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Speaker 1: Because of your extraordinary bravery and intelligence, you have earned

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

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Speaker 1: Ever since Rin 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.

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Speaker 2: Look there's Tuto, where do you come from from?

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Speaker 1: Kansas's most courageous Cairn.

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Speaker 2: Terrier Who's come to take us to dog?

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

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Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties than the polio vaccine did. To the

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Speaker 1: Golden retriever who held court in the air Bud movies,

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Speaker 1: Doots Don't played basketball?

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Speaker 3: Was the matter?

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Speaker 1: Gentlemen?

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Speaker 3: Afraid your team might get beat by a dog?

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Speaker 1: But I'm not sure any dog has ever played a

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Speaker 1: role as multifaceted as the one played by the Jack

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Speaker 1: Russell terrier, who starred in the nineteen nineties PBS television

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Speaker 1: series Wishbone.

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Speaker 2: Believe me it was.

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Speaker 4: Nothing, Hey, whishbird, Let's have some meat.

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Speaker 5: Look?

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Speaker 6: Did I hear you say?

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Speaker 7: Me?

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Speaker 2: Love?

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Speaker 1: That dog's real name was soccer now as Wishbone, he

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Speaker 1: didn't just beg for treats.

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Speaker 6: Soccer was a total action hero dog. Soccer was winning

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Speaker 6: battles and getting knighted and solving mysteries.

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Speaker 2: Look closely, the clues could be anywhere.

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Speaker 1: No one is above suspicion. Wishbone, it turns out, had

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Speaker 1: a rich fantasy life. In each episode, he imagined himself

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Speaker 1: as the hero in a different work of classic literature.

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Speaker 1: Viewers at home saw him leading a merry band of

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Speaker 1: outlaws against the Sheriff of Nottingham.

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Speaker 6: Robin Hood actual of us.

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Speaker 1: So romancing like Shakespeare's Romeo.

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Speaker 8: With Love's like wings, did I or perch these walls?

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Speaker 1: And inspired by Jules Vern digging deep, going where no

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Speaker 1: dog or man had gone before, proof.

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Speaker 8: That we are on the right track, on one to

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Speaker 8: the Sun, God of the Eye.

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Speaker 1: For the show's target audience of six to eleven year olds,

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Speaker 1: Soccer became a tween idol.

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Speaker 3: I have pictures of people waiting in line two blocks

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Speaker 3: long just to see this dog.

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Speaker 2: What's the story, Wishbone? What's this?

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Speaker 1: Your dreaming?

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Speaker 9: Enough such?

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

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Speaker 1: who were first winged on Mark Twain or the Legend

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Speaker 1: of Faust, or the Greek epics through Wishbone.

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Speaker 9: I remember, like on my tenth birthday, I think it

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Speaker 9: was we were gonna go mini golfing and I insisted,

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Speaker 9: but we had to stay home for Wishbone first, and as.

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Speaker 1: A twenty five year old a mere puff myself, I

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

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

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Speaker 1: professor on assets.

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Speaker 6: It totally was.

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Speaker 1: So much went into this show to make it a hit,

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Speaker 1: but none of it would have worked without the top dog.

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Speaker 6: I think every movie star has eyes that tell stories,

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Speaker 6: and Soccer had the most amazing dog eyes.

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Speaker 7: He was a magic little creature man, he really was.

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Speaker 7: He looked so good on camera.

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Speaker 3: I shouldn't say this, so he wasn't the smartest dog

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Speaker 3: I've ever turned, but he was so devoted once he

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Speaker 3: learned it. He would walk on water for me. He

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Speaker 3: just loved to be out with me working. To him,

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Speaker 3: it wasn't work.

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

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Speaker 1: is mobituaries, This mobid Wishbone. June twenty sixth, two thousand

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Speaker 1: and one. Death of a working dog. All right, So

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Speaker 1: what was Wishbone about. Well, let's have some fans who

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Speaker 1: grew up with the show explain.

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Speaker 9: So it was called Wishbone, and it was this little dog,

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Speaker 9: Jack Russell Terrier.

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Speaker 8: 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's

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Speaker 1: the nineteen nineties, and it is the only.

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Speaker 6: Reason why I ever passed in English class because I

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Speaker 6: did not do the reading.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: African folk tale like Anansi the Spider.

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Speaker 2: 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 Moe.

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Speaker 3: Oh my goodnessistant so long.

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Speaker 2: It's been more than twenty five years.

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Speaker 1: Jackie's been living off the grid way up in Haynes, Alaska.

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Speaker 1: You're not easy to get a hold of.

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Speaker 3: Well, that's the reason I came up here. No, I

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Speaker 3: retired eight years ago. It's beautiful up here. Good fishing

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Speaker 3: bears walked through my property.

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Speaker 1: Do you think the bears know your background with animals

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Speaker 1: and that they kind of respect it?

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Speaker 3: Well, I've kind of told them, Look, we're on common

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Speaker 3: ground here. You leave me alone, I'll leave you alone.

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Speaker 1: Jackie actually began her career in motion pictures working with

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Speaker 1: wild animals, including bears, but she learned much of what

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Speaker 1: she knows about training dogs from famed Hollywood trainer Frank Ann.

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Speaker 3: I went to work for him, and that was probably

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Speaker 3: the best experience I had learning how to do dogs

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Speaker 3: for motion picture.

