He teamed up with director Ian Munro to bring this idea to life, and after cycling through many writers, they found John Patterson - who impressed them immediately with his trial script.

This marked Saunders' move into children's television and was also the beginning of his frequent collaborations with director Ian Munro who he continued to work with until 2013.

The seven part documentary series Mini Dragons (produced in 1993) was another co-production via Film Australia, with South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia becoming involved.

[3] In 1994, Saunders, then employed at Film Australia and Zoe Wang, a translator hired on a contract basis, travelled to Beijing to meet Yu Pei Xia, director of CCTV’s youth and children’s department, who was willing to enter into a partnership.

At the World Summit for Children and Television in Melbourne, Yu spoke at length with Saunders, stating that CCTV was very enthusiastic to do the co-production and was particularly interested in doing a preschool full-body costume series, such as Johnson and Friends by Film Australia and Bananas in Pyjamas by the ABC.

[1] With proposals in hand for a preschool series and a drama, Saunders and Claire Henderson from the ABC flew to Beijing to spend three days with Yu Pei Xia and his staff.

[1] To ensure a balanced partnership, Australia agreed to handle design and scripting, while China built the sets and produced the show.

Saunders and Henderson worked to complete all storylines, final designs and first drafts for episodes 1 to 12 to show to a delegation of about six CCTV staff, including Yu, who visited Sydney in May that year.

[1] Later that year, Ian Munro, Ron Saunders, Claire Henderson and the character designers flew to China to audition cast members for the full body costumes.

which was also produced by Saunders in association with the ABC and the Australian Children's Television Foundation and The Dragon Pearl which was the first treaty co-production between Australia and China.

Saunders worked for many other broadcasting organisations and at one stage was even Head of Television for ABC TV and Managing Director of Yoram Gross EM-TV.

[4] He was later appointed General Manager for Beyond Screen Production, the division of Beyond which includes children and adult drama, game shows, specialist factual programs and sport.

[4] Some of the programs he produced include New MacDonald's Farm, Milly, Molly, Double Trouble, Lab Rats Challenge, Toybox, Quest and Pulse.