| The Hunchdog of Notre Dame | |
|---|---|
| Season 1, Episode 14 | |
| |
| Air date | October 26, 1995 |
| Written by | Jack Wesley |
| Directed by | Ben Vaughn |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous Sniffing the Gauntlet |
Next Golden Retrieved |
The Hunchdog of Notre Dame is the 14th Wishbone episode. It was aired on October 26, 1995.
In this episode, the boys become jealous when Samantha befriends and helps an awkward boy named Nathaniel Bobelesky.
The story in this episode is The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo.
Plot[]
The episode opens at the basketball court of Sequoia Elementary School, now fashioned into a rollerblade hockey arena. Wishbone sits on the bench, desperately wanting to play the game, while his owner Joe and his friends David and Sam play a practice round against Damont and his team.
Wishbone then wonders why humans are so fascinated with wheels. He thinks that people use wheels because they can only make do with 2 feet, unlike Wishbone, who has 4. As Sam rolls into the offside, Wishbone gets up and moves out of the way.
The practice round ends, and Damont decides to choose sides and play for real. As Damont picks Colby and Joe picks Sarah, one kid is left standing without a team: Nathaniel Bobelesky.
The hockey teams
Despite being short a player, Damont refuses to take him because Nathaniel is evidently clumsy at skating. Sam decides to sit out so that Nathaniel join, but Joe doesn't want her to as she's part of the core team. In the end, Nathaniel, who doesn't want to start any problems, offers to sit out, but loses his balance and falls. Damont's team laughs at him with no sympathy.
As Wishbone looks on with sympathy at Nathaniel, he is reminded of Quasimodo, the lonely, deaf, hunchbacked bell-ringer from the novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a novel written by Victor Hugo. While thinking about the book, Damont tells Wishbone, who was sleeping, to get off his towel. Wishbone does so, and Damont wipes his face with it.
The hockey game commences, with Nathaniel's clumsiness being a hindrance to Joe's team; he collides with Joe, and tries to get up and falls back down again. Eventually, this comes to a head when Damont rapidly spins around Nathaniel, making him dizzy enough to fall back down again, publicly humiliating him. As Damont's team laughs unsympathetically at Nathaniel, Sam arrives and helps him up. Sam and Nathaniel prepare to leave, and Joe asks Sam where she's going. Sam replies that she's going to teach Nathaniel how to skate properly, sparking reactions from Joe, Wishbone, Nathaniel himself, and Damont. Sam tells them that he just needs some lessons and practice. Nathaniel agrees, and the two leave. Damont skates over to Joe and David, and mockingly says "Well, this is an interesting development now, is it?"
At Joe's house, Wishbone, Joe, and David are all bored because they haven't seen Sam in 6 days (or according to Wishbone, 6 1/2 days), as she hasn't returned from teaching Nathaniel how to skate properly. Joe's mom Ellen suggests that maybe Nathaniel is Sam's new boyfriend. David denies this, but Joe isn't so sure, as Sam's never acted like this before. Wishbone walks off to find Sam and Nathaniel, and finds both of them walking into Sam's house.
Nathaniel and Sam
As Wishbone follows them into the house, Nathaniel says that he doesn't think that he'll get better at hockey, as he falls down every time he skates. He also says that he really wants to break the ice with his teammates. Sam assures him that he will.
As Sam goes to get Nathaniel some water, Nathaniel looks at a picture of Sam's father. He thinks that it must be nice to have a father to teach Sam how to skate or play basketball. Nathaniel's parents split up when he was 7, and since then, he has been raised by his mom. Sam understands, as her parents divorced as well. She shows Nathaniel a glass unicorn that her parents gave her on her birthday; the last keepsake she has of her parents before they divorced. It reminds her of the great times they had together.
Meanwhile, Wishbone notices Sam's skateboard, which he had tried to play with during the practice round at the beginning of the episode. Wishbone thinks that it might be interesting to ride the skateboard, so he rides the skateboard into the hallway, catching Sam's attention. In a rush, Nathaniel gets up, accidentally knocking the keepsake out of Sam's hand and into the air. As it sails towards the ground, Nathaniel jumps to the ground and catches it just in time. Sam congratulates Wishbone for helping discover Nathaniel's catching skill.