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Speaker 1: Frank Inn worked on Lassie, I Love Lucy. He trained

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Speaker 1: Audrey Hepburn's orange tabby cat in Breakfast to Tiffany's. He

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Speaker 1: wrangled all five hundred of the animals comprising LIMEE. Clampitt's

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Speaker 1: cast of critters on the Beverly Hillbillies. Critters will new

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Speaker 1: things for that girl, wouldn't do for nobody else. Here

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Speaker 1: he is training the lovable mutt who's starred in the

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Speaker 1: Benji movies.

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Speaker 8: Come on, nudget, Benji, Please, come on, come on, nudget, nudget.

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Speaker 1: Good kid, Look here, feet up, stay a spe And.

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Speaker 3: He just was this larger than life character, big man

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Speaker 3: with a big hand of our mustache and a captain's hat.

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Speaker 3: And you just couldn't forget him if he ever saw

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Speaker 3: him work a dog.

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Speaker 1: Frank Inn helped Jackie launch her own career. She worked

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Speaker 1: on the nineteen eighty three horror movie Kujojo about a

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Speaker 1: rabbit Saint Bernard Kuser, which manner, and she helped Ethan

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Speaker 1: Hawke bond with a surly wolfhound in White Fang.

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Speaker 2: Just wanted to pet him.

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Speaker 1: White Fang was shot up in Haines, Alaska. Jackie says

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Speaker 1: she you then that one day she'd retire. There have

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Speaker 1: you got any dogs up there.

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Speaker 3: I only have one dog left, which is really weird

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Speaker 3: for me. I have the Beverly Hills Chihuahua Rosa.

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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, and remember Rosa. There's nothing wrong with

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Speaker 2: being different.

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Speaker 1: Different.

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Speaker 2: It is just a nice way of saying run.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. She's twelve now, she only weighs three pounds.

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Speaker 1: She's the Beverly Hills Chihuaba and she's living in Haines, Alaska,

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Speaker 1: surrounded by grizzlies.

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Speaker 2: How's that working out?

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Speaker 3: Well, she doesn't go out much, I mean, because everything

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Speaker 3: wants to get her, the eagles, I mean, you know,

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Speaker 3: so she pretty much just stays in the cabin.

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Speaker 2: Oh my god.

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Speaker 1: But Jackie, I know you're retired, but this just screams

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Speaker 1: out for a Beverly Hills Chihuaba sequel, I mean, escape

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Speaker 1: to Alaska.

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Speaker 3: I know it does, doesn't it. I like that idea.

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Speaker 1: Jackie met the dog who would one day play Wishbone

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Speaker 1: back in nineteen eighty eight in Connecticut when he was

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Speaker 1: just a week old, and.

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Speaker 3: I said, that is the cutest pubby I've ever seen.

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

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

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Speaker 1: eye and right ear. Casting directors thought he looked too

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Speaker 1: much like the Little Rascals dog Pete. Pretty soon it

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Speaker 1: seemed clear Soccer's acting career was going nowhere.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, he didn't do much at all until he did

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Speaker 3: Wishbone and he was six or seven.

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Speaker 1: I think six or seven in dog years.

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Speaker 2: You do the math.

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Speaker 1: He was getting up there has been without ever having.

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Speaker 3: Been my husband. And all my friends were like, really, Jaggy,

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Speaker 3: why do you spend so much time training on this dog.

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Speaker 3: I like this dog. He's my buddy. I don't care

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Speaker 3: if he ever works. I like this dog. And they'd

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Speaker 3: all laugh at man. I'm telling you, one day, this

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Speaker 3: dog is going to get what he deserves.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety three, auditions for the lead role in

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Speaker 1: Wishbone were announced, Butackie was tied up on another project.

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Speaker 3: I was in Montana working on River Wild.

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Speaker 1: And she wasn't particularly interested.

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Speaker 3: I'm tied up on a feature movie.

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Speaker 1: Here, you know, sidebar. I loved the River Wild, an

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

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Speaker 1: Kevin Bacon.

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Speaker 6: Woo woo woo.

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Speaker 2: You the dog expended who right, now who, I think I'll.

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Speaker 1: Go oh oo oo oo.

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Speaker 2: The dog who.

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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.

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Speaker 2: He wasn't just charming, he.

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Speaker 5: Pulled off all of his tricks with the cool, confidence,

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Speaker 5: even cockiness of a jung Claude van Dam. He sealed

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Speaker 5: the deal with a backflip, which you can see in

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Speaker 5: the show's opening credits. Now, Jackie could get Soccer to

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Speaker 5: do a lot, but she couldn't make him.

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Speaker 7: Actually, when I first was asked to audition to be

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Speaker 7: the voice of Wishbone, I had no idea what the

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Speaker 7: show was.

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Speaker 1: That became the job of stand up comic and voiceover

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Speaker 1: actor Larry Brantley.

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Speaker 7: And I've done this my whole life with animals. I

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Speaker 7: watch an animal and I think I know what they're thinking.

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Speaker 7: I don't know why I think that, but I'm just

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Speaker 7: I'm convinced I know what's going on in that tiny

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Speaker 7: little head, and I'm pretty good at verbalizing it.

