R.I.P.: Sonny Fox, NYC 'Wonderama' TV Host

Sonny Fox (June 17, 1925 – January 24, 2021)

Sonny Fox, the one-time host of "Wonderama" and among the best-known figures in the history of New York television, has died, his daughter confirmed in a statement Thursday. 

Newsday reports Fox, who was 95 and had been living in an independent care facility in California, died Sunday night after a short illness related to COVID-induced pneumonia, his daughter, Meredith Fox, said.

A Renaissance man whose long career spanned radio and TV — including, briefly and memorably, as host of "$64,000 Challenge" — Fox found lasting fame at "Wonderama," a Sunday morning children's television program that originally aired on WNEW (now WNYW/5) from 1955 to 1977. (The show was revived from 1980 to 1987, and again in 2017.)

Produced on a tight budget, Fox's "Wonderama'' — which he hosted from 1959 to 1967 — was molded in the host's expansive interests. A studio audience of children might be directed to perform Shakespeare dramatizations in one segment and then, after the commercial break, compete in a spelling bee.

Fox — lanky and 6'3" — would wander among audience members, while his only deference to their youth was a slight stoop as he bent over to ask questions. He treated them as equals, which was almost unheard of in kids' TV, where kids were expected to be kids, and so were the hosts.

Over his eight seasons at "Wonderama," he became a superstar in the early world of New York TV, where the waiting list to get on his show stretched out five years. Besides Ch. 5, he often originated the show at the long-gone Freedomland USA theme park in the Bronx. There were a number of trips overseas too. Suring the "Wonderama" run, he also hosted a Saturday morning show, "Just For Fun."

In 1956, CBS named him inaugural host of "The $64,000 Challenge" — which drew its contestants from the show it had been spun-off from, "The $64,000 Question." The pressure was enormous, and Fox accidentally gave a contestant the answer to a question, on live television. He was fired a few weeks in — fortuitous became the quiz show scandals enveloped the entire genre within a year.

Fox returned to New York, jobless, but not for long. Ch. 5 hired him for "Wonderama" in 1959, and by 1960, he had concurrently hosted short-lived shows for ABC and NBC too.