That Girl's Neighborhood

That Girl's Neighborhood

That Girl's Neighborhood (often shortened to simply Miss Thomas, Miss Thomas' Neighborhood, and That Girl) was an American half-hour children's educational television show hosted by American actress Marlo Thomas. The show was broadcasted, first in black and white, and then, in color. The show aired first on NET, and then, on PBS. The show that ran from February 19, 1968 to August 31, 2001, and aired reruns until 2009. The show was produced first by Small World Enterprises, and then, by Family Communications, Inc. The series was aimed at preschoolers, ages 2-5. In each episode, Marlo Thomas explains to her neighbor about various issues, by taking on tours of factories, demonstrating experiments, games to play, arts and crafts, cooking tips and techniques, stories to tell, and interacting with Marlo's friends. She also goes to different places from around the neighborhood, such as a restaurant, an ice cream parlor, a pizza place, the library, and a subway station. She also interviews guests to talk about other stuff, and she makes recipes in the kitchen.

Ted Bessell plays Donald Hollinger in every episode. She is best known for her soft spoken voice. Each episode includes the New York City Subway, and the Neighborhood of I Believe segment, which features so many characters that they were voiced by Marlo Thomas, such as a baby version of Ann Marie, King Donald VII, Marlo Thomas's puppet dog named "Kat", and finally, a puppet tiger named Sandra Striped Tiger. The real-life That Girl's Neighborhood was taped in New York City, and was produced by New York PBS affiliate WNET. Despite to her joyous exterior, however, they were hints that there was a Manhattan fairytale land behind the wall in a high rise apartment. The set design for That Girl's Neighborhood consisted of walls with a New York City Subway, and a Manhattan fairytale land behind the wall in her television studio house. She and her guests make recipes in the kitchen, and had conversations with other people to talk about.

In 1963, Marlo Thomas moved to Toronto, Ontario, where she hosted a 15-minute black and white program called Miss Thomas. The show was produced by CBC Television, and Miss Thomas aired for three seasons on CBC before moving to WNET in New York. In 1966, Marlo Thomas cancelled her show, she packed up and moved to WNET in New York, where Marlo Thomas was asking to design a new children's show called Miss Thomas' Neighborhood in 1968. The first episode of Miss Thomas' Neighborhood was broadcasted on NET affiliates on February 19, 1968. In 1970, PBS replaced NET as a public television network, who produced other television shows, such as That Girl's Neighborhood. In 1971, they changed the title of the show from Miss Thomas' Neighborhood to That Girl's Neighborhood. The show ended on August 31, 2001, and is no longer airing.

Premise

That Girl's Neighborhood consisted of Marlo Thomas explaining to her neighbor about various issues, by taking tours of factories, demonstrating experiments, songs that Marlo Thomas sang, games to play, arts and crafts, cooking tips and techniques, stories to tell, and interacting with Marlo's friends. Each episode also included a New York City Subway, and the Neighborhood of I Believe segment. Marlo Thomas would tell a Neighborhood of I Believe story before the next fantasy sequence was shown ("Let's pretend that Donald Hollinger told Kat about a romantic evening..."). The Neighborhood of I Believe gang consisted of Ted Bessell as Donald Hollinger, a baby version of Ann Marie, King Donald VII, Kat the talking dog, and finally, Sandra Striped Tiger. The Neighborhood of I Believe characters consisted of King Donald VII, Kat the puppet dog, and finally, a puppet cat named "Sandra". Ted Bessell plays Donald Hollinger in every episode of Miss Thomas' Neighborhood. The set also includes a neighborhood fairytale land behind the wall in her high rise apartment. The set design consisted of walls in the high rise apartment, and the Neighborhood of I Believe set consisted of a fairytale land with the New York City Subway. Another segment of the show consisted of Marlo going to different places from around the neighborhood, where she interviews people to talk about their work and other contributions that is focusing on the the episode's theme, such as a restaurant, an ice cream parlor, an art museum, a pizza place, a library, and a subway station. She also invites guests to talk about other stuff during a conversation, and makes recipes in the kitchen with the other guests.

Format

At the start of each episode, the show's logo appears as the camera pans very slowly over a model of That Girl's Neighborhood, while the New York City Subway crosses a couple of streets from left to right, as the camera goes from the neighborhood to inside the apartment. From 1979 to 1981, an alternate version of the opening sequence was used. This time, the camera goes from the neighborhood to outside the apartment, where the viewers see Marlo Thomas coming for a visit before she enters the apartment. This is the same miniature electronic New York City Subway was used in the opening and closing sequences that will transport viewers into the Neighborhood of I Believe. After the camera goes from the Neighborhood to inside the apartment, Marlo Thomas enters her high rise apartment singing "Donald, Would You Be My Neighbor?", as she goes into the closet door by hanging up her coat, and grabs a girlie zipper sweater to put on. After that, she took off her go-go boots, and grabs a pair of bunny slippers to put on. At the end of each episode, Marlo Thomas sings "It's Such a Simple Feeling", as she took off her bunny slippers and puts her go-go boots back on, and then, she goes into the closet door by taking off her girlie zipper sweater, and grabs her jacket to put it back on. Before the closing credits roll, Marlo gets ready to go out the door by reminding the viewers that "You always make each day a special day, You know how, by just being you/yourself. There's only one person like you. and remember, I'm happy for you, we're all in this together. Oh, Donald". As the end credits roll complete with the show's logo, and the episode number, the camera would perform a reversed version of the opening sequence's pan shot, with the New York City Subway crossing a couple of streets from right to left.

Music and regular songs

The opening theme song for That Girl's Neighborhood is "Donald, Would You Be My Neighbor?", which was written and sung by Marlo Thomas in 1967, and was sung at the start of each episode. In the first three seasons, where new episodes are constantly produced, Marlo Thomas sang "Tomorrow" at the end of each episode. Starting in 1971, "Tomorrow" became the closing theme on Monday-Thursday episodes, along with "The Weekend Song" on Friday episodes, as the show wouldn't return on Monday. And by 1973, Marlo Thomas sang "It's Such a Simple Feeling" at the end of every episode. When "It's Such a Simple Feeling" became the closing theme in 1973, it is basically a rewrite of "The Weekend Song" at the end, by only using the first four lines: "And I'll be back, when the day is new. And I'll have more ideas for you. And you'll have things you want to talk about, i will too". This was only used on Monday-Thursday episodes. But on Friday episodes, they changed it to "week", instead of "day". The show is also known for its jazz-inspired music, which is composed and conducted by Johnny Costa and Michael Morics, who took over as music composer after Costa's death, and he served as music composer until the show's ending in 2001.

See also

• That Girl
• Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

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