VISIONARY: So there’s this dog.
PBS SUITS: We’re listening.
VISIONARY: And he loves books.
[nodding, nodding]
VISIONARY: He knows all about classic books.
SUIT #1: Adorable.
SUIT #2: Like a cartoon dog?
VISIONARY: No, no. A live Jack Russell Terrier.
[…]
VISIONARY: He belongs to a boy named Joe.
SUIT #1: Nice.
SUIT #3: And Joe reads him the books?
VISIONARY: No, Joe couldn’t care less about books.
SUIT #3: Oh. Okay.
VISIONARY: Joe and his friends’ day-to-day scrapes resemble the plotlines of great novels, and Wishbone like, picks up on it.
SUIT #2: Wishbone?
VISIONARY: The dog.
SUIT #2: Oh.
SUIT #3: The name seems like more of a turkey thing…?
SUIT #1: Should we name him something literary? Something like Dogstoyev-
VISIONARY: No. His name is Wishbone. Unlike his human companion, Wishbone is a great lover of books. When Joe’s life reminds him of a masterpiece, as it so often does, our canine Virgil guides the audience on a journey into that book.
SUIT #3: So the dog can talk.
VISIONARY: Nope. Joe and his friends and Joe’s mom just think he’s a regular dog.
SUIT #2: …Joe’s dad?
VISIONARY: Ellen is a single mom. She’s a widow. This is a story about the limitless ecstasies of the imagination, but we want to respect the complex lives of our young viewers, so sometimes things are very real.
[nodding]
VISIONARY: Wishbone can narrate, though.
SUIT #1: So when we travel into the world of novel…
VISIONARY: Live actors, costumes, the works. Mini-Masterpiece Theater. Also, Wishbone is a character.
SUIT #2: Narrating?
VISIONARY: No, he is an actual character in the book.
SUIT #1: Ah, I get it. In the book part, all the characters are played by dogs?
VISIONARY: You get nothing. Wishbone plays a character, for example Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, and the other parts are played by adult human actors.
SUIT #3: But you said he can’t talk to humans.
VISIONARY: No, see, in the world of the book, nobody thinks he’s a dog and people understand him. Just not in the real world. But then what is “real,” right?
SUIT #2: Like they just never acknowledge he’s a dog?
VISIONARY: I mean he wears a costume, so.
[….]
VISIONARY: It’s imagination, guys! Kids understand. And that’s what reading’s all about. Personally, when I read, I picture Ivanhoe as a dog like half the time. At least.
SUIT #3: Literally Wishbone is wearing a Romeo costume and standing in front of a grown woman in an Elizabethan gown who’s asking him to deny thy father and refuse thy name, but no mention of the fact he’s a dog?
VISIONARY: Correct.
[Suits shrug, like ‘I guess that checks out’]
SUIT #2: All fours or hind legs?
VISIONARY: That really depends on the themes of the book.
[furious note-taking]
SUIT #1: Uh, can you go into more detail as to how a middle-class American boy’s life constantly resembles episodes from the literary canon?
VISIONARY: Like, his female friend wants to play soccer with the boys’ team and that’s kind of like Joan of Arc wanting to fight in the Hundred Years War.
SUIT #3: Is it?
VISIONARY: Yes.
[Suits take drinks of water. Visionary does not drink, he only sees]
VISIONARY: The classics really resonate with kids’ everyday lives. Maybe you don’t want to babysit your little sister and that’s just like A Tale of Two Cities! Or, off the top of my head, just thinking of what kids these days like to do, maybe our man Joe starts a business delivering groceries, which seems really great at first — until the corporate megalomania transforms him into a prepubescent Midas lording over the suburbs. The connections are almost too easy, know what I mean?
[…]
SUIT #2: Here’s the thing, Lance. There’s a lot of great stuff here. Creativity, out-of-the-box thinking—
SUIT #1: Out of the kennel, if you will—
[the Visionary will not]
SUIT #2: And the dog-teaching-kids-to-read concept, that’s perfect for our demographic.
VISIONARY: He doesn’t teach them to read. He inculcates in them a passion for timeless narratives.
SUIT #2: Okay.
VISIONARY: Joe’s in middle school, he can freaking read. Not that he ever bothers.
SUIT #1: I think what Dave’s trying to say is—
VISIONARY: My winsome Jack Russell Terrier is no mere peddler of phonics. He is the bard, the scop, the muse. He is the flame that lights the cave.
SUIT #3: And that’s totally PBS! But see, it’s a half-hour slot. There just isn’t much time to cover a whole Joe-gets-into-mischief A-plot and then dig into the Penguin Classics…
VISIONARY: Oh you don’t do the whole book. Ha, no. A summary is fine, or maybe even just the beginning, and then you pretend like that’s a valid representation of the text. I’m thinking probably with Oliver Twist you could just end it after chapter three?
