Free to Be...You and Me was a popular 1970s television special, as well as a children's album and children's book, about tolerance and challenging stereotypes. Marlo Thomas created and produced Free to Be...You and Me in partnership with the Ms. Foundation. The songs, stories, and poetry share uplifting messages for children.
The Free to Be...You and Me musical album was released in 1973, followed the next year by both a book and a long-remembered television special, which aired on March 11, 1974. The program was also shown to students in elementary schools across the United States.
An All-Star Cast
Many celebrities were part of “Marlo Thomas and Friends” who recorded the Free to Be...You and Me album and television special, including Alan Alda, Harry Belafonte, Mel Brooks, Roberta Flack, Michael Jackson, Kris Kristofferson and Cicely Tyson.
Memorable Sketch: The Babies
One recurring motif throughout Free to Be...You and Me is a puppet skit that features two newborn babies talking in their cribs in the hospital nursery. Early in the 45-minute program, the babies discuss whether they are boys or girls. The boy is sure he must be a girl because he has small, dainty feet. The girl wants to be a firefighter. After they run through a few more gender stereotypes, the nurse comes in for their diaper change and only then do they discover which sex they are. They decide that perhaps for now each could be “just a baby.”
The hospital nursery scenes also provide some sarcastic humor, such as the babies’ comment about the adults who stand outside the nursery window watching them, pointing, cooing and making faces. “They’ll really put on a show for us,” one baby tells the other. The babies are voiced by Mel Brooks and Marlo Thomas.
Songs
The songs in Free to Be...You and Me blend simple lyrics that are accessible to children with messages that comment on life at all ages. The songs encourage children to be accepting and to discover themselves without falling prey to stereotypes, particularly about what a girl or woman “should” do differently from a boy or man. Examples of Free to Be...You and Me songs include:
- “Free to Be You and Me” The lyrics tell us, “Every boy in this land grows to be his own man; in this land every girl grows to be her own woman…”
- “When We Grow Up” A male voice sings, “Will I be pretty?” and a female asks if she will grow up to be strong and tall. The song continues, “We don’t have to change at all.”
- “Parents are People” starts by declaring that “mommies are people” and “daddies are people,” then sings about parents being “almost anything they want to be.” For professions, some mommies are doctors or umpires, some daddies are bakers, and so on.
- “It’s All Right to Cry” Crying "lets the sad out of you" and "it might make you feel better.”
- “William’s Doll” In this song, 5-year-old William wants a doll. Naturally, this meets with resistance, and Dad thinks it’s more appropriate for William to receive a basketball and other sporting equipment. In the end, Wiliam gets a doll, which he will learn to take care of and thus be prepared for his own child someday, “as every good father should learn to do.”
The Princess Atalanta and Her Chosen Prince
One animated segment of Free to Be...You and Me involves a king choosing a husband for his daughter, Atalanta the princess. He invites her suitors to compete in a race; the winner gets to marry his daughter. Atalanta enters the race herself, agreeing with her father that if she wins (which he doubts), she can pick her own mate or perhaps “not choose to marry anyone at all.” She runs well in the competition, but one prince catches up to her, running "as her equal, side by side with her,” and they finish the race together. The king tries to award this prince the prize, but the righteous young man won’t marry Atalanta unless she wants to marry him. They become good friends, deciding that maybe they’ll marry someday, and the princess goes off to see the world.
Impact and Legacy
Free to Be...You and Me is filled with ideas that reflect the budding 1970s feminist outlook. Marlo Thomas wanted to teach all children to be accepting of others, happy and confident. After the gains of the Women’s Liberation Movement, it can be somewhat startling to watch the program and consider how revolutionary it was to tell girls that any profession was open to them or to tell boys they could cry or play with a doll.
The Free to Be...You and Me television program won a Peabody Award and an Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Special. Although the production is almost instantly recognizable as something from the 1970s, Free to Be...You and Me was re-released as a 35th anniversary edition in 2008, eliciting nostalgia from the many people who remembered the original and could now buy it for their own children.