Two weeks ago at the Cinema Wasteland convention we heard Fred Williamson proudly recount how he smooth-talked producer Hal Kanter into giving him the recurring role of Steve Bruce, steady boyfriend of nurse and single mom Julia Baker (Diahann Carroll) on the TV show JULIA, and we made a mental note to dig up this View-Master packet from the Temple archives. Controversial at the time but in retrospect viewed as something of a joke, despite the fact that it was the first program centered around a black professional woman in a non-demeaning role, JULIA ran on NBC from September 17, 1968 until March 23, 1971 (86 episodes) and had a number of product tie-ins including paper doll books, a lunchbox, Colorforms, a line of Mattel dolls (including a talking Julia doll) and this View-Master pack issued in 1969. Carroll took a lot of heat from large segments of the black community because of the show's safe, lighthearted, nonpolitical and unrealistic depiction of African-American life, but we'll bet JULIA plays better nowadays than it did during the turbulent sixties. It looks great in steroscopic 3-D anyway! We can't post any of the pictures, sadly, but below is the booklet that was issued with the pack. Enjoy!
GREAT FIND!! I LOVE IT!!
ReplyDeleteMy sister had that Julia doll! Fred Williamson also landed himself a TV Guide article in connection with the series, circa 1969-70.
ReplyDeleteI was just mentioning the "Julia" TV series to a friend of mine about two weeks ago, after not thinking about it for eons. And I vividly recall having the colorforms set. Makes me wonder if we had the viewmaster disc as well? Hmm.
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