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What’s the Story Wishbone?

By Brittany, North Columbus Friends Mtg

January 2026

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What is Wishbone?

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“Wishbone” on PBS

  • First aired on PBS Kids from 1995 to 1997

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  • Live action show about a suburban family with a dog named Wishbone

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  • Wishbone would re-enact the plot of a book that mirrored his family’s problem

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Best Dog Pun Episode Titles

Season 1:

13: Ivanhoe - “Sniffing the Gauntlet”

23: Time Machine - “Bark to the Future”

25: Pride and Prejudice - “Furst Impressions”

37: Phantom of the Opera - “Pantin’ at the Opera”

40: Clipshow - “Picks of the Litter”

Season 2:

4: Great Expectations - “Groomed for Greatness”

6: Black Arrow - “The War of the Noses”

9: Northanger Abbey - “Pup Fiction”

Full List of Episodes, titles, authors

13: harkens to “Smell the Glove”(1982),

an album by Spinal Tap

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Who is Wishbone?

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Soccer

  • Soccer is a dog actor
  • Born May 16, 1988
  • Died June 26, 2001
    • Found out during passing period before world studies
  • Beat 100 other dogs for the role
  • Voiced by Larry Brantley
  • Could notably do his famous Wishbone flip

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More about Soccer from “Dog Days: An Interview with Mo Rocca” by José Vergara, Feb 28, 2022

The dog can’t bond with too many people; otherwise it makes shooting impossible. The dog could only maintain the bond with Jackie, who was off camera signaling to do different things. Joe, the kid who was the owner on the show, had an affectionate relationship with the dog, but you couldn’t just grab the dog at any moment and snuggle with him or whatever, because it would mess with the dog’s focus. So, that’s all to say that the dog was truly a star in that we kind of kept our distance from him. We loved him, but it wasn’t a crew of 60 people all kind roughhousing with the dog. We realized we needed to give the dog space to make his job easier.

He had a couple of stunt dogs, and one of them was female, Phoebe. She was pretty great. Soccer didn’t like water, so for the Odyssey Phoebe did a lot of that. I can’t remember the name of the other stand-in dog, but for The Red Badge of Courage, there were gunshots. He didn’t like loud noises, so anything that involved loud noises or water, Soccer was in his trailer.

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And the Emmy for lead actor in a dramatic role goes to, Soccer as Silas Marner in “Golden Retrieved”

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And the Emmy for lead actor in a dramatic role goes to, Soccer as Viscount Raoul de Chagny in “Pantin at the Opera”

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Wishbone’s Family and Friends

Joe Talbot, Wishbone’s owner

Ellen Talbot, Joe’s mom

Her husband is deceased

David Barnes and Sam Kelper, Joe’s classmates and friends

Wanda Gilmore, the Talbots’ neighbor

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Conclusion with the kids and Mr. Darcy

“Furst Impressions” (Pride and Prejudice)

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My Interest in “Wishbone”

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Books that I read because of the show

  • Season 1:
    • 1 & 2: Adventures of Tom Sawyer - “A Tail in Twain”
    • 3: Oliver Twist - “Twisted Tail”
    • 5: The Odyssey - “Home Sweet Homer”
    • 11: Don Quixote - “The Impossible Dream”
    • 15: Silas Marner - “Golden Retrieved”
    • 16: A Tale of Two Cities - “A Tale of Two Sitters”
    • 18: Journey to the Center of the Earth - “How Diggity Dawg”
    • 23: Time Machine - “Bark to the Future”
  • Season 2:
    • 4: Great Expectations - “Groomed for Greatness”

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“Great Expectations”

I wanted to read about when the old lady catches on fire.

Flipped through the book at the library hoping to find the scene.

