One season wonder My World and Welcome To It debuted 55 years ago today on NBC on Monday, September 15th, 1969. Based on the life and work of cartoonist and humorist James Thurber, the comedy series starred William Windom alongside Joan Hotchkis and Lisa Gerritsen. Many TV critics lavished praise of the show but not all. For example, Clarence Peterson of the Chicago Tribune wrote in his review that he had “a dark feeling that it will get old pretty fast.”
NBC cancelled My World and Welcome To It in February 1970 due to low ratings. A total of 26 episodes were produced. Months later, the series won two Emmy Awards at the 22nd Annual Emmy Awards: Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series.
To learn more about the series, check out my in-depth article.
I’ve watched five or six episodes of My World and Welcome To It, sourced from beat up 16 mm prints or rough VHS recordings, and the mix of animation and live-action suffers from the poor video quality. I would love the opportunity to watch more episodes, particularly if the quality is better.
If you watched My World and Welcome To It when it premiered 55 years ago, hit the comments with your recollections.
We watched this with our mother. She was a fan of James Thurber. When My Life and Hard Times showed up in my Scholastic Book Club catalog, I too, became a fan.
Fifty-five years ago I watched the show as an elementary school student, and liked it, but it wasn’t one of my favorites. It was just an okay show. At the time I didn’t know who James Thurber was, but probably read the show’s beginning credits, so knew he existed and had a series based on his life. As an adult I bought a used copy of “The Thurber Carnival” and many years later I learned what a troubled life James Thurber had. A couple years ago I watched a few episodes of “My World and Welcome To It” on Youtube and I’m so grateful that beat-up copies of at least some of the episodes still exist. My life is nothing like any of the show’s characters on the series, but I can relate to the idea of not quite fitting in, and not quite being understood.
lets jump right in// since Windom was the archtype tv character actor just as the like of James Daley or even Lloyd Bridges and Denis Weaver types who created a whole deck of cards with memorable tv rolls..** its producer DANNY ARNOLD is ever so familar// example=?Arnold first produced soley the pilots for Bewitched and That Girl and Barney Miller.. in fact.. he was always known for promising the Moon and at the last stressful moments DID come thru! and every time// Sheldon Leonard had done Mayberry and Dick van dyke etc–****—-notice Earle hagen did most NOT all the former classic tv themes????-thats another story-**-My world didnt have a catchy sounding theme/ nor background music====hence had no shelf– life even for reruns..?—– most remarkbly/ I got to meet Windom on his college circuit
appearance tour in 1975/// between his shows—Damn! i shoud have saved the publicity photo poster! Wilndom was a pioneer ,member of MENSA back then……….Imagine 35 college horney sophomores squeezed into the lobby of our dorm.{{it was coed}}. We were crouched all over the place// i led the audience dialogue with the first lead in question[[** since we were the very age of the first boomer tv addicts** as far as referring to tvs harm?? he denied it=====BUT notebl;y it all revolved aroind his mostr gfaamous roll of congressman Moerely in FARMERS DAUGHTER! all about Kathleen Nesbitt– i mean;;;; how did she manage not to fall off that unique mechnical climbing // sliding chairas it was decending the stairs every week.!!!!! ps. i had already elaborated about danny arnold previously… i guess facts../ and checking later on