What's the Story, Wishbone?

"What's the story, Wishbone? Do you think it's worth a look? It kinda seems familiar, like a story from a book..."

It's been argued that child literacy has grown drastically since the release of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, but I wonder if the PBS series Wishbone had any effect on literacy for people in my generation.

For those of you who never watched it or haven't heard of it, the Wishbone series follows Joe Talbot and his Jack Russell Terrier, Wishbone. Joe lives with his mom (his dad passed away when he was six) in Oakdale, Texas, and spends most of his time playing basketball and hanging out with his two best friends, David and Samantha. As the kids deal with situations in their day-to-day lives, Wishbone relates what's going on in their lives to a great literary classic, like Great Expectations, The Odyssey, and Robin Hood. The show switches back and forth between the real action in Oakdale and the action in the book. Wishbone would usually play one of the main characters in the book and don a costume to complete the look.

I remember watching the show every afternoon and wanting to read the books they featured on the show. In fact, I chose to read The Red Badge of Courage for a book report in middle school simply because the book was used in an episode. I'd be willing to bet that other kids felt the same way. Now, I enjoyed reading to begin with (mostly Nancy Drew books at the time) but I think that watching the show fueled the fire, so to speak. And I think they should definitely put it back on tv (and not just so I can watch it again).

There's a Wishbone website and a Wikipedia entry that discuss the show, and now even a facebook group called "No, I haven't read that great literary classic--but I've seen the Wishbone!" I think that's true for a lot of people, including myself. There were lots of books on the show that I've never read (like Ivanhoe and Silas Marner) but whenever I'm about to read one in a class, I try to remember if there was a Wishbone episode that explained it.