Highly Overrated But Still Good

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The average American is too friggin' stupid to get this show. It didn't last then, and it would not last now, simply because it demands intelligence and humor, two faculties the average American citizen has never, ever, had. It's also very hard to find on DVD now simply because most people are too friggin' stupid to even want to watch it. If you remember it, and love it, then you are probably a thinking person, and someone who actually reads books for enjoyment, unlike the idiots our so called educational system is putting out now. I remember this series with a wonderful fondness. It made me laugh, it made me think and it drove me to seek out all of Thurber's writings, which only made me laugh and think even more. This is great TV only TV is designed for the lowest common denominator, and this show demanded so much more of its audience.

I remember this show as turning me on to James Thurber and his writing. I have been a fan and collector of his books ever since. I remember the series as unique, fantastic-in the true sense-and surreal. Oddly enough it replaced another comic, surreal albeit commercially prone program on the same network in the same time slot. Yes, prior to 1969 when this show first aired it was showing "The Monkees" in that very same slot. It is head and shoulders above most of the slop being offered on TV when there are more networks and is more money to produce and promote. A giant leap backward. If you have not experienced this show demand to see it and you will probably agree.

"My World and Welcome to It" was the title of a piece that James Thurber wrote for the New Yorker and the title of a collection of some of his humor pieces. It included one of his most famous short stories, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," which was made into a film starring Danny Kaye. The TV show, My World and... took this Walter Mitty idea and applied it to the main character, a writer and cartoonist. I remember that they used Thurber's own very distinctive drawings in the show. I don't know to what extent they used his writing...It is hard to imagine how famous Thurber was from the late thirties through the fifties (he died in 1961). There was a Broadway review of his work (The Thurber Carnival), at least one movie, several best sellers, and kudos from some of the world's most famous artists. His drawings were as instantly recognizable as Charles Schultz's were in the sixties and seventies.Sadly, by the time the TV show aired, only adults knew who he was and the show tanked pretty quickly. I still read Thurber and laugh out loud. James Thurber, although no longer famous, has a place beside Twain, Benchley, and Heller as one of America's finest humorous men of letters. Check him out.

Shown on NBC in 1969-70 and and re-run on CBS ca. 1972. "My World and Welcome to It" was a sharp, sophisticated comedy that a curmudgeonly grandfather and an elementary schoolboy could enjoy together. This is *the* show William Windom ought to be remembered for.The animation of the Thurber cartoons was fantastic. There was an especially funny episode based on the Thurber story "If Grant Had Been Drinking at Appomattox." The cartoonist sits on his young daughter's bed, starting to tell her about the end of the Civil War. "Suppose General Grant had been drinking, uh...." "Cough medicine?!" the girl chirps up. "Uh, yes, cough medicine." And then he goes on to tell the tale....Suddenly you see William Windom in rumpled dress blues as General Grant, disgracefully drunk by the surrender table, chomping on his cigar, as a distinguished, gray bearded General Lee introduces himself. "General Robert E. Lee of the Army of Northern Virginia.""Well go on, go ahead!" General Grant snaps as he proffers his sword to an astonished Lee, "Ya darn near licked us!"(Luckily things didn't quite turn out that way in real life.)Thurber is timeless, and so is this show. If only reruns of "My World" were run on cable, or at least sold on DVD -- it would hook a whole new generation on the wonderful imagination of James Thurber!