Thursday, September 8, 1966 is a very important date in television. Many know it as the date that the classic Star Trek debuted, but other important shows also debuted on that date. One of them was Tarzan, starring Ron Ely, the first television adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs's hero. Another was That Girl, starring Marlo Thomas. While it would not leave as big a footprint on pop culture as Star Trek, in many ways That Girl was equally important. Quite simply, it was the first television show to centre on a single, independent woman who lived on her own, this four years before The Mary Tyler Moore Show debuted.
That Girl centred on Ann Marie (Marlo Thomas), who had moved from the small town of Brewster, New York to New York City to pursue a career as an actress. Like many young actresses, Ann Marie had to take odd jobs when she wasn't acting in order to make ends meet. Her boyfriend was Don Hollinger (Ted Bessell), a writer for NewView. Her father, Lew Marie (Lew Parker),, ran a restaurant in Brewster. Lew could sometimes get exasperated with Don and could he could be overprotective of Ann, but he basically liked Don (although he wouldn't admit it). In contrast to Lew, Ann's mother Ann was warm and supportive towards Don, although like Lew, she worried about her daughter being in New York City. Jerry Bauman (Bernie Koppell) was Don's fellow writer at NewsView. With the second season, he moved into the same apartment as Ann and became her neighbour.
The genesis of That Girl began with a failed pilot for a prospective show titled Two's Company, in which Marlo Thomas played a former model who returns to modelling after her husband (Ron Husmann) left his job at a law firm. While Two's Company did not sell ABC executive Edgar Sherick still saw potential in Marlo Thomas as the star of her own show. Various scripts were written for a potential sitcom for Marlo Thomas, although in most of them she would have played a traditional wife for girlfriend role. What Marlo Thomas had in mind was a show centred on a young, independent woman who had aspirations of her own.
It was Danny Thomas who approached writers Bill Persky and Sam Denoff about developing a sitcom for his daughter Marlo Thomas. Messrs. Persky and Denoff had written several episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show, as well as episodes of McHale's Navy, The Joey Bishop Show, and The Bill Dana Show. At the time, the two of them had begun work on their sitcom Good Morning World, which would star Ronnie Schell and Joby Baker), so they weren't particularly eager to do so. In the end, Good Morning World only lasted a single season, while That Girl would go onto last five seasons. While Bill Persky and Sam Denoff are credited as the creators of That Girl, Marlo Thomas had a good deal of say and served as a de facto executive producer, although she was never credited as such.
That Girl would see some changes from its unaired pilot episode. In its pilot, it was Harold Gould who played Ann's father. ABC wanted the part re-cast, and so Lew Parker was cast in the role of Ann's father. In the pilot, her mother was played by Penny Santon. This role was also recast, with Rosemary DeCamp taking the part over in the regular series. Strangely enough, ABC also wanted to get rid of Ted Bessell as Ann's boyfriend. Marlo Thomas fought to keep Ted Bessell, although his character would be entirely reconceived. In the pilot, Ted Bessell's character was part Cherokee and named Ted Blue Sky. Rather than being a writer for NewsView magazine, he was also Ann's agent.
That Girl was originally titled Miss Independence (a nickname her father and mother had given her as a child), although the the title was changed to That Girl before the original pilot was shot. The title would be included in every single teaser for the show, with the dialogue in the teaser inevitably turning to Ann Marie with one of the characters (sometimes Ann herself) referring to Ann as "that girl." At that point the camera would freeze frame on Ann. The theme song was written by Earle Hagen, who had also written the theme song to The Andy Griffith Show. For the first four seasons, the theme was an instrumental, but for the fifth season lyrics were added to the theme. The lyrics were written by Sam Denoff.
While the central cast of That Girl (Marlo Thomas, Ted Bessell, Bernie Kopell, Lew Parker, and Rosemary DeCamp) remained the same throughout the show's run, its supporting cast would change over the years. In the first season, obstetrician Leon Bessmer (Dabney Coleman) and his wife Judy (Bonnie Scott) were Ann's neighbours. In only one episode of the first season Arlene Golonka played Jerry's wife Margie. With the second season and with no explanation of what happened to Margie, Jerry's wife was Ruth (Carol Ann Daniels) and they were now Ann's neighbours. Started with the fourth season, Ruth was played by Alice Borden. Ronnie Schell appeared as Ann's agent in a few episodes. Marcy (Reva Rose) was one of Ann's friends who appeared in the fifth and final season.
That Girl would feature several notable guest stars. Ethel Merman (playing herself), Sid Caesar, Milton Berle all appeared on the show. The episode "My Sister's Keeper" is notable for guest starring Marlo Thomas's sister Terre Thomas and her brother Tony Thomas, as well as a cameo by her father Danny Thomas.
While That Girl never ranked in the top thirty of the Nielsen ratings during its run, it still did moderately well. By the fourth season, Marlo Thomas wanted to end the show, but ABC convinced her to do a fifth and final season. It was during the fifth season that Ann and Don finally became engaged, although they never married on the show. ABC executives, as well as the show's sponsor Clairol, wanted Ann and Don to marry in the final episode, but Marlo Thomas rejected the idea for multiple reasons. The primary reason was that she felt it would send the message to younger, female viewers that marriage was the proper happy ending for any young woman.
That Girl would have a sequel of sorts. In 1973, the animated TV movie That Girl in Wonderland aired as part of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie. In the TV movie, Ann fantasizes about being in Alice in Wonderland, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Wizard of Oz, and Cinderella. Of the original cast of the show, only Marlo Thomas returned as Ann, with Ted Schwartz voicing Don.
The last new episode of That Girl aired on March 19, 1971. ABC aired reruns of the show on its daytime schedule from 1969 to 1972, It would prove to have a successful run in syndication on local television stations. When Nick-at-Nite launched as a programming block on Nickelodeon on July 1, 1985, it was among the shows that aired. It was also one of the shows aired on TV Land starting with its launch in 1996. It has since aired on MeTV, Antenna TV, Catchy Comedy, and MeTV+. All five seasons of That Girl has been released on DVD. It is also available on multiple streaming services, including Tubi, Plex, Pluto, Xumo Play, YouTube, and yet others.
At the time that That Girl debuted, it was a rather unique show in more ways that one. Television in 1966 was still dominated by what Sherwood Schwarz called "imaginative comedies," sitcoms that either had fantastic premises to begin with (Bewitched, I Dream of Jeanie) or had episodes bordering on the fantastic (Gilligan's Island, The Monkees) or rural comedies (The Andy Griffith Show and so on). That Girl was somewhat grounded in reality, with nary a Martin or witch in sight, and it was set in New York City.
What really set That Girl apart was that Ann Marie was an independent, single woman trying to make it on her own. She was not someone's wife. She was not someone's secretary, maid, or other sort of employee. While she had a boyfriend, her world did not revolve around him. She had her own dreams and her own aspirations. Many young women in the Sixties, trying to make a career for themselves, probably saw much of themselves in Ann Marie. If That Girl has remained popular for the past sixty years, it is perhaps because it was th first of its kind.
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