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Speaker 1: Because of your extraordinary bravery and intelligence, you are hearing

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Speaker 1: the titles of Honorary Corporal Rusty and Honorary Private Ing Tintin.

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Speaker 1: Ever since Ring Tin Tin, the superstar German shepherd who

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Speaker 1: on screen rescued plenty of people and off screen rescued

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Speaker 1: Warner Brothers from bankruptcy in the nineteen twenties, dogs have

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Speaker 1: played leading roles in Hollywood. Look there's total from Kansas's

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Speaker 1: most courageous Cairn terrier who's come to Tagas Dome, to

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Speaker 1: the collie who seemed to save more people in the

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifties than the polio vaccine did, to the Golden

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Speaker 1: retriever who held court in the air Bud Movies, Dogs

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Speaker 1: Don't Play Basketball was the matters, Gentlemen. A frasier team

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Speaker 1: might get beat by a dog, But I'm not sure

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Speaker 1: any dog has ever played a role as multifaceted as

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Speaker 1: the one played by the Jack Russell terrier who starred

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Speaker 1: in the nine nineties PBS television series Wishbone. Believe me

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Speaker 1: it was nothing, Okay, wish Let's have some meat? Did

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Speaker 1: I hear you say meat? Love? That dog's real name

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Speaker 1: was Soccer. Now as Wishbone He didn't just beg for treats.

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Speaker 1: Soccer was a total action hero dog. Soccer was winning

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Speaker 1: battles and getting knighted and solving mysteries closely. The clues

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Speaker 1: could be anywhere. No one is above suspicion. Wishbone, it

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Speaker 1: turns out, had a rich fantasy life. In each episode,

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Speaker 1: he imagined himself as a hero in a different work

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Speaker 1: of classic literature. Viewers at home saw him leading a

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Speaker 1: merry band of outlaws against the Sheriff of Nottingham actual

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Speaker 1: of us so romancing like Shakespeare's Romeo, with loves like wings,

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Speaker 1: did I or perchach these walls? And inspired by Jules Verne,

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Speaker 1: digging deep, going where no dog or man had gone before,

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Speaker 1: proof that we are on the right track on one

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Speaker 1: to the sudden out of the eye. For the show's

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Speaker 1: target audience of six to eleven year olds, Soccer became

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Speaker 1: a tween idol. I have pictures of people waiting in

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Speaker 1: line two blocks long just to see this dog. What's

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Speaker 1: the story, you, wish Bone? What's this your dream? Speaking today?

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Speaker 1: There's a whole pack of grown ups out there who

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Speaker 1: were first weaned on Mark Twain or the Legend of

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Speaker 1: Faust or the Greek epics through Wishbone. I remember, like

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Speaker 1: on my tenth birthday, I think it was we were

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Speaker 1: going to go mini golfing and I insisted, but we

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Speaker 1: had to stay home for Wishbone first. And as a

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Speaker 1: twenty five year old, a mere pup myself, I got

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Speaker 1: to write for Wishbone. I've told people that writing for

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Speaker 1: the show was like an assignment from an English professor

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Speaker 1: on asset. So much went into this show to make

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Speaker 1: it a hit, but none of it would have worked

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Speaker 1: without the top dog. I think every movie star um

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Speaker 1: has eyes that tell stories, and Soccer had the most

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Speaker 1: amazing dog eyes. He was a magic little creature man,

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Speaker 1: he really was. He looked so good on camera. Shoudn't

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Speaker 1: say this, but he wasn't the smartest dog I've ever turned.

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Speaker 1: But he was so devoted. Weren't he learned it? He

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Speaker 1: would walk on water for me. He just loved to

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Speaker 1: be out with me working to him, it wasn't work.

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Speaker 1: From CBS Sunday Morning and I heart I'm Morocca and

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Speaker 1: this is mobituaries, this moment Wishbone June two one, death

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Speaker 1: of a working dog. All right, So what was Wishbone about? Well,

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Speaker 1: Let's have some fans who grew up with the show explain.

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Speaker 1: So it was called Wishbone, and it was this little

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Speaker 1: dog Jack Russell Terrier. Wishbone has a love for classic literature,

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Speaker 1: and then he would like magically transport himself into stories.

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Speaker 1: Wishbone is a children's television show that aired on PBS

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Speaker 1: and it is the only reason why I ever passed

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Speaker 1: in English class because I did not do the reading. Okay,

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Speaker 1: now my turn. The show was about a dog named

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Speaker 1: Wishbone who lived in a town called Oakdale. Wishbone would

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Speaker 1: get into all sorts of adventures with his owner, a

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Speaker 1: boy named Joe, and the other neighbor hood kids, and

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Speaker 1: those adventures would remind Wishbone of stay with me here

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Speaker 1: stories from classic literature. It could be a novel like

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Speaker 1: Treasure Island, and epic poem like Homer's Odyssey in African

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Speaker 1: folk tale like a Nancy the Spider. Wishbone read a lot.

