Alan Alda, Lily and Richard Pryor as Jimmy, Opal and Juke
in Lily’s second CBS special, “Lily” 1973

“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)