Array shift equivalent?

I'm trying to shift the first element off of an array, but I'm just
not getting it. I'm not necessarily interested in saving the rest of
the array. i just want to get the first element, which in this case
is another array.

# select * from arrays;
this_array_id |                    this_array
---------------+---------------------------------------------------
              1 | {{foo,bar,baz},{afoo,abar,abaz},{bfoo,bbar,bbaz}}
(1 row)

I'd like to get {foo,bar,baz}.

My first try:

# select this_array[1] from arrays;
this_array
------------
(1 row)

# select this_array[1][1:3] from arrays;
    this_array
-----------------
{{foo,bar,baz}}
(1 row)

This last one is close, but it's nested:

# select array_dims(this_array[1][1:3]) from arrays;
array_dims
------------
[1:1][1:3]
(1 row)

I'd like to get just a [1:3] array.

What am I missing? Thanks for any assistance.

Michael Glaesemann
grzm seespotcode net