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Lassie
File:Title Screen 01.JPGTitle screen of Lassie, seasons 1-10
Genre	Children's programs
Created by	Robert Maxwell
Starring	Tommy Rettig Jan Clayton George Cleveland Jon Provost June Lockhart Hugh Reilly Robert Bray Jack De Mave Jed Allan Ron Hayes Larry Wilcox Pamelyn Ferdin
Theme music composer	Les Baxter
Opening theme	Whistle
Composer	Raoul Kraushaar
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	19
No. of episodes	588 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Jack Wrather Robert Maxwell Sherman A. Harris
Producers	Robert Maxwell Robert Golden Dusty Bruce Leon Fromkess
Production location	California
Running time	26 minutes
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	September 12, 1954 – March 24, 1973
Related
The New Lassie, Lassie

Lassie is an American television series about an intelligent female collie named Lassie. One of the longest running dramatic series on television, Lassie was originally broadcast from September 12, 1954, to March 24, 1973. The show saw seventeen seasons on CBS before entering first run syndication for its final two seasons. The show was filmed initially in black-and-white and transitioned to color during the 1960s.

The show's first ten seasons follow Lassie's adventures in a small farming community with two boys: Jeff Miller (1954-1957) and Timmy Martin (1957-1964). When her exploits on the farm end in the eleventh season, Lassie finds new and sometimes dangerous adventures in the American wilderness with forestry service workers Corey Stuart, Bob Erickson, and Scott Turner. Following an unexplained year alone (1970), Lassie finally settles at a children's home for her final syndicated seasons.

Lassie found critical favor from its inception and won two Emmy awards in its first years. Ancillary merchandise produced during its run included books, Halloween costumes, clothing, toys, and other items. Campbell's Soup offered two premiums (a Lassie portrait ring and a Lassie portrait wallet), and distributed thousands to the show's fans. A multi-part story was edited into the feature film, Lassie's Great Adventure and released in 1963. A spin-off series, The New Lassie (1989) brought Jon Provost back to television as Steve McCullough, a man denying his identity as Timmy Martin after learning Ruth and Paul Martin did not properly adopt him. Though Lassie has never been released in its entirety on video or DVD, selected episodes are available.

Production

In the 1940s, the rough collie Lassie became a household name after starring in a series of six feature films produced by MGM, beginning with Lassie Come Home, which was based on a short story by Eric Knight. In lieu of back pay owed to him, Lassie's owner and trainer Rudd Weatherwax took all rights of the trademark, and of course the small collie named Pal who played Lassie. They left Hollywood and did shows at fairs and rodeos for two years until producer Robert Maxwell sold Weatherwax on the concept of television series starring Lassie. Two pilots were quickly produced, with Maxwell and Weatherwax agreeing that the series needed to be centered on "a boy and his dog." CBS executives gave the show a full-year contract and Lassie went into production, debuting on Sunday, September 12, 1954.

The show would continue to rule its time slot for another three years, however Maxwell and Weatherwax were concerned the run would soon be over as they wondered how many more stories about a boy and his dog could be written. Jack Wrather, who owned the hit western The Lone Ranger purchased the Lassie trademark and the show's production company in 1957. Though Maxwell left, Weatherwax agreed to stay for however long the show lasted.

In 1964, Jon Provost was fourteen years old and tired of having to play a child. An earlier episode which had teamed Lassie with a Forest Ranger named Corey Stuart had received a lot of praise and high viewer response, so executive producer Bonita Granville Wrather made the choice to change the format of the show to have Lassie reunite with Stuart. Despite the change, Lassie remained popular. In 1970, however, Lassie inexplicably became a loner, with no regular human leads for a year. With new FCC rulings regarding primetime, CBS decided to cancel the show at the end of Lassie's solo season. The show then went into first-run syndication.

Theme music

Lassie used several pieces of theme music during its long broadcast history. For the first season, "Secret of the Silent Hills (Theme from the Lassie TV Series)," is used for both the opening and ending theme. Composed by William Lava, the orchestral theme was originally created for the 1940 radio show The Courageous Dr. Christian. For the second and third season, a variation of this theme, titled simply "Lassie Main & End Title", was used for the opening and ending theme. Raoul Kraushaar, the music director for the series, is the listed composer for the theme, however the changes he made to the original are so slight that only a trained ear can tell the difference. The third theme used for the series is the aria "Dio Possente" (Even Bravest Hearts May Swell) from Charles Gounod's opera Faust. The exact time this theme started being used is uncertain due to conflicting records, however it is agreed that it was the third series, and used for at least part of season 4 for the change of ownership of Lassie.