SUIT #3: Okay, but—
VISIONARY: We’re getting kids to read here, Janice. Give them just enough to tantalize their literary palates and I guarantee you they’ll devour all these titles, cover-to-cover, and certainly not just use the surface knowledge gleaned from Wishbone to posture before their future professors and Internet dates for the rest of their adult lives.
[Suits exchange glances]
VISIONARY: Trust me, they will all finish Silas Marner.
SUIT #2: How does the dog read?
VISIONARY: The same way you do, Dave. With an open heart and ready mind.
[Visionary begins to hum.]
SUIT #1: This seems like it would be a lot more feasible as an animated series—
VISIONARY: NO. He is a LIVE JACK RUSSELL TERRIER. His eyes are fathomless pools of knowledge reflecting all the pathos of great literature. The suffering and beauty of humanity bled onto the page and breathed in by generations of readers, connecting them — us — in an unspoken communion of shared loneliness that both celebrates and eases our pain. This is where we see that books do more than describe our human condition, Kevin. By shaping our minds and drawing us ever closer together, they create it.
SUIT #3: …In a dog’s eyes?
VISIONARY: A Jack Russell Terrier’s eyes, yes.
Tags: abbey fenbert, books, childhood nostalgia, FRANKENBONE, his eyes are fathomless pools of knowledge, humor, nikki didn’t tear up at all at the end of this post, pbs, television, the dog days of summer, wishbone
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Personally, when I read, I picture Ivanhoe as a dog like half the time. At least. Seriously. Who doesn’t?
But oh. Oh this brought back such feels.
Also, it is a fairly accurate representation of trying to explain the concept of Wishbone to a modern ten year old. He looked at me like I was nuts. “So wait. The dog talks to people?” “No. He just narrates.” “But he talks to people in the story parts?” “Yes.” “But how did he learn to read?” I will show him the light eventually.
I totally teared up too, that was downright moving.
YES.
(Wishbone dancing as Mr. Darcy? is still perfection.)
(I took my high school quiz bowl team–freshman me and five senior boys–to second in state cribbing broadly from Wishbone for Books I Hadn’t Read Yet.)
Yes! Dancing as Darcy is my favorite all-time Wishbone moment as well.
Isn’t that the great secret of quick-response quiz shows? Expertise is not an asset or in fact helpful at all!
I never read the abridged version of the Odyssey we were assigned in 9th grade and passed all the quizzes and tests solely on the episode of Wishbone I had seen with my younger siblings shortly before the book was assigned.
Wishbone as Darcy: “Your sisters will dance with anyone.” — killed me.
WAIT WHAT HOW DID I MISS THAT EPISODE?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYq0C6i9o88
Furst Impressions!
Ugh, I still remember it. “I am most seriously confused.”
I feel like that should be a comparable series of Cliff’s Notes-esque books. Even shorter Wishbone books; “Wishbone for Books I Haven’t Read Yet”. At least it’s honest about how people use Cliff’s Notes. 😛
VISIONARY: He doesn’t teach them to read. He inculcates in them a passion for timeless narratives.
He really did though.
“The visionary will not”
This whole piece was perfection!
I really wish people said “if you will” to me more often just so I could say that back to them.
I watched Wishbone all the time in school and it genuinely never occurred to me to question how Wishbone could read. (I did have a lot of questions about who was making his little doggie costumes, and how could I apprentice with them.)
Kids are remarkably good at buying into the central conceit of narratives.
It never occurred to me either, but when I was 7 I also bought a Teach Your Pets to Read kit and only abandoned it when I realized that I’d never know if I successfully taught my pets to read since they couldn’t talk, so…
I remember a little behind-the-scenes bit that featured the costume designer and showed Wishbone’s wardrobe rack. It was amazing.
We got our first dog for my eighth birthday, and I wanted a Jack Russell terrier because of Wishbone. My mom took me gently aside before we went to the shelter and said “you know, sweetie, if we get a Jack Russell terrier, it won’t be able to talk . . .”
“Well yeah, duh. But it’ll be able to narrate, right?”
The monster in the Frankenstein episode was a bit of a revelation for me – no cartoony green skin, no giant bolts, just a big, scarred, corpse-lookin’ guy. A+ Frankensteining, Wishbone.
And I believe the title of that episode was “Frankenbone,” which…come on. A+ all around.
