Another fine performer from kids' television has left us. Actually, Sonny Fox did plenty of TV that wasn't for kids, both as an on-screen personality and a behind-the-scenes producer. Sonny hosted game shows and he was Tom Snyder's producer on Tomorrow for a while and he did dozens of other programs…but he was probably best known as the host of Wonderama, a four-hour Sunday morning series for kids. He did it for 8.5 years while also hosting other shows, including a Saturday series called Just for Fun. He also for a time was the exec in charge of children's programming for NBC.
He was big in New York where all of his shows aired. Intermittently, we'd get some of them out here in Los Angeles for a while so I sure knew who he was. I was later fortunate to encounter Mr. Fox on several occasions and he was charming and funny and you could see why he was so good on television.
The last time I saw him was at Vitello's Restaurant in Studio City and I wrote about it here. I was there taking in a show with Amber and with Leonard and Alice Maltin and we were talking about friend Chuck McCann, who had just died. Suddenly, we noticed that at the table next to us was Sonny Fox and he was talking with his party about Chuck, who'd been on so many of the shows Sonny had hosted and/or produced. We all got to talking and Sonny talked about how lovely and charming and clever and beloved Chuck was. I wish I could remember all the things he said because I could use them all here to describe Sonny Fox.