Wishbone's Dog Days of the West is a feature-length telefilm that aired on PBS

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

 in 1998. It was shot in Galisteo

Galisteo, New Mexico

Galisteo is a census-designated place in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, United States. It is part of the Santa Fe, New Mexico Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 265 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...

 and Santa Fe

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...

, New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

. Apache

Apache

Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...

/Mexican actor Adan Sanchez appeared as Dan Bloodgood. His earlier role on that series was Lee Natonabah in its episode Dances with Dogs, a parody title of Dances with Wolves

Dances with Wolves

Dances with Wolves is a 1990 epic western film directed by and starring Kevin Costner. It is a film adaptation of the 1988 book of the same name by Michael Blake and tells the story of a Union Army Lieutenant who travels to the American frontier to find a military post, and his dealings with a...

. He died three months later in Albuquerque

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...

.

Plot

Long Bill Longley and his best friend, Tom Merwin (Brent Anderson), team up to stop a bad guy named Calliope Catesby. Meanwhile, a sneaky TV reporter tries to make Wanda Gilmore (Angee Hughes

Angee Hughes

Angee Hughes is an American actress who has appeared in film, television and theatre productions. She is best known for her role as Wanda Gilmore on the PBS series Wishbone and the film Wishbone's Dog Days of the West....

) seem as if she's the town tyrant. It is up to Wishbone and his friends to come to Wanda's rescue.

Reception

The movie won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design in 1998. It was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Costume Design/Styling, Outstanding Directing in a Children's Special, and Outstanding Main Title Design in 1998. A Common Sense Media review says, "The pleasing visuals and fast-moving, double-trouble plots make Dog Days of the West one of the best in the Wishbone series. The value of friendship is emphasized in this episode; the show exposes children to O. Henry's short stories and infuses the traditional western with an updated perspective. As unlikely as it seems, Wishbone's wild west fable blends nicely with the contemporary story of a TV reporter running roughshod over one of Oakdale's finest citizens. With two fast moving plots, finely drawn characters and exciting historical visuals, Dog Days of the West will keep kids, and many adults, glued to the screen".