The real wonder of “Wonderama” is that host David Osmond still has a smile on his face.
It’s 97 degrees in downtown Manhattan at 4 p.m. (105 degrees). On this special Thursday. Osmond had been shooting outdoors for seven hours straight.
In the show’s idiosyncratic language, it’s “wackadoo.”
“We’re going to rock in Times Square,” Osmond announced, before bringing the cast of Broadway’s “Rock Men,” including Wyckoff native Constantine Marullis, to an outdoor stage for a few hits.
Oftentimes, there will be a child audience – a big part of it since the original Wonderama debuted on WNEW (Channel 5) in New York in 1955. Back then, every children’s show from “Howdy Doody” to “Winchell-Mahoney Time” had its cheery “Peanuts Gallery.” But this afternoon, due to the weather, the children left school early.
“It would be a crime not to,” executive producer Chuck Armstrong said.
So Marullis and company, and later the Lincoln Center Jazz Arts Collective (both teenagers), performed for the grips and videographers. Audience footage can be edited later – when the show airs at its regular 6 p.m. WOR-TV channel 9 Sunday slot.
Every year, Wonderama shoots a season of 26 episodes in one week in Times Square — one after the other. The new season begins on Sunday, September 17th.
“There’s always a lot going on in Times Square, and it’s so much fun to perform here!” Osmond told his invisible studio audience.
But behind the barricades, a real audience had gathered — passers-by in the crowded theater district, wondering what the commotion was all about. Everyone’s faces lit up when they heard the name “Wonderama”.
“When I was a kid, I’d watch Pozzo the Clown, Tom and Jerry, Mighty Mouse – and then this would happen,” said a local who watched the filming . He is 57 years old, homeless and known in the neighborhood as “uncle”. But he remembered Wonderama.
“It’s amazing here, it brings back memories,” he said.
“Wonderama” airs nationwide through various WNEW affiliates. But it holds a special place in the hearts of those who grew up in the metropolitan area where the show was filmed in the 1960s and 1970s.
Every Sunday morning, the kids tune in for a marathon three-hour show, enjoy the jokes and songs, watch the kids in the studio play games like “Canned Snake” and “Guess Your Best,” and watch the incredible Guest appearances by: The Jackson 5, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, KISS, Dick Van Dyke, Billie Jean King.
“Their talents are amazing,” Uncle said.
