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Wishbone
1995 - 1997 8.1 (34 votes) 2 Seasons
Genres
Action & Adventure Comedy Kids Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Networks
PBS Kids
Created By
Rick Duffield

Wishbone

Overview

Wishbone is a children's television show. The show's title character is a Jack Russell Terrier of the same name. Wishbone lives with his owner Joe Talbot in the fictional modern 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 whatever famous character he is currently portraying and not as a dog.

Key Crew

Producer: Betty A. Buckley

Top Cast

Larry Brantley

Wishbone

Mary Chris Wall
Mary Chris Wall

Ellen Talbot

Christie Abbott
Christie Abbott

Sam Kepler

Adam Springfield

David Barnes

Julio Cesar Cedillo
Julio Cesar Cedillo

Travis del Rio

Shelley Duvall
Shelley Duvall

Renee Lassiter

Amy Acker
Amy Acker

Catherine Morland

Melissa Archer
Melissa Archer

Sarah Johnson

Seasons

Season 1 (1995)

No overview available.

40 episodes

Episodes
Episode 1: A Tail in Twain (1)
1995-03-23

The kids have an end-of-summer adventure in Jackson Park and learn about the power of stories. Wishbone, as Tom Sawyer, has an adventure with Huck Finn in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 2: A Tail in Twain (2)
1995-03-24

Part One continued.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 3: Twisted Tail
1995-03-25

A crime wave hits Oakdale, making the kids selective in choosing friends and giving Wishbone a chance to dream of Oliver Twist.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 4: Rosie, Oh, Rosie, Oh!
1995-03-25

Wishbone, not wearing his collar, gets taken to the pound where he meets a beautiful female dog named Rosie. The inside story is that of ""romeo and Juliet"" by William Shakespeare

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 5: Homer Sweet Homer
1995-03-26

Wishbone tells the story of Homer's ""The Odyssey.""

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 6: Bark That Bark
1995-03-30

David overloads on responsibilities and doesn't understand the wisdom of asking for help. Wishbone explores the power of wisdom as it lies within two African-American folk tales.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 7: Cyranose
1995-03-31

Wishbone is Cyrano de Bergerac, serenading Roxanne with poetry.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 8: The Slobbery Hound
1995-04-01

Wishbone searches for a wandering dog who is wreaking havoc with garbage cans and items in people's yards and porches. Wishbone imagines himself as Sherlock Holmes in ""The Hound of the Baskervilles"", where he works to track down a murderer who uses a giant hound to commit his crimes.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 9: Digging Up the Past
1995-04-02

Wishbone and Joe meet a charming elderly Oakdale resident who has returned after a long absense, and together they search for a ""time capsule"" in Joe's backyard. Meanwhile, Wishbone imagines himself as Rip van Winkle, who falls asleep in the forest and wakes up twenty years later to discover that a whole new nation (the USA) has been born.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 10: Bone of Arc
1995-04-03

Samantha becomes the heroine of the boys' soccer team, while Wishbone becomes her ally. Meanwhile, Joan of Arc leads the men of the French Army against the English in Mark Twain's Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc. Wishbone is her friend, Louis de Conte.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 11: The Impawssible Dream
1995-04-05

Wishbone, while watching Joe pursue his impossible dream of making the book of world records, thinks of Don Quixote.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 12: Fleabitten Bargain
1995-04-05

Joe is dazzled by a virtual-reality machine demonstrated by a cunning salesman at a town fair. Meanwhile, Wishbone, as Faust, learns that making big sacrifices just to gain immediate satisfaction is not necessarily the wisest choice in the long run.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 13: Sniffing the Gauntlet
1995-04-06

Keeping oneself in the right frame of mind, Wishbone draws into Rebecca's world in Ivanhoe.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 14: The Hunchdog of Notre Dame
1995-10-26

Wishbone is the Hunchback of Notre Dame, standing for and defending Esmerelda.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 15: Golden Retrieved
1995-10-27

Wishbone is distressed with his owner Joe's infatuation with his new mountain bike, which causes Joe to pay less attention to Wishbone, and to act less caring and patient towards him. Then when Wishbone goes missing for a day, Joe realizes how much Wishbone means to him, and how his dog's company is so much more important than his new bike. Meanwhile, as Silas Marner, Wishbone learns the value of human warmth and companionship as opposed to acquired wealth.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 16: A Tale of Two Sitters
1995-10-30

Guilt by association haunts Wishbone in his dream of A Tale of Two Cities.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 17: Frankenbone
1995-10-31

David claims that through his experiments he has discovered the secret of life. Wishbone compares the mysterious experiment to the Mary Shelly horror, ""Frankenstein.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 18: Hot Diggety Dawg
1995-11-01

Wishbone digs for Wanda, turning the day into the pages of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 19: One Thousand and One Tails
1995-11-02

While greed threatens to grip the humans around him, Wishbone imagines himself as Ali Baba among forty thieves. The sheer power of 1001 Arabian Nights seems overwhelming.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 20: Mixed Breeds
1995-11-03

Secrets abound in all people. Wanda and Mr. Pruitt find that out themselves, as does Wishbone in his visions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 21: The Canine Cure
1995-11-04

This time, Wishbone imagines The Imaginary Invalid by Molière.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 22: The Pawloined Paper
1995-11-05

Joe has a substitute teacher for his class, who he likes a lot. After a word puzzle he makes up about her gets snatched, courtesy of Curtis, Joe must get it back before anyone sees it. Meanwhile, Wishbone tears the living room upside down looking for his toy newspaper, which is right under his nose the whole time, just like where the stolen letter is hidden in today's story ""The Purloined Letter"" by Edgar Allen Poe

