Diahann Carroll said in interview that the show ended when she asked to be let out of her television contract, having grown tired of the controversy surrounding the show from its inception.
This show was controversial because it was the subject of constant criticism that it did not realistically portray the lives of blacks in America. Diahann Carroll continuously defended it in interviews, saying that it was a "fantasy" and that very little on TV showed life as it really was. The show may have been ahead of its time, and when The Cosby Show (1984) premiered and became a mega-hit, the American public showed that it finally was ready for a show of its type.
Throughout its run, the series drew positive reactions concerning its handling of race issues. In one memorable story line during the first series, the young precocious Earl J. Waggedorn politely asks Julia "What is it like to be colored?" Julia responds "Why don't you tell me?" After a short pause, Earl J. responds "But I'm not colored?", and Julia replies "Well, white is a color." While much of the dialog like most things in that time is out of step with shows from later years, this was the first prime time television show that even engaged in the discussion. Approaching his retirement, actor Lloyd Nolan said in a TV interview that, in retrospect, it was one of the roles of which he was most proud.
First TV series starring an African-American woman in a professional, non-stereotypical role. (The first TV series starring a black woman was Beulah (1950), variously starring Ethel Waters, Hattie McDaniel, and Louise Beavers in the title role as a comic maid.)
One of the few sitcoms from the 1960s to not have a laugh track.