Series
My World and Welcome to It
Comedy
My World and Welcome to It is an American half-hour television 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 closely resembling 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 and intelligent, questioning daughter Lydia. Monroe's frequent daydreams and fantasies are usually based on Thurber material. My World — And Welcome To It is the name of a book of illustrated stories and essays, also by James Thurber. The 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. The show's producer, Danny Arnold, co-wrote or directed numerous episodes, and even appeared as Santa Claus in "Rally Round the Flag."
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Seasons & episodes
- 1Man Against the World (Pilot)15 Sept 1969 · 30mWhen Lydia complains to her father about the dullness of her history lesson at school, John tells her his own version of the story of Generals Grant and Lee at Appomattox, a version that plays fast and loose with the facts. After Lydia repeats John's fanciful take on the story in class, her beautiful teacher pays John a visit at home.
- 2The Disenchanted22 Sept 1969 · 30mWhen the noise from the freight elevator beside his office becomes intolerable, John decides to try working at home, only to be confronted by Lydia, who is unhappy with her seat at school. She decides to run away into Manhattan to stay with her bohemian Aunt Kate--accompanied by her worried father.
- 3Little Girls Are Sugar & Spice - And Not Always Nice!29 Sept 1969 · 30mIn order to get closer to her father, with whom she seems to share little in common, Lydia learns how to play chess from her mother and begins seriously beating John at the game. He enlists the help of Oscar, a chess expert who works at The Manhattanite, to beat her, but to no avail. So John imagines the results of three increasingly bizarre plans to win out over his daughter.
- 4Christabel6 Oct 1969 · 30mJohn has dog problems with just about everyone: Greeley, over a magazine piece about his childhood family pet who bit people; Ellen, who makes him sleep on the couch after an argument about animals' eyes; and Lydia, who wants a new puppy. Then Christabel, the family's ancient poodle, becomes ill, and everyone seems to hold John at fault.
- 5The Night the House Caught Fire13 Oct 1969 · 30mWhen Lydia comes down with a bad cold, John takes the opportunity to try to show her that people with vivid imaginations are better off than those who approach life from a more ""realistic"" point of view. The story of ""The Unicorn in the Garden"" doesn't seem to work, so John relates the story of his great-grandfather, who not only was a prolific storyteller but managed to get the fire department called out when he was trying to attend to young John's sniffles.
- 6The Ghost and Mr. Monroe20 Oct 1969 · 30mAfter Greeley once again fails to understand the humor in one of John's cartoons, John quits his job with The Manhattanite and returns home, where he begins to wonder what he'll do for money now. He settles on playing the stock market and fantasizes about a meeting with J.P. Morgan.
- 7Nobody Ever Kills Dragons Anymore27 Oct 1969 · 30mJohn, finding himself bothered by the ordinariness of his life, fantasizes about being involved in a tale of espionage involving pickle forks and a malevolent dragon.
- 8Seal in the Bedroom3 Nov 1969 · 30mGreeley rejects yet another of John's cartoons which he doesn't understand, one involving a seal in the bedroom of a married couple. Ellen and Lydia agree with Greeley, and when John tells Phil about his problem, Phil suggests the seal might represent John's mother who is visiting the Monroes. Naturally this provokes a fantasy in which John's mother, who showed up at the house wearing a sealskin coat, actually becomes a seal.
- 9The Saga of Dimity Ann10 Nov 1969 · 30mAfter being bitten by the family cat, Dimity Ann, John takes her away and leaves her in a new housing developement. Lydia believes the cat ran away because of a dislike for her, while Ellen's suspicions come nearer the truth. John fantasizes about being on trial before a real judge for his ""crime.""
- 10A Friend of the Earth17 Nov 1969 · 30mThe Monroe's new neighbor, Paul Morton, who is also a cartoonist, challenges John's more sophisticated humor by pitting him against the town's answer to Will Rogers, Zeph Leggin. To John's distress, Ellen and Lydia are taken with Zeph's more rustic humor, and even in his fantasy world John has trouble winning out.
- 11Maid in Connecticut24 Nov 1969 · 30mThe Monroes have a new maid who for some reason has a phobia about modern appliances, and Ellen tells John to be kind to her and keep up appearances while she's away. But the maid finds John, who is working in the attic, as distracting as the appliances.
- 12Native Wit1 Dec 1969 · 30mJohn finally manages to get his revenge on Zeph Leggin by studying old jokes and using them to defeat the local humorist in a battle of wit. So Zeph decides it's time to move away from the Connecticut village, and a guilty John feels compelled to convince him to remain.