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Speaker 1: He didn't waste time watching TV. Just go with it,

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Speaker 1: and so each episode alternated between Wishbone living his regular

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Speaker 1: life in Oakdale and his fantasy life as the hero

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Speaker 1: of classic literature. Twin plots thematically connected more about his

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Speaker 1: Fantasy Life later basically Wishbone. The show was all about story,

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Speaker 1: but the story of the dog who played Wishbone begins

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Speaker 1: with an animal trainer named Jackie Captain. Hello Jackie. Yes,

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Speaker 1: it's mo oh, my good assist. In so long, it's

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Speaker 1: been more than twenty five years. Jackie's been living off

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Speaker 1: the grid way up in Haynes, Alaska. You know you're

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Speaker 1: not easy to get a hold of. Well, that's the

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Speaker 1: reason I came up here. You know, I retired UM

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Speaker 1: eight years ago. It's beautiful up here, good fishing. Um

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Speaker 1: bears walked through my property. Do you think the bears

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Speaker 1: know your background with animals and that they kind of

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Speaker 1: respect it? Well, I've kind of told them, Look, we're

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Speaker 1: on common ground here. You leave me alone, I'll leave

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Speaker 1: you alone. Jackie actually began her career in motion pictures

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Speaker 1: working with wild animals, including bears, but she learned much

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Speaker 1: of what she knows about training dogs from fame to

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Speaker 1: Hollywood trainer frank Inn. I went to work for him

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Speaker 1: um and that was probably the best experience I had

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Speaker 1: learning how to do dogs for motion picture. Frankie worked

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Speaker 1: on Lassie, I Love Lucy. He trained Audrey Hepburn's orange

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Speaker 1: tabby cat in Breakfast Ta Tiffany's. He wrangled all five

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Speaker 1: hundred of the animals comprising Ellieme Lampet's cast of critters

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Speaker 1: on the Beverly Hillbillies. Critters are loose things for that girl.

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Speaker 1: He wouldn't do for nobody else. Here he is training

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Speaker 1: the lovable mutt who starting the Benji movies. Come on,

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Speaker 1: Magic Benci, Please, come on, come on, dude, good kid,

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Speaker 1: Look here a feed up state and speak. And he

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Speaker 1: just was this larger than life's character, big man with

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Speaker 1: a big hand of our mustache and a captain's hat.

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Speaker 1: And you just couldn't forget him if you ever saw

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Speaker 1: him work at dog Frank Ann helped Jackie launch her

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Speaker 1: own career. She worked on the horror movie Kujoe, about

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Speaker 1: a rabid saint Bernard Cujo, What's the Matter. And she

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Speaker 1: helped Ethan Hawk bond with a surly wolfhound in White Fang.

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Speaker 1: I just wanted to pet him. White Fang was shot

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Speaker 1: up in Haynes, Alaska. Jackie says, she you then that

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Speaker 1: one day she'd retire. There. Have you got any dogs

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Speaker 1: up there? I only have one dog left, which is

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Speaker 1: really weird. For me, I have the Beverly Hills Chiuawa Rosa.

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Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, and remember Rosa. There's nothing wrong with

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Speaker 1: being different. Different is just a nice way of saying runt. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: she's twelve now, she only weighs three pounds. She's the

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Speaker 1: Beverly Hills Chiwaba and she's living in Haines, Alaska, surrounded

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Speaker 1: by grizzlies. How's that working out? Well, she doesn't go

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Speaker 1: out much. I mean, because everything wants together, the eagles,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you know, so she pretty much just stays

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Speaker 1: in the cabin. Oh my god. But Jackie, I know

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Speaker 1: you're retired, but this just screams out for a Beverly

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Speaker 1: Hills Chiwaba sequel. I mean, escape to Alaska. I know

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Speaker 1: it does, doesn't it. I like that idea. Jackie met

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Speaker 1: the dog who would one day play wishbone back in

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Speaker 1: Connecticut when he was just a week old, and I said,

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Speaker 1: that is the cutest probably I've ever seen. Jackie took

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Speaker 1: him home that very day and named him Soccer. But

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Speaker 1: because of Soccer's markings brown patches around his left eye

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Speaker 1: and right ear, casting directors thought he looked too much

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Speaker 1: like the Little Rascal's dog. PD. Pretty soon it seemed

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Speaker 1: clear Soccer's acting career was going nowhere. Yeah, he didn't

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Speaker 1: do much at all until he did Wishbone, and he

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Speaker 1: was six or seven. I think six or seven in

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Speaker 1: dog years. You do the math. He was getting up

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Speaker 1: there has been without ever having been my husband, and

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Speaker 1: all my friends were like, really, Jaggy, why do you

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Speaker 1: spend so much time training on this dog. I like

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Speaker 1: this dog. He's my buddy. I don't care if he

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Speaker 1: ever worked. I like this dog. And they'd all laugh

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Speaker 1: at man. I'm telling you, one day, this dog is

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Speaker 1: going to get what he deserves. Auditions for the lead

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Speaker 1: role in Wishbone were announced, but he was tied up

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Speaker 1: on another project. I was in Montana working on River Wild,

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Speaker 1: and she wasn't particularly interested. I'm tied up on a

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Speaker 1: feature movie here, you know, sidebar. I loved the River Wild,

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Speaker 1: an action adventure starring a buff Meryl Streep opposite an

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Speaker 1: evil Kevin Bacon. Who you and the dog are expendable

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Speaker 1: right now? I think I'll go whoo who the dog?