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Speaker 1: Wishbone had his voice, and so in the summer of

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four, trainer Jackie Captain packed her bags and

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Speaker 1: Soccer for the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, where Wishbone would

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

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

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Speaker 1: She was now sold on the idea of the show.

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Speaker 3: You know, this could be the last thing that I do,

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Speaker 3: and it seems like it's important. It's educationalal for children,

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Speaker 3: it'll get them to read again. And it would just

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Speaker 3: hit me, it drew me, and it was like this

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Speaker 3: little dog could really bring this alive. Of course, Soccer

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Speaker 3: would never go with anybody else. He'd always been.

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Speaker 2: With me, so you had to be there.

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Speaker 10: Well.

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Speaker 3: I mean, he was a great little dog, but he

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Speaker 3: had a soft side to him. And if I wasn't there,

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Speaker 3: I don't know that he would have danced the jig

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Speaker 3: like he did.

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

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Speaker 1: did kind of every behavior.

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Speaker 2: Really.

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Speaker 3: Oh, there was times when we do production meetings that

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Speaker 3: I'd take really, folks in my head, he doesn't have thumbs.

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Speaker 3: I don't know how he's going to shoot a bow

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Speaker 3: and arrow. It was like, oh, my goodness, who wrote this?

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Speaker 2: Well?

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

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

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Speaker 1: of the most formative experiences of my life.

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Speaker 2: Did you ever think you'd end up writing for a dog?

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Speaker 7: No?

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Speaker 6: I didn't, No, I did not.

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Speaker 1: That's my friend Stephanie Simpson. She was Wishbone's supervising producer,

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Speaker 1: story editor, and head writer.

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Speaker 6: However, in the early days, when I was trying to

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Speaker 6: figure out how to do it, I remembered that I

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Speaker 6: had always made up dialogue and sort of monologues for

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Speaker 6: our cat, and so in thinking about Wishbone, I don't know,

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Speaker 6: it just seemed natural. Suddenly, I have to say, to

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Speaker 6: write Wishbone someone's pet as having this very rich inner

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Speaker 6: life that you were not aware of.

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Speaker 1: Over my career, I've been fortunate to work for a

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Speaker 1: few people who put everything they humanly could into making

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Speaker 1: something good, who wouldn't let up until it was as

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Speaker 1: right as it could be. But Stephanie has been singular

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Speaker 1: in my life. She taught me more than anyone how

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Speaker 1: to tell a story. If Soccer had Jackie, I had Stephanie.

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Speaker 1: Sephanie had majored in Russian literature at Yale and earned

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Speaker 1: a Masters in drama at Harvard. She was perfectly trained

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Speaker 1: for this bizarre task. Of course, she couldn't do it alone.

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Speaker 1: And that's when I got the call. 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.

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Speaker 4: We got volleyball, any games we got.

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Speaker 1: Stephanie brought me down to Dallas to interview with Wishbone

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Speaker 1: executive producer Rick Duffield, who hired me as a staff writer.

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Speaker 1: I began working with Stephanie in what felt like a

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Speaker 1: storytelling boot camp. Now, as I explained earlier, each episode

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Speaker 1: of the show connected a modern day storyline in the

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Speaker 1: fictional town of Oakdale to a different work of classic literature.

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Speaker 1: Here's Wishbone as Romeo in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

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Speaker 2: Who is her mother?

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Speaker 10: Her mother is the lady of the house?

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Speaker 6: Oh, Lady of the Ooh is she a capulate?

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Speaker 2: Who is that gentleman? His name is Romeo?

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Speaker 1: Now in the contemporary plot line for that episode, one

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Speaker 1: of the neighborhood kids, Samantha, falls in love with a

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Speaker 1: beagle named Rosie at the local pound and wants to

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Speaker 1: adopt her. Would you're dad that.

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Speaker 2: You have a go if you sell this dog?

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Speaker 4: He couldn't say no.

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Speaker 6: The contemporary world was a way to show that there

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Speaker 6: were themes and ideas in these in these great books

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Speaker 6: that could be translated into a kid's life. So you

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Speaker 6: could fall in love with the dog at the pound,

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Speaker 6: and suddenly that could be the story of Romeo and Juliet.

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Speaker 6: Now there wasn't going to be a suicide in the

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Speaker 6: contemporary story as there is in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

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Speaker 6: But there could be heartbreak. There could be a dog

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Speaker 6: is adopted before you are able to adopt it.

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Speaker 2: Sam. Sorry, I know how much you liked Rosie.

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Speaker 6: And so you have to deal with some kind of loss.

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Speaker 4: I'm glad she's okay.

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Speaker 2: I mean, she really needed to get home.

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Speaker 10: For me.

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Speaker 6: The exciting thing was trying to match the thread to

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Speaker 6: what I thought would capture a kid's imagination and also

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Speaker 6: their hearts. What would they care the most about?

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Speaker 1: And it never occurred to you that an episode should

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Speaker 1: with all due respect, because I have nothing against Cliff's notes,

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Speaker 1: and they pronounced Cliff's notes, and for somebody who has trouble.

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Speaker 2: With essays, it's a lot of essays.

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Speaker 1: But anyway, but because it could have been in other hands,

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Speaker 1: it would have been Okay, we're going to do the

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Speaker 1: totality of this book in the half hour.

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Speaker 6: No, that never Actually, I never felt pressure to do that.

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Speaker 6: What I felt pressure to do was to get someone

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Speaker 6: to fall in love with the idea.

