By Gregg Shapiro

Contributing writer

“That Girl: Season 3” (Shout! Factory)—That hair, that smile, that voice, that habit of getting into comical and complicated situations can only mean “That Girl.” The third season of the popular proto-feminist sitcom, which premiered in 1965 and ran until 1971, and starred Marlo Thomas as Ann Marie, the “That Girl” of the title, is now available in a four-DVD set. In the third season, which covered 1968 and 1969, “That Girl” tackled surprisingly topical subjects of the era, including airplane hijacking (“The Hi-Jack and the Mighty”), divorce (“Just Donald and Me and Jerry Makes Three”), mugging and the unsafe conditions in Central Park, as well as suggestions of tolerance for both homosexuals and transvestites (“A Muggy Day in Central Park”), issues of race (“The Defiant One”) and, naturally, being a career girl in the big city. Long suffering boyfriend Donald (Ted Bessel) is by her side throughout, as is her overprotective father Lou (Lew Parker). The fashions are worth the price of the DVD set alone, and Thomas, just a few years shy of her groundbreaking “Free to Be…You & Me” work, was a natural in front of the camera. DVD bonus material includes the featurette “That Show…That Woman…The Creation of That Girl: The Woman on Both Sides of the Camera,” in which Thomas gives a brief history and overview of the series that made her name a household word.

“Whole New Thing” (Picture This! Entertainment)—This funny but heartbreaking Canadian film tells the story of precocious Emerson (Aaron Webber), a bright teenager thrown into a public high school after years of home-schooling by his aging hippie parents Rog (Robert Joy) and Kaya (Rebecca Jenkins). When Kaya’s infidelity causes the marriage to start crumbling before Emerson’s eyes, the boy seeks affection and solace elsewhere, developing a crush on his teacher, middle-aged Don (Daniel McIvor). Don, a gay man, has his own issues, including his addiction to cruising public restrooms for sexual encounters and unresolved relationship matters with Claude (Hugh Thompson), his ex. Naturally, all sorts of complications arise, but watching writer/director Amnon Buchbinder’s genuine characters muddle through was a pleasure and worth every minute.