That Ring, That Girl, Tuesday Flashback Feature

This is part of my Tuesday Flashback Feature. We reminisce about classic TV shows usually from the 1950s-1970s where gemstones or pieces of jewelry featured prominently in the storylines.

That Girl
That Cake
Nov. 13, 1970

Ann Marie (Marlo Thomas) and Donald Hollinger (Ted Bessell) finally become engaged to wed in the fifth and last season of the show. While preparing for a wedding, continuing her acting career and everything else she's doing, Ann lands the prestigious title of Miss Everything at the New York Has Everything exhibit.

For the role of Miss Everything, she bakes a fruit topped cheesecake using all New York ingredients. The cake even gets shipped to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller's house for a state dinner!

The situation turns frantic after the cake's been shipped and Ann thinks she's lost her engagement ring in the cake batter! What will happen if Governor Rockefeller bites into a piece of cake with her ring in it?! Will she ever get the ring back?! *

Wedding and engagement rings seem to regularly meet terrible fates on television shows. This isn't even the first or last ring to be or thought to have been baked into something. 


Each Tuesday, we'll feature a different show, often a US sitcom. Information, including spoiler plot outlines come from various sources. Particularly when the episode hasn't been recently viewed personally, information will be as accurate as possible. When available, a show photo will be included.

I'm always interested to hear your memories. In the interest of supporting fellow artists, I'll be featuring a few shops where the pieces tie into the general theme of the featured story.

That Girl ran from 1966-1971. Ann Marie is a struggling actress living in New York City. She takes on a lot of temp work, trying to find jobs acting and modeling. Her boyfriend is Donald Hollinger, a magazine reporter.

This episode is in the final Season, That Girl: Season Five. Amazon.com has DVDs of one of the shows that can remind us of "how tv used to be." Please use the Amazon search box on my blog if you're shopping with them this year. That would help us out a lot in a very slow year.

A Free to Be You and Me DVD is available for the whole family.

Joey Bishop and Marlo Thomas
The Danny Thomas Show

The St. Jude's Reasearch Hospital was founded by the late Danny Thomas, Marlo Thomas's father.

Want to read about Marlo Thomas' real life love story?  Donahue: My Own Story by Phil Donahue.

There is also a hardcover book, Free to be You and Me.

* Even with all the chaos that ensued, it was ok. Turns out the ring was never in the cake after all.

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Images from Sitcomsonline