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Speaker 2: Of the book. The idea of the book.

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Speaker 6: The idea of the book, not the plot, the lot

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Speaker 6: of the because there's only so many plots in the world.

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Speaker 6: Plot really, to me, in a book is not the point.

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Speaker 6: The point is how the author has taken a set

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Speaker 6: of events and made them mean something different than they've

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Speaker 6: ever met before because of who exactly is doing them

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Speaker 6: and why they're doing them.

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Speaker 1: If LeVar Burton's show Reading Rainbow was teaching kids how

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

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Speaker 6: And to me, it's not like the authors of these

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Speaker 6: books never wrote them so that the books themselves would

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Speaker 6: be kind of locked away from everyday people. I mean

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Speaker 6: no offense to literature majors, but I think it would

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Speaker 6: be very disappointing for Savantes to find out that only

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Speaker 6: a small group of select students at a university we're

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Speaker 6: reading don Quixote. That would be super sad for him.

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

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Speaker 6: Its like so long to read it, mo, and I had,

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Speaker 6: you know, maybe three days.

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Speaker 1: Servante's's Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is about

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Speaker 1: an idealistic man chasing the impossible dream of becoming a knight.

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Speaker 1: In the Wishbone version, Joe chases a long shot of

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Speaker 1: his own eighty.

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Speaker 4: Six consecutive free throws in five minutes. That's all I

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Speaker 4: need to hold the record for any kid. N there's sixteen.

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Speaker 4: Then i'd be in the Encyclopedia of World Records.

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Speaker 2: Do you really think it's possible.

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Speaker 6: Sure, Joe was trying to make a certain number of

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Speaker 6: baskets and he was having trouble. He would get nervous

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Speaker 6: and choke. He imagined that his life would be amazing

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Speaker 6: if he could just achieve this one great thing, and

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Speaker 6: in the end he doesn't achieve it.

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Speaker 4: You were great, but I didn't do the impossible.

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Speaker 2: I'm not going down in history or anything.

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Speaker 4: I'm not extraordinary. Hey, you don't have to perform impossible

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Speaker 4: feats to be extraordinary.

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Speaker 2: Just live your life. Life is an ongoing adventure.

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Speaker 6: But it was the act of trying that matters.

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Speaker 1: I've told people that writing for the show was like

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Speaker 1: an assignment from an English professor on Assey.

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Speaker 6: It totally was Yes, you are so right, that's a

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Speaker 6: perfect way to describe it. And what's so funny mo

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Speaker 6: is looking back on it, I realized how crazy it was,

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Speaker 6: but at the time when we were doing it, I

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Speaker 6: didn't think it was that crazy, and it didn't seem

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Speaker 6: nuts until later.

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

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Speaker 1: to some hard and fast rules. For example, yes, Wishbone talks,

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Speaker 1: thanks to Larry Brantley, but human characters in Wishbone's life

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: who can hear him.

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Speaker 4: Mister Darcy, we should be a darling and escorted me

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Speaker 4: to the punch bow.

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Speaker 5: Yes, of course, excuse us, miss Mega the minute.

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Speaker 6: Sorry.

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Speaker 1: Part of what was so what was so well immediately

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Speaker 1: funny was that in the fantasy sequences that Wishbone was

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Speaker 1: treated as a human.

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Speaker 6: I imagine really that Wishbone was a kid. It was

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Speaker 6: a stand in for a kid who when they act

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Speaker 6: out stories and they're the star of the movie or

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Speaker 6: the comic book in their imaginations, or when they're playing

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Speaker 6: it out with their friends, nobody stops and goes, well,

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Speaker 6: you're a kid doing this. You're a kid, not a king.

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Speaker 6: It's funnier that the dog just takes it for granted

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Speaker 6: that he's doing it and this is his imagination, and

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Speaker 6: everyone will treat him in his imagination the way he

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Speaker 6: would expect to be treated.

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Speaker 2: People love the show so much, you know.

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Speaker 6: It makes me so happy. And one of my goals

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Speaker 6: and one of the things I think I said to

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Speaker 6: you and to the whole crew and we were starting,

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Speaker 6: is we have an opportunity to be the first people

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Speaker 6: 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, jack to make me grow well now,

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Speaker 1: but Jackie, you know, talking about training wish Phone, I thought,

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Speaker 1: I know, this is a weird way to put it,

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Speaker 1: but it was like Stephanie trained me really because I

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Speaker 1: came into it and you know it was I realized

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Speaker 1: I didn't know what I was doing at first, and

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Speaker 1: I am so grateful to you for I'm getting emotional,

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Speaker 1: but I'm so grateful.

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Speaker 6: Thank you.

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Speaker 7: Mo.

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Speaker 6: Well, I'm I'm so grateful to hear you say that,

400
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Speaker 6: because I was under a lot of pressure and it

401
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Speaker 6: was difficult.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes it's scary, right, I don't think I don't know

403
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Speaker 1: that you were scared. I was scared at first, and

404
00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:18,600
Speaker 1: then you gave me, you gave me the courage to

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Speaker 1: do it.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 6: I think also that for me, I loved each of

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Speaker 6: these books so much. This is going to sound corny,

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Speaker 6: but for me, the joy of it, even though it

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Speaker 6: was also scary. The thing that over helped me overcome

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Speaker 6: any fear that I had was once I actually now

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Speaker 6: I'm going to get emotional.

