Wishbone (TV series) - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from Mary Chris Wall) 1995 children's television series

Wishbone

Genre	Children's fantasy comedy drama
Created by	Rick Duffield
Starring	Soccer the Dog Jordan Wall Adam Springfield Christie Abbott Mary Chris Wall Angee Hughes Julio Cedillo Mikaila Enriquez Paul English, Jr.
Voices of	Larry Brantley
Theme music composer	Tim Cissell (music and lyrics) Lynn Adler (lyrics)
Opening theme	"What's the Story, Wishbone?"
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	Plano, Texas Allen, Texas
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	Big Feats! Entertainment
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 on PBS. It is about a Jack Russell Terrier dog named Wishbone who daydreams about being the lead character of stories from classic literature.

Premise

A standard episode of Wishbone 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 plays a secondary character if the lead role is difficult to relate to (he plays Sancho Panza in Don Quixote) or is female (in Joan of Arc, he plays Louis de Conte). 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 a behind-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 makeup for Frankenstein.

Episodes

Main article: List of Wishbone episodes

Season	Episodes	Originally aired
Season	Episodes	First aired	Last aired
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)

Cast

Soccer the Dog as Wishbone (Larry Brantley as the voice of Wishbone)
Jordan Wall as Joseph "Joe" Talbot, Wishbone's young owner
Christie Abbott as Samantha "Sam" Kepler, one of Joe's best friends
Adam Springfield as David Barnes, one of Joe's best friends
Mary Chris Wall as Ellen Talbot, Joe's widowed mother
Angee Hughes as Wanda Gilmore, the Talbots' eccentric neighbor
Joe Duffield as Damont Jones, a school bully
Jarrad Kritzstein as Jimmy Kidd (season 2), Damont's obnoxious younger cousin
Julio Cedillo as Travis del Río (season 2), the owner of the local sporting goods store
Mikaila Enriquez as Melina Finch (season 2), Travis' niece
Paul English, Jr. as Marcus Finch (season 2), Travis' nephew

Recurring cast

Bob Reed as Walter Kepler, Sam's father and the owner of the local pizza parlor
Alex Morris as Nathaniel "Nathan" Barnes, David's father
Maria Arita as Ruth Vincent Barnes, David's mother
Jazmine McGill as Emily Barnes (season 1), David's rambunctious younger sister
Brittany Holmes as Emily Barnes (season 2)
Rick Perkins as Bob Pruitt (season 1), the kids' English teacher and later Wanda's boyfriend
Justin Reese as Nathanael Bobolesky (season 1), a nerdy classmate
Elena Hurst as Amanda Hollings (season 1), Sam's nemesis
Taylor Pope as Curtis (season 1), Damont's sidekick
Codie Elaine Oliver as Robin, another friend of Joe's
John S. Davies as Mr. King, an obnoxious businessman
Adan Sanchez as Dan Bloodgood (season 2), the mail carrier

The Wishbone Players

Amy Acker (season 2)
Brent Anderson
Jonathan Brent
Sharon Bunn
Christopher Carlos
Chamblee Ferguson
Shea Fowler
Sonny Franks (season 1)
Lisa-Gabrielle Greene (season 1)
Dee Hennigan
Sean Hennigan
Billy Eugene Jones
Lynn Mathis
Randy Moore (season 1)
Joe Nemmers
Kevin Page
Jenny Pichanick
Jeanne Simpson (season 1)
Cliff Stephens
Matt Tompkins
Jenni Tooley (season 2)
Sally Nystuen Vahle

Notable guest cast

Jensen Ackles as Michael Dunn, Ellen's protégé ("¡Viva Wishbone!")
Melissa Archer as Sarah Johnson, a classmate on whom David has a crush ("A Bone of Contention")
Shelley Duvall as Renee Lassiter, a sculptor ("Groomed for Greatness")
Irma P. Hall as Dr. Thelma Brown, a former Oakdale resident ("Digging Up the Past")
Jerry Haynes as Hubert Lassiter, a kind man who rescues a lost Wishbone ("Golden Retrieved")
Daryl Johnston as himself, a former football player ("Moonbone")
Cody Linley as Andrew, one of Ichabod Crane's students in Wishbone's telling of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" ("Halloween Hound, Part 1")
Marco Perella as Seymour LaVista, a TV commercial producer ("Rushin' to the Bone")

Production

Development

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". 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. His eventual goal was "an entertaining way for kids to get their first taste of great books".

Casting

In the summer of 1993, Duffield spent three days casting for the dog star at a motel courtyard in Valencia, California, looking at between 100 and 150 dogs. 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".

