He settled in Coronado, California, near San Diego, where he sold real estate and became a respected amateur tennis player. From 1953 to 1968 he hosted a local, after-school kids' television show, The Johnny Downs Show, on Channel 10 (call letters KFSD until 1961; subsequently KOGO). The theme started out as an airport hangar with Downs playing a former World War II pilot, "Johnny Jet". In between reruns of The Little Rascals, Downs entertained and informed his studio audiences and his viewers. After that, it was trains, and he could be seen getting off or on a locomotive at the start and end of a show. As the show changed to feature more Popeye cartoons, his theme changed from being a train Engineer to being a boat captain at the San Diego harbor. Since one of the show's frequent sponsors was a local dairy (Golden Arrow Dairy), Downs was regularly featured as a superimposed miniature Dancer on top of an old-style milk bottle. Children were welcome to come to the KOGO studio and watch the program being broadcast. When each show concluded, Downs would wave to the viewing room and the visitors would go into the studio. He would let kids put on his coat and cap and mimic his opening "Howdy, howdy, howdy! Good to see ya! Good to see ya!" There was briefly a morning show where he invited students to come and compete in math quizzes. During this time he also appeared as the Tin Woodsman in the San Diego Starlight Opera production of "The Wizard Of Oz.