Totally Wild’s Ranger Stacey to leave Ten after show’s axing

With Brisbane kids’ show Totally Wild axed after 30 years, host Ranger Stacey has opened up about where she goes from here.

Totally Wild’s “Ranger Stacey” Thomson will walk away from Channel 10 after the “brutal” axing of the iconic children’s show she’s fronted for 29 years.

Thomson said the cast and crew of Totally Wild, as well as fellow Brisbane children’s show Scope, were “shell-shocked” when they were told on Wednesday that the shows wouldn’t be renewed in 2021 in favour of a move towards children’s drama programs.

Having fronted Totally Wild since it began in 1992, Thomson has since decided to leave the network and look for new opportunities in media.

“There’s nothing really here for me, unfortunately,” she said.

“I need to move on.

‘Ranger Stacey’ Thomson reflects on three decades of Totally Wild yesterday. Picture: Lachie Millard

“Maybe it’s a little push that I didn’t really plan on, but I’m trying to look at it in a positive light.

“I’m hoping someone will snap me up and see what I can offer, because there’s plenty in the old Ranger Stacey yet.”

Thomson was pulled aside at Ten’s Mt Coot-tha studios on Tuesday as a courtesy before she joined her colleagues, who were told during a meeting on Wednesday.

While she said the axing didn’t come as a shock – after Totally Wild was moved to secondary channels 10 Peach in 2013 and 10 Shake last year – she believed it was a premature end, and the show would have benefited from “a better timeslot or just a little bit more love”.

“I didn’t think it would be as brutal as what it was with so many involved losing their jobs,” she said.

“It was heartbreaking. After it all happened we were all pretty shell-shocked.”

“To me I think it’s the wrong decision. There’s nothing wrong with drama but I think that kids benefit from the show.”

“We have evolved … but we still had the same approach to telling good wildlife stories and educating kids in a fun way, so I think Totally Wild could have gone on for a whole lot longer yet. I think it was very premature.”

“It wasn’t a big budget show but we did a lot with what we have. We created a legacy and it’s an iconic show that a lot of people have loved.”

“It is the end of an era but all good things come to an end.”

Thomson, who met her husband on the show and welcomed two daughters during her 29-year stint, said she was overwhelmed with the messages she received from fans since the show’s axing, most of whom she responded to personally.

“I remember it was such a big deal back (in 1992). We had a huge launch. We had the Premier of Queensland Wayne Goss there for it, lots of dignitaries, and I was this little blonde ranger who worked on an island out in Moreton Bay,” she said.

“There’s not one memory (that stands out). It’s all the times I got to go behind the scenes or have a one-on-one encounter with an animal – whether it be scrubbing an elephant or feeding a giraffe or seeing dugongs out in Moreton Bay coming up for air, swimming with turtles on the Great Barrier Reef.”

“It’s given me so much and I’ve been privileged to be able to share what I’ve done with millions of kids growing up, and big kids too.”