- 13The Shrike and the Chipmunks8 Dec 1969 · 30mWhen Greeley decides to dedicate an entire issue of The Manhattanite to children's book author George Lindsay Lockhart, John, who despises people who write for children, is outraged--even more when he discovers that Greeley will be staying in his house as they collaborate. John's ire is raised even more when Ellen and Lydia take a liking to Lockhart. But when the two men start working together, John discovers Lockhart isn't quite the saccharine, optimistic soul he had expected.
- 14Rally Round the Flag15 Dec 1969 · 30mFrustrated while trying to buy a Christmas present for Lydia, John makes the unfortunate choice of an American flag as her gift. Lydia is not pleased, and when the people in the neighborhood learn of John's inappropriate gift, a group of them show up at the Monroe's accusing him of having his holidays confused.
- 15The War Between Men and Women22 Dec 1969 · 30mDuring a sixteenth anniversary party for the Jensens at the Monroe's house, Phil loses his temper when his wife Ruth interrupts one of his stories, and when he accidentally spills a martini on her, war is declared. After a skirmish in the grocery store, battle lines are drawn and Ruth throws Phil out of their house, which causes the men, including Hamilton Greeley and a fellow writer named J.J. Howard, to gather at a bar and decide how to prevail.
- 16The Mating Dance29 Dec 1969 · 30mLydia is supposed to go to a dance with a boy named Elbert, but when a bully beats him up and insists that Lydia go to the dance with him, John takes the side of the underdog and tries to talk Elbert into retaliating.
- 17Darn that Dream5 Jan 1970 · 30mLydia is concerned about nightmares, so John tells stories about his family during his childhood in Columbus, Ohio. He recalls several eccentric relatives, including his Aunt Hester, who was so afraid of burglers that she put her household good outside her bedroom door every night so no one would break in to steal them.
- 18The Human Being and the Dinosaur12 Jan 1970 · 30mWhen a neighborhood boy tries to tell Lydia about the facts of life, she responds by punching him in the mouth. While Ellen is mostly concerned that Lydia has given the boy a loose tooth, John attempts to discuss the concepts of inferiority and superiority with his daughter
- 19Dear Is a Four-Letter Word19 Jan 1970 · 30mWhen both Ellen and Lydia's teacher Miss Skidmore agree that John's cartoons are causing his daughter acute embarrassment, John goes to the school and ends up in the office of the principal, who John imagines as a Nazi out of a World War II melodrama.
- 20The Middle Years26 Jan 1970 · 30mWhen Ellen and Lydia go on an overnight trip, leaving John home alone, he finds himself interrupted in his work by a pair of movers and goes into a fantasy concerning him and his beautiful new neighbor.
- 21Rules for a Happy Marriage2 Feb 1970 · 30mJohn suggests The Manhattanite use marriage as the theme of its anniversary issue, and he has his own ideas on the subject. After he elaborates on his thoughts on marriage, including the tendency of wives to tardiness, he ends up being late for a lunch date with Ellen.
- 22The Wooing of Mr. Monroe9 Feb 1970 · 30mWhen John begins collaborating on a book with a female writer, Ellen suspects he may really be having an affair instead.
- 23The Mea Culpit Bit16 Feb 1970 · 30mJohn is suffering from cartoonist's block, making him irritable at work and then later at home. In his frustration he chases Lydia out of his study, causing her to fall and accidentally break her arm. Everyone seems to want to take the blame for Lydia's injury, and Ellen thinks she has a solution, at least to John's feelings of guilt.
- 24The Fourth Estate23 Feb 1970 · 30mJohn once again has to deal with rejection, not only by Greeley, who can't find the humor in one of John's cartoons, but by the young editor of Lydia's sixth-grade school newspaper. John is upset by this double rejection, but his attempts to plead his case don't go the way he wants.
- 25Monroe the Mysogynist2 Mar 1970 · 30mAfter both Ellen and Greeley accuse John of hating women, John becomes unable to think of any other kinds of cartoons to meet his deadline than ones which back up their accusations.
- 26Child's Play9 Mar 1970 · 30mWhen Phil gives in to his son's wishes because of feelings of guilt, John chastises him for being weak, but when John himself misses a picnic he'd planned to take with Lydia, he imagines the negative consequences of his forgetfulness by conjuring up three possible Lydias of the future, none of them better off for his neglect.
Details
- Created by
- Melville Shavelson
- First aired
- 15 Sept 1969
- Last aired
- 9 Mar 1970
- Status
- Ended
- Language
- English
- Network
- NBC
- Episodes
- 26
- Votes
- 3 on TMDB
Cast
Joan HotchkisEllen Monroe
William WindomJohn Monroe
Henry MorganPhilip Jensen
Lisa GerritsenLydia Monroe
Mary GroverMiss Skidmore
