Original title
Wishbone
Released
9/10/1995
Origin country
US
Genre
Action & Adventure, Comedy, Kids, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Production companies
Big Feats! Entertainment
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
2
Number of episodes
50
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.
In the dusty town of Chaparosa, Texas, one one knows how to tame the land better than Long Bill Longley and his best friend Tom Merwin. But, can our two heroes tame the resident bad guy, Calliope Catesby, before he destroys the town? Meanwhile, In Oakdale, Wanda Gilmore has also become quite a hero. That is, until a sneaky TV reporter tries to paint her as the town tyrant. Will Wishbone and his friends come to Wanda's rescue before it's too late! Or will Wanda watch her reputation ride off into the sunset?
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.
Part One continued.
A crime wave hits Oakdale, making the kids selective in choosing friends and giving Wishbone a chance to dream of Oliver Twist.
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
Wishbone tells the story of Homer's ""The Odyssey.""
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.
Wishbone is Cyrano de Bergerac, serenading Roxanne with poetry.
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.
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.
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.
Wishbone, while watching Joe pursue his impossible dream of making the book of world records, thinks of Don Quixote.
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.
Keeping oneself in the right frame of mind, Wishbone draws into Rebecca's world in Ivanhoe.
Wishbone is the Hunchback of Notre Dame, standing for and defending Esmerelda.
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.
Guilt by association haunts Wishbone in his dream of A Tale of Two Cities.
David claims that through his experiments he has discovered the secret of life. Wishbone compares the mysterious experiment to the Mary Shelly horror, ""Frankenstein.
Wishbone digs for Wanda, turning the day into the pages of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth.
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.
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.
This time, Wishbone imagines The Imaginary Invalid by Molière.
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
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.
When Joe gets under the crosshairs for what appears to be a good deed, Wishbone imagines himself as Robin Hood.
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.
It's another tale in Twain for Wishbone, playing both The Prince and the Pauper.
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.
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"".
In David and Goliath, Wishbone has more bravery than the David we know from this series.
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.
Now Wishbone feels wounded as he dreams of Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage.
David runs into no end of problems while staging a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest.
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.
While Samantha seeks the perfect gift for her father's birthday, Wishbone plays up Hercules, seeking the Golden Apples of the Hesperides.
The power of love, for Wishbone, plays itself out in Our Lady of Guadalupe.
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
Wishbone tells the story of Gaston Leroux's ""The Phantom Of The Opera.""
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.
Wishbone dramatizes Gogol's The Inspector General.
The obligatory flashback episode (and the only best-of the series would ever see).
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"".
Continuation of Part 1.
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.
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.
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.""
A betrayed Wishbone lapses into the character Richard Shelton in Robert Louis Stevenson's The Black Arrow.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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