“Suits shrug, like ‘I guess that checks out’”
cackling at my desk
Lost it at “Visionary does not drink, he only sees.”
same
I am convinced, CONVINCED, that Sam from Wishbone is the same woman that is sycophantically nodding and smiling at Gerald Lambeau in Good Will Hunting at some point, maybe when GL is waiting for Will outside one of his meetings? But I can’t even find a screenshot of this person, and IMDB doesn’t indicate that Christie Abbott was in GWH, but I believe anyway.
But, uh, yes, now that I have that off my chest—- Wishbone. So weird. So fun. this exquisitely exposes all of the strangeness.
This is as glorious as Wishbone himself.
I still haven’t forgiven my mother for the time she mentioned the dog that played Wishbone is now long dead and tainted everything. Wishbone is eternal.
WISHBONE ABIDES.
HE’S NOT DEAD, HE WENT TO LIVE AT THE LIBRARY
You guys, if there were to be a reboot of Wishbone, what kind of dog would you want to take over? I think a dachsund would make an incredible Jane Eyre.
I wouldn’t mind having a spunky little mutt assuming the mantle, maybe like a pariah-type dog. Then the show could double as a promo for adopting shelter mutts.
I wonder what the dog from Parks and Rec is up to?
CHAMPIOOOOON
Andy: That’s what makes him the best. He can do more with three legs than most dogs can do with four.
April: Except for digging. He’s really bad at digging.
“The kids these days, they don’t have the attention span to follow a Jack Russell. It’s gotta be something flashy, something new. Japanese culture is trending big these days. Think small, chibi, big-eyed, cute. They’re grooming their dogs into cube shapes. What about a teacup poodle, groomed into an actual wishbone shape? And the hook is that, for each episode, the dog is groomed into a different cute, relevant shape. Moby Dick? Whale shape. Midsummer Night’s Dream? Donkey shape. 20,000 Leagues? Squid. It’s got major crossover appeal, think of the merchandising potential. Wishbone for McDonalds could be shaped like a burger or something.”
I felt this was as amusing as the article itself. Well done.
UGGIE ANOTHER FAMOUS JACK
Shiba Inu. Wishdoge.
Not expecting to encounter the word scop in a post about Wishbone, but really digging it.*
* terrier pun!**
** I’ll see myself out
This is just wonderful
Also, that dog actor must have been the best-trained terrier in the world. Unless he was a team of them. Was he a team?
*wikipedias”
Nope, just Soccer the Dog, almost every episode for three years. Good job, Soccer.
From Soccer’s Wiki (RIP):
Soccer (May 17, 1988 – June 26, 2001) was a Jack Russell Terrier dog actor. A veteran of many television commercials for companies like Nike Athletics and Mighty Dog Dog Food, he became famous portraying the talking dog Wishbone in the PBS television series of the same name. Chosen from out of more than 100 dogs who auditioned for the role, Soccer appeared in almost every episode of the show during its 1995-1998 run.
Yes, that is where I found that information.
Sorry — just thought the details about his commercial career & competing against 100 dogs were interesting & thought I’d share! Will remove if you like.
Oh, sorry, no! I’ve had a long and frustrating day, so I got mean and cranky. No, the details of Soccer’s career are interesting. He was a good boy.
Thank you for doing this! –all of us too lazy to google
[eight seconds of silence, which is like a minute in dog years I guess]
“almost every episode”? How…did they make any episodes without him?
There were several dogs that played wishbone. I met the one named “Spot” when I was little and they were “touring” at target stores around CA.
Mostly Soccer, but there were stunt dogs for, well, stunts. One for swimming, one for heights, etc. I *think* there was one that was particularly adept at chasing its tail. That sort of thing. But aside from that, all Soccer.
Hee hee, I would love to see tail-chasing dog’s resume.
I was the Visual Effect Supervisor on Wishbone, which was the best overall project (50 episodes, 1 film) of my film career. Soccer was in 90% of shots. Two stunt dogs were used in shots that involved horses, explosions, diving into water, etc. as 1. Soccer didn’t like really loud noises and 2. You don’t risk a dog that’s the center of 20 million dollar project with getting hurt. He also had a photo double that was used for posters and stuff, but that dog never acted. Soccer had over 140 ‘behaviors’ that he could do on command, he tolerated the costumes, he liked the work and he loved his owner/trainer. He was a very smart dog.
You are my new hero, because I fucking LOVED Wishbone.
Ok, so did he need to do an episode in a whole bunch of really short shoots, or could he put up with hours and hours of shooting at a time?
“Visionary does not drink, he only sees”
What a delightful piece.
Have you ever noticed in internet quizzes about Mr. Darcy, Wishbone as Darcy is never an option? What’s up with that? Clearly, Wishbone was the best Darcy. Or at least, better than Laurence Olivier.
