History
The program was conceived by Townsend in the early 1970s and was designed to be a fast-moving daily dose of informed entertainment for children, and be suitable for and attractive to older teens and adults.
Both the Nine and the Seven Networks helped Townsend make pilots for his concept, but neither network bought the series. However in 1979 when the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal introduced a compulsory 'C' classification (making it a requirement for networks to broadcast only 'C' classified shows between 4pm and 5pm weekdays), Townsend saw the potential and offered the Ten Network, which were searching for a suitable children's program at the time, the opportunity to produce his show.
The first episode of Simon Townsend's Wonder World! went to air on 3 September 1979. At first the show was telecast only in the East Coast capital cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Before long other capital city and regional stations began signing up for the show.
By the end of 1980 the show was screening in every TV broadcast region throughout Australia. Soon it became the top-rating program on the Ten Network outside prime time - and sometimes its ratings were better than programs in prime time. For many years the Ten Network ran two episodes of Simon Townsend's Wonder World every weekday because of its ratings power - an old repeat show at 4pm followed by a new show at 4.30pm. The show also became a media phenomenon, with one press story in 1985 claiming, "I read a newspaper today and there was not a single mention of Simon Townsend. Is this a record?"
After more than 2,000 episodes, the show finished in 1988. The extraordinary success of Simon Townsend's Wonder World! has never been repeated by any other show, though many sought to copy its style.
Read more about this topic: Simon Townsend's Wonder World
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Three million of such stones would be needed before the work was done. Three million stones of an average weight of 5,000 pounds, every stone cut precisely to fit into its destined place in the great pyramid. From the quarries they pulled the stones across the desert to the banks of the Nile. Never in the history of the world had so great a task been performed. Their faith gave them strength, and their joy gave them song.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“For a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“We know only a single science, the science of history. One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature and the history of men. However, the two sides are not to be divided off; as long as men exist the history of nature and the history of men are mutually conditioned.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)