T H AT G I R L S TA R MARLO THOMAS
FOUND SUCCESS ON HER OWN TERMS,
BOTH ONSCREEN AND OFF
BADASS WOMEN
I
have a favorite saying that hangs near my desk:
“Never face the facts.” Because the truth is, if you
do, you probably won’t get out of bed in the
morning. I love this quote because
in life there will always be someone
who’ll tell you that the odds are
against you. People said to my father [Danny
Thomas], “You can’t build a hospital for sick
children. You’re a comedian.” And they said
to me, “You can’t create a television series
about a single working girl. No one has ever
done that.” But I was raised to tune out the
naysayers and follow my dreams.
After I graduated from college, all my
friends were getting married. I was a brides-
maid 17 times, which was wonderful. But I remember looking
around, saying , “I don’t want that.” I had other plans.
I started working on my show, That Girl, in 1965. I was 26
years old and one of the youngest women ever to produce
their own TV show, following Lucy [Lucille Ball]. And let me
tell you, it wasn’t easy. I was surrounded by men, and many
didn’t want to be in a situation where a woman had the power.
They didn’t want their paychecks signed by a woman either.
It was hard to even get the show on the air because the net-
work said nobody would watch a single girl who didn’t want
to get married and wanted a career instead. And they also
said nobody wanted to watch a show starring Marlo Thomas
because, well, nobody knew who the hell I was.
It all seemed pretty doomed. But then the night we went
on the air, something magical happened: We beat the com-
petition. And that was because [my character] Ann Marie
wasn’t that revolutionary. There were women all over
America who wanted to be that girl—the one who didn’t set-
tle down right out of her parents’ house but wanted to go
into the world and figure out who she was.
I was thrilled about the success of the show, but I wasn’t
prepared for the criticism on the set. Instead of saying I was
smart and organized, they’d say I was tough and aggressive.
There was a running joke that when they couldn’t find me,
they’d say, “Oh, she’s just in the men’s room having a meet-
ing with Lucy.” The derogatory remarks about the fact that
I was a woman with power always hit below the belt.
The first year of That Girl, everybody on staff was a man
except for the costume designer, the hairdresser, and me.
There I was, doing a show about an independent
single woman with scripts written only by men.
After reading a scene, I’d say, “Well, a woman
wouldn’t say that.” And they’d say, “Yes, but it’s
funny.” The problem was it wasn’t truthful.
By Season 2, I was hiring female writers.
That time in my life taught me that there is
safety in numbers. We all need to surround our-
selves with other women who work the way we do in every
field. I seemed like a freak of nature for thinking that way,
but even though there weren’t many women writing com-
edy at the time, we found them.
For the last episode the network and Clairol, our spon-
sor, wanted Ann Marie and her boyfriend, Donald [played
by Ted Bessell], to have a wedding. I said, “I can’t do it.
These women have followed her for five years, and I can’t
say to them now that the only happy ending is a wedding.”
And so the last show ended up being Ann Marie taking Don-
ald to a women’s-lib meeting. The network wasn’t happy,
but I was. It made the audience happy too. I got tons of mail
that said, “Thank you for not copping out.”
At the time I never wanted to be married. That’s why it
didn’t happen on the show. But I’ve learned if you find the
right mate, marriage can be the cushion of life. Eventually, I
did meet my match. And even though I’ve won Emmys and
been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and accom-
plished all sorts of things, my 39-year-marriage to my hus-
band, Phil [Donahue], is one of my proudest achievements.
In the end, being a strong woman isn’t about any one thing
you do. It’s about looking at your life and continuing to do—
and go after—the things you believe are right for you, realiz-
ing that you don’t have to color between the lines to get them.
—AS TOLD TO JENNIFER FERRISE
Thomas is an actress, a producer, an author, and an activist. She
serves as director of National Outreach for St. Jude Children’s
Research Hospital, founded by her father, Danny Thomas.
68 InSTYLE AUGUST 2019
Thomas on the
set of That Girl
in 1970 and
now (inset)
Yo u G o ,
GIR L