Ok, but everybody was better than Laurence Olivier.
I’ve seen cacti do better Mr Darcy’s than Laurence Olivier. I would guess my gramma’s armchair makes a better Mr Darcy. I mean, I’m tryin’ to think of other good examples, but because literally everything in the known universe would be better than Laurence Olivier was in that role, it’s like, it’s difficult to chose just one.
The amazing Two Monks fanfic had him!
Wow, this might be in my top five Toast articles ever, and that is saying something because I am a committed misandrist with an appreciation of gently mocking classic art.
I’ve never actually watched an episode of Wishbone, and I feel the same way.
VISIONARY: Like, his female friend wants to play soccer with the boys’ team and that’s kind of like Joan of Arc wanting to fight in the Hundred Years War.
SUIT #3: Is it?
VISIONARY: Yes.
GUFFAWING at my desk. This is so real. Also I am reminded of the one Christmas I begged Santa for The Real Wishbone to be my pet and replace the illiterate sheltie we already had. It was a troubling time for me.
I am unspeakably delighted by the phrase “illiterate sheltie.”
Possibly because my childhood dog was also a sheltie and also illiterate.
Canine illiteracy is a serious problem.
[Suits take drinks of water. Visionary does not drink, he only sees]
This is the most incredible thing ever written.
I was a super spoiler-averse kid and I always resented Wishbone for telling me how the stories went. (I was also the kid who elected to read A Tale of Two Cities unabridged in ninth grade. I only wanted the REAL THING.) So this show wasn’t my personal favorite, but danged if I don’t have the theme song playing in my head now.
I remember being super pissed-off with Wishbone for completely ignoring all the stuff in Tale of Two Cities that made the ending make sense. Dang half hour tv show with two plotlines.
…he never wore pants. he just winnie-the-pooh-ed it every episode.
Madam, this is a tender time for many to hear reference of Pooh. Please refer to the most horrifying of the series, yesterday’s “Children’s Stories Made Horrific: The House At Pooh Corner.”
ah, i was a-fevered yesterday and missed this important pooh update
Save yourself, don’t read it now!
(It’s AMAZING. But traumatizing.)
don’t do it
it will CHANGE YOU
See “A Tail in Twain.” Wishbone is so adorable dressed as Tom Sawyer, complete with pants and suspenders! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgI8CPq-n5o Jump to 4:30 to see costume. *squee*
snortling here over Suit #1 and his wistful “DOGstoyev-“
brb, stealing “snortling” to use forever and ever. <3
this has brought me such joy.
Back when Wishbone was on air, they did actual mall tours with Soccer the dog (aka THE Wishbone). When the tour made it to our local mall, I tried to pretend I was too much of a Cool Preteen to actually want to go (we went only because my little sister wanted to see him, obviously), but…I saw Wishbone in the flesh (in the fur?) and it was pretty great.
Also, as I suppose one might expect, but that up until meeting Wishbone, I’d never really thought of: dogs wear makeup to be camera-ready, too. Wishbone’s white fur is so white because he’s talcum-powdered.
that’s amazing. are there makeup artists for dogs I wonder??
I was all set to just say ‘it’s probably a people makeup artist, just working on an animal’ but apparently not: http://parade.com/24175/michelechollow/makeup-art…
that article is amazing!
damn, I wish I’d known that was a job before I picked my major
I came down to say, I went to one of these too!!! I asked my mom to take me to the mall, probably for school clothes, and oh BTW, can we check out the [PBS affiliate] store? Oh look! A Wishbone meet and greet, well I never! And it was one of the best, most awkward pre-teen days ever.
Remember that one episode where the lunch lady at Joe’s school got fired for giving leftover food to the local food bank, and Joe got in trouble for helping her, and the jerk vice-principal called Ellen and she showed up full of RIGHTEOUS FURY all “quite frankly sir, if my son is doing what he thinks is right rather than following the dumbass rules you set up, I am PROUDER OF HIM THAN I WOULD BE IF HE STAYED OUT OF TROUBLE?” Ellen gave me unrealstic expectations for authority figures, I gotta be honest.
(The book plot of that episode, as I recall, was Robin Hood.)
[edit] IT’S ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/KvWwFG26zXY?t=7m23s
And also real life? http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/03/news/companies/ca…
So I watched this and I noticed something at the beginning. The credits lists Adam Felber who writes for Bill Maher and is on Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me all the time. I imdb’d it to be sure.
Mo Rocca worked on Wishbone as well.
I have been on so many dates where the discussion of classic literature is clearly grounded in Wishbone.
