Lassie | |
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![]() Title screen of Lassie (seasons 1–4) | |
Also known as |
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Genre | |
Created by | Robert Maxwell and Rudd Weatherwax |
Starring | |
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 | 591 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Producers |
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Production location | California |
Running time | 26 minutes |
Production companies |
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Original release | |
Network |
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Release | September 12, 1954 – March 24, 1973 |
Related | |
Lassie is an American television series that follows the adventures of a female Rough Collie dog named Lassie and her companions, both human and animal. The show was the creation of producer Robert Maxwell and animal trainer Rudd Weatherwax and was televised from September 12, 1954, to March 25, 1973. The eighth longest-running scripted American primetime television series. The show ran for 17 seasons on CBS before entering first-run syndication for its final two seasons. Initially filmed in black and white, the show transitioned to color in 1965.
Wrather's wife, Bonita Granville Wrather, who was the series' associate producer, narrated numerous episodes throughout the run of the series, usually the beginning and/or ending of multi-part episodes. [1]
Many early episodes were written by Robert Maxwell under the pseudonym Claire Kennedy. [2] In later years, the writing partnership of Robert Schaefer and Eric Freiwald was responsible for over 150 episodes. They were also responsible for developing the idea of having Lassie with a forest ranger. [3]
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. [4]
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 an orchestral rendition of 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 was used for at least part of season four for the change of ownership of Lassie. [4]
The most famous of the Lassie theme songs appeared at the start of the fifth season. Copyrighted as "Lassie Main & End Title", the composer credit has never been definitively claimed to this day. The melody is whistled by Muzzy Marcellino. Nicknamed "The Whistler," it remained the series theme for the rest of the "Martin years". With the coming of the "Ranger years", the opening and ending theme was changed to an orchestral version of "The Whistler". Beginning in season 17 (where Lassie traveled alone), and continuing throughout the Holden Ranch era, the theme was changed again, this time to Nathan Scott's arrangement of the traditional folk tune Greensleeves , which became the series theme song for the rest of its run. For the final two seasons, the familiar closing visual of Lassie standing on a hill and lifting her paw, was replaced by the credits on a green background, and flashing from one slate to the other instead of scrolling as in most of the series run. [4] Television composer Nathan Scott scored the music to nearly every episode between 1963 and 1973, [5] except for four episodes. [6]
The first 10 seasons of the series saw Lassie living on a farm, first with the Miller family (Jeff, his mother Ellen, and her father George - who was called "Gramps" by Jeff). Season 4 saw the Millers taking in young orphan Timmy, who then lived with them on the farm, as well as the unexpected death of Gramps, (reflecting the real life death of actor George Cleveland, who played the character), and with that the Millers moved off the farm, but Timmy and Lassie would stay behind with his new foster parents, Paul and Ruth Martin, who also took over the farm. All 10 of the Miller/Martin farm seasons would for the most part focus on "boy and his dog" adventures with Jeff or Timmy getting involved in some sort of trouble, and Lassie eventually coming to the rescue.
Seasons 11–16 were the "Ranger years" of the series, as Lassie (because she was not able to go to Australia with the Martins when Paul got a job teaching agriculture there) was taken in by U.S. Forest Ranger Corey Stuart (who appeared in a few episodes of season 10) and began to work with the U.S. Forest Service. [7] Color filming was exploited during the Ranger years with Lassie and her friends sent to exotic locations such as Sequoia National Forest and Monument Valley, creating mini-travelogues for viewers. Other rangers would be featured during the latter part of this era when Robert Bray (who played Stuart) left the series. [8]
For season 17, the program shifted gears again and became essentially an anthology series, with Lassie traveling on her own, getting into different adventures each week (similar in format to The Littlest Hobo and, later, to Here's Boomer ). No explanation was given as to why Lassie was no longer with the Forest Service. [9] Some episodes during this final CBS season were animals only.
