My World and Welcome to It

My World and Welcome to It
Format	Situation comedy
Created by	Melville Shavelson, based on works by James Thurber
Starring	William Windom (John Monroe) Lisa Gerritsen (Lydia Monroe) Joan Hotchkis (Ellen Monroe) Harold J. Stone (Hamilton Greeley) Henry Morgan (Phil Jensen)
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	26
Production
Executive producer(s)	Sheldon Leonard
Producer(s)	Danny Arnold
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Sheldon Leonard Productions, in association with NBC
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	September 15, 1969 – March 6, 1970

My World and Welcome to It was a US-made half-hour sitcom based on the humor and cartoons of James Thurber. It starred William Windom as John Monroe, a Thurber-like writer and cartoonist who works for a magazine that closely resembles The New Yorker, called The Manhattanite. Wry, fanciful and curmudgeonly, Monroe observes and comments on life, to the bemusement of his rather sensible wife Ellen (Joan Hotchkis) and intelligent, questioning daughter Lydia (Lisa Gerritsen). Monroe's frequent daydreams and fantasies are usually based on Thurber material. My World — And Welcome To It (note slight variation from television title) is the name of a book of illustrated stories and essays, also by James Thurber.

The television series ran one season on NBC 1969-1970. It was created by Mel Shavelson, who wrote and directed the pilot episode and was one of the show's principal writers. Sheldon Leonard was executive producer. Another of the show's producers, Danny Arnold, co-wrote or directed numerous episodes, and even appeared as Santa Claus in "Rally Round the Flag."

Sources

Most episodes open with Monroe arriving in front of the house from the Thurber cartoon "Home," which in the original cartoon has a woman's face on one side of it. In the show the house is initially house-shaped. The woman's face is often animated to appear, as Ellen says something to John. The "Home" house, without the face, is used as an establishing shot throughout the episodes. Other Thurber cartoons are similarly animated over the course of the series, sometimes in the opening sequence, sometimes later in the episode. The episode "Cristabel" begins with Monroe lying on top of a cartoon doghouse, a reference to the non-Thurber cartoon character Snoopy. The animation for the series was by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. Humorist Henry Morgan had a recurring role as a humor writer for The Manhattanite, which was said to be based on the real-life humorist/actor Robert Benchley. Harold J. Stone played the editor, with whom Monroe is often at odds about cartoon content. A female writer who appeared in one episode was also loosely based on Dorothy Parker. Guest-stars included Lee Meriwether, Paul Ford, Joe Besser, Ray Walston, Craig Stevens, Danny Bonaduce, Talia Shire (as Talia Coppola), Cindy Williams, James Gregory and Noam Pitlik.

Live action adaptations of Thurber's writing are another show staple. For example, "Rally Round the Flag," in which Monroe purchases a very large flag as a gift, is loosely based on a Thurber piece called "There's a Time for Flags." An incident with a policeman in "Christabel" is an almost verbatim transcription of the Thurber story "The Topaz Cufflinks Mystery". Fables for Our Time is another source, as when John Monroe sees a unicorn in the back yard, a reference to "The Unicorn in the Garden". Many of the episode titles are taken from Thurber's Fables for Our Time (e.g., "The Shrike and the Chipmunks") and other writings ("Rules for a Happy Marriage" and many more).

Aside from his obvious resemblance to Thurber himself, John Monroe is based on one of Thurber's characters, who appeared in several short stories including "Mr. Monroe Holds the Fort" and "The Monroes Find a Terminal." Monroe and his family first came to television in a 1959 Alcoa Theatre/Goodyear Theatre production called "Cristabel (The Secret Life of John Monroe)", also written by Melville Shavelson. The dog Cristabel was named after a dog Thurber gave to his daughter.^[1]

Despite the liberal use of "drawings, stories, inspirational pieces and things that go bump in the night by James Thurber" (as stated in the opening credits), the show also contains character and story elements that owe little or nothing to Thurber's work. For example, there is no Thurber basis for Monroe and daughter Lydia playing chess throughout "Little Girls Are Sugar & Spice - And Not Always Nice!" Although Thurber material is woven around it, the episode's storyline itself is fairly conventional situation comedy.

