Wishbone

Does anyone remembered an old PBS TV series called Wishbone? It was about a dog who could talk to the audience and he would retell various stories like The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow while he plays the main characters in each story. However, in the real world, his human owner Joe along with his friends David and Sam would get into all kinds trouble of their own.

I love Wishbone.

Obviously.

It was a very fun show. I used to watch it every day.

What's fun is to watch the book segments with the actors performing against Wishbone in little suit and keep waiting for them to either wink at the camera or metaphorically role their eyes, and then be amazed how 99% of them play the roles dead straight.

They're professionals and it's PBS, they knew what they were getting into.

True. Given the frequency of BBC shows on PBS, now I'm imagining Wishbone interacting with the casts of the Dowton Abbey and Sherlock. Holmes doing the Sherlock scan on the clothes of Jack Russel Terrier would have me buying every DVD and Blu-Ray of the series I could find.

I loved the way that the actors made Wishbone the dog seem like a real actor since it gave the show a creative flair and I loved how Wishbone reenacted the roles he was given.

Weirdest choice for a Wishbone episode: Tale of Two Cities. I mean, the guy who played Sidney was fantastic, but he doesn't look remotely like a Jack Russell terrier. :p

Do any characters but De Bourgourac do? I have no idea how to spell that.

edited 11th Jun '14 10:06:00 PM by Journeyman

Yeah, doing a story that hinges on there being a guy who looks just like the protagonist and not putting the dog in a dual role was a bit odd.

Especially since they did just that with the Prince and the Pauper. Wishbone played both.

Indeed. So it's not like they couldn't have.

Maybe that was the joke?

Man, I loved Wishbone! Now I'm all wistful and nostalgic for my childhood, lol.

As a literature nerd, I really should love this show. And I do like most of what I've seen. After all, there can't be anything bad about a really good "edutainment" show, right? But... I found "Wishbone" on Youtube a couple of years ago, and I started watching a few episodes. And then I came across a scene from the modern-day real-life framing device setting, where the mother was really disappointed with Joe for getting a "bad" grade in school. Was this "bad grade" an F, or even a D? No, it was a freaking C, a perfectly good passing grade! But the mother went bananas and said that Joe had to "improve his grades", or she wouldn't let him try out for a sports team in school. I mean, WTF? And the worst thing was that the show made this seem totally justifiable. Ugh... This only made me angry, and a lot of posters on the You Tube video agreed with me that Joe's mother was off her rockers. I didn't feel like watching the show anymore, and I haven't returned to it since.

You're rejecting a show because a mother had too high of expectations for her son?

You know... I might return to the show at some point. Everything else about it was great. But that scene was just... wrong. But I think I might just fast forward to where the actual re-telling of a piece of literature starts. The modern-day real-life framing device setting never was the best part of the show anyway.

edited 16th Jun '14 7:06:22 PM by Furienna

Eh, My parents reacted the same when I got Cs. I got 'em, tried to play video games that same day, and got bitched out and told to study til my grades were better.

It's not that unrealistic. Besides, if Joe always got As and Bs before that, a C is him slipping. His mom was just scared he'd keep falling if he didn't work at it.

Maybe so, but it still felt over the top. Whatever... The re-telling-of-a-story parts were the most interesting thing about the show anyway. You could have the framing device setting or leave it.

Yeah, my parents weren't particularly happy when I got Cs either, so I don't see Joe's mom's reaction as particularly unreasonable.

Even if it was, she always struck me as a very loving and understanding mother otherwise.

I find the demographics of Wishbone interesting. You have classic works of literature in-between a story of two boys and a tomboy. It's as if they were trying to evenly bring in the boys and girls.

Who ever wrote that show should be shot.

My super placid mother uttered that once when it was on. Yeah I remember it

edited 12th Jul '14 9:58:07 PM by joeyjojo

I was an A student until high school, and we didn't have Ds in our grading system, so I never saw a problem with Ellen freaking out over a C.

I loved that show! The premise was kind of strange but it worked out surprisingly well. I really liked Jeanne Simpson, the actress who played many female roles (Juliet, Rebecca, Maid Marian, Joan of Arc, Mr. Bingley's sister, etc...)

Is it just me or was there Foe Yay between Joe and Damont? I thought about adding that to the YMMV page but didn't know if others would agree.

@Furienna:

I'm not sure what's stranger; the fact that you stopped watching the show you admit was working for you over something like that, or the fact that so many people think a mother not thinking a C was acceptable for a kid more than capable of doing better is a problem.

Regardless I absolutely LOVED Wishbone as a kid and it definitely made me aware of, and familiar with, a number of stories I never really got a chance to read and am no going through a list of them now.