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Couldn’t find it so I ended up just reading the whole book. Had to ask the librarian what “vittles” meant

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“Tail Ends”

  • Every episode ended with a behind the scenes feature
    • Sound design
    • Costume
    • Set
    • CGI

Clip from a “Tail End” about pyrotechnics, squibs, blanks for “Terrified Terrier” (Red Badge of Courage)

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If “Wishbone” aired now

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Criteria for new Wishbone episodes

  1. Book has to have a main character and main plot (Can’t do Lord of the Rings)
  2. Book length isn’t an issue
  3. If the lead is female or difficult to relate to, there needs to be a side character
    1. In Joan of Arc, Wishbone was Louis de Conte
    2. Don Quixote, he was Sancho Panza
  4. Can still cover tough topics

Romeo before dying at the end of a kids show

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And now a word from viewers like you

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Books you’d like to see Wishbone cover

Send a message in the chat, try to send it just to me, Brittany, so others can’t see it.

Write the title of a book that would be age appropriate or wildly inappropriate. I’ll post them in this box at the end

  • Constantine by John Shirley
  • The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
  • “Stay, Golden Retriever”
  • 50 Shades of Grey by E. L. James (suggested by two people)
    • “50 Leashes and Collars”
  • Lolita by Vladimir Nobokov with Wishbone is Humbert Humbert
    • “Good Girl, Sit”
  • Wicked by Gregory Maguire
  • Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
    • “Gone Grrrrrrrl”
  • The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
    • Lovely Milkbones
  • Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
    • “Love in the Time of a Collar”

Art by Will Santino

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List of books that wishbone could do today

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Wildly inappropriate Wishbone episode suggestions

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Wildly inappropriate Wishbone episode suggestions

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Brittany’s top choices (for now)

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Brittany’s top choices

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  • Kindred by Octavia Butler
  • English As She Has Spoke by José da Fonseca, Pedro Carolino
  • A Poirot mystery by Agatha Christie
  • Pet Sematary by Stephen King
  • But most of all…

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A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

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From “A Scanner Darkly”, page 188

It's my house.

Nobody can drive me out.

For whatever reasons they would or do want to.

Assuming there's a "they" at all.

Which may just be my imagination, the "they" watching me. Paranoia. Or rather the "it." The depersonalized it.

Whatever it is that's watching, it is not a human.

Not by my standards, anyhow. Not what I'd recognize.

As silly as this is, he thought, it's frightening. Something is being done to me and by a mere thing, here in my own house. Before my very eyes.

Within something's very eyes; within the sight of some thing. Which, unlike little dark-eyed Donna, does not ever blink. What does a scanner see? he asked himself. I mean, really see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does a passive infrared scanner like they used to use or a cube-type holo-scanner like they use these days, the latest thing, see into me – into us – clearly or darkly? I hope it does, he thought, see clearly, because I can't any longer these days see into myself. I see only murk. Murk outside; murk inside. I hope, for everyone's sake, the scanners do better. Because, he thought, if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed, cursed again and like we have been continually, and we'll wind up dead this way, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too.

1 Corinthians 13:11-13:12 KJV For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

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A Scanner Darkly

  • Title comes from 1 Corinthians 13:12

1 Corinthians 13:11-13:12 KJV For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

  • Bob Arctor is both using and selling the mind-altering Substance D. Fred is a law enforcement agent, tasked with bringing Bob down. It sounds like a standard case. The only problem is that Bob and Fred are the same person. Substance D doesn’t just alter the mind, it splits it in two, and neither side knows what the other is doing or that it even exists. Now, both sides are growing increasingly paranoid as Bob tries to evade Fred while Fred tries to evade his suspicious bosses. In this dystopian future, friends can become enemies, good trips can turn terrifying, and cops and criminals are two sides of the same coin.

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Plot using photos from the movie (2006)

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“A Scanner Barkly” Joe & Friends Plot

  • Swap drugs, Substance D, for Dance Fight video game, knock-off of Fortnite
  • Joe and his friends also get in too deep, losing sleep, time, money, health, and understanding of reality.
  • Swap Donna as girlfriend for mom
    • Still having the same career, role, and purpose when Donna was girlfriend, just adjusted for it being a motherly role now.

