.
Well, it’s good it didn’t take until Scandal for another show starring a woman of color.
Not really, because Scandal was the next show after Get Christie Love! But at least in the 2 years after Scandal, 3 network dramas starring AA women premiered: Deception, Extant, and How to Get Away with Murder.
That was long overdue, but other than How to Get Away with Murder, were the other 2 on the air for very long? We still have a way to go.
No. Deception ran one season; Extant ran for two.
It wasn’t that she was the first woman of color that was so big.
It was that she was the first AA that was a Professional on network TV. She wasn’t playing a maid or secretary. That was truly ground breaking. Loved watching it and also didn’t know that it was ground breaking but just a kid also at that time.
Kerry Washington (Scandal) posted a pic of Julia and herself on Instagram saying she would never be where she is (Kerry) without her (Julia).
Loved her in her recurring role on White Collar. She performed a duet with Matt Bomer on the show which really was just to show off their lovely voices. White Collar was a “ buddy” cop (sort of) show. They had to stretch a bit to fit in the singing but it was great.
“Julia” was my first favorite TV show - I had the matching lunchbox.
I have a memory of watching “Julia” one night and seeing a blurb go by that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been shot. I was 9 at the time and I don’t know if this even happened, the blurb, I mean, obviously and sadly, the shooting did.
I lived in a very diverse neighborhood and one of my friend’s mom was an African-American nurse. I was jealous that my friend’s mom’s profession was on TV.
I loved her on Julia, but I really loved her on White Collar in recent years. She had a bit of a bad girl vibe on that show helping out Matt Bomer’s character.
While flipping stations moments ago, I found Julia on the Aspire Network… My husband is not home tonight; I wonder how many episodes I will watch as it is on for another 6 hours! 