The most famous of the Lassie theme songs, appeared at the start of the fifth season. Copyrighted as "Lassie Main & End Title", the song was created by Les Baxter, with the whistling itself performed by Muzzy Marcellino. Nicknamed "Whistle," it remained the series theme for the rest of the Martin Years. With the coming of the Ranger Years, the opening and ending theme is changed to Nathan Scott's arrangement of the traditional folk tune Greensleeves. "Whistle" returned as the series theme during the thirteenth season for the seven part "Voyager" arc, and would remain the series theme for the rest of its run.

Sponsor

Campbell's Soup Company sponsored the entire run of Lassie. In 1956, the company sponsored a "Name Lassie's Puppies" contest with the grand prizes being Lassie's pups and $2,000. Company executives hand delivered puppies to the winner's homes. The company offered two premiums during the show's first ten seasons. One was the friendship ring from the fourth season episode, "The Ring" (1957); the company mailed 77,715 rings to viewers. In 1959, the company offered a wallet "made of rich brown plastic" and emblazoned with a picture of Lassie in conjunction with the episode, "Old Henry"; 1,343,509 wallets were mailed to viewers who sent in five different labels from Campbell products. The labels represented 6.5 million cans of Campbell's products sold. The company asked that their products be visible on the set and so, in episode after episode, Campbell's products are seen in background shots.

Lassie was spokesdog for Recipe Dog Food, a Campbell's product introduced in 1969, which was reportedly based on the homemade stew mixture Weatherwax prepared for Lassie. Printed advertisements for the product announced, "Now all dogs can come home to the dinner Lassie comes home to." In its first year, Recipe earned $10 million for Campbell's, and, in its third year, $40 million. To help boost sales, Campbell's paid Weatherwax to write a dog-training manual called The Lassie Method which the company used as a premium offer.

Characters and cast

Lassie has a large and varied human and animal cast with adult and child actors filling both primary and secondary roles in the first ten seasons. Animals appear frequently in both one-shot and recurrent roles. Child actors make fewer appearances thereafter; some episodes feature only Lassie and other animals. Child actors reappear in the last two syndicated seasons when the show's setting becomes a children's home.

Lassie appears in every episode of the series. Her principal function through the first ten seasons is guardian and playmate of boys. When her cozy days on the farm end (1964), she becomes the companion of men, following them into the wilderness. She manages capably for a year on her own (1970) before settling at Holden Ranch. Unlike other dogs, Lassie has a very keen understanding of human vocabulary, motives, and emotions, and sometimes exhibits unnatural canine behavior. In "The Odyssey", for example, she is lost and hungry and, when the opportunity to kill and devour a rabbit presents itself, her good heart will not permit her to do so. In other episodes, she protects baby animals that would naturally be harassed and worried by a dog.

Lassie is first portrayed by Pal, the MGM film Lassie, in the two pilots (1954) and thereafter by five of his male descendants. When Pal retired, his son Lassie Junior took the role, appearing through all three Jeff years (1954-1956) and two Timmy years (1957-1958). He retired in 1959 to battle cancer, recovered, but never worked the show again. His son Spook was rushed into the role but the dog never became comfortable on the set after an overhead light crashed to the floor on his first day. He appears briefly in season five (1958), in all of season six (1959), most of season seven (1960), and very briefly in season eight (1961). Baby, son of Lassie Junior and brother to Spook, shared Spook's thespian chores at the end of season seven (1960), the last Timmy years (1961-1963) and two of the Ranger years (1964-1965). Mire appears in the last Ranger years (1966-1969) and the Lassie alone year (1970). Hey Hey portrays Lassie during the two syndicated Holden Ranch years (1971-1972).

The series begins with Jeff Miller (Tommy Rettig, 1954-1957) bringing Lassie to the weatherbeaten farm where he lives with his war-widow mother Ellen Miller (Jan Clayton, 1954-1957) and his grandfather, George "Gramps" Miller (George Cleveland, 1954-1957). Recurring characters include Jeff's friend Sylvester "Porky" Brockway (Donald Keeler, 1954-1957), telephone operator Jenny (Florence Lake, 1954-1964), veterinarian "Doc" Weaver (Arthur Space, 1955-1964), and Constable Clay Horton (Richard Garland, 1954-1957). Child actor Jon Provost (1957-1964) makes his debut in the fourth season as Timmy, a runaway given a foster home on the farm. Recurring animal characters include Domino, Jeff's stallion and Pokey (1954-1957), Porky's basset hound. The Miller years end in the fourth season when the farm is sold to Paul and Ruth Martin (played initially by Jon Shepodd and Cloris Leachman (1957) and, later, by Hugh Reilly and June Lockhart 1958-1964).

