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"Lily" was never shown again on network television,
which is not surprising, given that part of its radicalism is based
on the fact that it features a white female star who tries to embody
a black woman while communicating with a black man about substantive
emotional matters, and who never wears anything as theatrically simple
as blackface to do it; Tomlin plays Opal in whiteface, as it were. Nevertheless,
"Juke and Opal," which lasts all of nine minutes and twenty-five seconds,
and which aired in the same season in which "Hawaii Five-O," "The Waltons,"
and Ironside" were among television's top-rated shows, remains historically
significant for reasons other than the skin game. (by Hilton Als, The
New Yorker Magazine)
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