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Speaker 10: Once I actually read the book and fell in love

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Speaker 10: with it, it seemed like not an easy thing, but

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Speaker 10: an important thing to transmit that to someone else, to

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Speaker 10: share that with somebody else, And that was what helped

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Speaker 10: me overcome the fear of doing it. Was actually the

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Speaker 10: sheer love of the story and the belief that other

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Speaker 10: people needed to fall in love with it too.

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Speaker 1: There's that proverb it's always darkest before the dawn. That's

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Speaker 1: certainly my experience with writing the darkness part. Stephanie taught

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Speaker 1: me by example how important it is not to give

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Speaker 1: up and how satisfying it is to come out the

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Speaker 1: other side.

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Speaker 2: Wish Mode is.

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Speaker 1: Where I learned not to despair in creating something because

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Speaker 1: it's like, oh my god, 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.

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Speaker 2: You're going to get there.

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Speaker 6: That's where the leap will happen.

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Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 1: I still remember how I felt finishing the first episode

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Speaker 1: I wrote for Wishbone, based on HG. Wells's The Time.

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00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:05,919
Speaker 8: Machine System destination on Time on New In case of emergency,

437
00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:10,159
Speaker 8: keep your heads and arms inside the vehicle, oh stop.

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Speaker 1: I remember finishing, and I stayed up all night on

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Speaker 1: New Year's Eve nineteen ninety four, and it was my

440
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Speaker 1: best New Year's Eve ever finishing that script, and it

441
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Speaker 1: kind of locking into place quite literally at dawn on

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Speaker 1: New Year's Day nineteen ninety five, and that felt so

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

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Speaker 1: promising and not frivolous to be.

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Speaker 6: Epic creation moments of creations. I love it. I also

446
00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:45,360
Speaker 6: think it's so fitting that you were writing the time

447
00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:49,400
Speaker 6: Machine as the year turned over. That is kind of perfect.

448
00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:55,280
Speaker 2: How will you remember Soccer? Oh?

449
00:24:55,720 --> 00:25:01,399
Speaker 6: I will always remember Soccer as the dog who made

450
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:05,800
Speaker 6: what I imagined in my head even better than I

451
00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:10,360
Speaker 6: had imagined it. I really will. I thought, how will

452
00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:13,880
Speaker 6: this ever actually happen? How will we ever actually do this?

453
00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:19,639
Speaker 6: And then once I saw Soccer on screen, I felt

454
00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:24,119
Speaker 6: this relief that this was going to work and it

455
00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:26,320
Speaker 6: was going to be even better than I thought it

456
00:25:26,359 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 6: could be. And that's how I will remember Soccer and

457
00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:31,359
Speaker 6: be grateful to Soccer always for that.

458
00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:32,840
Speaker 2: Be grateful to him.

459
00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:36,359
Speaker 6: I am grateful to him and his beautiful brown eyes.

460
00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:42,159
Speaker 1: Wishbone wasn't just the best red dog on TV. He

461
00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:45,480
Speaker 1: was also the best dressed. I mean, this dog was

462
00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:49,879
Speaker 1: a total clothes horse. Just his hats alone. There was

463
00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:52,640
Speaker 1: the top hat for when he played Doctor Jekyl and

464
00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:56,639
Speaker 1: mister Hyde. The adorable straw hat he wore is Tom

465
00:25:56,680 --> 00:25:59,880
Speaker 1: Sawyer the Bycocking. That's the name of that cute little

466
00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:05,760
Speaker 1: hattie sported as Robinhood Wishbone. Superfans like Claire Conley vividly

467
00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:09,679
Speaker 1: recall his costumes. There was an episode where it was

468
00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:13,200
Speaker 1: The Tempest and he was aerial and had this sort

469
00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:16,159
Speaker 1: of like flowy costume that was really cute that I

470
00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:18,800
Speaker 1: liked a lot. Trust me, you'll want to look up

471
00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:23,320
Speaker 1: Wishbone's Tempest to wardrobe. We're talking Liberachi level over the top.

472
00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:28,200
Speaker 1: Costume designer Stephen Chewedadge and his team dressed an entire

473
00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:32,840
Speaker 1: cast in a different period specific wardrobe each episode, head

474
00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:35,600
Speaker 1: to toe or head to tail in the case of

475
00:26:35,640 --> 00:26:39,560
Speaker 1: our star. Chewed Edge talked to Entertainment Tonight in nineteen

476
00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:40,280
Speaker 1: ninety five.

477
00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:45,320
Speaker 3: The challenge is sizing down human clothes and making them

478
00:26:45,359 --> 00:26:47,360
Speaker 3: actually fit a dog.

479
00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:52,280
Speaker 4: Dogs have a different anatomy than than humans, as is obvious, and.

480
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:56,640
Speaker 2: Of course too, we have to we have to make

481
00:26:56,680 --> 00:26:58,560
Speaker 2: things that he will wear well.

482
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:01,680
Speaker 1: For Ivanhoe, he was wearing chain mail. Dogs don't wear

483
00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:02,960
Speaker 1: chain mail ordinarily.

484
00:27:03,359 --> 00:27:05,160
Speaker 3: Well, they don't wear pants either.

485
00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:09,600
Speaker 1: That's soccer's trainer, Jackie Captain again, Mark Twain.

