Black History Month: Julia

The TV series Julia starring Diahann Carroll ran for three seasons (1968-71) and broke racial barriers. This sitcom marks one of the first times a black female character was able to be the lead and titular character of her own show. The only previous example is the TV sitcom Beulah, which ran on TV from 1950-52. However, this black female character was reduced to playing a racially stereotypical role and a maid in a white household. In Julia, Diahann Carroll plays a widowed single mother raising her young son and working as a nurse. This pleasant sitcom includes a 1968 Christmas episode entitled "I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas."




Julia's son, Corey, and his best friend, Earl J. Waggedorn, argue over whether Santa Claus is a white or black man. Julia takes her son to the tree lot but all the salesman has left on Christmas Eve is a twisted, bent Christmas tree that won’t stand up. That night, we see their friends independently arranging to have three separate black Santa Clauses come to the apartment to visit Corey. The babysitter’s Santa Claus gets lost in the shuffle but the Waggedorn’s Santa Claus pleases Corey as does Dr. Chegley’s Santa--who is actually Julia’s uncle that Chegley has flown in from Kansas.

The highlight of this outstanding holiday episode is hearing Diahann Carroll as Julia singing Christmas carols to her son including ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town,’ ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,’ ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ and ‘Jingle Bells.’

Wait for the heartwarming scene where Earl J. Waggedorn emerges from his bedroom to see his parents with a black Santa Claus, finally realizing Corey has been right all along.

Christmas episode of Julia--Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Entertainer Diahann Carroll has appeared in many TV shows over the years since Julia. Perhaps most memorably she played Dominique Devereaux, the disgruntled sister to Blake Carrington on the primetime soap, Dynasty, as well as Whitley Gilbert's mother on the spin-off sitcom A Different World. However, she also appeared on the 1978 two-hour fiasco, The Star Wars Holiday Special as a titulating musical entertainer on the elder wookie Itchy's Mind Evaporator virtual reality viewing device. If you've seen it, you haven't forgotten this weird scene.

from the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special

Diahann Carroll has had a long and rich career. But I've focused on Julia's Christmas episode to celebrate Black History Month because of the show's special place in TV history and because it features Diahann Carroll at her best.

Star Wars Holiday Special

It seems everyone is talking to me lately about the Star Wars Holiday Special. Tis the season, I guess. I spend five pages of the book discussing it, speculating on what went so horribly wrong. I still can't believe that I didn't see it--or even know about it when it originally aired in 1978. I was their prime target: I was 10 years old, a devoted Star Wars merchandise acquirer and a TV junkie. I'm speculating that my parents actually plotted to keep me from knowing about it and thus watching it as a way to curb the toy demands I was making back then. Lousy parents. But like most everyone else, I had heard the rumors about it and the bootleg VHS copies that floated around for years. Thank god for You Tube--now everyone can now share in the pain of knowing just how bad it really is.

If you are someone who giggles at the mere mention of the SWHS title, you may find some sick joy in watching 2005 's made-for-TV movie Chasing Christmas, starring Tom Arnold. I'm not actually recommending you watch this movie--except that it includes a reference to the 1978 clinker. For you curious few, you may find it entertaining that Tom Arnold's character is treated to a travel in time--ala Ebenezer Scrooge--where he finds himself back in 1978, among other dates. In the scenes during 1978, the Star Wars Holiday Special is supposedly playing on the TV over the bar. A nice nod to a specific time and place in American history. But more devoted Christmas TV watchers may recognize that in this scene from 1978, the SWHS is airing on Christmas Eve--but it actuality it only aired once and it was November 1978. So....there I've gone and spoiled the excitement of it all. But perhaps its enough to know that this more recent made-for-TV movie was attempting to make a nod at such a remarkable piece of television holiday pop culture. Maybe, just maybe I've saved you from another Tom Arnold Christmas movie.