In 1957 Boston, a savvy, precocious, streetsmart preteen girl, a teacher's daughter, becomes the host of a new kidvid show...a series its on-the-ropes station pins all its hopes on.

SYNOPSIS:

It’s Saturday, May 4, 1957...the day a children’s TV series, Susan’s Show, graduates from local-show status in Chicago to being a national attraction on CBS.

Right off the bat, the show, hosted by 12-year-old Susan Heinkel, boasts a Boston-area fan: GUINEVERE “WENDY” GIACOMARRO, a savvy, precocious, streetsmart 11-year-old whose brash, playful mother PAT teaches biology at South Boston High School.

ART CUNIBERTI, the 79-year-old media veteran who now serves as general manager at Beantown’s beleaguered independent WTAO-TV, watches Susan’s Show, too...and while Wendy raves about the show’s flying chair and talking table, Art sees CBS’ newest kiddie offering as a way to save his station.

Dogged Art wants to bring a Boston version to his station...the dying Channel 56.

And Wendy wants to host it.

Art faces plenty of skepticism from HIS FELLOW STATION EXECS...especially when he announces he’d like to give the emcee spot to an 11-year-old girl. Other Channel 56 leaders accuse Art of robbing the cradle to give the gig to someone who “isn’t strong enough to lead a show like this...” but Art’s reference to Shirley Temple persuades station owner HOWARD CALDWELL to greenlight the show.

It’s the station’s best chance to get more Bostonians to buy UHF TV sets at a time when not every receiver on the market gives viewers all 82 channels.

And besides...the otherwise-neurotic Howard loves animal crackers in his soup.

Late in June, WTAO-TV holds tryouts for its new kidvid show...and Wendy beats out FIVE OTHER LITTLE GIRLS. Her edge: Being able to interview the same way as Mike Wallace.

Over the next three months, Art, Howard, and staff announcer-series director JON O’HANLEY work with baking-company executive GEORGE MATEY, Wendy, and a Pat who doubles as a co-executive producer to put together what becomes Wendy’s Wonderland. They realize Channel 56 doesn’t have the budget to give the new show its own talking table or flying chair or life-size puppets.

But the station gives Wendy an on-the-air sidekick: ANN SURKONT, the meticulous, painstaking host of WTAO-TV’s weekday cooking show...who moonlights on Saturdays to play Daffodil, the folksy, down-home answer to Pablo, Rex Trailer’s buddy on rival WBZ-TV’s blockbuster, Boomtown.

Wendy’s Wonderland premieres on September 21...and bombs.

The clincher comes when Wendy flubs the slogan for Boston creme-filled cupcakes. Instead of calling them “better than the ones Mother makes,” the young emcee says: “They’re the end!”

Blunt George’s reply to Art: “You hired a damn beatnik!”

Pat and Wendy receive hostility from THEIR NEIGHBORS...as well as from WENDY’S CLASSMATES and PAT’S STUDENTS.

And then there’s KENT POST, the eager beaver who teaches alongside Pat at South Boston. Not only does Kent want to be Pat’s next husband despite her not being ready to get back out there on the heels of the death of her first hubby Tony, a cop, in a July 1956 chase...Kent doesn’t think Wendy needs to be on the air.

Wendy and Co. make changes to the new show...including a new time slot and a livelier theme song, the latter courtesy of Wendy herself.

Added to a switch to using topicality to fuel the show’s skits, Wendy’s Wonderland gains popularity from the third episode (the day after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik!) forward. What’s more, Wendy’s slogan flub turns into gold for the show’s sponsor, Boston Baking Co.

And the show’s enemies become its friends...Kent among them.

By the trickles, the audition also-rans become guests on Wendy’s show...including GWENDOLYN TATUM, the singer-storyteller who broke the audition’s color barrier. Despite Gwendolyn’s strong following, George is nervous about her integrating the Wonderland guest list.

But when basketball star BILL RUSSELL dons a lion costume and becomes the show’s guest on November 16, George growls: “You’re gonna have to find another sponsor!”

Wendy’s series finds a new sponsor, all right: Clicquot Club ginger ale.

Clicquot Club marketing director RALPH SCHEINBLUM lays down two edicts: Wendy starts wearing cute dresses instead of her trademark tux on the show...and: “No more Gwendolyns...no more Bills.”

Ralph’s decrees, plus a new VHF station (WHDH-TV, Channel 5) signing on just before Thanksgiving, doom Wendy’s Wonderland...and its channel.

But before Channel 56 goes down for good, Wendy, Pat, and Kent go out to dinner on the first Sunday of 1958 at the restaurant inside that legendary downtown department store, Filene’s. After Pat and her daughter find out Kent’s a widower after losing his wife Sallie to an auto accident during a March 1956 blizzard, the three eaters decide to become friends. “And if it works out between us two adults,” Pat adds, “we can be lovers.”

Kent gives his approval.

WTAO-TV’s final day in business is a somber one...one in which, at a closed-door meeting, Wendy blames herself for the station’s demise, only to be corrected by her coworkers. Things brighten up when Art’s rival at WNAC-TV, RUSS MERCER, comes to the meeting to offer Wendy her own Sunday afternoon interview show on his channel.

Wendy’s first guest as a Channel 7 host that September 7...none other than Art himself.

WENDY'S WONDERLAND