Wonderama

Overview

Wonderama is a long-running children's television program that appeared on the Metromedia-owned stations from 1955 to 1986, with WNEW-TV in New York City as its originating station. Wonderama also ran in five other markets in which Metromedia owned television stations: WTTG in Washington D.C., KMBC-TV in Kansas City, KTTV in Los Angeles, WXIX-TV in Cincinnati, and WTCN-TV in Minneapolis – Saint Paul. The show ran three hours, and later two hours, on Sunday mornings. In the 1960s, Wonderama aired in a one-hour weekday version in addition to the three-hour Sunday show. The one-hour program lasted until 1970. In 1977, the show scaled back to two hours before WNEW canceled it in December of that year. The last produced show was taped December 21 before airing on December 25. Host Bob McAllister was upset when an advertisement for the 1972 Charles Bronson movie The Mechanic aired during the show. McAllister bought an ad in The New York Times that told viewers to stop watching Wonderama. In a 1990s interview with the Southern California interview show Remember When, McAllister said that might have led to the cancellation of Wonderama. However, in an interview on WNEW's local talk show Midday with Bill Boggs on the day of Wonderama's cancellation, McAllister claimed to have no idea why the show ended. After its cancellation, Wonderama continued in two-hour Sunday morning reruns from January 1978 to June 1980. McAllister reportedly was unhappy with the edits, which usually eliminated celebrity performances in order to avoid having to pay royalties.