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Speaker 1: But the Wishbone team liked Soccer's look and prevailed on

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Speaker 1: Jackie to bring him in for an audition and Soccer

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Speaker 1: wowed them. He wasn't just charming. He pulled off all

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Speaker 1: of his tricks with the cool, confidence, even cockiness of

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Speaker 1: a young Claude ban Dam. He sealed the deal with

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Speaker 1: a back flip, which you can see in the show's

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Speaker 1: opening credits. Now, Jackie could get Soccer to do a lot,

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Speaker 1: but she couldn't make him actually talk. When I first

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Speaker 1: was asked to audition to be the voice of Wishbone,

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Speaker 1: I had no idea what the show was. That became

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Speaker 1: the job of stand up comic and voice over actor

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Speaker 1: Larry Brantley. And I've done this my whole life with animals.

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Speaker 1: I watch an animal and I think I know what

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Speaker 1: they're thinking. I don't know why I think that, but

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Speaker 1: I'm just I'm convinced I know what's going on in

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Speaker 1: that tiny little head, and and I'm pretty good at

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Speaker 1: verbalizing it. Wishbone had his voice, and so in the

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Speaker 1: summer of trainer Jackie captain pactor, Bags and Soccer for

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Speaker 1: the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, where Wishbone would be filmed.

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Speaker 1: I know Texas in the summer. It's not pretty, but

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Speaker 1: any skepticism Jackie might have felt had melted away. She

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Speaker 1: was now sold on the idea of the show. You know,

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Speaker 1: this could be the last thing that I do, and

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Speaker 1: it seems like it's important. It's educational for children, it'll

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Speaker 1: get them to read again. And it would just hit me,

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Speaker 1: It drew me, and it was like, this little dog

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Speaker 1: could really bring this a love. Of course, Soccer would

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Speaker 1: never go with anybody else. He'd always been with me,

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Speaker 1: So you had to be there. Well, I mean he was.

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Speaker 1: He was a great little dog, but he had a

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Speaker 1: soft side to him. And if I wasn't there, I

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Speaker 1: don't know that he would have danced the jig like

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Speaker 1: he did. And in fact, he did dance jigs, and

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Speaker 1: I mean he did of every behavior. Really, there was

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Speaker 1: times when we do production meetings and I think, really, folks,

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Speaker 1: in my head, he doesn't have thumbs. I don't know

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Speaker 1: how he's going to shoot a bow and arrow. It

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Speaker 1: was like, oh, my goodness, who wrote this? Well? I

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Speaker 1: was one of the people who wrote for Wishbone, and

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Speaker 1: writing for this dog would end up being one of

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Speaker 1: the most formative experiences of my life. Did you ever

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Speaker 1: think you'd end up writing for a dog? No? I didn't, No,

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Speaker 1: I did not. That's my friend Stephanie Simpson. She was

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Speaker 1: Wishbone supervising producer, story editor and head writer. However, in

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Speaker 1: the early days, when I was trying to figure out

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Speaker 1: how to do it, I remembered that I had always

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Speaker 1: made up dialogue and sort of monologues for a cat,

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Speaker 1: and so in thinking about Wishbone, I don't know, it

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Speaker 1: just seemed natural. Suddenly I have to say, to write

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Speaker 1: Wishbone someone's pet as having this very rich inner life

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Speaker 1: that you were not aware of. Over my career, I've

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Speaker 1: been fortunate to work for a few people who put

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Speaker 1: everything they humanly could into making something good, who wouldn't

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Speaker 1: let up until it was as right as it could be.

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Speaker 1: But Stephanie has been singular in my life. She taught

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Speaker 1: me more than anyone how to tell a story. If

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Speaker 1: Soccer had Jackie, I had Stephanie. Ephanie had majored in

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Speaker 1: Russian literature at Yale and earned a Masters in drama

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Speaker 1: at Harvard. She was perfectly trained for this bizarre task.

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Speaker 1: Of course, she couldn't do it alone, and that's when

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Speaker 1: I got the call on the sand. At the time,

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Speaker 1: I was in a production of South Pacific at New

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Speaker 1: Jersey's Paper Mill playhouse, and we got Stephanie brought me

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Speaker 1: down to Dallas to interview with Wishbone executive producer Rick Duffield,

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Speaker 1: who hired me as a staff writer. I began working

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Speaker 1: with Stephanie and what felt like a storytelling boot camp. Now,

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Speaker 1: as I explained earlier, each episode of the show connected

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Speaker 1: a modern day storyline in the fictional town of Oakdale

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Speaker 1: to a different work of classic literature. Here's Wishbone as

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Speaker 1: Romeo in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliett. Who is her mother?

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Speaker 1: Her mother is the lady of the house, Oh, lady

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Speaker 1: of the Is she a capulet? Who is that gentleman?

