What's the story, Wishbone?

The other day, I was flipping channels after work while I waited for Adam to get home from class, and I came upon some kid's channel that we get via our DTV box. Instantly, I recognized the current program's music: it was the classic PBS show "Wishbone," which my sisters and I used to watch all the time when we were little!

In case you aren't familiar with the show, the main character is a Jack Russell Terrier named Wishbone, who lives with his middle school-aged owner, Joe, and Joe's widowed mom, Ellen, in a small Texas town. Wishbone can "speak" (his mouth doesn't move, but a voice actor provides his running commentary on the action), but his owners can't hear him— only the audience and the characters in Wishbone's daydreams can. See, Wishbone often imagines himself in a great works of literature— Sancho Panza in Don Quixote, for example, or Odysseus in The Odyssey. The little dog links what is happening in his family's lives with a similar story in literature— like when Joe begins helping the lunch lady at school take cafeteria leftovers to the food bank despite a command from the vice principal to throw it all away, Wishbone imagines himself as Robin Hood and tells the story of that book as the action in the "real world" unfolds.

When I was little, "Wishbone" was one of our favorite shows in our house. My sisters and I would sing along with the theme song, and sometimes we'd act out our favorite parts of the story afterwards. I think what I really loved about the show was that it never talked down to me— it wasn't encouraging me to read kids' books or picture books (those are great, too, of course, but I was a pretty advanced reader), but real, classic, adult novels. As a result, I was never intimidated by classic literature, and I left all the local librarians nonplussed as I walked up to the checkout desk at age seven with thick novels stacked high in my little arms. I guarantee that I was the only nine-year-old whose Barbies suffered the cruelties of Lowood Institution before becoming governesses and falling for the charms of Mr. Ken Rochester.

But what I also liked about the show was that few of the issues or the actions in the books were sugarcoated. People died, or were kidnapped, or had babies out of wedlock in these novels, and the show didn't attempt to hide that fact. The sad parts of the novels— and the scary parts— were never edited out, but were usually just explained in ways that made them accessible to kids.

When I discovered the program again a few days ago, I sat down to watch, and was glad to see that the show was every bit as great as I remembered. It instilled wonderful values (generosity, kindness, independence, equality) without getting preachy, and it stayed faithful to the literary works it was discussing. I can see now why the show inspired me to pick up so many classic books— in many ways, "Wishbone" prevented me from being intimidated by the idea of reading adult novels, and convinced me that grown-up books could be just as action-packed and interesting as kids' ones, especially if I took the time to really read them in their entirety.

A few years ago, in college, I was in a survey course that I particularly hated; it was an infamous course in the English department, because it was the only class required of ALL English majors, and it was basically a "here are the great works of literature that you should have read by now" sort of thing, which obviously lent itself to dissent and disapproval (everyone was disappointed that at least one of their favorite works didn't make the cut, and was annoyed that some of the ones that DID make it in were books they had never really enjoyed). In that class, we were supposed to read Don Quixote, a book I had never actually read for myself before, and I found myself dreading it. But as I began reading, I realized that I couldn't imagine Don Quixote without Wishbone! The whole time I was reading, Wishbone was there in my mind, acting out the role of Sancho Panza with his adorable little doggie hat on his head. And I realized that the story was familiar to me— that it wasn't some dry, dull work I had avoided because it sounded silly, but rather a rich piece filled with humor and pathos, a story that I had known since childhood even if I had never before laid eyes on the actual book.

Wishbone has truly affected my life in a positive way, I think, and I believe this says great things for the potential of educational television. To this day, many facets of my personality come from the books I've read; I mean, a big part of my attempt to always be kind and friendly to everyone I meet comes from having read Francis Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess, which I read at age six or seven, I believe. And without that encouragement towards reading what I wanted to read regardless of what was considered "appropriate" for my age, who knows what I might have missed? And who knows if I would have developed as quickly and successfully as I did without the extra intellectual advantage that early serious reading gave me?

What are some of the TV shows, books, or movies that really helped to shape you as a kid?