Simon Townsend sitting on a bench with his dog Woodrow
https://www.nfsa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-01/Simon-and-Woodrow.jpg

Vale Simon Townsend

BY
 Harvey Shore

Harvey Shore, a producer on Simon Townsend's Wonder World!, pays tribute to a beloved innovator of children’s television.

 

The Willesee years 

Simon Townsend, my mate for over 50 years, died on 14 January 2025.

I first heard of Simon Townsend in 1968, the year I graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon as an officer in the Australian Army. That was also the year Simon refused National Service and went to jail as a conscientious objector to the war in Vietnam. 

Simon remained only a name to me until 1976, when I’d left the Army and was working in TV. In 1979, Mike Willesee hired us both to work on his new current affairs show for the Seven Network, Willesee at Seven. Simon impressed me as being a very determined and very self-assured journalist. We collaborated on many stories for Willesee and found that we worked well together. 

I left Willesee at the end of 1977, after being hired as Head of PR for Village Roadshow. Simon left soon after to work on his version of a current affairs show for kids, which he called Simon Townsend’s Wonder World! He started making pilots for that show with the Seven Network and then the Nine Network. 

Introduction and opening story from the pilot episode of Simon Townsend's Wonder World!, 1977. Courtesy: Simon Townsend and Network Ten. NFSA title: 599415

 

Mark it with ‘C’ 

At first, the networks weren’t interested in picking up Simon’s concept. Then, in 1979, the federal government’s Australian Broadcasting Tribunal made it compulsory for all commercial TV networks to air children’s TV programs between 4 pm and 5 pm on weekdays, and those programs were required to have a ‘C’ Classification from the Children’s Program Committee. Simon was quick off the mark: he obtained a ‘C’ Classification for his pilot and presented it to Network Ten, who had nothing of their own and agreed to put it to air on their major East Coast stations – Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. 

Simon had to put together a production team in a hurry. He rang me at Village Roadshow and asked if I’d come to work with him as producer of the new show. I declined, since I was having the time of my life working at Roadshow. Simon hired Alan Lowery as founding producer instead. The first show aired on 3 September 1979. 

Six months later, I’d just finished working on Can’t Stop the Music, a Hollywood blockbuster starring the Village People, when Simon called me again. Alan had resigned, and Simon wanted me as producer on Simon Townsend’s Wonder World! – but he’d advertised the position in the newspapers and insisted that I had to compete for it via a job application. 

Thinking he was joking, I sent him a big box full of fresh fish and prawns, with a note saying, ‘I’m sure you’ll get a flood of applicants for the job and I wanted to send you something to tip the scales in my favour. So please find enclosed a million scales suitable for floods!’ 

Simon was on the phone the next day and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. 

 

Wonder World Works Wonders 

I started working on Simon Townsend's Wonder World! in 1980. Simon and I had three aims: first, to continue Alan Lowery’s good work; second, to publicise the hell out of the show, to maximise public awareness; and third, to win some TV Week Logie Awards. 

In pursuit of those aims, I pumped out a lot of publicity about Simon and his show that year, particularly aimed at TV Week readers. By the end of 1980, the show was screening in every TV broadcast region throughout Australia and was frequently the top-rating program on Network Ten outside prime time. 

A film crew and reporters from Simon Townsend's Wonder World standing in front of the Colosseum in Rome
https://www.nfsa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-01/The%20team%20in%20Rome%20-%20Peter%20Morton%20Edith%20Bliss%2C%20Kris%20Wyld%2C%20Peter%20Janes%2C%20Phillip%20Tanner..jpg
The Wonder World! team in Rome. Pictured L to R: Peter Morton, Edith Bliss, Kris Wyld, Peter Janes; front: Phillip Tanner. Photo courtesy Harvey Shore

At the 1981 and 1982 Logie Awards, Simon Townsend’s Wonder World! won Logies for Best Children’s Television Series. We lost out in 1983 before winning Most Popular Children’s Program three years in a row from 1984 to 1986 – a Logies hat trick. 

Simon and I started doing deals with travel companies, enabling our show to travel all around Australia and overseas to film stories. 

We sent reporters and crews to every state in the country, and then to Fiji, the Philippines, Japan, India and Europe. 

Our trip to Greece in 1984 was featured by Network Ten in Simon Townsend’s Wonder World! episodes aired ahead of their Olympic broadcasts in that year. 

In 1986, after six years producing Simon Townsend’s Wonder World!, I felt it was time to move on; I accepted a job as an executive producer at the ABC. Woodrow the Bloodhound, who had shared the Wonder World set with Simon since the show began, died in 1986, and Simon Townsend’s Wonder World! ended the following year, after 1,961 shows. Simon told me he was leaving TV to become a property developer. 

 

A compilation from various episodes of Simon Townsend's Wonder World, 1985. Courtesy: Simon Townsend and Townsend Entertainment. NFSA title: 1572387

 

A Generous Man 

Simon’s real-estate dreams didn’t quite work out, and in 1989 he asked me to work with him on a new TV concept called TVTV, a review program for the ABC. We made a pilot and got that show up and running, with Simon as host and a team of reviewers looking at daily TV offerings from networks around Australia. It was immediately popular. 

At the same time that I began work as founding producer of TVTV, the Nine Network signed a contract to relaunch Simon Townsend’s Wonder World! in an updated format, renamed Wonder World. Simon said that he felt I was the best person to produce the show for him and asked me to leave TVTV for Nine. Once again, I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse. Once again, Simon backed me all the way. 

Simon was the most generous TV executive I ever worked with: not only to me, in terms of salary and support, but also to his staff. For example, it was common in the ’80s for TV shows to dismiss their staff over the Christmas period, sending them off on an unpaid holiday until the show began again in the New Year. But Simon did a special deal with Network Ten to produce Best of Wonder World shows over the Christmas period, paid for by the network and hosted by him. This enabled Simon to send all his staff home for six weeks over Christmas on full pay. Not many people did that in TV Land. 

In 1993, Simon called me again to work with him on a new TV special he was making for the Seven Network called Chance and Coincidence, which offered one lucky viewer the chance to win a million dollars. He was also meeting with Kerry Packer and others over a proposed TV gambling show like Lotto, which Simon modestly called Simono. But after making Chance and Coincidence, I became busy working on other TV shows, like the medical drama series G.P. at the ABC. 

I didn’t work with Simon again until 2000. Mike Munro called me and asked if I’d help him lure Simon to a restaurant, where he was to be surprised as a subject of This Is Your Life. I felt a bit guilty inviting Simon to lunch on the pretext of having exciting news about a new TV show Nine wanted him to star in. He turned up unsuspecting, and Mike Munro caught him completely by surprise.  

After that, I never worked with Simon on a TV show again, although we met regularly, and talked often about new TV show ideas and concepts. Even after I moved to Queensland in 2005, we stayed in touch. At the end of 2024, after his son Michael warned me that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, I flew down to Sydney to see him one last time. Despite his condition, Simon was still bright-eyed and keen to share stories of our years together. 

After I returned home, I posted him several cheery cards – but before they could arrive, I received the sad news. My dear mate of the past 50 years was gone. 

 

A compilation of moments from the final episode of Simon Townsend's Wonder World!, 1987. Courtesy: Simon Townsend and Network Ten. NFSA title: 1559534

 

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Main image: Simon and Woodrow, c. 1980. Courtesy Simon Townsend. NFSA title: 789867