James Thurber - Popular Culture

Popular Culture

• Television Broadcaster Keith Olbermann began a tradition of reading excerpts from Thurber's short stories as the last segment of his MSNBC program Countdown with Keith Olbermann on Fridays, which he called "Fridays with Thurber." He did this on the suggestion of his dying father Theodore, to whom he read many of the stories in his hospital bed. On January 21, 2011, Olbermann ended the final MSNBC edition of Countdown with a reading of one of Thurber's works, "The Scotty Who Knew Too Much". The story ends with the moral: "It is better to have asked some of the questions than to know all of the answers." On June 24, 2011, Olbermann continued this "Fridays with Thurber" tradition on Countdown, which had been broadcast (until March 30, 2012) on Current TV. Olbermann reads the stories with the blessing of the Thurber family, and his broadcasts have revived interest in Thurber's work among his audience.
• My World and Welcome to It was a semi-animated US-made half-hour sitcom based on Thurber's humor and cartoons. It starred William Windom as John Monroe, a Thurber-like writer and cartoonist who worked for a magazine that closely resembled The New Yorker, called The Manhattanite. Wry, fanciful and curmudgeonly, Monroe observed and commented on life, to the bemusement of his rather sensible wife Ellen (Joan Hotchkis) and intelligent, questioning daughter Lydia (Lisa Gerritsen). Monroe's frequent daydreams and fantasies were usually based on Thurber material. The show included animated cartoons in Thurber's style. The television 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.