Wonderama is one of my favorite TV shows, ever. Ellen actually reminds me of it, a bit. When I was a kid, we lived near L.A. and NYC, and both of them had Metromedia stations (via which Wonderama aired). (I think I am misremembering that it came on in Nashville.) I thought it was on longer than 1977, but maybe I am remembering the reruns that aired for a while.
What I do remember is that a new show was spun off (on ABC, I believe) named Kids Are People Too after Wonderama’s song. I don’t remember seeing this episode at the time, but here’s Patti Smith on the show (with the late, disgraced Joe Brooks):
ETA: Livewire, a few years later, reminded me of Kids Are People Too.
I’ve gone on before about how great TV was in NYC. When we moved to the DFW area at the end of '79, we had The Children’s Hour which was like a really low-budget Wonderama (one kid guest, no audience; local guests e.g. from the museum) and showed Jot.
P.S. DFW had Peppermint Place, which aired very early on weekday mornings when I watched. It is mainly famous among people my age because the host, Jerry Haynes, was Gibby Haynes’ dad. I am still kicking myself for never visiting a bar in Dallas which, as far as I know, had no connection to Peppermint Place except that the patrons all spoke in the voice of the puppet character Muffin and addressed the barkeep as “Mr. Peppermint.”
