That Girl

That Girl
That Girl opening title.
Format	Sitcom
Created by	Bill Persky Sam Denoff
Starring	Marlo Thomas Ted Bessell Lew Parker Bernie Kopell Rosemary DeCamp
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	136
Production
Running time	25 minutes
Production company(s)	Daisy Productions
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	September 8, 1966 – September 10, 1971

That Girl is an American television situation comedy that ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971. It starred Marlo Thomas as the title character, Ann Marie, an aspiring (but only sporadically employed) actress, who had moved from her hometown of Brewster, New York to make it big in New York City. Ann had to take a number of offbeat "temp" jobs to support herself in between her various auditions and bit parts, though she nonetheless was able to afford a spacious Manhattan apartment as well as an extensive wardrobe of mod fashions. Ted Bessell played her boyfriend Donald Hollinger, a writer for Newsview Magazine; Lew Parker and Rosemary DeCamp played Lou Marie and Helen Marie, her concerned parents. Bernie Kopell and Ruth Buzzi played Ann & Donald's friends. That Girl was developed by writers Bill Persky and Sam Denoff, who served as head writers on The Dick Van Dyke Show (which Thomas' father Danny Thomas was closely associated with) earlier in the 1960s.

Each episode began with a pre-credits teaser in which an odd incident would occur or a discussion would foreshadow the episode's story. The scene would almost always end with someone exclaiming "...that girl!" just as Ann wanders into the shot or the character notices her. The words "That Girl" would appear over the freeze-frame shot of Ann. The opening credits featured Thomas, in character, ambitiously strolling the streets of New York and flying a kite. In the last season, lyrics were added to the theme song.

That Girl was the first sitcom to focus on a single woman who was not a domestic or living at home. Some consider this show the forerunner of the highly successful Mary Tyler Moore Show and Murphy Brown, and an early indication of the changing roles of American women in Feminist-era America. Thomas's goofy charm, together with Bessell's dry wit and the strong chemistry they shared, made the show a strong performer during its five-year run.

In the beginning of the fifth season, Don and Ann became engaged, although they never actually married. The decision to leave the couple engaged at the end of the run of the series was largely the idea of Thomas herself. She didn't want to send a message to young women that marriage was the ultimate goal for them.^[1]

Although never officially credited as such (and Persky and Denoff are the "official" creators and executive producers), Thomas was, in fact, the de facto creator and executive producer of the series through her Daisy Productions, which she formed specifically for the series; it was credited on-screen as the production company.^[2][3]

Production Notes

• That Girl was filmed at Desilu Cahuenga (now called Ren-Mar Studios) located at 846 N. Cahuenga Blvd. in Hollywood.^[4]

• Marlo's sister Terre Thomas, her brother Tony Thomas, and her father Danny Thomas all appeared in a 1969 episode called "My Sister's Keeper".

Popular culture

The show was a influence, as well as a predecessor to other shows, mostly The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Murphy Brown, which both have to do with single women, who make it on ther own.

The show's theme song and opening visuals have been parodied in pop culture several times. They appeared as a series of T-shirts, then as a Saturday Night Live skit featuring cast member Danitra Vance in an African American remake That Black Girl, as a sequence on episodes of Animaniacs, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Arthur and Roseanne.

It was also parodied in the precredits teaser of an episode of The Nanny where Maxwell's guest-starring mother encounters Fran at the florist; in another episode of The Nanny, Peter Bergman, playing himself acting in The Young and the Restless casts Fran in the soap by asking for a co-star like "that girl!" while pointing to Fran.

The series Family Guy parodied the sequence in "Mr. Griffin Goes to Washington". An episode from Ugly Betty had Fabia forcing Wilhelmina Slater into making an exchange: She'll give up her wedding date to Wilhelmina in exchange for the services of Wilhelmina's assistant, Marc St. James, after Fabia evoke those famous opening lines.

Marlo Thomas played Rachel's mother, Sandra Green, in the series Friends. The character, Phoebe Buffay, (Lisa Kudrow) can sometimes be seen wearing a That Girl T-shirt.

DVD releases

Shout! Factory has released all five seasons of That Girl on DVD in Region 1.

References

External links

• That Girl at the Internet Movie Database
• That Girl at TV.com
• That Girl page on Shout! Factory