The cable network TV Land had a marathon showing of the 60’s sitcom That Girl over the weekend. I remember the series from when I was a kid. The bits of it I watched were even sillier than I remembered. But then, as a rule, 60’s sitcoms were noteworthy for extreme silliness if nothing else.

I have heard over the years that it was considered ground-breaking at the time since it centered on a single woman (Ann Marie, played by Marlo Thomas) living alone in New York. By today’s standards it has a positively puritanical sensibility — imagine an engaged couple that never does more than kiss. Of course, watching it in my single-digit years I had no clue about any of this.

In one of the episodes I saw, Ann drags her fiance to a women’s lib meeting while he rants about how good women have it with the status quo. He was really condescending. For as groundbreaking as the show might have been in some respects, sitcoms that really pushed the envelope on social agendas would have to wait for the 70s.

But it made me think. I have three sisters that are 6, 8, and 9 years older than I am. It always seemed to me that women could do whatever they wanted to do. It occurs to me now that I have no idea what kinds of discrimination or harrassment they may have faced. Those aren’t the kinds of things one is likely to discuss with a little brother. If they ever came home ranting about limits at work (or anything else) I missed it. They all have families and jobs now with varying levels of success in each, but those are other stories….

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Posted by Tim