Then again, I once skated through a biblical backgrounds exam with knowledge from Veggie Tales.
I was way too young for Wishbone when it first came out (like, single digits), so I didn’t really get it. However.
My mom had a strict rule against watching the Frankenbone episode because it was “too scary”, but one day it came on while she wasn’t home. I watched it expecting a creepy monster story (which I got), but I fully didn’t anticipate the emotional breakdown at the end. Yanked right at my eight year old heartstrings.
(I don’t remember a thing Joe and his buddies did in any of the episodes except for the one about the cafeteria lady and the one about the stolen money. I mostly watched it for the costumes.)
I sobbed my way through that episode and have been afraid to rewatch it ever since, for fear I’ll break down again.
Yeah, I totally forgot that there was a kid involved at all, just Wishbone reading and then thinking about his books.
This is so, so excellent. Thank you for this gift.
a sweet, soothing balm for you all after Mallory’s House at Pooh Corner treatment earlier this week.
yes, this is precisely what I needed to restore my psyche
Oh, man, Wishbone. I still remember watching the Odyssey (or was it the Iliad?) episode in class in middle school.
My favorite Wishbone memory, though, has to be the Beowulf adaptation (Be A Wolf!) as required reading in ENGL 4300: Anglo-Saxon Monsters.
The Odyssey.
I still have that adaptation!! We got it in one of our Scholastic book clubs as a kid, and I read it CONSTANTLY.
I’ve never read actual Beowulf. Everything I Ever Needed To Know About Beowulf I Learned From Wishbone.
I read the book! Which I guess was an adaptation of the show adapted from the classic work itself, and that’s as close as I’ve come to Beowulf and as close as I expect I’ll ever need to. I cried my eyes out and I was a fully grown human at the time.
But when he’s playing Romeo, does he wear a ruff?
Now can someone finally explain Ghostwriter?
so apparently Ghostwriter was supposed to be AN ESCAPED SLAVE
WHAT THE WHAT
The last season, they suddenly switched Gaby to a different actress who was taller, darker skinned and had a distinctive accent. Not that there is anything wrong with that mind you, but the original Gaby was clearly younger than Alex, had more of a distinctive personality (talking a mile-a-minute and being overall little sister) and her accent only came out when she spoke Spanish, but that’s much more surface stuff. The fact is that there was about 2 years invested in the original Gaby, then there was this long wait, and when Ghostwriter came back with just 3 cases, there was a brand new Gaby who looked and acted totally differently from the Gaby we had come to know.
Yeah, slightly unhealthy love for Ghostwriter. So shoot me.
wait WHAT
Also, I loved Ghostwriter to a probably unhealthy degree. I had a pen on a lanyard around my neck and everything. Of course, I conflated it with my Harriet the Spy love and would climb trees with my notebook and write in it with my Ghostwriter pen as I “surreptitiously” observed the neighborhood.
*insert Keanu Reeves ‘woah’ gif here*
I had almost forgotten that show existed until just now. But my probably half made up memories about it just got so much better.
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT
also that is amazing
WHOA WHAT?!
Loved Ghostwriter. That said, I will side-eye the Gaby Switch forever.
Original Gaby was so much better.
And the Lenni’s dad switch.
His soul was trapped in the book?! That is some weird children’s tv right there
I loved Ghostwriter SO. MUCH.
Not quite as much as Wishbone though.
ME TOO!
And bless my parents, they limited our TV very strictly, but that was one of the shows that we always got to see, whether we had to videotape an episode or leave Grandma’s house at exactly seven fifteen to get home in time for it.
My sixth grade teacher showed an episode of Ghostwriter each Friday in class as a bribe for good behavior.
Can I also just say that it was one of the most diverse early TV show casts that I can recall? I mean the first episode, the first take, the first character introduced is an African American boy in his grandmother’s basement. It’s like all of New York’s ethnicities/races in there.
Just going to leave this here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/inarelationshipwithpizza/…
Holy shit, SLJ was Jamal’s dad? I had completely forgotten that!!!
So did anyone else have a deep, innate longing to be Sam? Like, my entire long-lasting baseball caps and ponytails phase can be traced back to this show. (And the kinds of boys I crushed on in high school can probably be traced back to David….)
And for a while my little brother went to a school that had the prop shooting game from the Halloween scavenger hunt episode in the lobby because they filmed the show in that area of Texas. And I didn’t realize it as a kid, but if I went back and watched the show now it would probably be so Texan.
And guys, guys, I just have a lot of feelings about Wishbone, ok?
I grew up in Dallas, and a girl in my ballet class got to be an extra in the Halloween episode. I WAS SO JEALOUS.