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Speaker 1: His name is Romeo? Now in the contemporary plot line

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Speaker 1: for that episode, one of the neighborhood kids, Samantha, falls

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Speaker 1: in love with the beagle named Rosie at the local

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Speaker 1: pound and wants to adopt her. But you, dad, that

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Speaker 1: you have a go sa this dog, He couldn't say. Now,

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Speaker 1: the contemporary world was a way to show that there

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Speaker 1: were themes and ideas in these in these great books

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Speaker 1: that could be translated into a kid's life. So you

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Speaker 1: could fall in love with the dog at the pound,

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Speaker 1: and suddenly that could be the story of Romeo and

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Speaker 1: Romeo and Juliet. Now, there wasn't going to be a

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Speaker 1: suicide in the contemporary story as there is in Shakespeare's

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Speaker 1: Romeo and Juliet. But there could be heartbreak. There could

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Speaker 1: be a dog is adopted before you are able to

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Speaker 1: adopt it. Sam, I'm sorry. I know how much you

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Speaker 1: liked Rosie and so you have to deal with some

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Speaker 1: kind of loss. I'm glad she's okay. I mean, she

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Speaker 1: really needed a good home for me. The exciting thing

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Speaker 1: was trying to matt the thread of what I thought

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Speaker 1: would capture a kid's imagination and also their hearts. What

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Speaker 1: would they care the most about. And it never occurred

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Speaker 1: to you that an episode should with all due respect,

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Speaker 1: because I have nothing against cliffs notes, and they don't

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Speaker 1: pronounced cliffs notes. And for somebody who's trouble with says,

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Speaker 1: it's a lot of says. But anyway, But because it

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Speaker 1: could have been in other hands, it would have been, Okay,

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Speaker 1: we're going to do the totality of this book in

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Speaker 1: the half hour. No, that never Actually, I never felt

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Speaker 1: pressure to do that. What I felt pressure to do

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Speaker 1: was to get someone to fall in love with the

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Speaker 1: idea of the book, the idea of the book, the

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Speaker 1: idea of the book, not the plot, not the out

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Speaker 1: of it. But because there's only so many plots in

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Speaker 1: the world. Plot really, to me in a book is

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Speaker 1: not the point. The point is how the author has

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Speaker 1: taken a set of events and made them mean something

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Speaker 1: different than they've ever met before because of who exactly

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Speaker 1: is doing them and why they're doing them. If LeVar

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Speaker 1: Burton's show Reading Rainbow was teaching kids how to read,

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Speaker 1: Wishbone was showing kids why great books matter, and to

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Speaker 1: me it felt like the authors of these books never

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Speaker 1: wrote them, so that the books themselves would be um

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Speaker 1: kind of locked away from everyday people. I mean no

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Speaker 1: offense to uh literature majors, but I think it would

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Speaker 1: be very disappointing for Cervantes to find out that only

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Speaker 1: a small group of select students at a university we're

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Speaker 1: reading don Quixote. That would be super sad for him.

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Speaker 1: That's a work that's so sprawling, there are so many ideas,

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Speaker 1: they so long to read it. MO and I had,

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Speaker 1: you know, maybe three days. Cervantes's Don Quixote, considered the

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Speaker 1: first modern novel, is about an idealistic man chasing the

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Speaker 1: impossible dream of becoming a night. In the Wishbone version,

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Speaker 1: Joe chases a long shot of his own consecutive free

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Speaker 1: throws in five minutes. That's all I need to hold

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Speaker 1: the record for any kid on the sixteen. Then I'd

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Speaker 1: be in the Encyclopedia of World records. Do you really

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Speaker 1: think it's possible? Sure, Joe was trying to make a

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Speaker 1: certain number of baskets and he was having trouble. He

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Speaker 1: would get nervous and choke. He imagined that his life

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Speaker 1: would be amazing if he could just achieve this one

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Speaker 1: great thing, and in the end he doesn't achieve it.

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Speaker 1: You were great, but I didn't do the impossible. I'm

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Speaker 1: not going down in history or anything. I'm not extraordinary.

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Speaker 1: You don't have to perform impossible feats to be extraordinary.

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Speaker 1: Just live your life. Life is an ongoing adventure. But

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Speaker 1: it was the act of trying that matters. I've told

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Speaker 1: people that writing for the show was like an assignment

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Speaker 1: from an English professor on asset. It totally was. Yes,

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Speaker 1: you are so right, that's a perfect way to describe it.

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Speaker 1: And what's so funny mo is looking back on it,

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Speaker 1: I realized how crazy it was, but at the time

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Speaker 1: when we were doing it, I didn't think it was

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Speaker 1: that crazy, and it didn't seem nuts until later. To

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Speaker 1: pull this nutty premise off, we had to stick to

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Speaker 1: some hardened past rules. For example, yes, Wishbone talks, thanks

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Speaker 1: to Larry Brantley, but human characters and wishbones life in

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Speaker 1: Oakdale don't hear him. Only the lucky viewers here what

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Speaker 1: he's thinking. But when Wishbone is imagining himself as a

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Speaker 1: character in a book, he's acting opposite human actors who

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Speaker 1: can hear him. Mr Darcy should be a doling and

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Speaker 1: escort me to the punch bow. Yes, of course, excuse us,

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Speaker 1: Miss Begga the minute. Sorry. Part of what was so

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Speaker 1: what was so well immediately funny was that in the

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Speaker 1: fantasy sequences that Wishbone was treated as a human. I

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Speaker 1: imagine really that Wishbone was a kid, was a stand

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Speaker 1: in for a kid who when they act out stories

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Speaker 1: and they're the star of the movie or the comic

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Speaker 1: book in their imaginations, or when they're playing it out

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Speaker 1: with their friends, nobody stops and goes, well, you're a

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Speaker 1: kid doing this. You're a kid, not a king. It's

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Speaker 1: funnier that the dog just takes it for granted that

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Speaker 1: he's doing it and this is his imagination, and everyone

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Speaker 1: will treat him in his imagination the way he would

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Speaker 1: expect to be treated. People love the show so much.

