Wonderama

"Wonderama" was a long-running children's television program that appeared on the Metromedia-owned stations before changing its title, and to some extent its format, to "Kids Are People Too". It ran from 1955 to 1977, with WNEW-TV in New York City being its originating station. It ran in six other markets nationwide- cities in which Metromedia owned television stations, including Cincinnati, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Kansas City, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. The show ran three hours long and later two hours on Sunday mornings. It became a staple of children's weekend TV shows along with Land of the Lost, H.R. Puffinstuff, Captain Marvel, and Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.

Hosts

*Al Hodge (as Captain Video 1955 - 1956)
*Jon Gnagy (mid late 1950s)
*Sandy Becker (1955-56, and again from 1957-59)
*Pat Meikle (co-hosting from 1955 to 1956)
*Herb Sheldon (1956-1957)
*Bill Britten (best known as New York's Bozo the Clown, co-host in 1958)
*Doris Faye (co-host in 1958)
*Sonny Fox (1959-1967)
*Bob McAllister (1967-1978)
* A documentary hosted by teens (1980-1985)

The Bob McAllister Years

Despite the frequent turnover of hosts throughout the 50s, "Wonderama" experienced its greatest viewership by way of one-time Baltimore kids' show host Bob McAllister, who replaced Sonny Fox as host in 1967 and remained host through most of the 70s.

Each show's taping included "(but was not necessarily limited to)" education, music, audience participation, games, interviews and cartoon shorts. Popular features of "Wonderama" during the McAllister years included:

*"Snake Cans": the classic game in which Bob would pick kids from the audience one-by-one to open one of ten cans, nine of which were filled with spring loaded "snakes," and the tenth one containing an artificial bouquet of flowers which earned them the grand prize (usually a bicycle) along with other prizes for answering trivia questions.

*Wonderama A Go-Go "(later called "Disco City")": An "American Bandstand"-type dance contest in which the best dancer won a prize. By the time it was renamed "Disco City" the contest would feature contestants each doing their own dance to the same record, which was usually brought in at the beginning of the segment by "The Disco Kid", a boy dressed in a costume reminiscent of The Lone Ranger. "(Originally the Disco Kid's theme was a loop of the chorus from The Raspberries' "Overnight Sensation" before being replaced with a song called "Ride On, Disco Kid")"

*"Does Anybody Here Have an Aardvark?": a segment in which Bob would ask members of the audience to produce unusual objects.

*"Exercise, Exercise!": Self-explanatory, involving all the kids in the audience. The segment had its own theme "("Exercise, exercise, come on everybody, now, let's exercise...")."

*"Good News" Selected audience members were picked to read "good" news items from around the country before McAllister sang a song: ::"Have you heard any good news today, today?"::"I wanna hear what you have to say,"::"wait 'till I get to the count of three,"::"and tell me all the good news you have for me, one-two-three!"
After singing, Bob would canvass the audience for their own good news.

*"Guess Your Best": A game show-like segment where three kids as contestants made predictions on the outcome of audience polls and race relay competitions. "(McAllister himself hosted the game with the phony nickname "Bert Beautiful")"

*"Eye Witness": Another quasi-game show again pitting contestants against one other, this time attempting to match five other kids to their respective parents- either mother or father. "(Again, McAllister adopted a silly pseudonym for this segment, calling himself either "Chuck Chuckles" or "Chuck Roast")"

*"Whose is Whose is Whose": Contestants were introduced to four children and four adults, and had to guess which adult was which child's father. As a help, the children and parents were sometimes asked to do things like jump up in the air that they may ostensibly do in a similar fashion.

Each week, audience members received a goodie bag as detailed on the show, containing varying items including:
*An Oral-B toothbrush
*An issue of Dynamite Magazine
*A supply of Good Humor ice cream
*A box of Hostess Twinkies
*A 6-pack of RC Cola
*A package of Fruit Stripe Gum
*A gift certificate for Burger King or McDonald's
*A pack of Lender's Bagelettes.
"(Each child also got a necklace made from a Lenders Bagelette which had either their name or their last initial painted on it.)"
*And a 45 record of one of the music artists who performed on the Wonderama episode each week.

The program aired for three hours included several breaks to allow for cartoon insertions (on most stations, including New York's WNEW-TV, Washington's WTTG, Los Angeles' KTTV, Cincinnati's WXIX, and Houston's KRIV) these would be Warner Brothers cartoons from the 1940s and 1950s.). On Network affiliates like KMBC, the show only ran two hours minus the cartoon inserts (due to the fact those station did not own broadcast rights to cartoon shorts).

The program's closing theme song, sung by McAllister, was called "Kids Are People Too" ("wacka-doo, wacka-doo, wacka-doo") which was later adapted as the show's title when ABC picked it up as a Sunday morning kids show. The song was also featured on an album of music from "Wonderama" by McAllister called "Gee It's Great To Be A Kid".

In 1977, the show was scaled back to two hours before being canceled in 1979. The last produced show on Christmas Eve, 1977. McAllister was upset when an ad for the Charles Bronson movie, The Mechanic aired during the show. He bought an ad in the New York Times telling viewers to stop watching. In a 1990s interview with the Southern California interview show, "Remember When," McAllister said that might have lead to the cancellation. However, in an interview on Metromedia's "Midday" show with Bill Boggs on the day of the show's cancellation, McAllister claimed to have no idea why the show ended. After its cancellation, Wonderama was run in reruns on WNEW-TV from 1979 to 1980. McAllister reportedly wasn't happy with the edits which usually eliminated celebrity performances so that Metromedia wouldn't have to pay $325 royalties.

In the 1960s, Wonderama aired in a one-hour weekday version in addition to the three-hour Sunday show. The one-hour program ended in 1970.

Being broadcast from New York gave "Wonderama" a chance to feature the top stars of the day, including ABBA, Jerry Lewis, Paul Lynde, Muhammad Ali, José Feliciano, The Jackson 5, the cast of Monty Python, Joe Frazier, The Amazing Randi,Wolfman Jack and numerous others.

The 1980's Wonderama

Beginning in 1980, a documentary/magazine show for children and hosted by teens ran an hour on Sunday mornings on WNEW-TV. While this show had the title, Wonderama, the show itself had nothing to do with the long running well known show other than its title. This incarnation of "Wonderama ran until 1983 for an hour. These shows were made from 1980 to 1983. They were then edited to 30 minutes in reruns and aired from 1984 to 1986 on WNEW-TV/WNYW on weekend mornings.

External links

*imdb title|id=0290994|title=Wonderama
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq1PMd15iRo YouTube Video of "Snake Cans" game.]