Forgotten ‘70s Sitcom Was Canceled After 1 Season-Then Won an Emmy Anyway
In 1970, My World and Welcome to It had a short run on NBC. The fantasy comedy series, which starred William Windom, Joan Hotchkis, Lisa Gerritsen, Harold J. Stone, and Henry Morgan, focused on a writer and cartoonist for a New York magazine and was inspired by the life of legendary New Yorker contributor James Thurber. Created by Melville Shavelson, the series featured animation and Thurber-like fantasies. It aired for 26 episodes, from Sept. 15, 1969, to March 9, 1970, before being canceled.
In February 1970, the New York Timesreported that My World and Welcome to It was scrapped as part of a network housecleaning. "NBC has decided to replace six of its prime‐time programs this fall," the outlet shared. "On Monday evening at 7:30, Red Skelton's half‐hour variety show replaces My World and Welcome to It." Daniel Boone and Dragnet were among the shows that were also axed.
Windom had been hopeful about ‘My World and Welcome to It'
Windom, who had been best known for The Philco Television Playhouse, Kraft Television Theatre, and guest roles on The Twilight Zone, Gunsmoke, and more, had high hopes for My World and Welcome to It.
In a vintage interview shared by The Bobbie Wygant Archive just ahead of its premiere, the actor noted, "My World and Welcome to It precedes Laugh-In every Monday night by half an hour."
"It has to do with the stories based on the cartoons and short stories of James Thurber in which I will be depicting the role of a man called John Monroe with a wife named Ellen and a daughter named Lydia who works for the Manhattanite magazine in New York," he shared. "Let's face it, it's James Thurber with his wife and family living in Connecticut working for The New Yorker, but we have to change it for purposes of whatever."
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Windom also touched on the animation featured in the episodes.
"I hope it appeals to everybody," he said. "It appeals to me. It allows John Monroe to go off into flights of fancy and imagination, which include not only his cartoons coming to life but talking back to him or arguing with him. In other words, we've taken Thurber and animated him to a certain degree. A big staff of artists are kept busy doing Thurber houses, Thurber buildings, Thurber dogs. There were people walking talking, moving around. It's almost as if Thurber had gone to work for Disney."
‘My World and Welcome to It' won a major Emmy Award months after it was canceled-and Windom won one too
Months after it was canceled by NBC, My World and Welcome to It won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series. Windom also won an Emmy for Outstanding Continued Performance By An Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series
Executive producers Danny Arnold and Sheldon Leonard were on hand to accept the Best Comedy Series Award at the June 1970 Emmys ceremony. In a melancholy speech, Arnold said, "Sheldon, I, and Mel Shavelson, with mixed emotions, would like to thank you. We'd like to acknowledge a remarkable cast … all the other people that made it such a delight this past year, to our writers to our directors, we thank all of them."
"And I would just add this," he continued. "That we all feel that it was a good thing, fitting, proper and important that James Thurber be part of American television-its present, now it's past, and hopefully again in its future. Thank you."
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This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 3:22 PM.