Episode list

Episode #	Production Code	Episode Title	Airdate
1	1	"Man Against the World" (pilot)	September 15, 1969
2	3	"The Disenchanted"	September 22, 1969
3	4	"Little Girls Are Sugar & Spice- And Not Always Nice!"	September 29, 1969
4	6	"Christabel"	October 6, 1969
5	7	"The Night the House Caught Fire"	October 13, 1969
6	2	"The Ghost and Mr. Monroe"	October 20, 1969
7	10	"Nobody Ever Kills Dragons Anymore"	October 27, 1969
8	5	"Seal in the Bedroom"	November 3, 1969
9	9	"The Saga Of Dimity Ann"	November 10, 1969
10	12	"Friend Of the Earth"	November 17, 1969
11	15	"Maid In Connecticut"	November 24, 1969
12	13	"Native Wit"	December 1, 1969
13	8	"The Shrike and the Chipmunks"	December 8, 1969
14	14	"Rally Round the Flag"	December 15, 1969
15	11	"The War Between Men and Women"	December 22, 1969
16	17	"The Mating Dance"	December 29, 1969
17	18	"Darn That Dream"	January 5, 1970
18	16	"The Human Being and the Dinosaur"	January 12, 1970
19	19	"'Dear' Is A Four-Letter Word"	January 19, 1970
20	21	"The Middle Years"	January 26, 1970
21	22	"Rules For A Happy Marriage"	February 2, 1970
22	20	"The Wooing Of Mr. Monroe"	February 9, 1970
23	23	"The Mea Culpa Bit"	February 16, 1970
24	24	"The Fourth Estate"	February 23, 1970
25	25	"Monroe the Misogynist"	March 2, 1970
26	26	"Child's Play"	March 9, 1970

Awards

My World and Welcome to It won two Emmy Awards in 1970:^[2]

• Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series (William Windom)
• Outstanding Comedy Series

Also nominated for:

• Outstanding Achievement in any area of Creative Arts ("Rally 'Round the Flag Boys" - special photographic effects).

Book

My World — And Welcome To It
Author(s)	James Thurber
Illustrator	James Thurber
Cover artist	James Thurber
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	humor
Publisher	Harcourt, Brace and Company
Publication date	October, 1942
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	324 pages
Preceded by	Fables For Our Time and Famous Poems Illustrated
Followed by	Many Moons

The similarly titled book by James Thurber, My World — And Welcome to It, was published in 1942 by Harcourt, Brace and Company. The current edition is ISBN 0-89190-269-4. Part One of this collection contains 22 assorted Thurber short stories and humorous essays, many of them illustrated with his cartoons. Part Two consists of an eight part comic memoir about France, written in 1937 and 1938, about twenty years after Thurber first arrived there near the conclusion of World War I.^[3]

The tone of these pieces ranges from lighthearted wordplay and dialect ("What Do You Mean It Was Brillig?") to literary satire ("The Macbeth Murder Mystery") to psychological horror ("The Whip-Poor-Will" and "A Friend to Alexander"). The most famous story is "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", which bears little resemblance to the film starring Danny Kaye.^[4]

None of the stories in the book are about the Monroe family, as seen in the television series.

References

1. ^ Thurber, James (1955). Thurber's Dogs. New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. g. xvii. ISBN 0-671-79219-9. 
2. ^ "Past Winners Database: 1969-1970 22nd Emmy Awards". The Envelope: The Ultimate Awards Site. Los Angeles Times. 2005. Archived from the original on 2006-10-31. http://web.archive.org/web/20061031064746/http://theenvelope.latimes.com/extras/lostmind/year/1969/1969_1970emmy.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-12. 
3. ^ "His Life & Times: A Chronology". The Thurber House: A Literary Center for Writers and Readers. The Thurber House. Archived from the original on 2006-08-30. http://web.archive.org/web/20060830174028/http://www.thurberhouse.org/james/life.html. Retrieved 2006-12-12. 
4. ^ "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)". Show Preview, AMCTV.com. American Movie Classics. http://www.amctv.com/show/detail?CID=2901-1-EST. Retrieved 2006-12-12. 

External links

• My World and Welcome to It at the Internet Movie Database
• My World and Welcome to It at TV.com
• TV Tome's My World and Welcome to It site
• Cristabel (The Secret Life of John Monroe) at the Internet Movie Database
• TVParty.com's My World and Welcome to It page
• Flying Dreams' My World and Welcome to It page