Wishbone (TV series)

Wishbone
Genre Children's Comedy-drama
Created by Rick Duffield (Executive producer)
Starring Soccer
Jordan Wall
Adam Springfield
Christie Abbott
Mary Chris Wall
Angee Hughes
Julio Cedillo (Season 2)
Mikaila Enriquez (Season 2)
Paul English Jr (Season 2)
Voices of Larry Brantley as Wishbone
Theme music composer
  • Tim Cissell (music)
  • Lynn Adler (lyrics)

[1]

Opening theme "What's the Story, Wishbone?"[1]
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 2
No. of episodes 50 (list of episodes)
Production
Location(s) Plano, Texas
Allen, Texas[1]
Running time 30 minutes
Production company(s) Big Feats! Entertainment[1]
Distributor HIT Entertainment
Release
Original network PBS, PBS Kids, Disney Channel, Playhouse Disney (reruns only)
Picture format 480i SDTV
Audio format Dolby Surround
Original release October 9, 1995 (1995-10-09) – December 4, 1997 (1997-12-04)

Wishbone is a half-hour live-action children's television show that was produced from 1995 to 1998 and broadcast on PBS Kids. The show's title character is a Jack Russell Terrier. Wishbone lives with his owner Joe Talbot in the fictional town of Oakdale, Texas. He daydreams about being the lead character of stories from classic literature. He was known as "the little dog with a big imagination". Only the viewers and the characters in his daydreams can hear Wishbone speak. The characters from his daydreams see Wishbone as whichever famous character he is currently portraying and not as a dog. The show won four Daytime Emmys, a Peabody Award, and honors from the Television Critics Association. Wishbone's exterior shots were filmed on the backlot of Lyrick Studios's teen division Big Feats! Entertainment[1] in Allen, Texas, and its interior shots were filmed on a sound stage in a 50,000 square foot warehouse in Plano, Texas. Additional scenes were filmed in Grapevine, Texas.

This show garnered particular praise for refusing to bowdlerize many of the sadder or more unpleasant aspects of the source works, which usually enjoyed a fairly faithful retelling in the fantasy sequences.

The show also inspired several book series. Altogether, there are more than fifty books featuring Wishbone, which were published even after the TV series ended production. Reruns of the show continued to air on some PBS affiliates until early 2008. In 2006, when a PBS Kids Go! digital channel was announced, PBS planned to air Wishbone on the channel. However, when the digital channel was canceled, Wishbone returned in reruns on the PBS national program service. Wishbone clips came to the PBS Kids Go! website. The return to PBS lasted a short time, though some PBS affiliates continued to air Wishbone until their license to do so ran out. The show continued to air in reruns until August 31, 2001. The show was replaced on the PBS Kids schedule on September 3, 2001 by Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat.

Episodes

A standard episode of Wishbone consists of an opening scene, introducing Wishbone's and his family's current situation (for example, Arbor Day planting a tree, or Joe catching a lunch lady trying to donate food to a homeless shelter). When one of the main characters decides to get involved in the noble act, Wishbone flashes to a famous work of literature it reminds him of, usually with him playing the lead role, in costume. Wishbone may not play the lead role if the character is difficult to relate to (he plays Sancho Panza in Don Quixote) or is female (in the show's "Joan of Arc" episode, he plays Louis de Conte). By the end of both stories, the real-life situation usually follows the work of literature closely (such as the King saving Robin Hood at the last minute, and the Principal saving Joe at the last minute). The last 2 minutes of nearly every episode feature Wishbone narrating some background description of how the episode was made, such as showing how stunts were done, how costumes were made, or how the visual effects were created.

One 90-minute movie was released, Wishbone's Dog Days of the West, based on O. Henry's Heart of the West.

The series also featured a clip show episode called "Picks of the Litter".

Characters

Main characters

Other characters

Cast

Awards

Other

Only a handful of the Wishbone episodes have been released to VHS and DVD. There were also a few computer games in 1996, such as Wishbone Activity Center and Wishbone and the Amazing Odyssey. Wishbone has also inspired several book series: Wishbone Classics, Wishbone Mysteries, and The Adventures of Wishbone, which is similar to the TV series.

On February 15, 2011, Lionsgate released the Wishbone DVD, The Little Dog With a Big Imagination.

In 2004, Hit Entertainment released 4 DVDS with trailers of other HiT titles in the main menu section. Those DVDs were: "Hot Diggety Dawg", "The Impawsible Dream", "The Hunchdog of Notre-Dame", & "Paw Prints of Thieves".

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Frankenbone". Wishbone. Season 1. Event occurs at 26:40.
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