Julia was the first weekly TV series that starred a Black woman in a role that wasn’t servile.
“It was one of the first [series] to show African Americans in a middle-class environment versus a stereotypical environment where they’re servants basically,” said Marc Copage, who played Corey Baker, the young son of Diahann Carroll’s title character, a widowed nurse. “Julia was probably the first independent Black woman on TV. Diahann was a huge role model for a lot of popular Black actresses that are thriving today.”
Sanford and Son (NBC, 1972–1977)
The first network series to feature a predominantly Black cast since Amos ‘n’ Andy in the ’50s, Sanford and Son starred Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson as an entrepreneurial father-and-son duo navigating life’s ups and downs in Los Angeles’ Watts neighborhood.
With Sanford and Son, Norman Lear develped a show American TV watchers hadn’t seen before (it was based on the popular British series Steptoe and Son), but that still felt familiar. The series’ lead character, Fred Sanford (Foxx), was the Black counter to Archie Bunker on All in the Family (which Lear also created). However, to see a Black man do it unapologetically — Foxx’s tendency to freestyle and deliver iconic one-liners brought levity to the proceedings — is part of what made Sanford and Son a hit.
“I believe laughter and joy adds time to one’s life,” Lear told PEOPLE in 2022. “Redd Foxx absolutely added time to my life. His earlobes were funny. His knuckles were funny.”
The Jeffersons (CBS, 1975–1985)
The Jeffersons was one of the first shows to portray an upper middle class Black family, paving the way for The Cosby Show and other successors. Also striking was that George Jefferson shockingly shared his cynicism about White people and race in America via blunt humor and uncomfortable truths. It was also one of the first shows to feature an interracial couple and Blackness across socio-economic statuses.
“We always wanted them to reflect America, like showing a well-off Black family,” Norman Lear, who developed the sitcom, told PEOPLE in 2022. “While we were creating the show, three members of the Black Panthers came to my office to complain about the ‘garbage’ they were seeing on TV. They were upset about Blacks only being portrayed as poor or as maids, that kind of stereotyping. Thankfully the meeting ended better than it began, as we were already creating The Jeffersons.”
Added Oz Scott, who directed 40 episodes of the sitcom: “I think people saw themselves [in the characters], and they had something to aspire to.”
