Our World

I remember coming across Our World in the TV listings a couple of days before it first aired. When I saw what ABC was out to do, I realized immediately- "It's going to be smart, educational, and historical in nature...it doesn't stand a chance." The second thing I did was prepare some blank videos to record every episode for as long as Linda Ellerbee and Ray Gandolf could keep the show going.

Today, twenty years later, I have still have those four video tapes with all 25 episodes- most without the commercials. (Looking back, it would be interesting to see the commercials now too!) My hope is to transfer these tapes to DVD- hopefully they're still in decent condition.

This little known and short lived show was one of the high points of television history. It is also sad note on our society that it wasn't put on to actually educate people, but by executives who saw it as a cheap alternative in a ratings time slot they could never win.

ABC's Our World had the advantage of the great news staff at ABC in 1986, who went out and filmed eyewitness accounts from regular people as well as the famous. This hour long show had a budget of under $1 million, less then the $1.5 million budgeted for the previous time slot occupant, Ripley's Believe It or Not hosted by Jack Palance, according to a New York Times article in 1986. Whatever the budget, the money spent shows in the Our World episodes I saw and taped in 1986 and 1987. In 1986, Our World production staff could still find participants for interviews to the shows covering the earliest season/year episodes in 1938 and 1939. Now, 19 years later, many of those interviewed have passed on, so this show is a real time capsule. The film archivists did an outstanding job collecting high quality film footage for the episodes, which looks good even on my taped copies, taped at EP speed, for reasons unknown now (but which I am now transferring to DVDR at XP speed).

Information on this ABC News documentary series is very hard to come by. TVTome has information on some episodes, but the air dates are not always accurate. The Bill Cosby Show, which was on opposite Our World, is out on DVD now, but Our World is still among the missing on DVD. While show host Linda Ellerbee went on to other shows, co-host Ray Gandolf and the show's production staff do not seem to have gotten another chance at ABC News after Our World flopped.

Below are the show episodes in January 1987, with the correct air dates. Since Our World was a news show with few musical segments that could cause clearance problems, ABC would have no problems issuing a DVD of the series. ABC probably won't, since niche market quality shows like Our World do not appeal to the Ipod wearing empty suits who dominate corporate American television.

Our World Episode List (1986-1987) 9/25/86 Summer Of 1969 10/2/86 13 Days In October 1962 10/9/86 Pre-empted 10/16/86 Autumn 1956 10/23/86 Forty Days In Spring 1970 10/30/86 Halloween Of 1938 11/6/86 Breaking Barriers 1954 11/13/86 Pre-empted 11/20/86 Pre-empted 11/27/86 Per-empted 12/4/86 Together And Apart 1943 12/11/86 Pursuit Of Power | Autumn 1973 12/18/86 All Shook Up | Autumn 1957 12/25/86 Pre-empted 1/1/87 Secrets & Surprises | Fall 1948 1/8/87 Inner-Struggles | Autumn 1975 1/15/87 Fear & Frustration | Winter 1952 1/22/87 Worlds Apart | Summer 1939 1/29/87 Re-run - Breaking Barriers 1954 2/5/87 Winds Of Change | Winter 1968 2/12/87 A Crowded Room | Autumn 1949 2/19/87 Gone With The Wind 1939 2/26/87 Between The Lines | Summer 1972 3/5/87 Up Against The Wall | 1961 3/12/87 Re-run – 1970 Episode 3/19/87 Pre-empted 3/26/87 Re-run – 1943 Episode 4/2/87 Re-run – 1973 Episode 4/9/87 Liberation Summer | 1944 4/16/87 Cover Stories | Spring 1960 4/23/87 Period Of Adjustment | Autumn 1946 4/30/87 Speaking Out | Spring 1963 5/7/87 Duels In The Sun | Summer 1952 5/14/87 One Day In April 1961 5/21/87 Long Winter - Short Spring 1937 5/28/87 Spring 1953

(List e-mailed to me by LF, who saw my original posting listing 4 episodes of series shown in January 1987. He had obtained a complete list from a production assistant at ABC. I modified list slightly, adding information for two episodes).

....thanks to Linda Ellerbee, Ray Gandolf and the writers. Like others in this forum I too taped this show and have them to this day. Every couple of years or so I re-watch the series. It never grows old or dated. It is history, it is timeless, it is who we are.

It was the only television program that ever prompted me to write to a studio (ABC) regarding a show. ABC was kind enough to send me really nice educational materials that they made available for each episode and provided to schools and institutions. From these and other materials about the show that I was able to gather during its run in the 1986-87 season, I was able to assemble a nice "Our World" educational scrapbook.

OUR WORLD lives on.....

Over the years I taped many shows and happened to stumble upon this particular show of "Our World" (1986) The reason I saved this particular film was because of the Year 1939 and the New York's World's Fair. The photography was fantastic of the entire Worlds Fair and even had FDR opening the Fair with a speech. America was trying to stay away from War and getting involved with World Affairs and was enjoying the hopes for a future with all kinds of new inventions and modern conveniences. However, as this film progressed we learned about Hitler and his horrible threat to the Jewish people, and how they tried to obtain passage on the "ST. LOUIS SS" to Cuba and possibly Florida from the Nazi's in Europe. FDR would not allow this ship and its passengers to enter the United States and some of these Jewish people had to go back to Europe only to be put into prison camps. I only wish this film could be shown once again in the Year 2000! This was a very well produced film and clearly shows that America cannot just sit back and let other countries take control like Hitler or any other DICTATOR!

ABC probably realized that programming against NBC's Thursday line up juggernaut was almost impossible, so why not put on a show that didn't require a huge amount of money to produce. What would fit the bill better than a news show, that used film footage that could be pulled from archives?

Each show would revolve around a particular year, 1958, for example, and one, as I recall, was about the movie "Gone With The Wind", and what was involved in it's complicated filming.

Linda Ellerbee and Ray Gandolf shared hosting duties. And Ms. Ellerbee's dry wit showed true as each story played out.

I remember that when the network tried to cancel the show, a national write-in campaign was started. the host even joked about the fact that many folks watched "Cosby" and taped "Our World" to watch later.

I used to pop a tape in my Beta(!) machine and head out for the evening.

A good effort, but doomed to low ratings due to it's placement. If it was a weekend show, we'd probably be watching, now!