"They taught me as much as I taught them," he said about the children he interviewed. "I had an insatiable curiosity about the inner life that goes on in children."

His first foray into kids TV came at an educational station in St. Louis, where he answered an ad for "A man who can talk to a boy, man-to-man." This daily series, "The Finder," was later used by the Ford Foundation to introduce public stations to children's programming—the forerunner of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood."

In the mid-fifties Sonny landed a show on CBS called "Let's Take a Trip," a marvel of live-TV production, using full-size studio cameras that had to be lugged around the globe. Sonny and two young companions visited the Truman Library in Missouri, spring training in Florida with the Dodgers, as well as a rope factory, a shoe factory, and a ski slope in Canada.

Today's kids can go to such places via the Internet, but back then it was unique, embellished by the smooth, gentle, always curious Mr. Fox. Unlike other kids' fare of the period—mostly cartoons and slapstick—"Let's Take a Trip," which ran for three years, was a product of the CBS News Division. Billboard magazine reviewed this series in 1955, noting: "Like so many good things, ‘Let's Take a Trip' is so simple it is only amazing it was not done before."

CBS gave Sonny a second job, in prime-time, hosting "The $64,000 Challenge." He didn't care for it—and wasn't very good, once reading the answer instead of the question—so getting fired was a piece of good luck. He was spared the quiz show scandals that came a short while later.

In 1959 he took over as host of a local kids show on Channel 5 in New York that became nationally renowned, although televised only in the tri-state area. "Wonderama" was a weekly four-hour children's festival.

"I have no talent—no performing talent," Sonny conceded. "I don't do puppets, I don't sing. I realized that the kids in the audience were the show. I didn't condescend to them."

"Wonderama" was a mix of fun and games, but it featured guests such as producer Joseph Papp and a troupe of Shakespearean performers, opera star Roberta Peters, and regular appearances by Sen. Robert Kennedy, who conducted "press conferences" with youngsters.

Sonny went on to serve as head of children's programming at NBC, and as chairman of Television Academy, but his legacy lies in what he did for children during the fifties and sixties.

W.C. Fields famously advised performers to never work with animals or kids. It's a good thing my friend Sonny Fox never got the message. "What a long-lasting thumb print we left on those malleable minds," he said.

(c) Peter Funt. Distributed by Cagle syndicate.