At the hockey game the next day, Joe and David are still morose over having not seen Sam in a week. As Damont approaches them, so does Wishbone. Joe wonders what Wishbone is so excited about just as Sam and Nathaniel walk in, dressed in hockey gear. Sam introduces Nathaniel as the new best hockey player, but Nathaniel is having second thoughts. As Sam reassures him, Joe and David pull her aside.
Joe's team wins the game
Joe and David confront Sam about abandoning them for Nathaniel, and Sam explains to them that Nathaniel just needs a friend, and that Joe and David are still her best friends. Finally realizing this, Joe then asks if she and Nathaniel are boyfriend and girlfriend, to which she says no. Joe is still dubious about Nathaniel joining the team because of his inability, but Sam tells him "appearances can be deceiving".
The game begins with Nathaniel stationed as goalie for Joe's team, still doubting his ability. When Damont makes a pass to Colby, who swings at the goal, Nathaniel closes his eyes, and then opens them to find that he caught the ball. As time passes, Nathaniel gets better at blocking the shots. The final shot comes in when Damont skates towards Nathaniel and tries to swing it in. Nathaniel catches the ball, surprising Damont so much that he falls down and almost slides into the goalpost; Joe's team wins the game.
Joe and the others marvel at Nathaniel's ability, and Damont approaches Nathaniel threateningly, but calms down and respects Nathaniel's ability, and calls for him to be goalie for his team next game, but Sam says that Joe picked Nathaniel and Damont didn't, and David adds that a team that plays together stays together, so Nathaniel stays on Joe's team.
Cast[]
Oakdale[]
- Soccer as Wishbone
- Larry Brantley as the voice of Wishbone
- Mary Chris Wall as Ellen Talbot
Joe's team[]
- Jordan Wall as Joe Talbot
- Christie Abbott as Sam Kepler
- Adam Springfield as David Barnes
- Justin Reese as Nathaniel Bobelesky
- Melissa Archer as Sarah Johnson
Damont's Team[]
- Joe Duffield as Damont Jones
- unknown as Colby
Hunchback of Notre Dame[]
- Soccer as Quasimodo
- Larry Brantley as the voice of Quasimodo
- Sean Hennigan as Dom Claude Frollo
- Lanell Pena as Esmeralda
- Sonny Franks as Male reveler
- Jenny Pichanick as Femaler reveler
- Christopher Carlos as Policeman
Tail-Ends[]
Wishbone talks about visual effects in photography.
In the execution scene, Victor Hugo describes the mob as "thousands of heads piled in heaps, something like the balls in a park of artillery".
For filming, they cast about 20 extras, or actors used for background shots to make it look realistic.
Caris Palm Turpin photgraphed the scenes in the courtyard in 8 different sections. This is called a "zone shot", meaning that each section of people was shot in their own zone. After filming, the different zone shots were combined into one big group.
Trivia[]
- This episode only shows the first part and last part of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. The large middle section that they left out is much more complicated, with dark destiny, social inequality, and religious angles. This would have been much darker for a kids TV show, so they stuck with the lesson of understanding and acceptances.
- Much like Disney's 1996 animated version, Quasimodo and Esmeralda both survive at the end. Frollo does not perish in this production.
- Captain Phoebus and Clopin Trouillefou were never shown in this version
- The statue shown on the Cathedral of Notre Dame is that of the bloodhound from Episode 8, with stone wings attached.
- Joe's hockey team use Franklin Street hockey sticks.
- In this episode, Damont wears a black Mylec helmet with chinstraps, and black Mylec gloves.
- Nathaniel wears red Cooper hockey blockers.
- Damont's hockey team use Easton Aluminum hockey sticks.
- One of Damont's teammates, Colby, wears black Cooper hockey gloves, and the other 2 wear black Mylec gloves.