I would have DIED of jealousy. Like just flat out died. To meet Wishbone was my ultimate goal in life at that time. (It may still be my ultimate goal. I mean, all dogs go to heaven, right?)
SO BADLY WANTED TO BE SAM
I also loved the “behind the scenes” segments at the end of each show. I mean, the “Tail End.” Also, I think I finally learned from Wishbone what a Foley artist was after seeing it in the credits of other shows all those years.
Also, I feel like I would marry The Visionary right now, sight unseen. I see it too, Visionary! I see it too!
YES! I think of that segment every time I see Foley artist in the credits, and occasionally notice a good job of Foley work in a given movie.
I had to look this up as I’d never heard of “Wishbone”–looks like I was a little old for it, as I was in high school and college during its run. A damn shame, because child!me would have watched the everloving hell out of it.
It started the year I graduated from high school and yet I’ve seen every damn episode. Haha. Wishbone transcends age.
I watched Wishbone RELIGIOUSLY my freshman year of college. (I think it must have been reruns by then, but hey, Wishbone’s a classic.)
But how did you gentlefolk even find out about it? I was not much of a TV watcher as a high schooler (or ever) but I did (then as now) love PBS, and this show (which, let me reiterate, would have been right up my metaphorical alley AND ALSO in my metaphorical wheelhouse) totally passed me by.
/has a sad for what might have been
Same here. It came out when I was 25, after I was too old to watch it for myself and before I had nieces and nephews to watch it with. It does like my sort of show though.
This is beautiful.
I stayed later at work than necessary to read this. I am not disappointed.
Abbey Fenbert, you are a national treasure and my new American hero.
Wishbone as Don Quixote is the best of all Wishbones.
I think he was actually Sancho Panza in that one! One of the few where he’s not the starring player.
Wishbone as Henry Tilney was a bit creepy…
I had Wishbone: The Odyssey computer game! But the show was much better. This article is spot on.
me too! It’s still at my parents’ house
This article is amazing and a thing of beauty. I know I watched Wishbone a lot, but for some reason the only story I can recall is The Time Machine. I still picture the book that way
Wishbone! I remember once, as kids, my sister and I rushed into the TV room after school, only to find that LA traffic had delayed us by five minutes, and we had missed that day’s episode. I wonder what sort of literary parallels Wishbone would have drawn from that?
This was amazing. Sadly I was a little young for Wishbone while it was on so I don’t remember much of it. I do remember the Prince and the Pauper episode, namely the part where Wishbone-as-the-Prince-as-the-Pauper was shouting “I am the Prince of Wales!” while on-lookers laughed. But they weren’t laughing because he was a dog… it was because of his peasant costume, naturally. Of course it was.
In “The War of the Noses,” the main female character is dressed up as a man when she meets alt-Wishbone, who looks askance and remarks, “you have girlish hands, John!” And she’s all, “oh no my secret!” and not “lol sorry you are an actual dog.”
“Girlish hands.” Nothing gets by Wishbone!
I loved Wishbone so much, probably because it premiered when I was 10 and I had a Jack Russell Terrier at the time and I was definitely already a nerd. Never did read Silas Marner though.
I was in grad school and it was the perfect balm for minds overstressed by doctoral exams in literature. My roommate and I watched it together regularly.
That is, hands down, the most heartwarming grad school story I’ve ever heard. It’s simple, yet touching.
“SUIT #3: Is it?”
Read an octave higher in Jim Halpert’s voice, natch.
Abbey Fenbert is a genius with pools of wisdom for eyes and a deep understanding of dogs, boys, readers, the market, and, above all, the intricacies of nostalgia. Abbey Fenbert is my favorite person for the next 24 hours at the very least. Possibly for the next three weeks. Abbey Fenbert has touched my heartstrings and reminded me of my love of reading and of the first live action representation of Sherlock Holmes I’ve ever seen: the impossible to overcome Wishbone.
THIS IS EVERYTHING THAT IS WONDERFUL. I also might have a ripped copy of every episode of Wishbone ever (of varying qualities) that I acquired as an adult because…well, because.
This is basically the best thing ever, multiplied by infinity.
That was great! I remember watching it during our California year but it also happened to be my nap time so I was usually a little confused.
certainly not just use the surface knowledge gleaned from Wishbone to posture before their future professors and Internet dates for the rest of their adult lives.
I DIDN’T KNOW I WAS DOING THIS help
In one of the behind-the-scenes segments, they showed other specially trained stunt Jack Russells who did some of the tricks in Soccer’s place, so maybe those were stunt-heavy episodes or Soccer was on vaycay or something? You just paint a paw print on the ear and *BAM* temporary Wishbone, I guess. I bleeding love Wishbone!
