That Girl – Season Five (1970 – 71/Shout! Factory DVD)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Episodes: B
After five great seasons, That Girl and its innovative tale of how
actress Anne Marie (Marlo Thomas) finds herself and happiness in New York City
came to an end while it was still on top.
Shout! Factory has reached the end with Season Five and I was happy to see how well the show
held up, as well as how much it had grown.
It was time to bring it to a close and they did it with class and style.
The chemistry between Anne and Donald
Hollinger (played well to the end by the great Ted Bessell) matured and their
wit developed into a classic series of exchanges that keep them up there as one
of the greatest couples in TV history.
The shtick about her trying to find an acting job is less emphasized as
she is a survivor who has made some headway.
It was great seeing this relationship build up and their chemistry is as
great as ever.
Shows marked * feature an audio commentary by Thomas and
co-creator Bill Persky below:
1)
Counter Proposal
2)
Donald, Sandi, And Harry And Snoopy
3)
I Ain’t Got Nobody*
4)
No Man Is Manhattan Island
5)
Battle Of the Single Girl
6)
There Are Sure A Bunch Of Cards In St. Louis (in
two parts)
7)
That Cake*
8)
That Girl’s Daddy
9)
Stop The Presses, I Want To Get Off
10) Super Reporter
11) That Senorita
12) An Uncle Herbert For All Seasons
13) That Script
14) Those Friars*
15) A Limited Engagement
16) The Russians Are Staying
17) That Shoplifter
18) Chef’s Night Out
19) Stag Party
20) Two For The Money
21) Soot Yourself
22) The Elevated Woman*
Guest stars this season include Joe Flynn, Dick Van
Patten, Cloris Leachman, Ruth McDevitt, Regis Philbin and a great double-star
show with Milton Berle and Danny Thomas returning to play himself. The show was great to the end and still
popular enough that Shout! Factory issued the whole series. Now you can see for yourself.
As before, the 1.33 X 1 color image was shot in
EastmanColor and was usually shot by Jacques Marquette, A.S.C., Lester Shorr,
A.S.C. or Leonard J. South. The footage
looks amazing when you see it in the supplements, but these prints vary in
quality and are not as clear, sharp, clear and detailed as they could be. The color still comes through nicely, but
sometimes, the color is not as strong and fresh as it could be and detail
limits drive me nuts. The Dolby Digital
2.0 Mono can be a little more compressed than expected, most annoying in the
opening and closing credits, since the song is clean and stereophonic in the
menus and extras, but strident and limited in the actual episodes. Fortunately, dialogue fares better and
Persky’s lyrics for the song are classic.
Earle H. Hagen did the classic instrumental theme song, but other
composers did the incidental music, all good and welcome. The vocal theme was still not introduced yet,
by the way.
The only extras are the four great commentary tracks (one
per DVD) of Thomas and Persky, but that is all.
I had hoped for something else, but that is it. For more on the series, start with our
coverage of Season One at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3707/That+Girl+-+Season+One
- Nicholas Sheffo
