I just purchased a DVD set of the first season of “That Girl” which ran from 1966-1971.

There are bonus features on the set, of course, including some fascinating color footage of Marlo Thomas on the streets of Manhattan in the fall of 1966. These were location shots: of Thomas coming out of Rockefeller Center, feeding pigeons in Central Park, running into the Seagrams Building to meet boyfriend and co-star Donald Hollinger (Ted Bessell). She also darts into the UN, the Staten Island Ferry building and catches a bus on Fifth Avenue. When her foot is caught in a bowling ball, Donald carries her to a taxi. She is always in a hurry…..

Thomas and Bill Persky (one of the creators of the show along with Sam Denoff) narrate the action. It is bittersweet to watch the scenes, now 40 years old, once the quintessence of youth and all that was young and fresh. In her bright red wool coat, white gloves or high boots, she exudes an elegance and lady-like urbanity that died in the ashes of Woodstock.

Also sad to see are many landmarks of New York City that were torn down in the late 1960’s, soon after this: the Savoy Plaza, replaced by the General Motors Building; Best and Company (where proper young women shopped) which bit the dust and became the Olympic Tower; and the Ambassador on Park Avenue at 52nd Street wearing a sign announcing its demolition……. just as Ann Marie crosses the street to meet Donald at Seagrams.

It is also a city where “casually dressed” meant women in heels and dresses and men in white shirts and dark suits, and the taxis and trucks were bright red, yellow and green.

It might have been contrived, but (unlike today) it wasn’t media digitally altered. The New Yorkers in the background were not extras, but citizens of 1966 going about their daily duties. How innocent to film and not go about getting the proper releases! Weren’t there lawyers back then?

“That Girl” was eventually attacked by feminists as demeaning and trite, and the Norman Lear franchise made all those sit-coms like “Bewitched” and “I Dream of Jeannie” seem like cartoons compared to the weighty Archie Bunker house dramas of racism, Vietnam and menopause.

But “That Girl” provided a plausible fantasy that life in the city might be exciting, adventurous, romantic and set to a Mancini soundtrack.

We are watching fiction and a Hollywood actress from a silly sitcom of a long time ago. But the way Marlo Thomas looked was the way millions of women looked back then, and it wasn’t a bad role model to aspire to.