Marlo Thomas recalls groundbreaking role

The idea of a television series about a single woman scared ABC executives in the 1960s.

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

It’s been more than 40 years since the television comedy “That Girl” debuted. Marlo Thomas, who was pretty much known only for being the daughter of comedian Danny Thomas at that time, starred in and produced the series.

The trademark of the show was that before the opening credits would roll, someone would mention “that girl” and the camera would cut to Thomas’ face. To this day, she still gets greeted by the “that girl” phrase.

“It is just amazing,” Thomas says during a telephone interview. “I can’t go through airport security without someone pointing at me and saying ‘that girl.’ That tells me that the show was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. It came along at such a seminal moment in our American culture. It was a time of social change.“

Thomas played Ann Marie, a single woman living on her own in New York. The DVD of the third season arrived in stores last week.

Scary thought

Thomas said the idea of a television series about a single woman scared ABC executives in the 1960s. The same people who had no problem with a comedy about a witch being married to a mortal as on “Bewitched” or an animated prehistoric family as in “The Flintstones” just did not understand the “That Girl” concept.

“Shows like ‘Bewitched’ were a real metaphor for the time. Women had to hide their powers from the world. I finally gave them a copy of ‘The Feminine Mystique,’” Thomas says. The 1963 book by Betty Friedan attacked the idea women could find fulfillment only through being a wife and mother.

The executives suggested that the character should not be on her own but live with an aunt. Thomas disagreed. Her character had to live an independent life. She wanted the series to reflect the life that she, and so many young women, were living. That even meant having arguments with her TV parents, something that completely flew in the face of a television world where the father knew best.

Thomas won the battle. She used the show as a platform to talk about a variety of social issues: sexual harassment, politics, racism and spousal abuse.

But the show was a comedy and had lighter elements. Thomas wore the latest fashions. The fact that a struggling actress could afford high fashion was one flight of fancy Thomas allowed.