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“A Scanner Barkly” book plot

X

X

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Loose scenes for

book plotline and Joe’s plotline

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Intro - book plot

  • Fred’s talk at the Lion’s Club
    • Add exposition about
      • Substance D
      • State of world
      • Fred’s career
      • Scramble Suit
    • Start to show schism Substance D causes
    • But most of all, show that Bob hates being Fred, hates being an agent

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Intro - Joe & Friends Plot

  • Joe volunteers at a after-school program that Wanda runs where the little kids just want to play video games but Joe has to get them to do homework, he struggles to care and help the little kids
    • Add exposition about
      • Dance Fight video game
      • Joe and his friends
    • Start to show how addictive video games can be
    • But most of all, show that Joe hates having to bad mouth his favorite game and keep the kids in line

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House Selling Scheme - book plot

  • The guys find a lit joint, conversation quickly devolves eventually thinking of selling the house
  • To show how the book characters’ impulse control and reasoning skills are degrading
  • Paranoia is working its way into all parts of their lives

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Sam Bought a Bike scene - Joe & Friends Plot

  • Sam buys a bike so she can bike to her after school job to make more $ for microtransactions
  • Sam and the guys argue if buying a bike cost more than she’d make at a job, conversation spirals out of control and reality is slipping
  • To show how the book characters’ impulse control and reasoning skills are degrading
  • Paranoia is working its way into all parts of their lives

(Does contain several racial slurs and swearing)

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End New-Path scene - book plot

  • Bob ends up at New-Path Center
  • This shows
    • What rehab is
    • That there is help
    • Where Substance D leads
    • The mental and physical effects of heavy Substance D drug use
  • Donna and guy at diner conversation
    • Increase intrigue and explain motivations

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Joe ends up in rehab - Joe & Friends Plot

  • Joe ends up at rehab after-school program
  • This shows
    • What rehab is
    • That there is help
    • Where addiction leads
    • The mental and physical effects of addiction
  • Mom has conversation with that we don’t hear with a lackey at the rehab
    • Increase intrigue and explain motivations

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Cut for Time

  • Diner scene with the waitress
  • Car breaking down on highway
  • Freck with his wine
  • Sadly, the Alex Jones scene (Yes, that Alex Jones. The casting was really good and spot on)
  • Scenes with physical intimacy
  • Barris’s increasingly hairbrained and dangerous inventions and plots
  • Scenes with psychologists
    • To add in that exposition, Bob/Fred could just mention when talking to himself about a test with them prior and then failing when he sees them few weeks later
  • Who wants popcorn? kitchen scene

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Author’s Note from Philip K. Dick (How he ends the book)

If there was any "sin," it was that these people wanted to keep on having a good time forever, and were punished for that, but, as I say, I feel that, if so, the punishment was far too great, and I prefer to think of it only in a Greek or morally neutral way, as mere science, as deterministic impartial cause-and-effect. I loved them all.

Here is the list, to whom I dedicate my love:

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To Gaylene deceased

To Ray deceased

To Francy permanent psychosis

To Kathy permanent brain damage

To Jim deceased

To Val massive permanent brain damage

To Nancy permanent psychosis

To Joanne permanent brain damage

To Maren deceased

To Nick deceased

To Terry deceased

To Dennis deceased

To Phil permanent pancreatic damage

To Sue permanent vascular damage

To Jerri permanent psychosis & vascular damage

. . . and so forth.

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In Memoriam. These were comrades whom I had; there are no better. They remain in my mind, and the enemy will never be forgiven. The "enemy" was their mistake in playing. Let them all play again, in some other way, and let them be happy.

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How We’d End the Episode

Note: research about how a majority of those with substance abuse do recover

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The Story of my Wishbone cardboard cutout

When Mrs. H, my 2nd grade teacher was retiring, she located my mom who also worked in her school district. Mrs. H gave my mom the cardboard cutout to give to me because she remembered that I loved reading and “Wishbone”.

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The show aired after I graduated from her class, but she knew about my love of reading.

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Resources

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Wishbone memes

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Wishbone memes

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My review of Wishbone’s costumes in Count of Monte Cristo the day after I finished the book last year

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My review of Wishbone’s costumes in Count of Monte Cristo the day after I finished the book last year

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