That Girl was an American TV program that was broadcast on ABC, from September 8th, 1966 to March 19, 1971. Starring Marlo Thomas as, Ann Marie an aspiring actress, who moves to Brewster New York in her dreams to make it big! To support herself she takes a number of temp jobs with auditions.

It’s important to notice, this is the first sitcom to have to have an unmarried woman who was not living with her parents or a domestic, and was a fore runner to the Mary Tyler Moore show.

It also starred Ted Besssell as her boyfriend, Donald Holliniger a writer who worked at newsview magizine. Lew Parker and Rosemary DeCamp portrayed her parents, as Lew Marie and Helen Marie. Bernie Kopeel and Ruth Buzzi were Ann and Donald’s friends.

“That Girl” was developed by, Bill Persky and Sam Demoff who served as head writers of the Danny Thomas Show, which Marlo Thomas father, Danny Thomas co-produced in the early 1960’s.

The show reflected the changing roles of American Women in the feminist-era of America. Thomas’s charm and Bessel’s dry wit made the show a solid performer on the ABC network,  although the series never made the top thirty during its entire five-year run.

In the fifth season Ann and Donald were engaged but never married, The decision to leave the couple engaged at the end of the run was largely the idea of Thomas. She did not want to send a message to young women that marriage was the ultimate goal for them, and she worried that it would have undercut the somewhat feminist message of the show.

ABC Television. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons