Pride & Prejudice in 30 minutes?
Wishbone: “Furst Impressions”
Runtime- 30min
Air date- November 9th, 1995
Producer- Betty Buckley
Creator- Rick Duffield
Writers- Vincent Brown
Filming locations- Texas, USA
Where to watch- Youtube
Starring Soccer the Dog as Wishbone, Jordan Wall as Joe Talbot, and Larry Brantley as the voice of Wishbone
Summary
Wishbone, a Jack Russell owned by Joe Talbot, spends his time daydreaming about classic literature. In his daydreams, he plays important lead roles and breaks down important themes. These themes are then applied to the situation Joe is dealing with in real life. Running for two seasons, and out of fifty episodes, only one is dedicated to one of Jane Austen’s works. Season 1, episode 25, “Furst Impressions.” I was very curious when I found that a children’s educational show did an episode of Pride & Prejudice. Even more intrigued that the star of the lead role for this interpretation was performed by a dog, and in 30 minutes!
“Furst Impressions”
I thought this was too cute. Wishbone playing the cold and “rude” Mr. Darcy was too funny and ironically on point. I also was very curious about how they were able to condense a whole complex novel in 30 minutes. I thought for a kid show, they did an excellent job. The other actors and actresses were played by actors who were significantly older than what they were in the book. That to me is okay, for this situation I do not feel the need to harp on it. In my opinion, age or the perceived age of the actor/actress only matters in the aspect of making the story believable. But for Wishbone, I will let this slide.
(Credit: Big Feats! Entertainment)
Costumes
The clothing, I was not a fan. I am no fashion history expert, but the clothes reminded me of American Revolution or possibly earlier Georgian England. Not really the style of Regency England at all.
Theme
I thought they did a clever job with the theme of this show. It does show the conflict of pride and also with prejudice. The way they did it was to have their theme centered around gossip. Gossip leads to misunderstanding and prejudices, which tied to what Joe Talbot was dealing with his friends and the rumors going around.
Jane Austen center the majority of her writing and plots just from hearsay and gossip, it was a prominent way of knowing information, but it was also faulty.
Pride & Prejudice, a novel for adults being converted and translated to a topic that kids may go through was something I wouldn’t initially think of, but it does make so much sense.
Final Thoughts
I feel this is one of those episodes that every Jane Austen fan should see. I don’t believe it will be everyone’s cup of tea, but it is so cute that it should at least be worth watching once. It is a bit difficult to find the episode, and hopefully, the link I share is accessible to everyone.
If you love dogs, check more out here.
View Part 1 of Wishbone: Furst Impressions