I rewatched the Henry IV episode after studying the play in college, and I was impressed by how much of the text they kept- they trusted kids to figure out what the language meant, and for the most part we did. Good job, Wishbone writers.
I’d just like to give a shout out to Wishbone’s version of “Phantom of the Opera,” which followed the original plot more faithfully than any other version I’ve seen. (Lookin’ at you Andrew Lloyd Webber; don’t try to buy me off with Michael Crawford’s dulcet tones.)
Yes! THis is one of the ones i remember better, and I totally compared the Phantom movie to the Wishbone version the whole time (mind you, I haven’t read the book, so Wishbone is only vying with Pratchett’s Maskerade in my head for favorite version)
The early 90s miniseries is probably the best I’ve seen outside the canine production. I believe the whole thing’s on YouTube if you want to check it out.
Link? 😀
The video quality isn’t fantastic, but armed with the name and less laziness than I, you might be able to seek out a better version elsewhere on the net. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XasE2e6DcLo The miniseries runs about eight hours, so be prepared to commit a good chunk of time to it. It isn’t a mirror to the original work, but I find it’s closer to the intent of the work, if that makes sense.
Darn, the show aired during the TV-free gap in my early adult life and I managed to miss it. Now I’m going to have to track it down and watch every episode because it sounds far too amazing!
That dog looks exactly like Mark Rylance.
Beautiful.
SUCH A GREAT SHOW. Remember the Cyrano episode? I honestly thought the ‘face of a dog,’ line was the cleverest thing I’d ever heard when I was seven.
The funniest thing I have read in weeks. That made my morning.
“SUIT #1: Out of the kennel, if you will—
[the Visionary will not]
SUIT #2: And the dog-teaching-kids-to-read concept, that’s perfect for our demographic.
VISIONARY: He doesn’t teach them to read. He inculcates in them a passion for timeless narratives.
SUIT #2: Okay.”
HA!
“[The Visionary will not.]”
^ best.
Tomorrow is my birthday. I have a lot of great things planned. And yet I know that that day–nay, no day–will ever be better than this day. Also, I’ve been trying to make “What’s the story, Wishbone?” a catchphrase for, like, 1,000 year. Happy birthday to me.
Literally Wishbone is wearing a Romeo costume and standing in front of a grown woman in an Elizabethan gown who’s asking him to deny thy father and refuse thy name, but no mention of the fact he’s a dog?
The only problem here is the decision to cast a grown woman as a thirteen-year-old. Otherwise, sounds fine.
Love this piece and love Wishbone.
And, I *did* finish Silas Marner! 😀 In 10th grade English I read it for a book report, while other students reported on Christopher Pike novels and the first Harry Potter book.
In short, Wishbone totally worked some magic on me.
VISIONARY: Trust me, they will all finish Silas Marner.
That was the funniest thing I’ve read all week
You’re never too old for Wishbone. I saw it in my … 40s, I think … and got my mother (60+) hooked. She even bought two of the stuffed Wishbone toys – one the plain, undressed Wishbone and the other him as Robin Hood. The one that made me laugh and laugh was Wishbone as Anansi The Spider – he had a little black cap, four extra legs, and dangled on a cord.
THE BEST COMMENT, and for some reason even though it’s been approved it is not showing up here, so I am copying and pasting so you all can read it, too:
Thank you Abbey. It was a joy to read your version of the pitch.
And thank you all for reminding me that we actually made the show work the way we had intended. It’s always a kick when people talk about how “Wishbone” resonates in their adult life.
Bert Guthrie
Co-Producer, Director of Photography, Director
Wishbone
[falls over dead]
THAT’S AMAZING!
WHAT. SHUT UP. WHAT. Bert Guthrie is the Visionary. I join you in the afterlife, and now we are ghosts who haunt libraries in the form of dogs.
WHAT. OH MY GOD.
I’m just going to start imagining that the entire commentariat is actually made up of celebrities/beloved artists.
I didn’t even watch the show and I’m still beaming with joy after reading this. Bravo, a hundred times bravo.
So I have never commented on The Toast before but I absolutely had to on this post because my husband’s uncle is literally the man who created Wishbone. There is a life size statue of Wishbone that sits on their piano and a photo of him with Mr. Rogers and Bill Nye the Science Guy taken at the Peabody Awards in their entryway that sits next to the goddamn Peabodys they have won. Also, you should all know that he break dances at every family wedding to “Low” by Flo Rida and T Pain and it is so, so gloriously white.
