It was an unsold pilot from 1972.


That Girl Cartoon (http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2007/12/unsold-animat-1.html)

I never knew that! The cartoon Marlo looks a lot like the real thing. Thanks for sharing, Brian. :D

very cool, i never knew there was a cartoon

Yes, I saw it. The ABC SATURDAY SUPERSTAR MOVIE was one of my favorite
Saturday morning shows in the early 1970s. Some of the shows were indeed
pilots ("Yogi's Ark Lark" was the pilot for YOGI'S GANG, "Lassie and the Spirit
of Thunder Mountain" was the pilot for LASSIE'S RESCUE RANGERS); but others were just one-shot cartoons. "That Girl in Wonderland" was either a
one-shot or, as someone said, a pilot that didn't sell.

The complete list of movies shown on the weekly series, which ran from Sept.
9, 1972 until Aug. 31, 1974 appears below. It was an interesting mix of films
from Hanna-Barbera, Rankin/Bass, Fred Calvert, Filmation, Warner Bros., and
King Features. [To my knowledge, none of these have been officially released
on video or DVD. But I did manage to find a "bootleg" copy of "Popeye Meets
the Man Who Hated Laughter" and "The Banana Splits in Hocus Pocus Park."]

THE ABC SATURDAY SUPERSTAR MOVIE was a 60-minute program and ran
for two seasons. The films shown were: "The Brady Kids on Mysterious
Island" (the weekly BRADY KIDS cartoon series debuted one week later;
both the movie and the series featured the voices of the original cast),
"Yogi's Ark Lark," "Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters" (a sequel to Rankin/Bass'
"Mad Monster Party?" but hand-drawn instead of animated puppets), "Nanny
and the Professor," "Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter" (featuring
virtually every King Features comic strip character ever created), "Willie Mays
and the Say-Hey Kid" (with the voice of the famed baseball player), "Oliver
Twist and the Artful Dodger," "Robin Hoodnik" (the Robin Hood legend with an
all-dog cast), "Lassie and the Spirit of Thunder Mountain," "Gidget Makes the
Wrong Connection," "The Banana Splits in Hocus Park" (which combined live-
action and animation), "Tabitha and Adam and the Clown Family" (cartoon
based on the children from BEWITCHED who are now teenagers), "The Red Baron" (cartoon featuring
cats vs. dogs), "Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies" (oddball
cartoon/live-action movie jointly produced by Warners and Filmation), "Luvcast U.S.A." (inspired by LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE and featuring
animated music videos to tunes like "Love Potion No. 9")," "That Girl in Wonderland" (featuring the voice of Marlo Thomas), "Lost in Space" (only
Jonathan Harris reprised his role from the original series)," "Nanny and the
Professor and the Phantom Circus" (both Nanny movies featured the voices
of series stars Juliet Mills and Richard Long)," and "The Mini-Munsters" (with
Richard Long as Herman, and Al Lewis reprising his role as Grandpa).

Yeah, I never knew there was a cartoon either. You're always coming up with interesting stuff! Thanks for sharing Brian!

There was alos the odd duck "Free to to be You and Me", with among others, "That Girl" costar Billy De Wolfe, aka Rankin-Bass's prissy, prissym prissy villian Prof.Hinkle, and who used that odd persona a number of times. He, Marlo and an interesting assortment of performers did that special in both live and cartoon [based on a record, and around the time that Mr.DeWolfe passed on], also with another old-timer, Mel Brooks. Despite some now "PC" agenda, it's acutlaly interesting.Marlo was producer/narrator.

Since there are no copies of this floating around in the collectors circuit, I contacted Shout Factory when they were releasing season 2 of "TG" and asked them about it as a bonus, they said they knew about it and tried very hard to get it, but Marlo doesn't own the rights, Rankin Bass does, now distributed by WB/Little Golden Books....anyway they couldn't come to terms, so looks like this will be another lost specal forever, but at least they tried and were very educated on the special.

I have a nice copy of That Girl In Wonderland on DVD-R that I purchased a few years back.

A cool little cartoon...I love the animated Ann Marie,big-eyed and beautiful.The theme song (unique to the cartoon) is really good,and quite catchy.

It's a shame that an official,remastered version wasn't included with the final season of That Girl.It would've been icing on the cake!

I remember the theme to The Saturday Superstar Movies it was cool.

Here's another link:
http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/27857-That_Girl_In_Wonderland.html

And some others;
http://www.retrojunk.com/details_movies/2297-that-girl-in-wonderland/
http://www.toontracker.com/satsup/ssm3.htm

Something else occured to me recently, but I could swear Bill Hanna and Joseph Barbera had a supporting character from one of their rotten 'toons of the 1970's who was modeled after Ted Bessell. Unfortunatley, I can't remember who it was right now.

Yes, I saw it. The ABC SATURDAY SUPERSTAR MOVIE was one of my favorite
Saturday morning shows in the early 1970s. Some of the shows were indeed
pilots ("Yogi's Ark Lark" was the pilot for YOGI'S GANG, "Lassie and the Spirit
of Thunder Mountain" was the pilot for LASSIE'S RESCUE RANGERS); but others were just one-shot cartoons. "That Girl in Wonderland" was either a
one-shot or, as someone said, a pilot that didn't sell.

