Citizen Kane-ine

Happy Anni-hearse-ary™ to Emmy® award-winning canine thespian Wishbone! This beloved, Mensa-level Jack Russell terrier was a veteran commercial actor for brands like Mighty Dog® dog food, Massengil® dog douche and Trojan® lubricated dog condoms, before landing the breakout role on the docu-drama which bore his name. Airing from 1995 to 1998, “Wishbone” purported to be children’s fare, but with themes paralleling famous stories from folklore and classic literature — Dog Quixote, The Old Dog and The Sea, The Doghouse of Seven Gables, The Houndstooth Jacket of the Baskervilles — the show had great appeal among the intelligentsia — which is to say, book-reading coffee drinkers — as well as the usual suspects here at the station house. Indeed, Yours Truly Dooley® learned more about history from this intrepid, four-legged time-traveller than any tight-lipped school marm or tight-arsed TED® chatterbox I've suffered through online. Wishbone was a natural on-screen, slipping into characters sight unseen. Considered to be the John Barrymore of talking actor dogs — his portrayal of Robin Hood put Kenneth Costner’s to bloody shame — Wishbone, alas, retired from the stage and screen to attend Phoenix University, a phony baloney correspondence college that attempted to trade on his celebrity via a testimonial advert, which Wishbone refused to star in, as he couldn’t bring himself to utter, “I am a Phoenix” with a straight face. He passed away on June 26, 2001 at age 91 (in human years, which is to say, 13 x 7). RIP, Citizen Kane-ine!