He appeared in 1953 on CBS on Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour and was able to get his first regular television job hosting his own program on WTAR in Norfolk, Virginia.

This led to his being hired on at WJZ-TV Channel 13 in Baltimore, Maryland in 1963 on The Bob McAllister Show, a half-hour program of comedy character and puppet sketches, magic acts, pantomime, cartoons, and sight gags intended to revive the absurd visual surrealism of Ernie Kovacs' television work.

The Bob McAllister Show was a big success and led to an offer from WNEW-TV Channel 5 in New York City to host his own program there, where it premiered on September 9, 1968.

The New York City version of the show was not as successful as the Baltimore broadcast, and time constraints and budget restrictions led to its cancellation on Friday, September 5, 1969,[2] after which it went into reruns.

McAllister also hosted reproduced Wonderama shows at various locations, including the Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park in Jackson Township, New Jersey, and the Harvard Club of New York City.

McAllister would spend the remainder of the 1970s and ’80s performing at corporate banquets and picnics and, for a time, served as co-owner of a roller skating rink at THE MALL in New Rochelle, New York.

He made an appearance in the 1980s at The Galleria in White Plains, New York which ended with him singing the original Wonderama closing theme song, “Kids are People Too”.