In 1959 there was a movie called The Best of Everything with Hope Lange, Suzy Parker and an older Joan Crawford. It serves as a basis for what That Girl became. If you haven't seen it you should take a look at it. In That Girl, Marlo Thomas is Ann Marie, a young single woman who lives in mid 60s Manhattan New York. She's perky, physically and in her behavior, comes across a little naive and holds an odd series of jobs from episode to episode but doesn't seem to be consistently employed while living in a Manhattan apartment. (Perhaps shes not too far from the luxurious Manhattan high rise Uncle Bill from Family Affair lived in around the same time.) The show presents Manhattan in a more friendly way than the drug and crime riddled haven it became in cop shows like Kojak in the 1970s. Ann from the show's start meets a handsome young magazine writer name Donald and they become a steady item. Ann's parents, Lew and Helen, are routinely in her life. It's an accepted touch by the writers to show single Ann has a bedrock to fall on if she gets into trouble, you know the innocent girl in the big bad city.
This show is usually compared with the later Mary Tyler Moore Show which premiered the year That Girl ended 1970-71. Indeed Mary Tyler Moore herself played a girl even more naive than Ann Marie in movie musical called Thoroughly Modern Millie about a wide eyed innocent who goes to the Big Apple to live in the 1920s. With the sexual revolution looming toward the close of the 1960s its easy to see why That Girl would've been canceled after five years by Thomas herself(Marlo was one of the producers). The issue of Ann Marie & Donald consummating their relationship sexually is never dealt with, not even obliquely, while the later Mary Richard was in charge and obviously was not a virgin. Hence, the change in the nature of television in just a few years. That Girl really belongs to the apparently 'paper mache chocolate eclair' no problems optimism of the 1950s(remember The Best of Everything movie). That Girl wasn't about to deal head on with social, sexual and Vietnam related topics of the 1960s while in real life these issues were swirling about its production as the 60s wore on. Preferably That Girl is typical harmless comedic 60s family entertainment.
This show is usually compared with the later Mary Tyler Moore Show which premiered the year That Girl ended 1970-71. Indeed Mary Tyler Moore herself played a girl even more naive than Ann Marie in movie musical called Thoroughly Modern Millie about a wide eyed innocent who goes to the Big Apple to live in the 1920s. With the sexual revolution looming toward the close of the 1960s its easy to see why That Girl would've been canceled after five years by Thomas herself(Marlo was one of the producers). The issue of Ann Marie & Donald consummating their relationship sexually is never dealt with, not even obliquely, while the later Mary Richard was in charge and obviously was not a virgin. Hence, the change in the nature of television in just a few years. That Girl really belongs to the apparently 'paper mache chocolate eclair' no problems optimism of the 1950s(remember The Best of Everything movie). That Girl wasn't about to deal head on with social, sexual and Vietnam related topics of the 1960s while in real life these issues were swirling about its production as the 60s wore on. Preferably That Girl is typical harmless comedic 60s family entertainment.