The Martins adopt Timmy and provide Lassie with a home. George Chandler joins the cast in 1957 as Paul's uncle Petrie Martin but is dropped in 1958. In 1959, Andy Clyde joins the cast as Cully Wilson, a grandfatherly pal for Timmy and remains through the first episodes of 1964. Boomer Bates (Todd Ferrell), a chubby pal for Timmy is created in 1958 but is dropped. Sheriff Miller (Robert Foulk), Timmy's schoolmate "Willy" Brewster (Linda Wrather), and schoolteacher Amy Hazlit (Sally Bliss) make semi-regular appearances. The Martin years feature special appearances by Roy Campanella, Jane Darwell, Rafer Johnson, Clayton Moore (The Lone Ranger), and the show's associate producer Bonita Granville Wrather. The Martin years end with the first episode of the 1964 season.

Lassie's guardianship is transferred, first, to forestry service worker, Corey Stuart (Robert Bray, 1964-1968) and then to his co-workers Bob Erickson and Scott Turner (Jack De Mave and Jed Allan, 1968-1969). Teenager Mark Miranda appears in the recurring role of Neeka, an Aleut youth and friend of the rangers. Jerry Mathers, Tony Dow, and Paul Peterson make guest appearances. Following her years with the forestry workers, Lassie wanders about with no regular human characters sharing her life until she settles on the Holden Ranch. Garth Holden (Ron Hayes, 1971), head of the ranch shares Lassie's care with his college-age son, Ron Holden (Skip Burton, 1971-1972), and Ron's friend, Dale Mitchell (Larry Wilcox, 1971-1972). Larry Pennell plays Keith Holden, Garth's brother. Dr. Sue Lambert (Sherry Boucher, 1971), is a veterinarian at a nearby animal sanctuary, and Lucy Baker (Pamelyn Ferdin, 1971-1972), is a deaf child in the area.

Plot

In the show's first episode (1954), Jeff Miller, an eleven year old boy living with his mother, Ellen, and grandfather, "Gramps", on a farm near the fictional town of Calverton, is bequeathed a rough collie named Lassie. Episodes during the first several seasons follow Jeff's adventures with Lassie on the farm and the neighboring vicinity. At the opening of the fourth season (1957), a tattered runaway named Timmy (Jon Provost) is discovered hiding in the Miller barn. The Millers take a liking to the boy and provide him a foster home.

Midway through the fourth season, "Gramps" dies, and Ellen and Jeff decide to move to Capitol City. The farm is sold to Ruth and Paul Martin who adopt Timmy. Before Jeff departs the farm, he leaves Lassie with Timmy, knowing the dog could never adjust to life in a busy city. The Martins are joined on the farm by Paul's uncle, Petrie J. Martin. Family friend, Cully Wilson, an elderly farmer and nature lover, plays a part in many episodes.

The Martin years end with the first episode of the eleventh season ("The Wayfarers", 1964) when Paul, Ruth, and Timmy move to Australia. Lassie remains in the States due to Australia's quarantine restrictions and finds a home with Cully Wilson. Cully suffers a heart attack, and Corey Stuart (Robert Bray), a ranger with the United States Forestry Service, gives Lassie a home. When Stuart is seriously disabled fighting a forest fire, two of his fellow rangers, Scott Turner (Jed Allan) and Bob Erickson (Jack De Mave), befriend Lassie. Lassie's life with the rangers is one of wilderness adventure and perils. Near the end of the show's 17 year CBS run, Lassie strikes out on her own for a year with no explanation to the viewer regarding the whereabouts of her ranger friends. Her year alone becomes one of aiding the needy humans and animals she encounters during her rambles.

Following Lassie's year alone, the show was cancelled on CBS. Lassie continued however, in first run syndication. The syndicated series picked up where the CBS series left off: Lassie is still on her own when two young hikers pull her from a river and take her to Holden Ranch, a home for troubled boys. It is there that Lassie finds a new home and new adventures. After two syndicated seasons on the Holden Ranch, Lassie ended its run.

