The ground-breaking sitcom That Girl, starring Marlo Thomas debuted today on September 8th back in 1966. Thomas’ character Ann Marie was an occasionally employed actress, who had moved from her hometown of Brewster, New York to make it big in New York City.  She was TV’s first young, single leading lady to put marriage on the back-burner for her career and she paved the way for sitcoms like The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Murphy Brown.

In the show’s fifth and final season, Anne Marie became engaged to her long-term boyfriend Donald but they never married.  Thomas, who was an Executive Producer on the show wanted the character to remain single so that young women didn’t get the message that marriage was the ultimate goal.

Author of five bestselling books, Thomas’ latest memoir, Growing Up Laughing: My Story and the Story of Funny will be released on September 28th and includes interviews with comedy powerhouses like: Tina Fey, Alan Alda, Chris Rock and Ben and Jerry Stiller.