The complete list of movies shown on the weekly series, which ran from Sept.
9, 1972 until Aug. 31, 1974 appears below. It was an interesting mix of films
from Hanna-Barbera, Rankin/Bass, Fred Calvert, Filmation, Warner Bros., and
King Features. [To my knowledge, none of these have been officially released
on video or DVD. But I did manage to find a "bootleg" copy of "Popeye Meets
the Man Who Hated Laughter" and "The Banana Splits in Hocus Pocus Park."]

THE ABC SATURDAY SUPERSTAR MOVIE was a 60-minute program and ran
for two seasons. The films shown were: "The Brady Kids on Mysterious
Island" (the weekly BRADY KIDS cartoon series debuted one week later;
both the movie and the series featured the voices of the original cast),
"Yogi's Ark Lark," "Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters" (a sequel to Rankin/Bass'
"Mad Monster Party?" but hand-drawn instead of animated puppets), "Nanny
and the Professor," "Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter" (featuring
virtually every King Features comic strip character ever created), "Willie Mays
and the Say-Hey Kid" (with the voice of the famed baseball player), "Oliver
Twist and the Artful Dodger," "Robin Hoodnik" (the Robin Hood legend with an
all-dog cast), "Lassie and the Spirit of Thunder Mountain," "Gidget Makes the
Wrong Connection," "The Banana Splits in Hocus Park" (which combined live-
action and animation), "Tabitha and Adam and the Clown Family" (cartoon
based on the children from BEWITCHED who are now teenagers), "The Red Baron" (cartoon featuring
cats vs. dogs), "Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies" (oddball
cartoon/live-action movie jointly produced by Warners and Filmation), "Luvcast U.S.A." (inspired by LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE and featuring
animated music videos to tunes like "Love Potion No. 9")," "That Girl in Wonderland" (featuring the voice of Marlo Thomas), "Lost in Space" (only
Jonathan Harris reprised his role from the original series)," "Nanny and the
Professor and the Phantom Circus" (both Nanny movies featured the voices
of series stars Juliet Mills and Richard Long)," and "The Mini-Munsters" (with
Richard Long as Herman, and Al Lewis reprising his role as Grandpa).
Rankin/Bass produced that THat Girl special. DePatie-Freleng did their one contriobution to that special, "Luvcast".

Another thread on the subject:
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=194172

And I know these are both old threads, but I had to say something about it; I'm starting to get a little edgy about the fact that this isn't available anywhere. It's not even listed at The Paley Center for Media, and they had obscure Daisy Productions like "Acts of Love: and Other Comedies."

This could've been awesome! I really wish this had happened. Mama's Family, Bewithed, Gilligan's Island, Pee-Wes's Playhouse, The Facts of Life, Family Matters, & Mister Ed would all make fun cartoons.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer also had a pilot made but it never was bought. Joss Whedon says he regrets not making this happen........I say it's never too late--- I'd love to see a Buffy cartoon!

Bewitched and Gilligan's Island did get cartoon versions.:) :cool: A number of live action shows have had cartoon spinoff series-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animated_spin-offs_from_prime_time_shows

An interesting (if not complimentary) review of the special. (http://www.filmthreat.com/features/50113/)

How about this from the 1967 Rankin/Bass Dickensian special "Cricket on the Hearth;
http://www.platypuscomix.net/hollywood/misfits/misfit46.html

Am I the only person here who thinks that the 1967 versions of Caleb and Bertha Plummer look a lot like Danny and Marlo too?

An interesting (if not complimentary) review of the special. (http://www.filmthreat.com/features/50113/)
The link is dead, so if nobody minds, I'll repost the review:

THE BOOTLEG FILES: THAT GIRL IN WONDERLAND

BOOTLEG FILES 426: “That Girl in Wonderland” (1973 Rankin/Bass animated film).

LAST SEEN: We cannot determine the last public exhibition of this film.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: A missing piece of Marlo Thomas’ career.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely at this point.

I once had the pleasure of meeting Marlo Thomas, and I can attest that she is one of the most gorgeous women I’ve ever encountered. I am mentioning this because I don’t take very much pleasure in badmouthing the 1973 animated film “That Girl in Wonderland,” which hijacked Thomas’ beloved sitcom character and placed her into some of the worst animation that the Rankin/Bass operation ever put on screen.

“That Girl” ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971, and it was considered groundbreaking because its central character Ann Marie was a young single woman who was financially supporting herself. Granted, Ann Marie was not your typical working woman – she was an aspiring actress who seemed to possess an endless supply of designer clothing. But the show was well written (its feminist politics never drowned out the sitcom mirth), and Thomas provided an effervescent quality that helped to keep the series at the top of the ratings.

