Fast chat: Marlo Thomas' life of laughter

Marlo Thomas is the daughter of show-biz royalty. Her dad is singer-actor-comedian Danny Thomas, and his hang-around-the-house pals were people like Milton Berle, George Burns and Sid Caesar.

Thomas became a star herself with the proto-feminist 1966 TV series "That Girl," and since then has appeared onstage, in movies and written several bestselling books. Along the way she's also won Emmy, Grammy, Golden Globe and Peabody awards. Now the 72-year-old multi-hyphenate has written "Growing Up Laughing: Finding the Funny in Life," a book that is part biography, and part interviews with contemporary comedians, including Chris Rock, Joy Behar and Stephen Colbert. Lewis Beale caught up with the star, whose new website marlothomas.aol.com is up and running, by phone from Los Angeles.

What differences do you see between comedy when your dad was in show business, and comedy today?

I don't see a lot of difference, except for what the taboos are. It's still the same honing of the craft, understanding what the audience likes, finding your own tone. It's different, the taboos; in my dad's day, it was dirty language - they didn't do that. But what seems to be the wildness of the language today hasn't changed the comedy craft.

A lot of the classic comedians were Jewish. That's still the case today. Is there some sort of Jewish comedy gene?

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Conan O'Brien said it's the Jews, blacks and Irish giving us our humor, because they were the most oppressed. And the women are starting to come back. It's like having a teapot boil and letting the steam out. And I think the Jews did that - without comedy you're gonna die, especially if you're oppressed and in pain. But you don't have to be an oppressed group, just a human being in pain.

So do you think in general there is a comedy gene?

Is it a gene? Is it environment? I don't know. My humor came from Milton and George Burns, and all those guys I sat and listened to. Then, I wondered where Jerry Seinfeld's comedy came from, or Joy Behar. You take someone like Behar, who had somber people around her, she made all the laughs. Billy Crystal, his family was funny. Is it nature or nurture? It's both.

Stephen Colbert makes an interesting statement in the book, saying comedians don't have groupies. How come?

[Laughs.] I guess because they don't gyrate. They don't come off as sexy, but I think there's nothing sexier than a funny guy.

What do you think is not funny?

It's like the taboos have changed. In my dad's day, they made racist and sexist jokes. You don't make racist jokes these days. When I find a comedian not funny, it's because he hasn't figured out how to put into words what he's observing that makes it personal.

"That Girl" was one of the first TV shows to feature a single, independent woman. What do you think the status of women on TV is these days? Have we progressed? Or are there too many bikini babes?

We had "Charlie's Angels." We never lost the bikini babes. You'll always have them. There's all kinds of women in the world. The real progression is from "That Girl," to "Kate & Allie," about two divorced women living together, to Roseanne Barr, which was a far cry from "Father Knows Best," then to Candy Bergen in "Murphy Brown," an alcoholic who had a child out of marriage, to "Friends." It's just kept evolving. Will there be the occasional setback? Sure. But you have it with men, too.

In 1972, you co-authored - with friends like Alan Alda, Cicely Tyson and Michael Jackson - "Free to Be . . . You and Me," a book and album encouraging kids to celebrate individuality, tolerance and their own identity. The project evolved into a TV special, and the book is still in print. Are you surprised by its success and longevity?

I think . . . this was the book little kids needed when they got on the planet. As the years have gone by, I realized, every kid is born with the same issues. Who is he? How do I get what I want? What we were trying to do is guide children to cooperate, no matter what race they were, finding a way to be independent. Global cooperation; we're all sisters and brothers. Independence and gender roles that would be open to children. Of all the things I've ever done, that has had the deepest connection to people.