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Speaker 1: It makes me so happy. And one of my goals

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Speaker 1: and one of the things I think I said to

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Speaker 1: you and to the whole crew and we were starting,

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Speaker 1: is we have an opportunity to be the first people

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Speaker 1: to introduce these stories and images into a child's imagination.

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Speaker 1: And I had to tell you also, Stephanie. You know,

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Speaker 1: for all these years since the project, anything I've tried

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Speaker 1: to do, I end up going back to wish Phone

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Speaker 1: and what I learned from you and working on that

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Speaker 1: and you know, grow well now. But Jackie, you know,

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Speaker 1: talking about training wish Phone, I thought, I know, this

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Speaker 1: is a weird way to put it, but it was

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Speaker 1: like Stephanie trained me really because I came into it,

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Speaker 1: and you know, it was I realized I didn't know

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Speaker 1: what I was doing at first. And I am so

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Speaker 1: grateful to you for I'm getting emotional phones so grateful.

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Speaker 1: Thank you. Mo Well. I'm so grateful to hear you

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Speaker 1: say that because I I was under a lot of pressure,

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Speaker 1: and it was difficult. Sometimes it's scared, right, And I

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Speaker 1: don't think I don't know that you were scared. I

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Speaker 1: was scared at first, and then you gave me, You

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Speaker 1: gave me the courage to do it. Yeah. I think

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Speaker 1: also that um for me, I loved each of these

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Speaker 1: books so much. This is going to sound um corny,

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Speaker 1: but for me, the joy of it, even though it

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Speaker 1: was also scary. The thing that over helped me overcome

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Speaker 1: any fear that I had was once I actually, no,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to get emotional. Once I actually read the

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Speaker 1: book and fall in love with it, it seemed like

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Speaker 1: not an easy thing, but an important thing to transmit

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Speaker 1: that to someone else, to share that with somebody else,

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Speaker 1: And that was what helped me overcome the fear of

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Speaker 1: doing it. Was actually the sheer love of the story

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Speaker 1: and the belief that other people needed to fall in

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Speaker 1: love with it too. There's that proverb it's always darkest

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Speaker 1: before the dawn. That's certainly my experience with writing the

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Speaker 1: darkness part. Stephanie taught me by example how important it

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Speaker 1: is not to give up and how satisfying it is

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Speaker 1: to come out the other side. Wish one is where

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Speaker 1: I learned not to despair in creating something because it's like,

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Speaker 1: oh my god, it's it's really looking dire right now,

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Speaker 1: it's really looking dire. But this is the project where

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Speaker 1: I learned that it's at that point that you just

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Speaker 1: keep pushing through and you're going to get there. That's

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Speaker 1: where the leap will happen. I still remember how I

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Speaker 1: felt finishing the first episode I wrote for Wishbone, based

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Speaker 1: on H. G. Wells is the time Machine system destination

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Speaker 1: in case of emergency, keep your hands at arms inside

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Speaker 1: the vehicle. And I remember finishing and I stayed up

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Speaker 1: all night on New Year's Eve nineteen four and it

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Speaker 1: was my best New Year's Eve ever finishing that script,

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Speaker 1: and it kind of locking into place quite literally at

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Speaker 1: dawn on New Year's Day, and that felt so and

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Speaker 1: so I like my New Year's Eves to be promising

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Speaker 1: and not frivolous to the epic creation moments of creations.

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Speaker 1: I love it. I also think it's so fitting that

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Speaker 1: you were running the time machine as the year turned over.

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Speaker 1: That is kind of perfect. How will you remember Soccer?

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Speaker 1: I will always remember Soccer as the dog who made

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Speaker 1: what I imagined in my head even better then I

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Speaker 1: had imagined it, I really will. I thought, how will

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Speaker 1: this ever actually happened? How will we ever actually do this?

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Speaker 1: And then once I saw Soccer on screen, I felt

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Speaker 1: this relief that this was going to work and it

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Speaker 1: was going to be even better than I thought it

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Speaker 1: could be. And that's how I will remember Soccer. I

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Speaker 1: am be grateful to Soccer always for that would be

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Speaker 1: grateful to him. I am grateful to him and his

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Speaker 1: beautiful brown eyes. Wishbone wasn't just the best red dog

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Speaker 1: on TV. He was also the best dressed. I mean

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Speaker 1: this dog was a total clothes horse. Just his hats alone.

