Wishbone was a beloved PBS series that originally aired in the mid-1990s. It used its star and host, a Jack Russel terrier named Wishbone, to introduce works of classic literature to an entire generation. From Sherlock Holmes to The Odyssey, Romeo & Juliet and Robin Hood, each episode combined live-action storytelling with literary adaptations featuring a small dog in a costume acting alongside humans.
For many viewers, Wishbone wasn’t just a television show. Fans still remember episodes decades later because the series made books feel like an adventure. A new documentary, What’s the Story, Wishbone? goes behind the scenes to show what it took to make these stories come to life. There’s archival footage, interviews with the cast and creators, plus more to tell the story of how a scrappy public television production became a cultural touchstone that still resonates today.
The film is presented by Novel Tails, a production company founded by members of the original Wishbone cast and crew, who've been working on the documentary for the past 10 years according to director and original series assistant director, Joey Stewart.
"Betty [Buckley] and I were on a film years ago when we started just talking shop about how [Wishbone is] the main thing people keep talking to us about, and so I said well hey why don't we try and get the series going again?," he recalls.
Development for the series dragged on, but the 30th anniversary of the TV show prompted the team to shift their focus to making the documentary. "Companies were very interested, but they wanted control of the documentary and we said, 'Well, we want to tell our story, so we don't need those people.' So we just decided to do it ourselves," adds Stewart.
Betty Buckley, a producer on the original Wishbone series as well as the new documentary, worked with series creator Rick Duffield from the very beginning. "At one point, it was going to be a bulldog in New Orleans, and we didn't know if we could use the title Wishbone," she recalls. "And basically, there was a lot of energy and excitement about using the idea of Wishbone and taking it into a more kind of everyday neighborhood... We just decided we're going to make one [episode] - let's write the pilot, let's figure out what this world is. So that's where it started."
It was Buckley's job to build the team, which "was a joy to pull together, but it was actually making the dog work and the story work that was the biggest challenge," she adds. One key casting decision was choosing a dog to play Wishbone, and a Jack Russel terrier named Soccer was the very last dog they saw out of about one hundred. "He did that little flip and I remember being in my hotel room going, 'I like this one!'"
For Larry Brantley, voice of Wishbone and co-producer of the documentary, this series was his very first voice acting job. He knew "literally not a thing" about the job before the audition. "I do remember walking in [for the call back] and seeing Betty Buckley, Rick Duffield, Bert Guthrie, Stephanie Simpson for the first time along with Jackie Kaptan and Soccer. And that was when I realized that, oh, this is a real live dog! And then I got even more scared because I thought, how is this going to work?"
Ultimately Brantley's playful voice for Wishbone made him the right fit, but he quickly learned that voicing Wishbone was going to be an intensive challenge. "The greatest thing for me as a very inexperienced actor was the moment of the first table read, which was for 'Twisted Tail' because the first episode we shot was Oliver Twist," he notes. "I remember walking in, sitting down... and when we started to do the table read ... the first thing that my brain said to me was, 'You've got to become a better actor fast.'... I mean [the cast was] trained, seasoned, experienced [theater] actors and they automatically started making me better... and they became really good friends, which is kind of more important if I'm being honest."
The Wishbone series didn't stand out just because of the unique format of telling classic tales through the eyes of an imaginative dog — it was also a massive production accomplishment. The first season had 40 episodes, even though the norm at the time for a children's television series was 26 episodes. Wishbone episodes were set in time periods ranging from 4000 BC to the 1920s with the sets to match it, including 124 dog costumes for Soccer. Each episode was also shot on 16mm film and the attention to detail made for a truly immersive viewer experience.
"Nobody told us that we couldn't, so we did. And I think that was a huge dynamic of the way we created the show."Larry Brantley, voice of Wishbone the dog and producer of "What's the Story, Wishbone?"
"I think there's a truism in life that a lot of times ignorance truly is bliss," says Brantley. "Nobody told us that we couldn't, so we did. And I think that was a huge dynamic of the way we created the show." Nearly everyone involved in Wishbone were young filmmakers at the start of their careers, and in many ways were built the production procedure during each episode they made.
According to Buckley, each episode started with the writing team choosing stories that were both under public domain and had themes that would work for the dog. After scripts were finalized, contemporary and fantasy sets were designed and built before filming one episode per week, which "absolutely was insane," Buckley admits.
The entire production was also centralized in one location in the Dallas, Tex. area and the series kept an ensemble group of local theater actors to continuously be cast in the fantasy stories.
"What was really unique is what we created was all brand new because it was such a different process," notes Buckley. "An actor on set with a dog, these two complete stories - we called it the fantasy set and the contemporary set. So that's what sort of less experience created a new experience of what worked. So we were just trying to find our way with what worked... It was a white-knuckle ride to be honest."
Soccer the dog was also viewed as another actor on set, according to Brantley. "Everybody just played it that way... Every so often within that fantasy scene, Soccer would break character and address the fourth wall, and just remind people that we're playing. We're having fun and the whole experience of this story is joy and play."
"Just watching the dog be the dog — he gave me more inspiration by what he was able to accomplish on a camera than anything. He was that good," he adds.
During the making of Wishbone the cast and crew were hard at work in their production bubble, knowing they were creating something unique. However, they didn't quite realize the show's impact until after the first season dropped. For Brantley, going on tour across the country with Soccer the dog was the first moment the impact of the show truly clicked.
"I remember the very first live appearance we ever did was at the PBS station at Atlanta, Georgia, and of course, Jackie Captain [Soccer's trainer] was there... the level of excitement at that appearance was unbelievable. I was not prepared for it, and all subsequent. Places where we went, that just kept getting bigger and bigger... Please keep in mind, this is pre-internet days, this is pre-social media days. So this was becoming a thing simply by dent of the fact that it was airing on PBS stations across the country."
For Stewart, he didn't realize the impact the show had until he was working on another show as an AD after Wishbone.
"You know, I'd heard from my parents and my family how great they thought the show was and some magazine articles came out and things like that. But it was not until I immediately jumped to another [set] that it was just the main focus of what the crew would say was like, 'Oh my God, you did Wishbone? That's such a fantastic show!' And it was one after another after another... Slowly it dawned on me how special it was."
Stewart says the the documentary, much like the show, was "a joy" to put together and hopes that audiences can feel their love for the project.
"When you're making a film, you never know how it's gonna hit," he notes. "As the word is getting out, the feedback has just been huge and exceptional."
"It's just been fun to be a part of a new process, you know, just like creating the show," adds Buckley.
For Brantley, What's the Story, Wishbone? is dedicated to the whole cast and crew who came together to make something truly magical.
"That's a big part of the reason why I agreed to co-produce this film, is because it was way past time for every single one of those folks to have their story told and to lift the curtain up," he says. "Yes, this show has a lasting legacy; yes, kids have grew up with a lifelong love of reading, they're passing that onto their children now. Here are the people who made that possible — stand up and give them some applause. That was it for me."
You can watch What's the Story, Wishbone? on public television stations from May 27 – June 9, and the film will be available to rent or buy on major digital platforms on June 10.