I watched Wishbone when it first came out and hadn’t thought about it in the longest time until a couple of weeks ago when my four-year niece showed me her Wishbone toy and its coat. I didn’t get it at first, she had a dog about the size of a standard Happy Meal toy and asked me to put its coat on. I asked her if the dog was cold and she was all ‘No, Aunt Chel. Its an armor coat. He’s Wishbone!’ My BIL has been showing the kids old episodes on YouTube. Not sure where she got the toy though.
This is amazing 😀
I’m always really sad that practically none of the show has been released to DVD- my nephew is approaching prime Wishbone age.
soccer very much loved his owner. the warms my heart! i watched wishbone as a young mother with my boys (elementary school aged). loved its clever-osity in every way. where are good shows like this for kids these days???
Thank you for writing this! I loved it! I watched “Wishbone” with my young daughter and videotaped some episodes that I still show to my fourth-grade students. Although they always get confused when I haul in a VCR to hook up to the Smartboard… I do, too… say, when is “Wishbone” going to come out on DVD, anyway?!? Ahem, back to my point. The beautiful thing about this piece is that inside the humor, there’s a bit of that first glorious moment when we actually connected to Wishbone. Perhaps the only kind of connection now that the show has been gone so many years. That’s the beautiful thing. Plus, it made me laugh out loud.
“…and certainly not just use the surface knowledge gleaned from Wishbone to posture before their future professors and Internet dates for the rest of their adult lives.”
I can’t even tell you how useful Wishbone was in college.
The link to Abbey’s article was shared with me by the Wishbone Dialogue Coach…..what a fun read. I was an actress on Wishbone and wanted to express how great the article is and how much fun it is to read all of the comments! I was part of the “company” of actors who appeared in the classical literature story part of each episode. I got to play lots of amazing characters and got to spend lots of time with “Wishbone” (Soccer)…..who I can say, was a much better dancer than me! ;0) Acting with a dog was a blast and an adventure. As TV shows go, the production team (in every aspect of production) was incredible—creative, talented and collaborative…..the people truly drove the spirit of the show—which I think had a lot to do with how captivating and original it was—-we all felt the show was special and loved what the show aspired to “do”. I’m always so happy to be reminded that Wishbone really was a show that cultivated so many good memories and, most of all, made kids fall in love with reading.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us! I ran home from middle school and early high school (I’m not proud) to watch it with my dog, who was a terrier that totally had a crush on Wishbone. She never sat through any other TV show with me. Thanks!
Damnit, now I have to go binge watch Wishbone. Who am I kidding, as if that could ever be a chore
My first ever serious library fine was because the computer chair got packed into a box with Romeo and Juliet: Wishbone Edition.
What a great article! Thank you Abbey! I was lucky enough to work with (ok, adjacent to) the Wishbone film crew (I worked on all the books) for the second season. I've never experienced the amazing camaraderie at a workplace since. I got to meet all five of the dogs (Soccer, Bear, Slugger, Shiner and Fiona) but worked closest with Bear, the one who graced the book covers almost as much as Soccer. These were dogs professionals; major kudos to Jackie Kaplan for her stellar training abilities with all the dogs. She'd say things like "back up" and "head lower" and they'd do it, then hold perfectly still, waiting to be photographed! After a break, she'd tell Bear to go to his mark and he'd look on the floor for his little X and either go back to the pose he was in or stand on it waiting for more instructions. The writers, directors, and actors were all very approachable and friendly. Can't say enough good things about the whole Wishbone experience.
This post had me actually laughing out loud. I once went to a cattle call audition to be on Wishbone! I did not get selected, which is one of the deep tragedies of my life.
See "A Tail in Twain." Wishbone is so adorable dressed as Tom Sawyer, complete with pants and suspenders! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgI8CPq-n5o Jump to 4:30 to see costume. *squee*
I think he was actually Sancho Panza in that one! One of the few where he's not the starring player.
I did not finish Silas Marner.
The funniest thong I have read in a lomg time!!! Wishbone definitely helped flourish my love of reading. Seriously that dog made me an avid reader. Thanks to all who put thay show on. What a great article. My favorite episode was where joe gets offered a virtual reality headset to trade for wishbone. Or as Don quiote
True story:
Growing up, my dad would consistently get my sisters and I copies of Wishbone books for Valentine’s. Every year. And, I mean, we did watch Wishbone, but not that much? And it was only one of many shows we watched? And he kept giving them to us well into our teens. Two Wishbone books each. And only on Valentine’s.
No candies. No chocolate. Just Wishbone. Every. Year.
To this day, I still don’t get it. Like…??? Thanks??? Love you too???
Aw. I miss my dad. Thanks for this.
Is that a Dahl/Danny Elfman quote?