That Girl (1966–1971)

Ann Marie is a struggling actress living in New York City. In between trying to find jobs acting and modeling she has time for her boyfriend, Don Hollinger, and her dad, Lou Marie.

Creators:

Sam Denoff, Bill Persky

Stars:

Marlo Thomas, Ted Bessell, Lew Parker

Won 1 Golden Globe. Another 2 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Marlo Thomas	...	Ann Marie (137 episodes, 1966-1971)
Ted Bessell	...	Donald Hollinger (137 episodes, 1966-1971)
Lew Parker	...	Lew Marie (62 episodes, 1966-1971)

Storyline

Ann Marie is a struggling actress living in New York City. In between trying to find jobs acting and modeling she has time for her boyfriend, Don Hollinger, and her dad, Lou Marie.

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Plot Keywords:

actress | new york city | independence | 1960s | broadway manhattan new york city | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Also Known As:

Miss Independence

Filming Locations:

Secaucus Railway Junction, Secaucus, New Jersey, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Daisy Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min 30 min (136 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the first season opening credits, Ann walks through Times Square and sees several Broadway marquees. "Philadelphia, Here I Come!" closed on 1 October 1966, while "Cabaret" opened on 20 December 1966 and Neil Simon's "The Star-Spangled Girl" opened on 21 December 1966. The three shows never ran at the same time.

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Goofs

Ann Marie moves to New York City from Brewster, NY, which is on the Metro North Railroad's Harlem Line to Grand Central Terminal. The footage behind the credits was shot on New Jersey Transit's Northeast Corridor Line (photographed from the rear of a train leaving New York and then shown backwards so the train appears to be going to New York, although on the wrong track).

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Crazy Credits

In the opening of the episode "A Tenor's Loving Care", Giuseppe Casanetti says this episode's "That girl" in Itallian. During the freeze frame of Ann, the words "Quella Ragazza" appear in the title font, followed by "(That Girl)" printed in block letters below.

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Connections

Followed by The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie: That Girl in Wonderland (1973)

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Soundtracks

"I've Got You Under My Skin"
Lyrics and music by Cole Porter
Performed by Marlo Thomas and Ted Bessell

User Reviews

The Original Sitcom Starring Marlo Thomas

This was a good show in its day,but for the comedical perspective,especially in several of the episodes,it really lags and slows up the pace. It did have however some good laughs and some good acting and not to mention some of the dialogue for some of the scripts pertaining to the episodes. In all of the five seasons that it ran on ABC-TV from 1966-1971,producing 136 episodes,all in color,"That Girl",was about at the time,beginning the forefront of women's liberation and this show was the pioneer of that too,and this was done four years before the debut of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. This was a milestone in women's liberation at its peak,and was the first show to feature an independent woman who wanted to make it on her own without having to rely or her boyfriend or her parents for support and she did that too. The character of Ann Marie(Marlo Thomas)was a very strong willing independent female making a living for herself against the harsh realities of life in New York City. However,she is in between acting and finding other means of employment(such as acting and modeling)and has time to be with her boyfriend Donald Hollinger(Ted Bessell),and has time to spend once in a while with her parents,Lou and Helen Marie(Lew Parker and Rosemary DeCamp)while living independently in her apartment complex(apartment number 4D)in New York's Upper West Side of Manhattan.

There were times when Ann would find herself in awkward situations which were awkward,but at the same time she always gets Donald to help her. The rest of it was okay,which included some special guest stars including comedian George Carlin making his TV debut on this series. The last season of the series,1970-1971,saw Ann and Donald's relationship finally began to blossom as they finally become engaged as they walked down the aisle of marriage,and the episode where they do become enagaged was in the show's final episode. "That Girl",was produced by the team of Sam Denoff,Bill Persky,Bernie Orenstein,and Saul Turteltaub,under the supervision of its star and creator,Marlo Thomas,who was executive producer of this series under her production company,Daisy Productions,and the other team of executives that were in charge of production:Danny Thomas,Sheldon Leonard,and Ronald Jacobs. However,it was Danny Thomas,who gave executives over at ABC-TV the greenlight for this series,and from there ran for five seasons. The show would have stayed on another couple of seasons,just to see Ann and Donald lived as a married couple,but it never got off the ground.However,after the success of "That Girl",Mario Thomas went on to produced an array of children's educational shows for ABC-TV in the early 1970's,but as for her co-star Ted Bessell,he should have stick with her,but instead made the biggest mistake of his career when he star in the one of the worst TV shows ever made..."Me And The Chimp".

This show needs to reshown again,and it would be possible if cable's TV Land would bring it back. The last time this series was seen was back in the early-1990's when cable's USA Network began aired them.