During seasons 18 and 19 (with the series having moved to first run syndication), Lassie was taken in by Garth Holden (played by Ron Hayes) who was in charge of the Holden Ranch – a home for orphaned boys – which he ran with his college-age son and his friend. This (somewhat) brought the show back to its roots by giving Lassie a farm/ranch home base, which is where she settled in for the final two years of the series. [10] [11]
Season | Setting | Episodes | Originally aired | |||
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First aired | Last aired | Network | ||||
1 | Miller years (Jeff's Collie) | 26 | September 12, 1954 | March 6, 1955 | CBS | |
2 | 39 | September 11, 1955 | June 3, 1956 | |||
3 | 38 | September 9, 1956 | May 26, 1957 | |||
4 | Martin years (Timmy & Lassie) | 40 | September 8, 1957 | June 8, 1958 | ||
5 | 39 | September 7, 1958 | May 31, 1959 | |||
6 | 37 | September 6, 1959 | May 22, 1960 | |||
7 | 36 | September 11, 1960 | May 28, 1961 | |||
8 | 36 | September 10, 1961 | May 27, 1962 | |||
9 | 32 | September 30, 1962 | May 19, 1963 | |||
10 | 29 | September 29, 1963 | May 3, 1964 | |||
11 | Ranger years | 33 | September 6, 1964 | May 16, 1965 | ||
12 | 32 | September 12, 1965 | May 1, 1966 | |||
13 | 30 | September 11, 1966 | April 30, 1967 | |||
14 | 28 | September 10, 1967 | March 24, 1968 | |||
15 | 28 | September 29, 1968 | April 13, 1969 | |||
16 | 22 | September 28, 1969 | March 8, 1970 | |||
17 | On her own | 22 | September 20, 1970 | March 21, 1971 | ||
18 | Holden Ranch years | 20 | October 7, 1971 | March 10, 1972 | Syndication | |
19 | 24 | September 16, 1972 | March 24, 1973 |
First-run Lassie was televised September 12, 1954 to March 24, 1973 with its first 17 seasons airing on CBS Sundays at 7:00 p.m. EST. In 1971, in order to promote community-related programming among local affiliates, the Federal Communications Commission moved primetime Sundays to 8:00 P.M. EST with the institution of the Prime Time Access Rule. CBS executives felt Lassie would not be well received in a time slot other than its traditional 7:00 p.m. slot, and, with the network's other family programs set, the show was canceled. [11] (Lassie was among several shows that CBS canceled during this time period as part of a change in its target demographics.) 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 with its final episode airing in March 1973. All totaled, 591 episodes were produced.
An animated reworking, Lassie's Rescue Rangers , followed in fall 1973, immediately after the original series ended (the pilot movie aired in 1972 while the live-action series was still on the air). Lassie's Rescue Rangers was denounced by both Weatherwax and the National Association of Broadcasters, the latter of which made note of the animated series' "violence, crime and stupidity." [14]
In 1973, ABC created an animated Saturday-morning animated program called Lassie's Rescue Rangers produced by Filmation. [11]
In 1989, what was essentially a sequel series, The New Lassie – featuring Jon Provost as Steve McCullough – aired in first-run syndication. In its seventh episode ("Roots"), June Lockhart reprised her Ruth Martin role when Steve McCullough is revealed to be the adult Timmy Martin. It is revealed that Timmy was never properly adopted by the Martins and consequently was forced to remain in the U.S. when Ruth and Paul emigrated to Australia. Timmy was then subsequently adopted by the McCullough family and began going by his middle name Steven. In 1992, Tommy Rettig made a guest appearance in the final episode, "The Computer Study". This would be his last television appearance prior to his death in 1996. [15]
In 1997, a modified remake – also called Lassie – debuted, airing in the U.S. on the then new Animal Planet cable network. This show (which was filmed in Canada and set in Vermont) also revolved around a boy named Timmy and his dog, though differences in setting and character circumstances precluded it from being an exact remake of the original series. [16]
From 2014-present, a new animated series called Lassie or The New Adventures of Lassie was aired. Lassie lives with the Parker family, 10-year-old red-headed Zoe and her family, Ranger Graham Parker and Dr. Sarah Parker (a veterinarian), in the Grand Mountain National Park. Her best friend is Harvey Smith, whose mother Beth works in the park visitor center. Harvey's late father was a mountain climber. The children's antagonist is a snooty rich girl named Samantha Humphrey. Two seasons were done, the first with traditional drawn animation and the second season with computer-generated animation. The second season (tagged as Season 1) is available on Paramount Plus.
The series was released to DVD between 2001–2007.