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Speaker 1: There was the top hat for when he played Dr

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Speaker 1: Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the adorable straw hat he wore

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Speaker 1: as Tom Sawyer, the bi Coocke. That's the name of

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Speaker 1: that cute little had he sported his robin hood. Wishbone

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Speaker 1: super fans like Claire Connolly vividly recall his costumes. There

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Speaker 1: was an episode where it was the Tempest and he

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Speaker 1: was aerial and had this sort of like flowy costume

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Speaker 1: that was really cute that I liked a lot. Trust me,

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Speaker 1: you'll want to look up Wishbones Tempest to wardrobe. We're

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Speaker 1: talking Liberaci level over the top costume designers. Stephen chowed

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Speaker 1: Edge and his team dressed an entire cast in a

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Speaker 1: different period specific wardrobe each episode, head to toe or

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Speaker 1: head to tail in the case of our star choot

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00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:42,080
Speaker 1: Edge talked to Entertainment tonight in the challenge is sizing

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Speaker 1: down human clothes and making them actually fit a dog.

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Speaker 1: Dogs have a different anatomy than than humans, as is

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00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:56,080
Speaker 1: obvious and U of course too. We have to we

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Speaker 1: have to make things that he will wear well. For Ivanhoe,

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00:26:59,280 --> 00:27:03,480
Speaker 1: he was wearing chain mail. Dogs don't wear chain mail ordinarily. Well,

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00:27:03,560 --> 00:27:08,080
Speaker 1: they don't wear pants either. That's Soccer's trainer, Jackie Captain again.

408
00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:13,280
Speaker 1: Mark Twain remembered he had pants and we'd all laugh.

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Speaker 1: You know, I'd never had him back flip with pants. Yeah,

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00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:20,399
Speaker 1: he kind of looked at me like, really, yeah, you

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Speaker 1: can do it. It's okay. Um. So that took a

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Speaker 1: few days for him to get used to the pants.

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00:27:26,640 --> 00:27:28,760
Speaker 1: Of course, it wasn't just that backflip you saw on

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Speaker 1: the opening credits. Soccer had to learn all sorts of

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00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:36,119
Speaker 1: new tricks and performed them in costume. Jackie trained him

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Speaker 1: to belly crawl through the fog of war. In the

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Speaker 1: Red Badge of Courage episode, she trained him to pull

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Speaker 1: the lever on the time machine. I think when we

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Speaker 1: went there, we had like fifteen behaviors, different tricks, and

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Speaker 1: by the time we finished Wishbone, he had like forty tricks.

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Speaker 1: I was like, how many tricks can one little dog

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Speaker 1: store in his little break? But he was so devoted.

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Speaker 1: Weren't he learned it? He would walk on water for me. Well,

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00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:09,359
Speaker 1: you say he'd walk on water for you. But to

425
00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:12,040
Speaker 1: be fair, he didn't really like water, did he. No,

426
00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:16,160
Speaker 1: he didn't. Okay, it's a I don't like the water.

427
00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:21,840
Speaker 1: Most of the water work, including an epic scene from

428
00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:25,320
Speaker 1: the Odyssey episode, was handled by a stunt dog named

429
00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:35,440
Speaker 1: Phoebe Daily. Yes, there were other dogs. Phoebe was amazing

430
00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:42,400
Speaker 1: and Phoebe was fearless righton Linda Hamilton. Phoebe could leap

431
00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:46,960
Speaker 1: off of things, she could swim, lap, she I think

432
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:49,960
Speaker 1: sat on a horse. At one point. There was another

433
00:28:50,200 --> 00:28:55,360
Speaker 1: stunt double. And I say this affectionately, but this dog

434
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:57,880
Speaker 1: had a face for radio. I mean this was a

435
00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:00,960
Speaker 1: dog that I remember looking a little to me Durante like,

436
00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:03,680
Speaker 1: is that a fair way of characterizing Slugger or am

437
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:07,800
Speaker 1: I being unfair? Oh Slugger, he was so cute. He's

438
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:11,440
Speaker 1: such a sweet dog. I forgot about Slugger. Sorry Slugger,

439
00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:16,720
Speaker 1: but rest assured. Soccer wasn't almost every scene. But what's

440
00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:19,280
Speaker 1: interesting about the other dogs is that none of them

441
00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:22,720
Speaker 1: were close up dogs. It was still Soccer who was

442
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:28,760
Speaker 1: the the star. The wishbones, those marking, those eyes, and

443
00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:32,240
Speaker 1: one other thing I can say about Soccer's acting was

444
00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:37,680
Speaker 1: his ability to look focused. Soccers look at the other

445
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:41,600
Speaker 1: actor appeared as if he really was taking in what

446
00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:45,200
Speaker 1: they were saying. I remember on set after the director

447
00:29:45,320 --> 00:29:48,640
Speaker 1: called action, often the only other voice you'd hear was

448
00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:53,040
Speaker 1: Jackie's speaking directly to her dog. When I was just

449
00:29:53,240 --> 00:29:55,760
Speaker 1: working him on the set, my voice would be just

450
00:29:55,960 --> 00:29:59,200
Speaker 1: kind of normal. I rehearse him to something god mark,

451
00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 1: stay good um. But then when we were done and

452
00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:06,120
Speaker 1: he did exactly what I wanted, I wanted him to

453
00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:08,920
Speaker 1: know that that was correct, and I'd go good for

454
00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:12,840
Speaker 1: you good, and you could see that he'd be like, yes,

455
00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:16,240
Speaker 1: I did um, and that means a lot to them.