Media information

Broadcast history

Lassie was originally televised September 12, 1954, to March 24, 1973. Its first seventeen seasons aired on CBS Sunday evenings at 7:00 P.M. EST. In 1971, in order to promote community-related programming among local affliates, the Federal Communications Commission moved prime time Sundays to 8:00 p.m. EST. CBS executives felt Lassie would not be well received in a time slot other than its seventeen-year held 7:00 P.M. slot, and, with the network's other family programs set, the decision was made to cancel the show.

Lassie then entered first-run syndication with Jack Wrather and Campbell's Soup still on board, and remained on the air for another two years at 7:30 p.m. EST. The final episode of the series aired on March 24, 1973. After nineteen seasons, 588 episodes, and six Lassie generations, the Lassie television series came to an end.

The series continued to air in rerun syndication, off and on, for another fifty years. In syndication, the episodes in which Lassie was paired with the Miller family were often aired under the name Jeff's Collie, while the years with the Martin family were sometimes aired under the name Timmy and Lassie. Classic Media currently owns the rights the entire Lassie television series, as well as the Lassie trademark.

Marketing and merchandise

Lassie generated considerable merchandise for the juvenile market during its heyday. Items included Lassie-themed clothing (pyjamas, bathrobes, shirts, sneakers), Campbell's Soup premiums distributed during the "Timmy" years of the show (Lassie friendship ring and Lassie wallet), and Lassie Halloween costumes. Comic books, coloring books, paint books, punch out books, Whitman novels, Tell-a-Tale storybooks, Big Little Books, and other printed materials were published. Promotional photographs and studio materials, Lassie and Lone Ranger tie-ins from the episode "Peace Patrol", and props and costumes with documented provenance from the show also attract collectors. In 2005, Karen Pfeiffer released The Legacy of Lassie: an unauthorized information & price guide on Lassie collectibles (ISBN 978-0975887066).

Spin-offs

In 1973, CBS produced a Saturday morning Lassie cartoon version called Lassie's Rescue Rangers. In the animated series, Lassie is a super-dog. The show earned Rudd Weatherwax's deep disdain. "That's not Lassie," he commented, "That's trash."

In 1989, a new Lassie television series began airing in first-run syndication. Produced by Palladium Entertainment, The New Lassie was a modern retake of the old Lassie series, with Lassie paired with the McCullough family. Though the family is expanded to have a boy and a girl, it still maintained the basic formula of being about a boy and his dog. The series also made several connections to the original series. Jon Provost co-stars in the series as Steve McCullough. June Lockhart makes a guest appearance in the seventh episode, reprising her role as Ruth Martin, who comes to claim Lassie and in doing so reveals that Uncle Steve was actually Timmy Martin. According to that episode, when the Martins tried to move to Australia at the end of the original series, they learned they had not properly adopted Timmy and he was taken from them. Bitter and feeling he'd been abandoned, Timmy began going by his middle name of "Steven" when he was adopted by the McCulloughs. Tommy Rettig also makes guest appearances as Jeff Miller, who is a professor and computer specialist.

Another Lassie series aired in 1997, also titled Lassie, however it made no connections to the original series except for a single episode in which we learn that Lassie's veterinarian Doc Stewart had written a book about Timmy and Lassie's adventures, rather than the memoirs he'd regularly mentioned in the original series.

In 2001, Yoshihiro Takahashi, author of a series of dog-centered manga series, released a two volume manga series entitled Lassie that was inspired by the television series.

Feature Film

During Thanksgiving week 1962, a story was filmed in the High Sierras called "The Journey". First broadcast in February and March 1963, the five part story follows Timmy and Lassie as the two are swept away in a hot air balloon that eventually comes to rest in the Canadian wilderness, forcing the travelers to face many perils before being rescued by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Richard Simmons, star of another Jack Wrather property, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, made an appearance while Lassie star, Jon Provost, performed his own whitewater stunts. The show's sponsor, Campbell's Soup, objected to multi-part stories, believing viewers would not want to tune in week after week to find out what happens from one episode to the next, but three of the five episodes hit the top ten for the weeks in which they aired. The five episodes were quickly edited into a feature length film and released in August 1963 through Twentieth Century–Fox as Lassie's Great Adventure. The film is 73 minutes in length and was filmed in color – the only Timmy and Lassie color episodes. The film is available on DVD.