486
00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:13,720
Speaker 3: Remember he had pants and we'd all laugh, you know,

487
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:17,840
Speaker 3: I'd never had him backflip with pants. Yeah, he kind

488
00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:21,120
Speaker 3: of looked at me like, really, yeah, you can do it,

489
00:27:21,119 --> 00:27:24,880
Speaker 3: It's okay. So that took a few days for him

490
00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:26,359
Speaker 3: to get used to the pants.

491
00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:28,840
Speaker 1: Of course, it wasn't just that backflip you saw on

492
00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:31,960
Speaker 1: the opening credits. Soccer had to learn all sorts of

493
00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:36,200
Speaker 1: new tricks and performed them in costume. Jackie trained him

494
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:38,639
Speaker 1: to belly crawl through the fog of war in the

495
00:27:38,680 --> 00:27:41,840
Speaker 1: Red Patch of Courage episode, she trained him to pull

496
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:43,879
Speaker 1: the lever on the time machine.

497
00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:48,240
Speaker 3: I think when we went there we had like fifteen behaviors,

498
00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:52,159
Speaker 3: different tricks, and by the time we finished Wishbone, he

499
00:27:52,200 --> 00:27:56,000
Speaker 3: had like forty tricks. I was like, how many tricks

500
00:27:56,040 --> 00:28:00,879
Speaker 3: can one little dog store in his little brain? But

501
00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:05,000
Speaker 3: he was so devoted once he learned it. He would

502
00:28:05,119 --> 00:28:06,359
Speaker 3: walk on water for me.

503
00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:08,760
Speaker 1: Well you say he'd walk on water for you. But

504
00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:11,600
Speaker 1: to be fair, he didn't really like water, did he.

505
00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:13,240
Speaker 3: No, he didn't.

506
00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:16,280
Speaker 1: Okay, it's a bit I don't like water.

507
00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:20,320
Speaker 2: Most of the water work.

508
00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:23,920
Speaker 1: Including an epic scene from the Odyssey episode, was handled

509
00:28:23,960 --> 00:28:30,640
Speaker 1: by a stunt dog named Phoebe Daily. Yes, there were

510
00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:32,720
Speaker 1: other dogs.

511
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:38,240
Speaker 6: Phoebe was amazing, and Phoebe was fearless right, she was

512
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:43,520
Speaker 6: Hammler to Linda Hamilton, Phoebe could leap off of things,

513
00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:48,000
Speaker 6: she could swim lap, she I think sat on a horse.

514
00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 1: At one point there was another stunt double. And I

515
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:56,760
Speaker 1: say this affectionately, but this dog had a face for radio.

516
00:28:57,160 --> 00:28:59,560
Speaker 1: I mean, this was a dog that I remember looking

517
00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:02,080
Speaker 1: a little Jimmy Duranty like. Is that a fair way

518
00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:04,520
Speaker 1: of characterizing Slugger or my being unfair?

519
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:09,000
Speaker 3: Oh, Slugger, he was so cute. He's such a sweet dog.

520
00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:10,440
Speaker 3: I forgot about Slugger.

521
00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:16,000
Speaker 1: Sorry, Slugger, but rest assured. Soccer was in almost every scene.

522
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:19,120
Speaker 6: But what's interesting about the other dogs is that none

523
00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:22,280
Speaker 6: of them were close up dogs. It was still Soccer

524
00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:28,440
Speaker 6: who was the star. The wishbone, those markings, those eyes,

525
00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:31,400
Speaker 6: and one other thing I can say about Soccer's acting

526
00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:37,520
Speaker 6: was his ability to look focused. Soccer's look at the

527
00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:41,320
Speaker 6: other actor appeared as if he really was taking in

528
00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:42,560
Speaker 6: what they were saying.

529
00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:46,720
Speaker 1: I remember on set after the director called action, often

530
00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:50,800
Speaker 1: the only other voice you'd hear was Jackie's speaking directly

531
00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:51,680
Speaker 1: to her dog.

532
00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:54,800
Speaker 3: When I was just working him on the set, my

533
00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:58,120
Speaker 3: voice would be just kind of normal. I rehearse him

534
00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:02,760
Speaker 3: to something Gomark day. Good. But then when we were

535
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:05,840
Speaker 3: done and he did exactly what I wanted, I wanted

536
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:08,600
Speaker 3: him to know that that was correct, and I'd go

537
00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:12,120
Speaker 3: good for you good, and you could see that he'd

538
00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:15,560
Speaker 3: be like, yes, I get it, and that means a

539
00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:19,160
Speaker 3: lot to them. Or when we were doing backflip, that's

540
00:30:19,160 --> 00:30:23,320
Speaker 3: a really hard behavior, and I'd always go ready, ready,

541
00:30:23,920 --> 00:30:26,120
Speaker 3: and that kind of geared him up to what we

542
00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:26,560
Speaker 3: were doing.

543
00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:31,920
Speaker 1: Ready flip. The show debuted on October ninth, nineteen ninety five,

544
00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:35,280
Speaker 1: and soon developed a with all due respect to Kujo

545
00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:37,040
Speaker 1: rapid following.

546
00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:40,520
Speaker 8: As you know, Wishbone is the star of the mega.

547
00:30:40,280 --> 00:30:43,880
Speaker 4: Popular, award winning children's show on PBS Design to introduce

548
00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:45,000
Speaker 4: kids to literature.

549
00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:48,880
Speaker 1: I give you once again the Wishbone super fans.

550
00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:50,320
Speaker 2: What more could you ask for?

551
00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:53,360
Speaker 1: It's the perfect kid show. You got a cute dog,

552
00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:54,600
Speaker 1: you got education.

553
00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:58,920
Speaker 9: I remember my first exposure to like William Shakespeare was

554
00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:02,479
Speaker 9: from this frickin' dog. We were just very wishbun obsessed

555
00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:03,320
Speaker 9: in my house.

556
00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:07,320
Speaker 1: Growing up outside Albany, New York. Aaron McDonough was a

557
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:08,280
Speaker 1: loyal viewer.

558
00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:10,600
Speaker 9: I remember going to the library with my mom and

559
00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:13,960
Speaker 9: being big stack of books and Faust was in there,

560
00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:16,720
Speaker 9: which was one of my favorite episodes. And you know

561
00:31:16,760 --> 00:31:19,000
Speaker 9: in that one he sells his soul to the devil

562
00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:21,440
Speaker 9: for a woman, and the librarian looked at me like

563
00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:24,280
Speaker 9: dead in the faces. This is not appropriate for children.

564
00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:26,600
Speaker 9: You cannot take out this book. And I was like

565
00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:27,800
Speaker 9: it was on Wishbone.

566
00:31:28,200 --> 00:31:32,640
Speaker 1: Wishbone won several Daytime Emmys, including for those dazzling costumes.

567
00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:38,880
Speaker 1: The show also won a Peabody Award for Broadcast Storytelling Excellence. Wishbone,

568
00:31:39,240 --> 00:31:43,000
Speaker 1: presented here by Dan Rather, a diminutive canine with a

569
00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:47,000
Speaker 1: taste for classic literature, is the star of this next

570
00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:51,800
Speaker 1: imaginative series. Soccer was now a bona fide star.

571
00:31:52,600 --> 00:31:54,760
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you couldn't take him anywhere. You couldn't take

572
00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:58,080
Speaker 3: him to a public park, no way. I'd be traveling

573
00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:01,600
Speaker 3: to an airport. I had to cover his credup for

574
00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:05,320
Speaker 3: the towel so people didn't see his face because we

575
00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:06,600
Speaker 3: wouldn't get through the airport.

576
00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:07,880
Speaker 2: You're kidding.

577
00:32:08,360 --> 00:32:11,600
Speaker 3: And I have pictures of people waiting in line two

578
00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:15,959
Speaker 3: blocks long just to see this dog. Geez. I mean,

579
00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:20,520
Speaker 3: it was just incredible just to see him.

580
00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:24,880
Speaker 1: Larry Brantley, the voice of Wishbone, remembers one incident at

581
00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:28,840
Speaker 1: the height of soccer celebrity. During a promotional trip to DC.

582
00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:32,080
Speaker 1: Soccer stayed in one night while Larry and the other

583
00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:35,080
Speaker 1: humans went out for dinner. When they came back, they

584
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:37,160
Speaker 1: found their hotel suite in disarray.

585
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:41,360
Speaker 7: He trashed it. He went after the comforter on the bed,

586
00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:45,920
Speaker 7: tore that both the pillowcases and pillows gone. He crawled

587
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:48,720
Speaker 7: under the bed. You know that black matting that holds

588
00:32:48,760 --> 00:32:52,200
Speaker 7: the box bring in all that's out just cluttered around

589
00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:55,959
Speaker 7: the room like confetti. She was so upset, and I'm like, Jackie,

590
00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:57,240
Speaker 7: this was his rockstar moment.

591
00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:01,280
Speaker 1: So what happened after Wishbone ended? What did soccer do?

592
00:33:01,960 --> 00:33:04,440
Speaker 3: He just ran the ranch and hung out with me,

593
00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:07,840
Speaker 3: and you know, I just really felt like he gave

594
00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:10,960
Speaker 3: me his heart. And I also didn't want him on

595
00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:15,040
Speaker 3: film because he was so recognizable as Wishbone and everybody's

596
00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:17,480
Speaker 3: going to see him and go, that's Wishbob. What's he

597
00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:21,320
Speaker 3: doing that for? And I think he really deserved his

598
00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:26,520
Speaker 3: time to retire because he did his job. He never

599
00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:29,680
Speaker 3: let me down, he never quit me, And to me,

600
00:33:29,880 --> 00:33:31,440
Speaker 3: that's the ultimate.

601
00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:35,760
Speaker 1: Soccer died on June twenty sixth two thousand and one.

602
00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:36,880
Speaker 1: He was thirteen.

603
00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:39,560
Speaker 3: I don't think you ever get used to it. I've

604
00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:43,240
Speaker 3: had dogs my whole life, and you never get used

605
00:33:43,280 --> 00:33:47,840
Speaker 3: to losing one of them. People think, oh, she has

606
00:33:47,880 --> 00:33:50,400
Speaker 3: a lot of dogs, that it's not hard for her. No,

607
00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:54,360
Speaker 3: it's really hard. I missed him a lot. I still

608
00:33:54,360 --> 00:33:54,880
Speaker 3: miss him.

609
00:33:55,440 --> 00:33:57,800
Speaker 2: What kind of a reaction did his death get.

610
00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:02,200
Speaker 3: I didn't really tell anybody for a year or so.

611
00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:07,560
Speaker 3: I just you know, it's such a personal thing. He

612
00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:10,839
Speaker 3: was a public dog on video, but he was still

613
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:14,760
Speaker 3: my private dog. He was my dog, and that's between

614
00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:17,040
Speaker 3: me and him. And I didn't want people to see

615
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:19,840
Speaker 3: him when he got really old, and he couldn't hardly see.

616
00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:23,000
Speaker 3: You know, everybody's going to get old. I wanted him

617
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:26,800
Speaker 3: to have dignity because he was such a pretty outgoing, happy,

618
00:34:26,840 --> 00:34:29,680
Speaker 3: go lucky kind of guy. Yeah. I was sorry to

619
00:34:29,719 --> 00:34:30,239
Speaker 3: see him go.

620
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:34,319
Speaker 1: Well.

621
00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:37,000
Speaker 3: I apologize for being so hard to get a hold

622
00:34:37,040 --> 00:34:40,600
Speaker 3: of it. You know, when you retire, you become very irresponsible.

623
00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:42,080
Speaker 2: Good for you.

624
00:34:44,600 --> 00:34:46,880
Speaker 1: When I think of soccer now, I think of the

625
00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:49,799
Speaker 1: former kids who still get excited when I tell them

626
00:34:49,800 --> 00:34:52,320
Speaker 1: I wrote for the show. I think of the blazing

627
00:34:52,400 --> 00:34:55,719
Speaker 1: heat of the Texas summer when we shot outside, and

628
00:34:55,840 --> 00:34:58,560
Speaker 1: how jealous I was that Soccer had an air conditioned

629
00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:01,600
Speaker 1: too he could rest in between takes. I kind of

630
00:35:01,640 --> 00:35:03,840
Speaker 1: wanted to crawl in there with him. I think of

631
00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:07,040
Speaker 1: how fortunate I was that my very first job in

632
00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:10,440
Speaker 1: television was on a show where so much love went

633
00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:13,960
Speaker 1: into the final product. And I think of Soccer's gorgeous face.

634
00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:18,239
Speaker 1: Those eyes really did tell stories. Damn, he really was

635
00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:19,560
Speaker 1: a good looking dog.

636
00:35:20,239 --> 00:35:23,279
Speaker 4: It's this really cute show that I feel like too

637
00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:24,840
Speaker 4: few people know about.

638
00:35:24,920 --> 00:35:27,319
Speaker 1: At this point, the reason I have all these books

639
00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:28,240
Speaker 1: is in my fault.

640
00:35:28,480 --> 00:35:29,880
Speaker 3: It's this guy's fault.

641
00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:31,800
Speaker 8: Why all the books? What happened?

642
00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:33,360
Speaker 1: What's the story Wishbone?

643
00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:36,240
Speaker 9: When it comes up that one of your adult friends

644
00:35:36,239 --> 00:35:39,160
Speaker 9: also watched Wishbone, like, that's a conversation that can last

645
00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:39,960
Speaker 9: another hour, you know.

646
00:35:42,160 --> 00:35:45,520
Speaker 1: I certainly hope you enjoyed this Mobituary. May I ask

647
00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:48,239
Speaker 1: you to please rate and review our podcast. You can

648
00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:51,920
Speaker 1: also follow Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram, and you can

649
00:35:51,960 --> 00:35:55,760
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter at Morocca. Hear all new episodes

650
00:35:55,760 --> 00:35:59,759
Speaker 1: of Mobituaries every Wednesday. Wherever you get your podcasts and

651
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:03,560
Speaker 1: check out Mobituary's Great Lives Worth Reliving the New York

652
00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:07,719
Speaker 1: Times best selling book, now available in paperback and audiobook.

653
00:36:07,920 --> 00:36:11,480
Speaker 1: It includes plenty of stories not in the podcast. This

654
00:36:11,640 --> 00:36:15,520
Speaker 1: episode of Mobituaries was produced by Aaron Schrank. Our team

655
00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:19,960
Speaker 1: of producers also includes Wilcom Martinez Caccero, and me Morocca.

656
00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:24,160
Speaker 1: It was edited by Mara Walls and engineered by Josh Hahn,

657
00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:27,840
Speaker 1: with fact checking by Naomi Barr. Our production company is

658
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Speaker 1: Neon hum Media. Our archival producer at CBS is Jamie Benson.

659
00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:37,120
Speaker 1: Our theme music is written by Daniel Hart. Indispensable support

660
00:36:37,160 --> 00:36:41,319
Speaker 1: from Craig Schwagler, Dustin Gervai, Alan Pang, Reggie Bazil and

661
00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:45,440
Speaker 1: everyone at CBS News Radio. Special thanks to Gideon Evans,

662
00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:49,360
Speaker 1: Kate mccauliffe and Alberto Robina. Our senior producer is the

663
00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:54,760
Speaker 1: Irrepressible Aaron Schrank. Executive producers for Mobituaries include Steve Razi's

664
00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:58,759
Speaker 1: and Morocca. The series is created by Yours Truly and

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Speaker 1: as always on dying gratitude to Rand Morrison and John

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Speaker 1: carp for helping breathe life into Mobituaries.