456
00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:19,880
Speaker 1: Or when we were doing backflip, that's a really hard

457
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:24,440
Speaker 1: behavior and I'd always go Ready, Ready, and that kind

458
00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:27,640
Speaker 1: of geared him up to what we were doing. Ready Flip.

459
00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:33,360
Speaker 1: The show debuted on October nine and soon developed a

460
00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:37,880
Speaker 1: with all due respect to ko Joe rapid following. As

461
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:40,720
Speaker 1: you know, Wishbone is the star of the mega popular,

462
00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:44,160
Speaker 1: award winning children's show on PBS Design to introduce kids

463
00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:48,800
Speaker 1: to literature. I gave you once again the Wishbone super fans.

464
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:51,760
Speaker 1: What more could you ask for? It's the perfect kids show.

465
00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:55,840
Speaker 1: You got a cute dog, you got education. I remember

466
00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:59,200
Speaker 1: my first exposure to like William Shakespeare was from this

467
00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:02,520
Speaker 1: freaking dog. We were just very wish one obsessed in

468
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:06,880
Speaker 1: my house growing up outside Albany, New York. Aaron McDonough

469
00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:09,920
Speaker 1: was a loyal viewer. I remember going to the library

470
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:12,200
Speaker 1: with my mom and being his big stack of books

471
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:14,680
Speaker 1: and Faust was in there, which was one of my

472
00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:17,880
Speaker 1: favorite episodes. And you know that one he sells his

473
00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:20,800
Speaker 1: soul to the devil for a woman in the librarian

474
00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:23,120
Speaker 1: looked me like dead in the faces. This is not

475
00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:26,080
Speaker 1: appropriate for children. You cannot take up this book, and

476
00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:29,360
Speaker 1: I was like it was on Wishbone. Wishbone won several

477
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:33,600
Speaker 1: Daytime Emmys, including for those dazzling costumes. The show also

478
00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:39,720
Speaker 1: won a Peabody Award for Broadcast Storytelling Excellence. Wishbone, presented

479
00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:43,400
Speaker 1: here by Dan Rather, a diminutive canine with a taste

480
00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:46,920
Speaker 1: for classic literature. Here is the star of this next

481
00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:52,920
Speaker 1: magative series. Soccer was now a bona fide star. Oh yeah,

482
00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:54,960
Speaker 1: you couldn't take him anywhere. You couldn't take him to

483
00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:58,840
Speaker 1: a public park. No way, I'd be traveling to an airport.

484
00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:01,520
Speaker 1: I mean I had to cover his crate up with

485
00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:05,240
Speaker 1: a towel so people didn't see his face because we

486
00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:08,840
Speaker 1: wouldn't go through the airport. You're kidding. And I have

487
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:12,680
Speaker 1: pictures of people waiting in line two blocks long just

488
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:18,040
Speaker 1: to see this dog. Gee. I mean, it was just incredible.

489
00:32:19,120 --> 00:32:23,040
Speaker 1: I'm just to see him. Larry Brantley, the voice of Wishbone,

490
00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:27,160
Speaker 1: remembers one incident at the height of soccer celebrity. During

491
00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:30,520
Speaker 1: a promotional trip to d C. Soccer stayed in one

492
00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:33,360
Speaker 1: night while Larry and the other humans went out for dinner.

493
00:32:33,840 --> 00:32:37,040
Speaker 1: When they came back, they found their hotels sweep in disarray.

494
00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:41,240
Speaker 1: He trashed it. He went after the comforter on the bed,

495
00:32:41,440 --> 00:32:45,320
Speaker 1: tore that both the pillow cases and pillows gone. He

496
00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:48,240
Speaker 1: crawled under the bed. You know that black matting that

497
00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:52,080
Speaker 1: holds the box bringing all that's out just cluttered around

498
00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:55,840
Speaker 1: the room like confetti. She was so upset, and I'm like, Jackie,

499
00:32:55,920 --> 00:32:58,880
Speaker 1: this was his rock star moment. So what happened after

500
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:02,120
Speaker 1: Wishbone ended? What did? What did Soccer do? He just

501
00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:05,200
Speaker 1: ran the ranch and hung out with me, and you know,

502
00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:08,560
Speaker 1: I just really felt like he gave me his heart.

503
00:33:09,160 --> 00:33:11,840
Speaker 1: And I also didn't want him on film because he

504
00:33:11,960 --> 00:33:15,400
Speaker 1: was so recognizable as Wishbone and everybody's going to see

505
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:18,160
Speaker 1: him and go, that's Wishbone. What's he doing that for?

506
00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:23,440
Speaker 1: And I think he really deserved his time to retire

507
00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:27,120
Speaker 1: because he did his job. He never let me down,

508
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:30,800
Speaker 1: he never quit me. Um, And to me, that's the ultimate.

509
00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:36,840
Speaker 1: Soccer died on June two thousand one. He was thirteen.

