| Wishbone | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | |
| Created by | Rick Duffield |
| Starring |
|
| Voices of | Larry Brantley |
| Theme music composer |
|
| Opening theme | "What's the Story, Wishbone?"[1] |
| Ending theme | "What's the Story, Wishbone?" (instrumental) |
| Composer | Tom Merriman |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 50(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Rick Duffield |
| Production locations | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company | Big Feats! Entertainment[1] |
| Original release | |
| Network | PBS |
| Release | October 8, 1995 (1995-10-08) – December 7, 1997 (1997-12-07) |
| Related | |
| Wishbone's Dog Days of the West | |
Wishbone is an American live-action children's television series that aired from 1995 to 1997 and originally broadcast onPBS. It is about aJack Russell Terrier dog named Wishbone who daydreams about being the lead character of stories fromclassic literature.
The show was produced by Big Feats! Entertainment, a division of Lyrick Studios, which also producedBarney & Friends for PBS. Unlike Barney,Wishbone was targeted towards an older demographic ages 6 to 11.[2] The adapted stories were notable for staying faithful to the source material, and not toning down their subject matter likemurder,execution,suicide, and the effects ofslavery.[3]
Though the series was meant for children thousands of letters were received from college students and parents saying how much they enjoyed the show.[4]
A standard episode ofWishbone consists of an opening scene, introducing a contemporary plot in Wishbone's hometown of Oakdale. Something about the situation reminds Wishbone of a famous work of literature, which he introduces to the viewer. The episode then cuts between an adaptation of that work, usually with Wishbone portraying the main character, and the contemporary plot. Occasionally, Wishbone will play a secondary character if the lead role is female (inJoan of Arc, he plays Louis de Conte) or difficult to relate to (he playsSancho Panza inDon Quixote). The development of the contemporary plot parallels that of the literary work, particularly in their dénouements.
The last two minutes of nearly every episode are abehind-the-scenes featurette titled "Tail Ends", narrated by Wishbone and focusing on a production department whose work was particularly prominent in the episode, such as lighting for "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" or make-up forFrankenstein.
| Season | Episodes | Originally released | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | |||
| 1 | 40 | October 8, 1995 (1995-10-08) | December 1, 1995 (1995-12-01) | |
| 2 | 10 | October 15, 1997 (1997-10-15) | December 7, 1997 (1997-12-07) | |
| TV movie | March 13, 1998 (1998-03-13) | |||
Wishbone was conceived by Rick Duffield after brainstorming with his staff about "making a show for kids that was told from a dog's point of view".[5] Following several iterations of this idea, including one in which the dog loved music and another in which he brought good luck (hence the name Wishbone), Duffield hit on the idea of Wishbone imagining himself as heroic figures from literature.[6] His eventual goal was "an entertaining way for kids to get their first taste of great books".[7]
In the summer of 1993, Duffield spent three days casting for the dog star at amotel courtyard inValencia,California, looking at between 100 and 150 dogs.[7] After filming a seven-minute pilot which captured Wishbone's character and suggested the show's format, he presented it to PBS.
Larry Brantley, the voice of Wishbone, was cast following "a five-minute impromptu audition" in which he imagined Wishbone's thoughts as Soccer "was obsessing, like, over this tennis ball".[8]
For the literary scenes, the producers created arepertory company of local stage actors, dubbed The Wishbone Players.[6]
Wishbone's exterior shots were filmed on the backlot ofLyrick Studios' division Big Feats! Entertainment[1] inAllen, Texas, and its interior shots were filmed on a sound stage in a 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m2) warehouse inPlano, Texas. Additional scenes were filmed inGrapevine, Texas.[citation needed]
Duffield toldEntertainment Tonight:
"Keeping up with the variety in the series is the biggest challenge. Because Wishbone is the central figure of each show and plays an integral role in the contemporary story and the literary story, he's in almost every scene. So he has a lot to do and designing scenes that can work with a dog, with period actors and period sets, as well as kids in a contemporary world is a big challenge."[7]
Each episode of Wishbone cost around $500,000 to produce.[9] Almost all of the budget (excluding $1 million provided by PBS via a license fee) was provided out of pocket byRichard Leach and was subsided by the success and popularity of Lyrick's flagship show, Barney & Friends.[6][9]
Despite acclaim from critics and educators, only 50 episodes were produced. The first 40 episodes were shown as a single-season run in 1995, while the remaining ten episodes became the second season in 1997–1998. Duffield told author Michael Brody that PBS halted production because the show did not have "merchandising potential".[10]
The series aired onPBS and premiered in the United States on October 8, 1995. The final episode aired on December 7, 1997. After the series ended, reruns continued to air until August 31, 2001. The series returned in reruns onPBS Kids Go! on June 2, 2007.Wishbone clips came to the PBS Kids Go! website. The return to PBS lasted a short time, although some PBS stations continued to airWishbone until October 7, 2013.[11]
The show also aired onNickelodeon in the UK and Ireland and onNine Network in Australia.
Several episodes were released onVHS between 1995 and 1998.
In 2004,HIT Entertainment released four episodes on individual DVDs: "Hot Diggety Dawg", "The Impawssible Dream", "The Hunchdog of Notre Dame", and "Paw Prints of Thieves". These were then compiled into a single DVD released in 2011.
This show garnered particular praise for refusing tobowdlerize many of the sadder or more unpleasant aspects of the source works, which usually enjoyed a fairly faithful retelling in the fantasy sequences.[citation needed]
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The TV movieWishbone's Dog Days of the West was aired on PBS stations on March 13, 1998, and released to video on June 9, 1998.
The TV series inspired severalbook series includingWishbone Classics,Wishbone Mysteries, andThe Adventures of Wishbone. Altogether, more than fifty books have featured Wishbone, which continued to be published even after the TV series ended production.
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There were also multiplevideo games based on the series in 1996 and 1997, such asWishbone Activity Center,Wishbone Print Tricks,Wishbone and the Amazing Odyssey, andWishbone Activity Zone.
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On July 15, 2020, it was announced thatUniversal Pictures andMattel'sfilm division are developing afilm adaptation of the series.Peter Farrelly will produce the film while Roy Parker will write the screenplay andRobbie Brenner will executive produce. It will be the first theatrical collaboration between Universal and Mattel and the ninth Mattel Films project in development.[14][15]
In 2021,Wishbone wasspoofed in thestop-motionparody TV seriesRobot Chicken episode (S11E11) "May Cause Episode Title to Cut Off Due to Word Lim" voiced byBreckin Meyer, where Wishbone plays the role of Anastasia Steele from theeroticromance novelFifty Shades of Grey.
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