[5] Anchors Ellerbee and Gandolf co-wrote Our World, which combined archival footage with new interviews with people who participated in or witnessed the events.

For each episode, artifacts of the period being profiled, including magazines and political posters, decorated the set and a movie marquee listed the title of a film that was in theatres of the time.

[5] The low budget combined with a dozen commercial spots sold at $35,000 each meant that Our World generated an estimated $4 million in profit for ABC during its original run and summer repeats.

[9] Our World producers selected each episode's subject time period with the help of consultants from the Smithsonian Institution and Columbia University.

Ellerbee recalled a viewer-submitted proposal for an episode on the American Civil War, which could not be made because of the non-existence of archive footage from the 1860s and the lack of any living eyewitnesses.

"[1] The Los Angeles Times was similarly unfavorable, calling the debut "rather bland" and, while praising anchors Ellerbee and Gandolf (and calling them "refreshing [and] off-center, running against the TV mainstream, making words, not whoopee"), it ultimately felt that "Our World offers no sense of who we really were in 1969 because, typical of TV, it renders everything equal.

The Boston Globe, comparing its debut episode ("a gloppy nostalgia trip that presented history the way MTV presents rock, in digestible, unrelated, bland bite-sized bits")[22] to an episode airing less than five months later, found it "light years ahead in terms of wit, style and historical perspective.

"[36] The San Diego Union concurred, citing Our World as "the most refreshing, fascinating and innovative history series ever on TV".

[29] Gandolf, Ellerbee and Richard Gerdau won Emmy Awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement in News and Documentary Programming (writing) for the episode "Halloween 1938".

[41] Ultimately, Ellerbee was unable to secure the estimated $5 million needed to produce the first season of 13 episodes[41] and Our World did not make the transition to PBS.

Anchored by veteran newscaster Charles Kuralt, Try to Remember covered August 11–17, 1969, echoing Our World's pilot coverage of the summer of 1969.