PiraBit
if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.
Phillida
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
Jenni Devyn
Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.
earlytalkie
"That Girl" is one of those shows that I enjoyed during it's first run on ABC and in it's reruns over the years, but it's been many years since i saw this as it has not been on TV in a while. The re-discovery of this on DVD reveals that it is even better than I remember it. The cast in all instances is first-rate, and the scripts are crisp, funny, full of heart and do not date one bit. Marlo Thomas supposedly had a hand in most of the aspects of this classic series, and I say a great job well done. Like John Forsythe in "Bachelor Father", this show was her baby and no show could have had a better mother. ME-TV has just begun re-running this as of this writing, and my partner and I were laughing out loud at many of the antics on the marathon which launched the series on New Year's Day. The film quality of the show has been so beautifully preserved that it looks brand-new. The 1960s background makes the series a kind of time capsule back to those fashions and some of the early episodes especially feature some great location footage shot in N.Y.C. which add to the "theatrical" look of this series. Each episode has the look of a mini-movie, being shot with one camera. The laugh-track is present but not overdone or intrusive. The format of the single girl trying to make it on her own would be echoed a few years later in the super-classic "Mary Tyler Moore" show. "That Girl" had great writing throughout it's five seasons, and Ms. Thomas wisely opted out of the show before it became stale as so many other long-running shows of the period did. She also avoided knuckling under to the network by not having Ann and Donald marry. This was her personal decision and in retrospect, a wise one. Marlo Thomas herself, being the daughter of the great Danny Thomas, had to prove herself with this series and boy, did she ever. Having "Make Room For Daddy", one of the great shows of it's own era, and "That Girl", one of the greats of the 60s, one hopes that there will be another generation of the Thomas family to give us yet another great series to enjoy. If this review sounds like a love letter to Marlo Thomas, so be it. It is.
rlquall
I wonder how many preteen boys had a crush on Marlo Thomas like I did during the run of this program. She was soooo beautiful, and Ted Bessell seemed like an awfully lucky guy to me, except that he had to live in constant fear of Ann Marie's father, which was realistic enough as Mr. Marie was rather menacing, which by the time the series ended I realized was because he considered the Donald Hollister character a threat to his daughter's virginity. (Wonder how much different, if any, Danny Thomas was about that issue in real life?) In retrospect, this show requires suspension of disbelief even more than most sitcoms, as Ann, a supposedly struggling actress, had a better apartment and nicer clothes than many steadily-employed New Yorkers could have possibly have afforded, then or now. It's a shame that the show only went as far as Donald's bachelor party; it would seem to have been better if they had actually shown the wedding with the implication that "they all lived happily ever after" and that this show, after all really was a modern fairy tale. A fun aspect of the show was seeing how they were going to work the words "that girl" into the opening sequence.
raysond
This was a good show in its day,but for the overall comical 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. Premiering on ABC's Thursday night prime- time schedule on September 8,1966 until the final episode of the series airing on March 19,1971 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 and 136 episodes in it's original prime-time slot. 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"."That Girl" was so successful in it's five year-run that it won Marlo Thomas in 1967 the Golden Globe for Best Female Actress in a Comedy Series,and was nominated for four Prime-Time Emmys in 1967, 1968, 1970 and 1971 for Best Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series(Ted Bessell),and for Outstanding Direction,and Outstanding Writing in a Prime-Time Comedy Series. Not to mention when ABC canceled the series in 1971, it enjoy a resurgence in 1973 as an animated Saturday Morning cartoon series that was produced by Daisy Productions/Rankin-Bass Entertainment Group with Marlo Thomas providing the voice of Anna Marie in the animated version based on "That Girl" that premiered on ABC's Saturday Morning schedule. Even after 50 years, the series "That Girl" paved the way for the likes of other shows that presented strong independent women making it for themselves. Happy 50th Anniversary That Girl!!! Revised 3/30/2016
MisterWhiplash
I like this show in retrospective, but as a comedy TV show, it ranks pretty low. I wanted to like it, but it doesn't hit the mark. Some good laughs, some good acting (George Carlin makes his first acting debut as Marlo Thomas' agent George Lester) but that's it. As a retrospective, it is pretty good (right up there with the Honeymooners). B+
