On Monday, July 20, 2015 at 2:08:59 AM UTC-4, PGage wrote: > > On Sun, Jul 19, 2015 at 10:46 PM, 'David Bruggeman' via TVorNotTV < > tvor...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>> wrote: > >> Is it possible that for the time period, "That Girl" was just much less >> sexist than most other programs? The first series of Star Trek treated >> women better than most programs on in the late sixties, but there's a lot >> that doesn't look good now. >> > > I'm sure that is a lot of it Dave. > > One of the episodes we saw had Ann hosting a dinner party for her parents > and an aunt (and Donald of course). The Aunt kept bragging about how her > daughter was married and had a home and (I can't remember, maybe a kid > already, or at least well on the way), intending a negative contrast with > Ann who was still single pushing 30, and living "alone" in Manhattan > (quotation marks because in retrospect it seems obvious Donald must have > been sleeping over often and banging her regularly). In the end, Ann's > parents are able to express their pride in their daughter's independence > (though she still regularly depends on Daddy and Donald to bail her out of > various crises, and she is quickly thrown into various tizzy fits by > seemingly small challenges). >
I watched part of that marathon too (it was on Decades TV - a network whose daytime programming is terrible but whose weekend "binges" are just wonderful). I must admit, though, that I wasn't enraptured by the "That Girl" marathon - I had liked it as a kid, but the attitudes just didn't hold up. I only lasted a few episodes. One episode that I saw was from February 1967 and written by James L. Brooks, just three years before he co-created "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Here's the plot: Ann and Donald have planned a getaway in Connecticut with Donald's best friend Jerry (Bernie Kopell) and Jerry's girlfriend Margie (Arlene Golonka). When they show up at Ann's apartment, Jerry and Margie announce they have decided to get married in Connecticut - they've booked a Justice of the Peace and a honeymoon night hotel room, and they are asking Ann and Donald to be their witnesses. All goes well... until a snowstorm strikes, all the trains are cancelled, and Ann and Donald have to stay at the hotel. The problem is, there's only one remaining room. That means the men have to share one room and the women have to share the other. Of course. Eventually Arlene and Jerry are driven nuts by having to spend their wedding night apart, and our heroine and hero can't bear to separate them, so the two couples pair up... with Donald sleeping in the same room as Ann, but taking the couch. Of course. In the meantime, Ann is waiting for word of a possible acting gig, so she tells her phone answering service that she's at the hotel in Connecticut. Ann's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Marie (what an odd family name!) end up calling her room, and Donald answers the phone. The parents are so outraged that they drive to Connecticut through the snowstorm to confront Donald for corrupting their daughter. They open the door the next morning and find the two of them in an innocent but apparently compromising position - and as the episode ends, Donald is about to explain what really happened and convince Mr. and Mrs. Marie that he and Ann would never, NEVER dream of having premarital sex. Of course. For all of the show's reputation as an early signpost for women's liberation, the episode's plot is like something out of the forties or fifties. (In the sixties there could be a book and a movie called "Sex and the Single Girl," but there was no sex for a single girl on ABC.) I guess the show was a step forward, but not a big one. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
