After Joe boasts that his basketball team would have won if he'd been coaching, Mr. Barnes gives him a chance to prove it by coaching Emily's tee-ball team. This role reversal reminds Wishbone of The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain.
This is the third and final episode to be based on a Twain novel, following "A Tail in Twain," which adapts The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and "Bone of Arc," which adapts Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc.
This is also one of the episodes that was written by Mo Rocca.
One tie-in book was released — The Adventures of Wishbone #3: The Prince and the Pooch, a straight adaptation of the episode.
Tropes
- Adapted Out: The adaptation leaves out Miles Hendon and all the adventures that Edward has with him. Henry VIII is mentioned but never seen.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: The tee-ball team consists of five-year-old girls, and they are easily distracted by everything.
- Didn't Think This Through: Edward swaps clothes with Tom, notes that they look exactly like each other, and then goes out to confront an arrogant guard. Of course, he's mistaken for Tom and thrown out. This is pretty much exactly how this played out in the original novel, and Edward wasn't any smarter there.
- Double Vision: A split-screen effect is used to allow Wishbone to play both Prince Edward and Tom Canty. The behind-the-scene segment explains how the effect was achieved.
- Failure Montage: A couple are used to illustrate Joe's failure at coaching the tee-ball team.
- Grass is Greener: The aspect of The Prince and the Pauper that the episode chooses to emphasize. Joe believes that being a coach would be easier than being a player, just as Tom and Edward believe their lives would be better if they swapped places.
- Losing Horns: Played when the girls get distracted by Wishbone, ignoring Joe's introductory speech.
- Never Work with Children or Animals: In-universe, when Joe discovers that coaching a team of five-year-olds is not very easy at all.
- Prince and Pauper: The episode is adapting the Trope Namer, of course. The trope doesn't literally happen in the modern-day story, but it's thematically mirrored by Joe going from player to coach only to discover that coaching isn't as easy as he thought it would be.
- Significant Double Casting: Soccer the dog plays both Tom Canty and Prince Edward Tudor, appearing twice in the same scene via split-screen technology. Larry Brantley likewise provides both their voices.
- Standard Snippet: A mocking version of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" plays when Mr. King is introduced.
