Ignorance is an excuse

[skywardprodigal]

In certain contexts, it's unworthy of the person(s) making it.

And in other contexts? Emblematic of how little their best is worth.

Yes, I'm addressing an old meme.

Also: Diahann Carrol's JULIA. If you watched it, know it, please shed some light this way. THANKS!

And Jada Pinkett Smith's Hawthorne. OLD MEME. OLD OLD MEME. OLD MEME

Comments

[littleeva]

I used to watch Julia all the time when I was a kid. What do you want to know?

[skywardprodigal]

Why you watched it. What were some of your favorite moments from it. Why it was significant for you. What do you wish you saw more on tv today from it. What's stuff you don't miss about it.

[littleeva]

Sorry it took so long to get back. It's been a long time since I watched it, but I do remember what my mother said about it. She said Julia wasn't so unusual, even for a black woman. Julia was a nurse and her husband was killed in Vietnam, which meant she got a pension for herself and for her son who was underage. The reason why the show was considered a big deal was because her boss, who hired her didn't mind that she was "a Negro." I can remember that was what one of the reviewers said about it, that her boss hired her and said, "She's a Negro, so what?" That was a radical idea at the time.

[skywardprodigal]

No worries.

I'm gladdened by your information. Thank you for sharing.

<3

[elektra_lyte]

I watched it when I was six or seven but honestly, I don't remember much. I did have a Julia lunch pail so somebody in my family really liked it. What did you want to know?

[skywardprodigal]

Why you watched it. What were some of your favorite moments from it. Why it was significant for you. What do you wish you saw more on tv today from it. What's stuff you don't miss about it.

Thanks for commenting!

[elektra_lyte]

Why I watched it? Well, I was very young then (1970 I was six) but I was already looking out for any black characters on TV (Kinchloe from Hogan's Heroes, Barney from Mission Impossible, and of course Uhura). Julia was the star of her own show so it was a huge deal.

Favorite moments? I can't remember anything specific about the show. I think I may have had a crush on her son...

Significance? It was very important to me that Julia was beautiful and I remember getting in an argument with a girl about it at school. Also, her husband died in Vietnam. I didn't like that because my dad was going to have to go there (he was in the Air Force). Very distressing.

Sorry, I'm sure you were looking for something more analytical. :( If only I had been a couple of years older, or caught the show in reruns...

[skywardprodigal]

Thanks so much, bb!

Six and already got your eye out for black peepulz. Ain't that a b? I wonder if you look harder now than you did then. Seems like I'm always looking for a black character in some show. (*gives Friends and How I Met Your Mother the stink-eye*)

I can't remember anything specific about the show. I think I may have had a crush on her son...

He was super cute, iir (from re-runs).

Very distressing.

*hugs*

Sorry

Please don't be. I'm glad of what you've read and shared. Thank you.

I'm sure you were looking for something more analytical.

I wasn't. :)

:( If only I had been a couple of years older, or caught the show in reruns...

This, what you've shared, is good enough for me right here. :D

[abydosangel]

I was about to write this long thing about Claudine ...then I realized it was the wrong name-titled thing of hers.

[skywardprodigal]

*hugs*

You still gonna write it, and, oddly enough, I was thinking of you when I wrote this. You and 'bana and...yeah. You know?

[bana05]

Yep. The more things don't change. *smh*

[skywardprodigal]

Yep. Over sixty episodes for a show that aired in '68 (and Nichelle says she was up for it, but declined to stay with Trek!) and what do we have now?

Hawthorne. I'm gonna give it a look, but I'm tired of mutton dressed as lamb.

[bana05]

At least try to update it and make her divorced, you know?

[skywardprodigal]

Put him in Iraq or Afghanistan or New Orleans or on an oil rig. SOMETHING.

I'm so glad you're writing. I'm so glad Campbell's book dropped too.

[ext_59120]

I watched it. I was mostly interested in it because it echoed my family. I had a relative who was a nurse (Head of Nursing in fact), though her husband was alive and her children were way older than I; adults. But it was the first glimmer of tv that showed anything like what my family looked like. My mom was a single mom, my aunt was a nurse, etc.

Of course I watched it in the early 80's (I think) when Bim bought the rights to air the series in the country. Or I watched it when visiting family in the US, but again that'd be in the 80's.

So that's way after the original airing, yes? After Julia, I remember watching the Cosby show (for having a black family) which kickstarted my fascination with brownstones. I never did like that show that had the tall skinny guy - JJ I think his name was.

[skywardprodigal]

Thanks for your thoughts and memories and impressions.

The show with JJ was good times. Did I ever tell you about the time I went to renew my green card, and one of my brothers and one of his tall, lanky, skinny, white, artist best friends started a rousing rendition of the Good Times theme song up in there?

Pre-911 of course. Bi. Zarre.

I liked bits of the show. I loved the theme song. I loved Janet in it. Florida...James... Wait, I think I felt everybody but JJ. And him the artist! My fave episode is probably when he painted a black Jesus. :D

[elektra_lyte]

True story, the dad James, his son KC went to the same college I did. One day, I got in the financial aid line and he was in the front talking with the receptionist. All I could think was, "wow, that's why KC talks about his dad all the time, he's John Amos," and "hey, he's not as tall as I thought he was." He seemed pretty nice but I was too shy to say hi.

[skywardprodigal]

Thanks for sharing this. :D