DVD Name | # Ep | Release Date |
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Lassie's Great Adventure | 5 | June 26, 2001 |
Lassie: Best of the Lassie Show | 3 | November 25, 2003 |
Lassie: Lassie's Christmas Stories | 3 | November 25, 2003 |
Lassie: Best of Jeff's Collie | 3 | November 25, 2003 |
Lassie: Lassie's Birthday Surprise | 3 | November 25, 2003 |
Lassie: Lassie's Gift of Love | 3 | November 25, 2003 |
Lassie: 50th Anniversary Collection | 24 | September 14, 2004 |
Lassie: Flight of the Cougar | 3 | March 6, 2006 |
Lassie: A Mother's Love | 4 | May 1, 2007 |
Lassie's Greatest Adventures Collection similar release of Lassie: 50th Anniversary Collection | 18 | September 17, 2019 |
The TV series was adapted into a comic book by Dan Spiegle, distributed by Gold Key Comics. [17]
Every year of its 17-year run on CBS, Lassie placed first in its time slot, Sunday 7:00 P.M. EST, and often ranked among the top 25 shows on television. The show's highest ranking years in the Nielsen ratings were the Martin 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 Theater on NBC. [18] However, Lassie still ran opposite Disney when the Disney anthology television series moved to NBC in 1961, and still managed to climb into the Top 25. With the advent of the Forest Service seasons, the show began a steady decline in ratings. [19]
Season | Rank |
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1954–1955 | Not in the Top 30 |
1955–1956 | |
1956–1957 | #24 |
1957–1958 | #22 |
1958–1959 | Not in the Top 30 |
1959–1960 | #29 |
1960–1961 | Not in the Top 30 |
1961–1962 | #15 |
1962–1963 | #19 |
1963–1964 | #12 |
1964–1965 | #17 |
1965–1966 | #27 |
1966–1967 | #33 |
1967–1968 | #30 |
1968–1969 | Not in the Top 30 |
1969–1970 | |
1970–1971 |
(All awards listed given during the time of, or specifically related to the TV series)
Jon Provost called his autobiography Timmy's in the Well! because a well was the one place Timmy never fell into—abandoned mine shafts, off cliffs, into rivers, lakes, and quicksand, but never a well. [23] [24]
Mad parodied the show as "Lizzy", where it was revealed that the collie was actually a circus midget in a dog suit, while the real Lizzy was a dimwitted mutt. In an episode of The Flintstones ("Dino Goes Hollyrock"), the character Dino wins an appearance on the smash hit TV show "Sassie" starring a heavily made-up and snobby girl dinosaur and her Lassie-like adventures. [25]
Belgian comics artist Willy Vandersteen created his own version of the TV show with a collie named Bessy in 1954. Apart from the fact that his comic strip starred the same dog breed with a similar name, it had little to do with the series overall, since the comic was a Western comic.
Lassie is a fictional female Rough Collie dog and is featured in a 1938 short story by Eric Knight that was later expanded to a 1940 full-length novel, Lassie Come-Home. Knight's portrayal of Lassie bears some features in common with another fictional female collie of the same name, featured in the British writer Elizabeth Gaskell's 1859 short story "The Half Brothers". In "The Half Brothers", Lassie is loved only by her young master and guides the adults back to where two boys are lost in a snowstorm.
Cloris Leachman was an American actress and comedienne whose career spanned nearly eight decades. She won many accolades, including eight Primetime Emmy Awards from 22 nominations, making her the most nominated and, along with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, most awarded performer in Emmy history. Leachman also won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award. In her early career, she was known for her versatility. Another unique trait of Leachman's acting style was her distinctive physicality, where she utilized props to accentuate and express her roles' characterizations.
The Jim Henson Hour is an American television series that aired on NBC in 1989. It was developed as a showcase for The Jim Henson Company's various puppet creations, including the Muppet characters.
Petticoat Junction is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from September 1963 to April 1970. The series takes place at the Shady Rest Hotel, which is run by Kate Bradley; her three daughters Billie Jo, Bobbie Jo, and Betty Jo; and her uncle Joe Carson. The series is one of three interrelated shows about rural characters produced by Paul Henning. Petticoat Junction was created upon the success of Henning's previous rural/urban-themed sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971). The success of Petticoat Junction led to a spin-off, Green Acres (1965–1971). Petticoat Junction was produced by Filmways, Inc.