In 1972, Thomas agreed to revive Ann Marie for a one-shot animated production from the Rankin/Bass studio. Rankin/Bass was contractually obligated to provide four films to “The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie,” an animated anthology series aimed at the kiddie audience. In an attempt to better connect with younger viewers, it was decided to incorporate Thomas’ Ann Marie into reconfigured versions of classic youth fiction.

In “That Girl in Wonderland,” Ann Marie is no longer an aspiring actress. Instead, she is unemployed and looking for work as a secretary. She arrives at the Wonder Book Company and is mistaken by its elderly owners – the gregarious Mr. Wonder and the haughty Mrs. Wonder – as an applicant for the vacant position of assistant editor. Ann Marie is given a temporary assignment: she needs to come up with an idea for the company’s big Christmas book release, and she only has one week to do the job.

Alas, Ann Marie is endlessly distracted. Her boyfriend Donald works in the same office building and he is constantly calling her for a date. An aggressively cheerful window washer peeks in on Ann Marie, while a pair of troglodyte secretaries (who were aware that Ann Marie has no editorial experience) bully her into bringing them coffee. Ann Marie’s tiny dog Freckle, who rides around in her purse, adds his yapping displeasure to the scene.

Ann Marie comes up with an idea for the Christmas book: reinventing classic stories with modern and funky twist endings. The film then puts Ann Marie and the other characters of “That Girl in Wonderland” into truncated versions of such books as “Cinderella,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Alice in Wonderland” and “Hansel and Gretel.” The Wonders love the idea and Ann Marie gets the full-time job…along with her own secretary!

There are three main problems with “That Girl in Wonderland.” The first is the animation, which is positively dreadful. One of the joys of “That Girl” was Thomas’ wildly expressive comedy performance, but the animated Ann Marie goes through the film with an unblinking, stolid expression. I believe the film was animated in Japan, and the local artists may have taken too much inspiration from the immobile masks used in Noh dramas. The other characters are mostly drawn in a grotesque manner, with exaggerated features and limited physical movement.

Since the animation is so stiff, “That Girl in Wonderland” relies heavily on dialogue to fuel the film. Unfortunately, there is too much dialogue, and the film gets weighed down in verbiage. Occasionally, an attempt is made to have some playful fun – Cinderella’s fairy godmother complains that she doesn’t want to pay for an extra day’s carriage rental – but the screenplay is mostly lame, and the breaks into reconfigured classic tales are never inventive.

And then, there is a problem with the material being very dated. A running joke of “That Girl in Wonderland” has Donald constantly calling Ann Marie’s office. That may have seemed endearing in the early 1970s, but it seems like stalker behavior today. Even worse, Ann Marie comes across as being painfully stupid in regard to money management – she barely gets a low-paying job, but the screenplay has her looking into extremely expensive guitar lessons and an interior designer’s overhaul of her one-room windowless apartment. It may have seemed like ditzy-cute in the day, but it seems ridiculous today.

Thomas provided the voice of Ann Marie, but it never sounds that she was enthused about the project. Her line readings are uncharacteristically flat and empty. None of the other “That Girl” cast regulars were recruited for this production, and the actors used on the soundtrack badly overact in an attempt to add some life to the inert production.

“That Girl in Wonderland” premiered on “The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie” on January 13, 1973, and was rerun a few times. It made no impression on the kiddie audiences, though Thomas may have recognized that children’s programming was in need of something better – the following year, she helmed the acclaimed made-for-TV offering “Free to Be…You and Me,” which remains one of the finest family-orient programs ever made for U.S. television.

“That Girl in Wonderland” pretty much vanished from sight after “The AABC Saturday Superstar Movie” went off the air. I’ve read that it was later rebroadcast on cable television, but I cannot confirm it. To date, there has never been a commercial home entertainment release of the title.

“That Girl in Wonderland” is also, as of this writing, not available for online viewing in its entirety. I purchased a collector-to-collector DVD based on a videotape of the 1973 broadcast. But the DVD was not a total waste – it included the broadcast’s original commercials, featuring the Jackson Five shilling for Alpha Bits and Sugar Bear insisting that a bowl of Super Sugar Crisps was more nutritious than a breakfast of pickles and soda. Ah, no wonder people refer to the 1970s as the era that good taste forgot!

IMPORTANT NOTICE: The unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyright-protected material, either for crass commercial purposes or profit-free ****s and giggles, is not something that the entertainment industry appreciates. On occasion, law enforcement personnel boost their arrest quotas by collaring cheery cinephiles engaged in such activities. So if you are going to copy and distribute bootleg material, a word to the wise: don’t get caught. Oddly, the purchase and ownership of bootleg DVDs is perfectly legal. Go figure!



Read more: https://web.archive.org/web/20140226174809/http://www.filmthreat.com/features/50113#ixzz3lH0IsOMO


On another topic, I also thought I'd mention that yesterday I thought I'd watch my copy of "Don't Just Do Something, Stand There" on my Kindle Fire for the 49th anniversary of the series premiere. It's not the 50th anniversary, but it's good enough for the time being.

And now you can watch it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZk2QiICMp4

And now you can watch it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZk2QiICMp4

Cool! Thanks! :thumbsup: