WEBVTT - Wishbone: Death of a Working Dog | Reviving a Mobit 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.960 Because of your extraordinary bravery and intelligence, you have earned 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:09.879 the titles of Honorary Corporal Rusty and Honorary Private Rint Tintin. 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:15.680 Ever since Rin Tin Tin, the superstar German shepherd who 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:19.800 on screen rescued plenty of people and off screen, rescued 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:23.680 Warner Brothers from bankruptcy in the nineteen twenties, dogs have 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:26.040 played leading roles in Hollywood. 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:30.200 Look there's Tuto, where do you come from from? 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:33.000 Kansas's most courageous Cairn. 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:35.240 Terrier Who's come to take us to dog? 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:39.640 To the collie who seemed to save more people in 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:46.239 the nineteen fifties than the polio vaccine did. To the 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:49.960 Golden retriever who held court in the air Bud movies, 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:52.160 Doots Don't played basketball? 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:52.960 Was the matter? 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:53.400 Gentlemen? 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:56.160 Afraid your team might get beat by a dog? 0:00:57.160 --> 0:00:59.880 But I'm not sure any dog has ever played a 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:04.360 role as multifaceted as the one played by the Jack 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:08.440 Russell terrier, who starred in the nineteen nineties PBS television 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:10.480 series Wishbone. 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:12.479 Believe me it was. 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:15.840 Nothing, Hey, whishbird, Let's have some meat. 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:16.120 Look? 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:17.119 Did I hear you say? 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:17.280 Me? 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:17.640 Love? 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:25.600 That dog's real name was soccer now as Wishbone, he 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:27.360 didn't just beg for treats. 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:33.240 Soccer was a total action hero dog. Soccer was winning 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:36.720 battles and getting knighted and solving mysteries. 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:39.679 Look closely, the clues could be anywhere. 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:44.600 No one is above suspicion. Wishbone, it turns out, had 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:48.840 a rich fantasy life. In each episode, he imagined himself 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:52.000 as the hero in a different work of classic literature. 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:55.360 Viewers at home saw him leading a merry band of 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:58.600 outlaws against the Sheriff of Nottingham. 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:01.760 Robin Hood actual of us. 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:04.880 So romancing like Shakespeare's Romeo. 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:08.480 With Love's like wings, did I or perch these walls? 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:13.800 And inspired by Jules Vern digging deep, going where no 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:17.720 dog or man had gone before, proof. 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:19.600 That we are on the right track, on one to 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:22.640 the Sun, God of the Eye. 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:27.080 For the show's target audience of six to eleven year olds, 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:29.280 Soccer became a tween idol. 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.640 I have pictures of people waiting in line two blocks 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:35.520 long just to see this dog. 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:41.600 What's the story, Wishbone? What's this? 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:42.720 Your dreaming? 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:44.200 Enough such? 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:48.080 Today there's a whole pack of grown ups out there 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:51.560 who were first winged on Mark Twain or the Legend 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:54.880 of Faust, or the Greek epics through Wishbone. 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:57.919 I remember, like on my tenth birthday, I think it 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:00.600 was we were gonna go mini golfing and I insisted, 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:03.320 but we had to stay home for Wishbone first, and as. 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:06.520 A twenty five year old a mere puff myself, I 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:10.120 got to write for Wishbone. I've told people that writing 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:12.840 for the show was like an assignment from an English 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:13.840 professor on assets. 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:14.640 It totally was. 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:19.560 So much went into this show to make it a hit, 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.120 but none of it would have worked without the top dog. 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:31.320 I think every movie star has eyes that tell stories, 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:34.320 and Soccer had the most amazing dog eyes. 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:37.440 He was a magic little creature man, he really was. 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:39.480 He looked so good on camera. 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:42.480 I shouldn't say this, so he wasn't the smartest dog 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:46.520 I've ever turned, but he was so devoted once he 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:49.880 learned it. He would walk on water for me. He 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:54.119 just loved to be out with me working. To him, 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:54.960 it wasn't work. 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:02.000 From CBS Sunday Morning and iHeart I'm Morocca and this 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:09.720 is mobituaries, This mobid Wishbone. June twenty sixth, two thousand 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:18.840 and one. Death of a working dog. All right, So 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:21.920 what was Wishbone about. Well, let's have some fans who 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:23.440 grew up with the show explain. 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:29.400 So it was called Wishbone, and it was this little dog, 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:30.680 Jack Russell Terrier. 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:35.200 Wishbone has a love for classic literature. 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:39.000 And then he would like magically transport himself into stories. 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:41.880 Wishbone is a children's television show that aired on PBS's 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:43.560 the nineteen nineties, and it is the only. 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:45.359 Reason why I ever passed in English class because I 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:46.359 did not do the reading. 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:50.400 Okay, now my turn. The show was about a dog 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:54.960 named Wishbone who lived in a town called Oakdale. Wishbone 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:57.520 would get into all sorts of adventures with his owner, 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:00.640 a boy named Joe, and the other neighbor hood kids, 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:04.719 and those adventures would remind Wishbone of stay with me 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:09.200 here stories from classic literature. It could be a novel 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:13.360 like Treasure Island, and epic poem like Homer's Odyssey in 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:15.800 African folk tale like Anansi the Spider. 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:16.920 Wishbone read a lot. 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:19.200 He didn't waste time watching TV, just go with it, 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:23.760 and so each episode alternated between Wishbone living his regular 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.320 life in Oakdale and his fantasy life as the hero 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:32.000 of classic literature. Twin plots thematically connected more about his 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:36.760 fantasy life later. Basically, Wishbone the show was all about story, 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:40.080 but the story of the dog who played Wishbone begins 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:50.279 with an animal trainer named Jackie Captain. Hello Jackie, Yes, 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:51.719 it's Moe. 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:54.239 Oh my goodnessistant so long. 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:56.760 It's been more than twenty five years. 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:01.200 Jackie's been living off the grid way up in Haynes, Alaska. 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:03.600 You're not easy to get a hold of. 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:08.800 Well, that's the reason I came up here. No, I 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:15.039 retired eight years ago. It's beautiful up here. Good fishing 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:17.760 bears walked through my property. 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:21.520 Do you think the bears know your background with animals 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:22.760 and that they kind of respect it? 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:26.560 Well, I've kind of told them, Look, we're on common 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:29.560 ground here. You leave me alone, I'll leave you alone. 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:33.359 Jackie actually began her career in motion pictures working with 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:36.920 wild animals, including bears, but she learned much of what 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:41.520 she knows about training dogs from famed Hollywood trainer Frank Ann. 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:47.320 I went to work for him, and that was probably 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:51.479 the best experience I had learning how to do dogs 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:52.479 for motion picture. 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:56.680 Frank Inn worked on Lassie, I Love Lucy. He trained 0:06:56.720 --> 0:07:00.400 Audrey Hepburn's orange tabby cat in Breakfast to Tiffany's. He 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:04.280 wrangled all five hundred of the animals comprising LIMEE. Clampitt's 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:07.599 cast of critters on the Beverly Hillbillies. Critters will new 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:11.080 things for that girl, wouldn't do for nobody else. Here 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:13.880 he is training the lovable mutt who's starred in the 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:14.800 Benji movies. 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.720 Come on, nudget, Benji, Please, come on, come on, nudget, nudget. 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:23.480 Good kid, Look here, feet up, stay a spe And. 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:27.640 He just was this larger than life character, big man 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:31.000 with a big hand of our mustache and a captain's hat. 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:33.400 And you just couldn't forget him if he ever saw 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:34.200 him work a dog. 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:38.960 Frank Inn helped Jackie launch her own career. She worked 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:43.440 on the nineteen eighty three horror movie Kujojo about a 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:49.640 rabbit Saint Bernard Kuser, which manner, and she helped Ethan 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:53.000 Hawke bond with a surly wolfhound in White Fang. 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:55.560 Just wanted to pet him. 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:59.680 White Fang was shot up in Haines, Alaska. Jackie says 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:03.440 she you then that one day she'd retire. There have 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:04.760 you got any dogs up there. 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:08.520 I only have one dog left, which is really weird 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:11.720 for me. I have the Beverly Hills Chihuahua Rosa. 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:16.720 Oh my gosh, and remember Rosa. There's nothing wrong with 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:17.600 being different. 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:18.280 Different. 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:19.800 It is just a nice way of saying run. 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:23.280 Yeah. She's twelve now, she only weighs three pounds. 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:27.320 She's the Beverly Hills Chihuaba and she's living in Haines, Alaska, 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:28.480 surrounded by grizzlies. 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:30.000 How's that working out? 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:32.880 Well, she doesn't go out much, I mean, because everything 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:35.320 wants to get her, the eagles, I mean, you know, 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:37.760 so she pretty much just stays in the cabin. 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:38.880 Oh my god. 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:41.800 But Jackie, I know you're retired, but this just screams 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:45.240 out for a Beverly Hills Chihuaba sequel, I mean, escape 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:46.120 to Alaska. 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:50.080 I know it does, doesn't it. I like that idea. 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:53.800 Jackie met the dog who would one day play Wishbone 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:56.640 back in nineteen eighty eight in Connecticut when he was 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:58.560 just a week old, and. 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:01.160 I said, that is the cutest pubby I've ever seen. 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:05.120 Jackie took him home that very day and named him Soccer. 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:09.240 But because of Soccer's markings, brown patches around his left 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:12.679 eye and right ear. Casting directors thought he looked too 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:16.400 much like the Little Rascals dog Pete. Pretty soon it 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:20.480 seemed clear Soccer's acting career was going nowhere. 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:23.160 Yeah, he didn't do much at all until he did 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:25.920 Wishbone and he was six or seven. 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:29.000 I think six or seven in dog years. 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:30.000 You do the math. 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:34.480 He was getting up there has been without ever having. 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.680 Been my husband. And all my friends were like, really, Jaggy, 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.400 why do you spend so much time training on this dog. 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:43.280 I like this dog. He's my buddy. I don't care 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:46.760 if he ever works. I like this dog. And they'd 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:50.520 all laugh at man. I'm telling you, one day, this 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:54.319 dog is going to get what he deserves. 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:57.600 In nineteen ninety three, auditions for the lead role in 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:02.240 Wishbone were announced, Butackie was tied up on another project. 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:06.480 I was in Montana working on River Wild. 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:09.040 And she wasn't particularly interested. 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:11.480 I'm tied up on a feature movie. 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:15.400 Here, you know, sidebar. I loved the River Wild, an 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:19.080 action adventure starring a buff Meryl Streep opposite an evil 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:19.880 Kevin Bacon. 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:21.680 Woo woo woo. 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:26.960 You the dog expended who right, now who, I think I'll. 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:29.280 Go oh oo oo oo. 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:30.560 The dog who. 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:36.560 But the Wishbone team liked Soccer's look and prevailed on 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:40.319 Jackie to bring him in for an audition, and Soccer 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:41.319 wowed them. 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:43.839 He wasn't just charming, he. 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:47.200 Pulled off all of his tricks with the cool, confidence, 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:51.360 even cockiness of a jung Claude van Dam. He sealed 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:53.959 the deal with a backflip, which you can see in 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:57.520 the show's opening credits. Now, Jackie could get Soccer to 0:10:57.559 --> 0:10:59.280 do a lot, but she couldn't make him. 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:04.320 Actually, when I first was asked to audition to be 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:06.719 the voice of Wishbone, I had no idea what the 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:07.320 show was. 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:10.800 That became the job of stand up comic and voiceover 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:12.440 actor Larry Brantley. 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:15.160 And I've done this my whole life with animals. I 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:17.800 watch an animal and I think I know what they're thinking. 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:20.360 I don't know why I think that, but I'm just 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:22.440 I'm convinced I know what's going on in that tiny 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:25.240 little head, and I'm pretty good at verbalizing it. 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:28.960 Wishbone had his voice, and so in the summer of 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:32.880 nineteen ninety four, trainer Jackie Captain packed her bags and 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:37.120 Soccer for the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, where Wishbone would 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:40.440 be filmed. I know, Texas in the summer. It's not pretty. 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:44.640 But any skepticism Jackie might have felt had melted away. 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:48.160 She was now sold on the idea of the show. 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:52.600 You know, this could be the last thing that I do, 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:58.720 and it seems like it's important. It's educationalal for children, 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:01.480 it'll get them to read again. And it would just 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:05.200 hit me, it drew me, and it was like this 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:09.280 little dog could really bring this alive. Of course, Soccer 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:11.959 would never go with anybody else. He'd always been. 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:13.440 With me, so you had to be there. 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:13.920 Well. 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:18.320 I mean, he was a great little dog, but he 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:21.080 had a soft side to him. And if I wasn't there, 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:24.920 I don't know that he would have danced the jig 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:25.600 like he did. 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:28.800 And in fact, he did dance jigs. I mean he 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:30.800 did kind of every behavior. 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:31.160 Really. 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:34.640 Oh, there was times when we do production meetings that 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:39.000 I'd take really, folks in my head, he doesn't have thumbs. 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:40.640 I don't know how he's going to shoot a bow 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:43.960 and arrow. It was like, oh, my goodness, who wrote this? 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:45.080 Well? 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:47.400 I was one of the people who wrote for Wishbone, 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:49.959 and writing for this dog would end up being one 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:53.240 of the most formative experiences of my life. 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:57.559 Did you ever think you'd end up writing for a dog? 0:12:58.600 --> 0:12:58.760 No? 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:01.839 I didn't, No, I did not. 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:07.600 That's my friend Stephanie Simpson. She was Wishbone's supervising producer, 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:09.439 story editor, and head writer. 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:13.520 However, in the early days, when I was trying to 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:17.960 figure out how to do it, I remembered that I 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:21.320 had always made up dialogue and sort of monologues for 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:25.080 our cat, and so in thinking about Wishbone, I don't know, 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:27.360 it just seemed natural. Suddenly, I have to say, to 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:33.760 write Wishbone someone's pet as having this very rich inner 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:36.520 life that you were not aware of. 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:39.920 Over my career, I've been fortunate to work for a 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:44.000 few people who put everything they humanly could into making 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:47.120 something good, who wouldn't let up until it was as 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:50.760 right as it could be. But Stephanie has been singular 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:54.360 in my life. She taught me more than anyone how 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:59.200 to tell a story. If Soccer had Jackie, I had Stephanie. 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:02.880 Sephanie had majored in Russian literature at Yale and earned 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:06.679 a Masters in drama at Harvard. She was perfectly trained 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:10.840 for this bizarre task. Of course, she couldn't do it alone. 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:15.520 And that's when I got the call. At the time, 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:18.080 I was in a production of South Pacific at New 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:19.800 Jersey's paper Mill Playhouse. 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:26.680 We got volleyball, any games we got. 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:34.080 Stephanie brought me down to Dallas to interview with Wishbone 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:38.240 executive producer Rick Duffield, who hired me as a staff writer. 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:43.280 I began working with Stephanie in what felt like a 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:48.000 storytelling boot camp. Now, as I explained earlier, each episode 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:50.920 of the show connected a modern day storyline in the 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:54.800 fictional town of Oakdale to a different work of classic literature. 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:58.720 Here's Wishbone as Romeo in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:00.800 Who is her mother? 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:03.920 Her mother is the lady of the house? 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:07.200 Oh, Lady of the Ooh is she a capulate? 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:10.920 Who is that gentleman? His name is Romeo? 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.800 Now in the contemporary plot line for that episode, one 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:17.960 of the neighborhood kids, Samantha, falls in love with a 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:21.200 beagle named Rosie at the local pound and wants to 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:23.760 adopt her. Would you're dad that. 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:25.920 You have a go if you sell this dog? 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:26.720 He couldn't say no. 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.360 The contemporary world was a way to show that there 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:33.400 were themes and ideas in these in these great books 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:37.440 that could be translated into a kid's life. So you 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:39.680 could fall in love with the dog at the pound, 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:44.280 and suddenly that could be the story of Romeo and Juliet. 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:47.680 Now there wasn't going to be a suicide in the 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:51.520 contemporary story as there is in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:54.880 But there could be heartbreak. There could be a dog 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:58.280 is adopted before you are able to adopt it. 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:03.280 Sam. Sorry, I know how much you liked Rosie. 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:05.680 And so you have to deal with some kind of loss. 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:07.160 I'm glad she's okay. 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:09.320 I mean, she really needed to get home. 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:10.440 For me. 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:15.400 The exciting thing was trying to match the thread to 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:18.600 what I thought would capture a kid's imagination and also 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:21.480 their hearts. What would they care the most about? 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:27.440 And it never occurred to you that an episode should 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:31.920 with all due respect, because I have nothing against Cliff's notes, 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:35.280 and they pronounced Cliff's notes, and for somebody who has trouble. 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:36.600 With essays, it's a lot of essays. 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:41.440 But anyway, but because it could have been in other hands, 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:43.000 it would have been Okay, we're going to do the 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:45.920 totality of this book in the half hour. 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:50.520 No, that never Actually, I never felt pressure to do that. 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:53.280 What I felt pressure to do was to get someone 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:56.200 to fall in love with the idea. 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:57.720 Of the book. The idea of the book. 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:00.200 The idea of the book, not the plot, the lot 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:02.760 of the because there's only so many plots in the world. 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:05.399 Plot really, to me, in a book is not the point. 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:09.320 The point is how the author has taken a set 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:13.560 of events and made them mean something different than they've 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:17.240 ever met before because of who exactly is doing them 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:19.320 and why they're doing them. 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:23.160 If LeVar Burton's show Reading Rainbow was teaching kids how 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:27.359 to read, Wishbone was showing kids why great books matter. 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:30.800 And to me, it's not like the authors of these 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:34.000 books never wrote them so that the books themselves would 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:40.480 be kind of locked away from everyday people. I mean 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:44.400 no offense to literature majors, but I think it would 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:47.840 be very disappointing for Savantes to find out that only 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:53.240 a small group of select students at a university we're 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:56.280 reading don Quixote. That would be super sad for him. 0:17:56.800 --> 0:18:01.520 That's a work that's so sprawling, many ideas there. 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:04.200 Its like so long to read it, mo, and I had, 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:05.479 you know, maybe three days. 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:13.160 Servante's's Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is about 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:17.920 an idealistic man chasing the impossible dream of becoming a knight. 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:22.000 In the Wishbone version, Joe chases a long shot of 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:23.760 his own eighty. 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:27.080 Six consecutive free throws in five minutes. That's all I 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:30.440 need to hold the record for any kid. N there's sixteen. 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:35.080 Then i'd be in the Encyclopedia of World Records. 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:36.800 Do you really think it's possible. 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:42.199 Sure, Joe was trying to make a certain number of 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:46.120 baskets and he was having trouble. He would get nervous 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:50.400 and choke. He imagined that his life would be amazing 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:54.119 if he could just achieve this one great thing, and 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:55.840 in the end he doesn't achieve it. 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.960 You were great, but I didn't do the impossible. 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:03.160 I'm not going down in history or anything. 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:08.320 I'm not extraordinary. Hey, you don't have to perform impossible 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:09.680 feats to be extraordinary. 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:15.119 Just live your life. Life is an ongoing adventure. 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.720 But it was the act of trying that matters. 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:22.439 I've told people that writing for the show was like 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:25.200 an assignment from an English professor on Assey. 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:28.639 It totally was Yes, you are so right, that's a 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:31.840 perfect way to describe it. And what's so funny mo 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:34.520 is looking back on it, I realized how crazy it was, 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:37.239 but at the time when we were doing it, I 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:40.439 didn't think it was that crazy, and it didn't seem 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:41.600 nuts until later. 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:45.240 To pull this nutty premise off, we had to stick 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:49.320 to some hard and fast rules. For example, yes, Wishbone talks, 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:53.080 thanks to Larry Brantley, but human characters in Wishbone's life 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:56.400 in Oakdale don't hear him. Only the lucky viewers hear 0:19:56.440 --> 0:19:59.840 what he's thinking. But when Wishbone is imagining himself as 0:19:59.840 --> 0:20:03.240 a character in a book, he's acting opposite human actors 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:04.400 who can hear him. 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:07.560 Mister Darcy, we should be a darling and escorted me 0:20:07.600 --> 0:20:08.280 to the punch bow. 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:12.280 Yes, of course, excuse us, miss Mega the minute. 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:13.119 Sorry. 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:17.800 Part of what was so what was so well immediately 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:21.439 funny was that in the fantasy sequences that Wishbone was 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:22.280 treated as a human. 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:25.240 I imagine really that Wishbone was a kid. It was 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:28.399 a stand in for a kid who when they act 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.720 out stories and they're the star of the movie or 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:36.120 the comic book in their imaginations, or when they're playing 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:38.920 it out with their friends, nobody stops and goes, well, 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:42.480 you're a kid doing this. You're a kid, not a king. 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:46.280 It's funnier that the dog just takes it for granted 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:50.879 that he's doing it and this is his imagination, and 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:53.439 everyone will treat him in his imagination the way he 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:55.480 would expect to be treated. 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:58.000 People love the show so much, you know. 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:01.600 It makes me so happy. And one of my goals 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:03.119 and one of the things I think I said to 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:05.440 you and to the whole crew and we were starting, 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:10.679 is we have an opportunity to be the first people 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:15.360 to introduce these stories and images into a child's imagination. 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:19.320 And I had to tell you also, Stephanie. You know, 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:25.000 for all these years since the project, anything I've tried 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:28.359 to do, I end up going back to wish Phone 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:32.680 and what I learned from you and working on that, 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:35.400 and you know, jack to make me grow well now, 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:40.359 but Jackie, you know, talking about training wish Phone, I thought, 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:42.080 I know, this is a weird way to put it, 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:46.120 but it was like Stephanie trained me really because I 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:49.439 came into it and you know it was I realized 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:51.640 I didn't know what I was doing at first, and 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:55.719 I am so grateful to you for I'm getting emotional, 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:56.720 but I'm so grateful. 0:21:58.080 --> 0:21:58.480 Thank you. 0:21:58.600 --> 0:21:58.639 Mo. 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:01.679 Well, I'm I'm so grateful to hear you say that, 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:06.239 because I was under a lot of pressure and it 0:22:06.359 --> 0:22:07.240