June Lockhart is an American retired actress, beginning a film career in the 1930s and 1940s in such films as A Christmas Carol and Meet Me in St. Louis. She primarily acted in 1950s and 1960s television, and with performances on stage and in film. On two television series, Lassie and Lost in Space, she played mother roles. She also portrayed Dr. Janet Craig on the CBS television sitcom Petticoat Junction (1968–70). She is a two-time Emmy Award nominee and a Tony Award winner. With a career spanning nearly 90 years, she is one of the last surviving actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Ruddell Bird "Rudd" Weatherwax was an American actor, animal trainer, and breeder. He and his brother Frank are best remembered for training dogs for motion pictures and television. Their collie, Pal, became the original Lassie, handled by Rudd for the 1943 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film Lassie Come Home. He also handled the dogs for the Lassie television series which ran from 1954 to 1974, and trained Spike for the 1957 feature film Old Yeller. After his death, his son, Robert, took over the training of the animals.
Pal was a male Rough Collie performer and the first in a line of such dogs to portray the fictional female collie Lassie in film, on radio, and on television. In 1992, The Saturday Evening Post said Pal had "the most spectacular canine career in film history".
Thomas Noel Rettig was an American child actor, computer software engineer, and author. He portrayed the character "Jeff Miller" in the first three seasons of CBS's Lassie television series, from 1954 to 1957, later seen in syndicated re-runs with the title Jeff's Collie. He also played the young orphan adopted by David Niven in Niven's film titled "No Identity," for the series, "Four Star Playhouse, He also co-starred with another former child actor, Tony Dow, in the mid-1960s television teen soap opera Never Too Young and recorded the song by that title with the group, The TR-4.
The New Lassie is an American family drama series which aired in first-run syndication from September 8, 1989 to February 15, 1992. The series stars Will Estes as Will McCullough, Lassie's new master. Real life husband and wife Christopher and Dee Wallace-Stone co-starred as Will's parents.
Robert E. Bray was an American film and television actor known for playing the forest ranger Corey Stuart in the CBS series Lassie, He also starred in Stagecoach West and as Mike Hammer in the movie version of Mickey Spillane's novel My Gun Is Quick (1957).
Circus Boy was an American adventure family western that aired in prime time on NBC, and then on ABC, from 1956 to 1957. It was then rerun by NBC on Saturday mornings, from 1958 to 1960.
Lassie's Rescue Rangers is an animated television series produced by Filmation and featuring Lassie, running from 1972 to 1973. The hour-long pilot, Lassie and the Spirit of Thunder Mountain, was part of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie.
Whirlybirds is a syndicated American drama/adventure television series, which aired for 111 episodes — broadcast from February 4, 1957, through January 18, 1960. It was produced by Desilu Studios.
Jan Clayton was a film, musical theater, and television actress. She starred in the popular 1950s TV series Lassie.
Son of Lassie is a 1945 American Technicolor feature film produced by MGM based on characters created by Eric Knight, and starring Peter Lawford, Donald Crisp, June Lockhart and Pal. A sequel to Lassie Come Home (1943), the film focuses on the now adult Joe Carraclough after he joins the Royal Air Force during World War II and is shot down over Nazi-occupied Norway along with a stowaway, Lassie's son "Laddie" – played by Pal. Son of Lassie was released theatrically on April 20, 1945, by Loew's.
Jonathan Bion Provost is an American actor, best known for his role as young Timmy Martin in the CBS series Lassie.
Lassie is a Canadian television series which aired from 1997 to 1999 on YTV in Canada and Sunday nights on the Animal Planet network in the United States, as a modified remake of the original Lassie series (1954–1973) about a boy and his faithful dog. As with previous Lassie TV versions and several films dating back to the original Lassie Come Home film of 1943, the star was Lassie, a trained Rough Collie.
Hugh Goodwin, better known as Jon Shepodd, was an American actor. On television, he was the first actor to play the role of Paul Martin in the long-running series Lassie Shepodd appeared as a guest star on Lassie in Season 3 in the episode "Lassie's Day" as "Al" the delivery man for Martha's Bakery.
Lassie is an animated television series produced by Superprod with the participation of Classic Media. It is a hand-drawn 2D animated update of the classic character by Eric Knight. In the United States, the show was released on Paramount Global's streaming service, Paramount+