1. It was the first network sitcom centered around a single working girl who was not a maid. Previously, woman who were sitcom stars tended to be a.) wacky housewives (see I Love Lucy), b.) family matriarchs (see The Donna Reed Show) or 3.) domestics (see Hazel). TV historians say her show paved the way for The Mary Tyler Moore Show just a few years later.
2. Donald Hollinger was originally supposed to be Ann Marie’s agent as well as her boyfriend. After they filmed the series’ pilot, producers must have decided that agents can sometimes be a little sleazy. So Donald changed jobs and became a magazine writer. (He was played by Ted Bessell in both that never-broadcast pilot and the subsequent series.)
3. There was a connection between That Girl and The Dick Van Dyke Show. The Van Dyke show was produced by Marlo’s father, Danny Thomas and two of the show’s main writers, Bill Persky and Sam Denoff, became the creators of That Girl.
4. Marlo Thomas came up with the show’s concept. She was the one who insisted that her character be a small-town girl who comes to the big city to try and find work as an actress. (Although her real life was that of the daughter of a rich, famous comedian, which made her entrance into show business much easier.)
5. Her first next door neighbor was also a Broadway leading lady. Bonnie Scott who played her original next door neighbor, Judy Bessemer, starred on Broadway opposite Robert Morse in the hit musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Bonnie left the series because the shooting schedule took too much time away from her young kids.
6. Ruth Buzzi and George Carlin made appearances on the show. Ruth played a neighbor of Ann’s in several episodes while Carlin played her agent (replacing Ronnie Schell) in just one episode.
7. Marlo wanted to call the show Miss Independence. That was the nickname her father had given her as a young girl.
8. The network wanted the series finale to be the wedding of Ann Marie and Donald. But Marlo Thomas thought that might send the wrong message to the single girls she felt were the series’ core audience. You know, she gets married and “they live happily ever after.” So, she and Donald did get engaged during the show’s fifth season, but the series ended with Ann Marie still single.

Finally, is there any human being who watched the show and thought Ann could really be a virgin living in New York City in the mid 1960’s, especially if she was working in show business?
Didn’t think so.

A thought for Memorial Day: Anybody but us remember when THIS was "the American Way?"

The song that put Stephen Stills and his band, Buffalo Springfield on that map was inspired by the now almost-forgotten Sunset Strip riots of 1966.

By the mid-sixties, L.A.’s Sunset Strip had become the nucleus for the emerging rock & roll nightclub scene. The area was attracting large numbers of teenagers, many of whom simply loitered around the street, not really patronizing any of the clubs.

Local business leaders, not pleased to have so many young people using the Strip as a hangout enacted a 10 p.m. curfew. Resistance to the curfew was almost immediate. A local radio station called for a peaceful rally at one of the clubs, Pandora’s Box (appropriately named, as it turned out), to peacefully protest the curfew. The rally was anything but peaceful. It turned into a riot with kids smashing store windows and car windshields and the police smashing the protesters.

These nightly riots stretched on for weeks, capturing national attention. American International Pictures, always quick to capitalize on anything they thought their teenage drive-in audience wanted to see, even made a quickie picture about the phenomenon called (what else?) Riot on Sunset Strip.

Stills, whose band was part of that emerging scene, thought the whole thing was absurd. The kids were hopelessly outmuscled by the police. So he wrote “For What It’s Worth” as a way to urge his peer group to chill out and think before they got themselves really hurt.

The song became a huge success when it was released on Atco Records in 1967. It’s notable also as one of the few hit records whose title is never mentioned in the lyrics of the song.

Funny, we don't remember them offering Beatle wigs for redheads back in the day...

Yes, that organic produce may be free of pesticides and synthetic fertilizer, but it’s no safer from germs that may come from harvest, transporting and having it out on display at your grocer’s.

Experts will tell you that germs don’t really discriminate based on how the food was grown. As with any raw produce, make sure you wash it once you bring it home from the store.

Yes, that organic produce may be free of pesticides and synthetic fertilizer, but it’s no safer from germs that may come from harvest, transporting and having it out on display at your grocer’s.

Experts will tell you that germs don’t really discriminate based on how the food was grown. As with any raw produce, make sure you wash it once you bring it home from the store.

If only we'd known (and had 98₵) back in the day!

Think you have all of Paul McCartney’s solo albums? You don’t if you don’t have this one, the oddest of all Beatles oddities – Thrillington.

During the recording of McCartney’s second solo effort, Ram, he decided to record a second version of the LP as lounge music instrumentals!

Paul and Linda also decided to form a new rock band, which became known as Wings. That proved to take up most of Paul’s time, so the instrumental album sat on the shelf for 6 years.

When he finally decided to release it in April of 1977, he created a totally fictious persona, British socialite Percy Thrillington as the album’s creator. He then took out ads in various British music papers chronicling the comings and goings of Thrillington.

The album came out and was virtually ignored by all but a small handful of fans who saw through the deception.

McCartney finally confessed to the hoax during an interview in 1989. By that time, the album was already out of print.

A few years later, McCartney also confessed to being Clint Harrigan, who had written the liner notes for both Thrillington and the Wings’ album Wild Life.

Thrillington came back into print with CD releases on 1995, 2004 and as a special 2^nd disc with a deluxe re-release of Ram in 2012.

The album is scheduled to be re-issued on CD, vinyl, and limited edition colored vinyl on the 18^th of this month (May, 2018)!
So if you ever wondered what the Ram album would sound like if it had been recorded by Les Brown and His Band of Renown, wonder no longer!

And it's 16-bit!