Free to See ‘Free to Be’ Once Again

What the world tried to teach kids about separatism, supremacy and rigidly defined gender roles, Marlo Thomas and friends attempted to counteract in the songs and stories of “Free to Be ... You and Me.”

The 1972 recording became the gift of choice from adults wanting to teach children about harmony, sensitivity and equal opportunity. A television adaptation--featuring Thomas, Mel Brooks, Roberta Flack, Michael Jackson, Alan Alda and others--aired on ABC in 1974 and earned an Emmy. A lot of us grew up with the “Free to Be” songs in our heads, so it’s only fitting that TV Land--that bastion of baby boomer nostalgia--would return the hourlong television program to our living rooms (tonight at 8 p.m. and midnight). Round up the kids and sit down to watch it with them.

The clothing and hairstyles may look goofy to today’s kids, and the music may seem strange. But the messages are timeless, delivered in an appealing mixture of animation, puppetry and live action that will be familiar to any child who watches “Blue’s Clues,” “Arthur” or “Bear in the Big Blue House.”

A running story line involves two babies--voiced by Brooks and Thomas--who, after meeting in the hospital nursery, teach each other that their futures don’t have to be defined by appearances or expectations. Other standouts include “William’s Doll,” about an independent-minded sports ace who endures peer teasing and parental doubt when he asks for a doll, and “Atalanta,” about an athletic, adventuresome princess who does a footrace around her narrow-minded father.

And, of course, there’s the title song, with its key phrase (c’mon, everybody sing along): “Every boy in this land grows to be his own man,/In this land, every girl grows to be her own woman.”