"Julia nealy killed me" says Dihann Carroll.

[ThomasE]

Doing the show was nearly stressing her out. She was rushed to the hospital twice during tapings due to stress. She was experiencing fatigue and dropped to 99lbs at the end of the second season. At first I was like, "why did you leave after 3 years, Diahann?" But I can understand why. Whew!

[Central Perk]

I heard her life was threatened by people.

[Pitooey]

If her life was threatened, that is so sad. When you're in the public eye you get threatened alot. :(

[Fan of old shows]

Yea its not fair.

[ThomasE]

Originally posted by JennyLee22
If her life was threatened, that is so sad. When you're in the public eye you get threatened alot. :(

The public should have left her alone. The show was so innocent. I loved it.

[Pitooey]

I think this was the first show with a black person starring in it. That's why she got so sick. She probably had gotten death threats and who knows what else. I'm glad she made it through and still is with us today. She is a beautiful woman.

[TJAMES03]

I also read somewhere that the terminal illness of actress Diana Sands nearly drove DC to a nervous breakdown.

[Coffeecup]

Who was Diana Sands?

[TJAMES03]

Who was Diana Sands?

Below is a biography on Diana Sands that I copied from www.findagrave.com. I believe that she appeared on "Julia" every once in awhile. She was a very dear and much beloved friend of Ms. Carroll's in real-life.

Diana Sands

Birth: Aug. 22, 1934
Death: Sep. 21, 1973

Acclaimed African-American Actress. From the Bronx, New York, her father was a carpenter, and her mother a milliner. Sands went to elementary school in Elmsford, New York, and racial discrimination forced her back to the Manhattan High School of the Performing Arts. After graduation in 1953, she toured with a carnival, returned to New York and began acting with the Greenwich Mews and in show tours while working night jobs to survive. She made her stage debut in George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara. Sands’ was spared from becoming a permanent keypunch operator at Con Edison with the 1957 role in "Land Beyond the River". In 1958 she appeared in "The Egg and I" and "Another Evening with Harry Stones". In 1959 she appeared in Daniel Petrie's film version of the Lorraine Hansberry play, "A Raisin in the Sun" (1961), playing "Beneatha Younger" beside with Ruby Dee and Claudia McNeil. 1964 was an exciting year for her. She won an "OBIE" for "Living Premise" and a Tony nomination for her role in James Baldwin’s "Blues for Mr. Charlie" and was then cast opposite Alan Alda in "The Owl and The Pussycat" which would have been unexceptional if portrayed by a white actress, but Miss Sands stepped into the role with no alteration in the script whatsoever, in a landmark performance introducing integration to the American cinema. In 1968, She garnered two Emmy nominations for "Beyond the Blues" and “Who Do You Kill,” She starred with Jeff Bridges in "The Landlord" in 1970, portraying "Fanny", a young ghetto mother who teaches her rich-boy white landlord what life is really all about. Diana performed at the Lincoln Center Theater as Cassandra in "Tiger at the Gates" and the lead in George Bernard Shaw’s "St. Joan." She and director Kurt Baker were engaged. and was to star opposite James Earl Jones in the production of "Claudine," but she fell ill during the summer of 1973, and died of cancer on September 21. She was just 39 years old.

[ahem]

Does anyone ever see "Julia" anymore?

[ThomasE]

I don't get to see it in syndication. It is rare to get to see it now.

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...on TV LAND, about a dozen years ago. Time-compressed, a laugh track slathered over all the episodes where there WASN'T one in the original broadcasts....20th Century-Fox Television doesn't care about the series, or it'd be playing on one of their cable outlets now {FX? FOX MOVIE CHANNEL? FOX SPORTS CHANNEL??}, or released on home video.

Sure, Diahann Carroll went through hell during production of the series. It's hard when you were the first black lead in a situation comedy since "THE BEULAH SHOW" 15 years before, and so many concerned eyes watching your every move...and the fights with producer Hal Kanter over HOW "Julia" should react to situations and the like...he threw in the towel before she did, and left the show in other hands by the end of 1970. The ratings actually killed the series, 'Thomas'. There weren't enough viewers to justify a fourth season...and NBC was letting their sitcoms slip through their corporate fingers during that period, anyway. Other than "SANFORD & SON"- name ONE OTHER NBC situation comedy that aired between 1971 and 1974?


:tv:

[jehobden]

...on TV LAND, about a dozen years ago. Time-compressed, a laugh track slathered over all the episodes where there WASN'T one in the original broadcasts....20th Century-Fox Television doesn't care about the series, or it'd be playing on one of their cable outlets now {FX? FOX MOVIE CHANNEL? FOX SPORTS CHANNEL??}, or released on home video.

Sure, Diahann Carroll went through hell during production of the series. It's hard when you were the first black lead in a situation comedy since "THE BEULAH SHOW" 15 years before, and so many concerned eyes watching your every move...and the fights with producer Hal Kanter over HOW "Julia" should react to situations and the like...he threw in the towel before she did, and left the show in other hands by the end of 1970. The ratings actually killed the series, 'Thomas'. There weren't enough viewers to justify a fourth season...and NBC was letting their sitcoms slip through their corporate fingers during that period, anyway. Other than "SANFORD & SON"- name ONE OTHER NBC situation comedy that aired between 1971 and 1974?


:tv:

This explains why the Season 3 opening credits only state "Created by Hal Kanter" and not "Created and Produced by Hal Kanter". NBC cancelled Julia (already in reruns) late in May 1971 and moved The Bill Cosby Show (also in reruns for its 2nd & final season) into Julia's Tuesday night timeslot, and Red Skelton Show reruns took over NBC's long-volatile Sunday night 8:30 (7:30 Central) timeslot that Cosby's reruns had vacated. Hal Kanter's next series creation, The Jimmy Stewart Show (1 NBC sitcom in the 1971-74 time period at least), took over that Sunday night timeslot for its last year as Procter & Gamble's timeslot before The NBC Mystery Movie replaced both it and Bonanza on Sunday nights.

RIP Hal Kanter

[comedyfreak]

It's a shame the show didn't last longer it was one of my favorite shows at the time.

[rjt100]

It's very simple, "Julia" was cancelled during the 1970-71 season due to low ratings. It fell way out of the Top 40 Shows. It was only a hit during its' first season (7th place). During the second season "Julia" fell to 27th place and finally was cancelled during season three.

[ThomasE]

I'm still hearing about how she wanted to leave and was let out of her contract. I knew the ratings began to sink but I did not think it would be to the point of cancellation.

I got a chance to view several episodes with original commercials the Paley Center. It was awesome. I have some eps here that I taped from Nick At Nite and TV Land. I loved Julia. She would be my type of woman. LOL.

[KurtfromPitts]

NBC did have a few comedies from 1971-74, but none were successes. Aside from "The Little People"-"The Brian Keith Show", none of them, to the best of my knowledge, lasted beyond one season.

[ThomasE]

Well, I wish Julia had returned as a midseason replacement with 13 or 14 episode that way there would have been or almost been a 100 episode count.

[Stuck In The '70's]

NBC did have a few comedies from 1971-74, but none were successes. Aside from "The Little People"-"The Brian Keith Show", none of them, to the best of my knowledge, lasted beyond one season.
sanford and Son was the main one.