510
00:33:37,520 --> 00:33:39,480
Speaker 1: I don't think you ever get used to it. I've

511
00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:43,160
Speaker 1: had dogs my whole life, and you never get used

512
00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:47,000
Speaker 1: to losing one of them. Um. People think, oh, she

513
00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:50,200
Speaker 1: has a lot of dogs, that it's not hard for her. No,

514
00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:53,960
Speaker 1: it's really hard. Um. I missed him a lot. I

515
00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:57,360
Speaker 1: still missed him. What kind of a reaction did his death.

516
00:33:57,440 --> 00:34:01,800
Speaker 1: Get I didn't really um tell anybody for a year

517
00:34:01,960 --> 00:34:05,840
Speaker 1: or so. Um, I just you know, it's such a

518
00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:10,320
Speaker 1: personal thing. He was a public dog on video, he

519
00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:13,880
Speaker 1: was still my private dog. He was my dog, and

520
00:34:14,040 --> 00:34:16,680
Speaker 1: that's between me and him, and I didn't want people

521
00:34:16,719 --> 00:34:18,480
Speaker 1: to see them when he got really old and he

522
00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:21,839
Speaker 1: couldn't hardly see. You know, everybody's going to get old.

523
00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:24,719
Speaker 1: I wanted him to have dignity because he was such

524
00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:28,759
Speaker 1: a pretty outgoing, happy, go lucky kind of guy. Yeah,

525
00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:35,200
Speaker 1: I was sorry to see him go. Well. I apologize

526
00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:37,160
Speaker 1: for being so hard to get a hold of it.

527
00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:41,640
Speaker 1: You know, when you retire, you become very irresponsible. Good

528
00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:46,600
Speaker 1: for you. When I think of Soccer now, I think

529
00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:49,279
Speaker 1: of the former kids who still get excited when I

530
00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:51,440
Speaker 1: tell them I wrote for the show. I think of

531
00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:55,080
Speaker 1: the blazing heat of the Texas summer when we shot outside,

532
00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:57,880
Speaker 1: and how jealous I was that Soccer had an air

533
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:01,080
Speaker 1: conditioned to he could rest in, which Ween takes. I

534
00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:03,360
Speaker 1: kind of wanted to crawl in there with him. I

535
00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:06,520
Speaker 1: think of how fortunate I was that my very first

536
00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:09,719
Speaker 1: job in television was on a show where so much

537
00:35:09,840 --> 00:35:12,480
Speaker 1: love went into the final product. And I think of

538
00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:17,200
Speaker 1: Soccer's gorgeous face. Those eyes really did tell stories. Damn

539
00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:21,319
Speaker 1: he really was a good looking dog. It's this really

540
00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:24,760
Speaker 1: cute show that I feel like too few people know about.

541
00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:27,320
Speaker 1: At this point. The reason I have all these books

542
00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:30,880
Speaker 1: isn't my fault. It's this guy's fault. Why the books?

543
00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:34,640
Speaker 1: What happened? What's the story wish Bone? When it comes

544
00:35:34,719 --> 00:35:37,520
Speaker 1: up that one of your adult friends also watched wish Bone? Like,

545
00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:39,880
Speaker 1: that's a conversation that can last another hour, you know,

546
00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:45,439
Speaker 1: I certainly hope you enjoyed this Mobituary. May I ask

547
00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:48,200
Speaker 1: you to please rate and review our podcast. You can

548
00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:51,880
Speaker 1: also follow Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram, and you can

549
00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:55,680
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter at Morocca. Here all new episodes

550
00:35:55,719 --> 00:35:59,600
Speaker 1: of Mobituaries every Wednesday. Wherever you get your podcasts and

551
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:03,440
Speaker 1: suck out Mobituaries. Great Lives Worth Reliving The New York

552
00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:07,680
Speaker 1: Times best selling book now available in paperback and audio book.

553
00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:11,400
Speaker 1: It includes plenty of stories not in the podcast. This

554
00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:15,480
Speaker 1: episode of Mobituaries was produced by Aaron Shrank. Our team

555
00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:19,920
Speaker 1: of producers also includes Wilco, Martinez Cacceto, and me Morocca.

556
00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:23,960
Speaker 1: He was edited by Moral Walls and engineered by Josh Hahn,

557
00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:27,800
Speaker 1: with fact checking by Naomi Barr. Our production company is

558
00:36:27,920 --> 00:36:32,680
Speaker 1: Neon hom Media. Our archival producer at CBS is Jamie Benson.

559
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:37,040
Speaker 1: Our theme music is written by Daniel Hart. Indispensable support

560
00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:41,200
Speaker 1: from Craig Swaggler, Dustin Gervei, Alan Pang, Reggie Basil and

561
00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:45,320
Speaker 1: everyone at CBS News Radio Special thanks to Gideon Evans,

562
00:36:45,560 --> 00:36:49,279
Speaker 1: Kate mccauliffe, and Alberto Ravina. Our senior producer is the

563
00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:54,720
Speaker 1: Irrepressible Aaron Shrank. Executive producers for Mobituaries include Steve Raises

564
00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:58,600
Speaker 1: and Morocca. The series is created by Yours Truly and

565
00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:02,560
Speaker 1: as always on dying gratitude to Rand Morrison and John

566
00:37:02,640 --> 00:37:06,640
Speaker 1: Carp for helping breathe life into Mobituaries