For the literary scenes, the producers created a repertory company of local stage actors, dubbed The Wishbone Players.

Filming

Wishbone's exterior shots were filmed on the backlot of Lyrick Studios' teen division Big Feats! Entertainment in Allen, Texas, and its interior shots were filmed on a sound stage in a 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m) warehouse in Plano, Texas. Additional scenes were filmed in Grapevine, Texas.

Duffield told Entertainment 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."

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".

Release

The series aired on PBS 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 on PBS 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 air Wishbone until October 7, 2013.

The show also aired on Nickelodeon in the UK and Ireland and on Nine Network in Australia.

Home media

Several episodes were released on VHS 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.

Reception

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.

Awards

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Academy of Television Arts & Sciences First Honor Roll of Children's Programming, 1999
George Foster Peabody Award, 1998
Emmy Award – Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design, 1997
Emmy Award – Costume Design/Styling, 1997
Emmy Award – Graphics and Title Design, 1997
Emmy Award – Costume Design/Styling, 1996
Emmy Award Nominations, 1998, "WISHBONE's Dog Days of the West."
Directing in a Children's Special
Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design
Main Title Design
Costume Design/Styling
Television Critics Association – Best Children's Show, 1996 and 1997

Wishbone in other media

The TV movie Wishbone's Dog Days of the West was aired on PBS stations on March 13, 1998 and released to video on June 9, 1998.

Books

Main article: List of Wishbone books

The TV series inspired several book series including Wishbone Classics, Wishbone Mysteries, and The Adventures of Wishbone. Altogether, more than fifty books have featured Wishbone, which continued to be published even after the TV series ended production.

Video games

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2023)

There were also multiple video games based on the series in 1996 and 1997, such as Wishbone Activity Center, Wishbone Print Tricks, Wishbone and the Amazing Odyssey, and Wishbone Activity Zone.

Film adaptation

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2023)

On July 15, 2020, it was announced that Universal Pictures and Mattel's film division are developing a film adaptation of the series. Peter Farrelly will produce the film while Roy Parker will write the screenplay and Robbie Brenner will executive produce. It will be the first theatrical collaboration between Universal and Mattel and the ninth Mattel Films project in development.

Others

In 2021, Wishbone was spoofed in the stop-motion parody TV series Robot Chicken episode (S11E11) "May Cause Episode Title to Cut Off Due to Word Lim", where Wishbone plays the role of Anastasia Steele from the erotic romance novel Fifty Shades of Grey.

References

^ "Frankenbone". Wishbone. Season 1. Episode 17. Event occurs at 26:40. Retrieved January 24, 2016.
Eskin, Blake (October 21, 2009). "The Exchange: Rick Duffield". The New Yorker. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
^ Wallace, Christian; Cardenas, Cat (October 2020). "Top Dog: An Oral History of 'Wishbone'". Texas Monthly. Archived from the original on September 20, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2024.
^ "On Set with Wishbone – Interview with "Wishbone" Executive Producer Rick Duffield". Entertainment Tonight (archived on The Texas Archive of the Moving Image). 1995. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
"On set with Wishbone – Interview with Larry Brantley, the Voice of Wishbone". Entertainment Tonight (archived on The Texas Archive of the Moving Image). 1995. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
Brody, Michael (January 16, 2013). Seductive Screens: Children's Media—Past, Present, and Future. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 73. ISBN 9781443845823. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
"What's on: IdahoPTV Kids and Family (Idaho Public Television)". Archived from the original on January 29, 2014.
"'Ellen' Wins Peabody Award". The New York Times. Associated Press. April 3, 1998. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
^ Variety Staff (May 11, 1998). "PBS early Daytime Emmy leader". Variety. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
D'Alessandro, Anthony (July 15, 2020). "Universal & Mattel Developing 'Wishbone' Feature Based On PBS Jack Russell Terrier TV Series; Peter Farrelly Producing". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
Bumbray, Chris (July 15, 2020). "What's the story Wishbone? A feature film is in the works". JoBlo.com. Retrieved July 15, 2020.

External links

v t e TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming
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Current original series template
All programs were distributed by PBS unless noted.
Aired on select public television stations via American Public Television (APT) or another program distributor.
Instructional program.

Categories:

Premise

Episodes

Cast

Recurring cast

The Wishbone Players

Notable guest cast

Production

Development

Casting

Filming

Release

Home media

Reception

Awards

Wishbone in other media

Books

Video games

Film adaptation

Others

See also

References

External links