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 23: Bark to the Future
1995-11-06

Joe learns that his own intellect can never be replaced by modern technology. Meanwhile, Wishbone, as The Time Traveler, finds that in the year 802,701 the lazy Eloi have allowed their intellect to be replaced by technology in H.G. Wells' The Time Machine.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 24: Paw Prints of Thieves
1996-03-02

When Joe gets under the crosshairs for what appears to be a good deed, Wishbone imagines himself as Robin Hood.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 25: Furst Impressions
1996-03-03

While Sam, David, and Joe agonize over finding a date for the pending dance, Wishbone goes over the story of ""Pride and Prejudice"" by Jane Austin.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 26: The Prince and The Pooch
1996-03-04

It's another tale in Twain for Wishbone, playing both The Prince and the Pauper.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 27: The Count's Account
1996-03-05

Damont gets David into trouble after he uses one of David's inventions. Meanwhile, Wishbone as Edmond Dantes seeks revenge against his enemies in Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 28: Salty Dog
1996-03-06

Samantha convinces Joe and David to help her look for a ""magic"" horseshoe that is rumored to be nailed somewhere inside an old rickety barn in a remote wooded area of Oakdale. Wishbone notes Sam's adventurous spirit and her eager determination to fulfill her quest, and compares her to Jim Hawkins in Robert Louis Stevenson's book ""Treasure Island"".

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 29: Little Big Dog
1996-03-07

In David and Goliath, Wishbone has more bravery than the David we know from this series.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 30: A Dogged Expose
1996-03-08

Wishbone is Sherlock Holmes, deftly trying to stop a mastermind from the pages of A Scandal in Bohemia while Samantha is unwillingly tangled in a scandal at Oakdale.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 31: Terrified Terrier
1996-03-09

Now Wishbone feels wounded as he dreams of Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 32: Shakespaw
1996-03-10

David runs into no end of problems while staging a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 33: Muttketeer!
1996-11-02

Wishbone is always eager to make friends. He does so in the real world at the local school. And as D'Artagnan, Wishbone makes friends of the Three Musketeers.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 34: Hercules Unleashed
1996-11-03

While Samantha seeks the perfect gift for her father's birthday, Wishbone plays up Hercules, seeking the Golden Apples of the Hesperides.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 35: !Viva Wishbone!
1996-11-04

The power of love, for Wishbone, plays itself out in Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 36: The Entrepawneur
1996-11-05

Based on a portion of the epic poem ""Metamorphoses,"" by the ancient Roman poet Ovid, this episode focuses on the story of King Midas. Meanwhile, Joe is in a ""touchy"" situation with his friends David and Samantha when he hires them to help run his summer grocery delivery business. See more at RECAP

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 37: Pantin' at the Opera
1996-11-06

Wishbone tells the story of Gaston Leroux's ""The Phantom Of The Opera.""

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 38: Dances With Dogs
1996-11-07

Lee Natonabah, a Native-American friend of Joe's, speaks about Navajo culture and story-telling, while Wishbone imagines himself as a young brave in a story that Lee tells.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 39: Rushin' to the Bone
1996-11-08

Wishbone dramatizes Gogol's The Inspector General.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 40: Picks of the Litter
1996-11-09

The obligatory flashback episode (and the only best-of the series would ever see).

Runtime: 28 min
Season 2 (1997)

No overview available.

10 episodes

Episodes
Episode 1: Halloween Hound: The Legend of the Creepy Collars (1)
1997-03-03

Joe and his two best friends, David and Samantha, form a team to go on a Halloween scavenger hunt. Damont also competes in the game, but he tries to win by cheating. Meanwhile, Wishbone imagines himself as Ichabod Crane in Washington Irving's ""The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"".

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 2: Halloween Hound: The Legend of the Creepy Collars (2)
1997-03-04

Continuation of Part 1.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 3: The Prince of Wags
1997-03-05

The weight of leadership weighs heavy on Joe as captain of the school basketball team, and on Wishbone in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part I.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 4: Groomed for Greatness
1997-03-06

A statue to honor Wishbone consumes David's every waking moment, or at least that's what his friends think. It appears to Wishbone that David strikes a chord with Pip in Dickens's Great Expectations.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 5: Bone of Contention
1997-03-07

Joe and David's friendship is tested when they both are interested in the same girl. Wishbone, as John Alden, and his best friend have to decide how valuable their friendship really is in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, ""The Courtship of Miles Standish.""

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 6: War of the Noses
1997-03-08

A betrayed Wishbone lapses into the character Richard Shelton in Robert Louis Stevenson's The Black Arrow.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 7: Moonbone
1997-03-09

Would you believe a missing Super Bowl ring could be traced to Wishbone? Hard for him to notice, as he imagines himself as Franklin Blake in Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 8: Barking at Buddha
1997-03-10

Wishbone wants to be a hero and tries to rescue two misguided youngsters when they set out to impress the older kids. As ""Monkey,"" he yearns to be immortal and seeks a position of importance in Wu Ch'eng-en's Chinese folktale.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 9: Pup Fiction
1997-03-11

Intrigue and mystery surrounds a letter addressed to Wanda. In trying to trace the anonymous note, Wishbone drifts into Jane Austen's gothic horror novel Northanger Abbey.

Runtime: 28 min
Episode 10: The Roamin' Nose
1997-03-12

It's graduation time for the middle-school students, as they face the uncertain future in more ways than one. Wishbone sees a future with just as many question marks in Virgil's The Aeneid.

Runtime: 28 min

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