My World and Welcome to It

I remember being thrilled to learn that "My World and Welcome to It" was based on James Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." I recognized the similarities right away after reading the book, which was pretty amazing to me since I was just a kid. I'd love to see it in syndication. Lisa Gerritsen was a wonderful child actress and William Windom was perfect as John Monroe (aka "Walter"). It was well written and well acted. What more could you ask for? It was the perfect mix of reality and fantasy. Most of us live vicariously through television or film a few hours a day, so why not see it through the eyes of the master? We all have a little bit of John Monroe in us. "My World and Welcome to It" is the ultimate in escapism...for just a little while.

I looked up this show because I was watching a video of "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" and recognized William Windom. In fact I have always recognized him whenever I have seen him, thinking "There's that guy who was in the show with the cartoons when I was little."

For some reason scenes from the show have always stuck in my mind, and I've always had an awareness that the show was something special, even though I was only 6 when it was on and haven't seen it since. Finally I figured I had to know what it was (since no one I know even remembers that such a show existed). So I came on here and looked up William Windom, and read with interest the description of it from Mr. Leone. I, too, wish it were possible to see the show again now.

Re: the other comments, and ditto them. This was a GREAT comedy, one of the best ever. Creative, brilliant, cynical, satirical, etc. Of course it lasted one year. IF RERUN TODAY IT WOULD BE A MAJOR SUCCESS - ON PBS. CAN'T WE GET PBS TO PURCHASE SOME EPISODES?

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!

This show was a pure joy from the first moment--of course, when you have as your source the great James Thurber, how can you go wrong. Sweet and funny, rich in characterization. Years after it went to that great burial ground of cancelled shows (The Name of the Game, Adam's Rib, Nothing Sacred), William Windom toured the country doing Thurber. I saw him (for free) in Hopkins Plaza in downtown Baltimore. After the show, he hung around talking to all the people who wanted to tell him what the show had meant to them. Nice to find that the man who played John Monroe and James Thurber was as sweet and funny in reality as on tv.