We develop and produce educational television programs for children and people of all ages. Currently in early development on the documentary “What’s the Story, Wishbone?
Veteran producers and showrunners Betty Buckley, Stephanie Simpson, and Joey Stewart formed "Novel Tails" in order to develop and produce quality educational children's programming. Their partnership began in the 1990's when they ran the Emmy and Peabody award winning television show "Wishbone". After completion of 52 episodes and one feature for Showtime, they continued to partner on multiple projects over the next two decades.
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With a passion for storytelling, Peabody and Emmy award-winning filmmaker Betty Buckley brings her diverse background in film, television, new media, management, and sales to her current role of developer, producer, and media consultant. Early in her career she worked on the production side of feature films such as Tender Mercies (Horton Foote, Bruce Beresford), Deadly Blessing (Wes Craven) and TV movies. Her early creative development efforts in children’s television led to her position as Producer of Emmy award-winning PBS children’s series, Wishbone. Produced by Big Feats! Entertainment, the 50 episode series led to the feature film Dog Days of the West, which premiered on Showtime. Wishbone received five Emmy awards, and Buckley received a George Foster Peabody award for her work on the series. While Buckley worked in a creative capacity, she also acted as producer and supervised both production as well as network delivery. After Wishbone, Buckley went on to produce and secure distribution on independent features. Next she was hired as Executive Producer for KERA-Public Television for North Texas, taking TV specials from scripting thru distribution and national releases on PBS. She later headed up project funding for the station, finding sponsors for a variety of programs. Former Big Feats! partner-director Rick Duffield then brought her on board as Executive Producer for Trailblazer Studios, where she created, packaged, and sold "It’s Easy Being Green", to the Scripps-owned Fine Living Network. While there, Buckley also produced the streaming series, Turtle TV. Buckley then joined 1080 Entertainment as supervising producer for the History Channel series, Jurassic Fight Club. The collaboration with 1080 continued with the production of Lost Book of Nostradamus and Nostradamus 2012. As director of development, Buckley worked with Ken and creator/director Mark Bender in developing, selling and producing the “near live” television event, Easter Island Eclipse for National Geographic.
Current projects include developing and producing "Eclipse Across America" for Curiosity Stream.
Joey Stewart is a 27 year veteran of dozens of TV shows, MOWs, and Feature Films. A true “production guy”, Joey came up through the ranks as a 1st AD, Unit Production Manager, Line Producer, and Producer. He spent his early years running the shooting of the original Wishbone television series and TV movie, the stunt and action units on the CBS series Walker Texas Ranger and Sons of Thunder, as well as principal photography on the Jerry Bruckheimer series “Chase” for NBC. He has produced movies of the week for Lifetime television along with streaming content for Lifetime and Warner Brothers. Stewart has produced 14 feature films, ran 11 seasons of episodic television, and recently developed and produced the latest feature from writer/director Neil Labute, “Dirty Weekend” starring Mathew Broderick and Alice Eve, and secured distribution with eOne domestically and K5 internationally. Stewart continues to produce and direct feature films, commercials, and television shows all over the United States.
Stephanie Simpson is a passionate and engaging writer, showrunner, and entertainment creative. Currently a leader in Development for Dreamworks animation, as well as a Peabody and four-time Emmy Award winning writer and producer, she has a special touch with children’s television. Credited with bringing the life, humor and sophistication to the beloved PBS television series Wishbone, she has also brought her special gift of magic to the Netflix animated series, Hilda and Octonauts, as well as the early childhood favorite, Barney.
Larry Brantley began his career as a class clown. He then graduated to ne’er do well, standup comic (same thing), and voice actor.
Brantley freely admits that he won the role as the voice of “Wishbone,” not because he could act, but because of an uncanny (and kind of weird) ability to empathize with a dog. Now he’s a producer.
