That Girl: A Muggy Day in Central Park

That Girl: A Muggy Day in Central Park
ABC
November 14, 1968
Sitcom
DVD
C+

I feel like, roughly one-third into Season Three, the show is losing its way.  Not that it's jumped the shark, but the scripts seem less realistic, more contrived.  This is all right on Gilligan's Island, where the implausible can be funny, but it doesn't work here, where the humor should come from character truth.  Ann gets mugged in Central Park, which leads to her father catching Donald in drag and "necking" (more like snuggling) with a man in the park.  And characters don't react believably in terms of what they say and do, or even in the timing of it.  Still, I guess there's a novelty factor here, so I won't go with a lower grade.

Noam Pitlik was Donald Hardy on Gidget and makes his first of two TG cameos, as Det. Harry Walters.  Joe Perry makes his third of four TG appearances, as Det. Foster.  This is Arthur Julian's last TG script, although he would appear as an actor again.

This '68 episode was the 68th of TG to air in the '60s.