DVD releases

Reception

Every year of its 17 year run on CBS, Lassie placed first in its time slot, Sundays at 7:00 p.m. EST. Additionally, the series often ranked among the top twenty-five shows on television. Though the Miller years are critically regarded as the best years of the show, the show's highest ranking years in the Neilsen rankings were the Martin family years when the show placed #24 in 1957, #22 in 1958, #15 in 1959, #15 in 1961, #21 in 1962, #13 in 1963, and #17 in 1964. The only Martin year Lassie did not climb into the top twenty-five was 1960, when it ran opposite Walt Disney Presents on ABC and Shirley Temple Theatre on NBC. With the departure of the Martin family in the first episode of the eleventh season, the show began a steady decline in ratings.

… The series' rural setting offered a nostalgic conception of national culture at a time when most Americans had left the farm for the city or suburbia. Lassie's ownership shifted from the original Jeff Miller to the orphaned Timmy Martin, but the central themes of the intense relationship between boys and their pets continued. Lassie became a staple of Sunday night television, associated with "wholesome family values," though, periodically, she was also the subject of controversy with parents groups monitoring television content. Lassie's characteristic dependence on cliff-hanger plots in which children were placed in jeopardy was seen as too intense for many smaller children; at the same time, Timmy's actions were said to encourage children to disobey their parents and to wander off on their own.

— Henry Jenkins, Museum of Broadcast Communications

Awards

Lassie won Emmy Awards for Best Children's Program in 1955 and for Best Children's Series in 1956. Jan Clayton was nominated for two Emmys in 1957 and 1958 for her portrayal of Ellen Miller, while June Lockhart was nominated for an Emmy in 1959 for her role as Ruth Martin. The show received another Emmy nomination in 1960 for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Children's Programming. The show was awarded a Peabody Award in 1956. Honors for the show were also received from the PTA, the National Association for Better Radio and Television, Gold Star, and Billboard. In 2003, Jon Provost was nominated for TV Land's Favorite Pet-Human Relationship Award (Timmy and Lassie).

Cultural impact

In 1960, Lassie became one of only three animal actors to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. One of Timmy's gingham checked shirts hangs in the Smithsonian Institution. Lassie and the show's stars have appeared on nine TV Guide covers.

In 1967, in conjunction with Lassie's unofficial role with the United States Forestry Service and her perception by many Americans as an environmental activist, Lassie was welcomed to the White House by Lady Bird Johnson. In January 1968, the President of the United States of America signed into a law a bill that targeted soil and water pollution unofficially called by many "the Lassie program". Lassie was honored with a luncheon in the Senate Dining Room on March 19, 1968 when a plaque recognizing her commitment to environmentalism was presented her by senators Edmund Muskie and George Murphy.

References

General

• "Lassie ... My Best Friend". Jack and Jill, November 1959.
• "The Life and Times of Lassie". TV Guide, July 4, 1959.

Specific

1. ^ Collins, Ace (1993-10-01). Lassie: A Dog's Life. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0140231830. OCLC 29878000.
2. ^ Collins, Ace (2004). Lassie: Celebrating 50 Years of Love guide book (included with DVD set). Classic Media.
3. ^ "Lassie /Jeffs Collie /Timmy and Lassie". ClassicThemes.com. The Media Management Group. Retrieved 2008-02-16.
4. Director: Alan Cooke, Writer: Bud Wiser (1989-10-21). "Roots". The New Lassie. Season 1. Episode 7. {{cite episode}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |episodelink= (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
5. ^ Provost, Jon (2007-11-01). Timmy's in the Well: The Jon Provost Story. Nashville, Tennessee: Cumberland House. ISBN 978-0140231830. OCLC 154674404. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |co-author= ignored (help)
6. Jenkins, Henry. "Lassie". Museum of Broadcast Communications. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
7. "CBS at 75: 1950s". CBS. Retrieved 2008-02-22.
8. "Peabody Winners Book" (pdf). Peabody Awards. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
9. "Lassie (History timeline)". Classic Media. 2005. Retrieved 2007-10-29.
10. "Hollywood Walk of Fame: MP". Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. Retrieved 2008-02-14.

External links

• Template:Tv.com show
• Lassie (1954) at IMDb

• Children's television series
• 1954 television series debuts
• 1973 television series endings
• 1950s American television series
• 1960s American television series
• 1970s American television series
• First-run syndicated television programs
• Television programs based on novels
• Peabody Award winners
• Emmy Award winners
• Television series about animals
• Lassie (1954 TV series)