| Lassie | |
|---|---|
 Title screen ofLassie (seasons 1–4) | |
| Also known as |
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| Genre | |
| Created by | Robert Maxwell andRudd 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 (1954-09-12) – March 24, 1973 (1973-03-24) |
| Related | |
Lassie is an American television series that follows the adventures of a femaleRough Collie dog namedLassie and her companions, both human and animal. The show was the creation of producerRobert Maxwell and animal trainerRudd Weatherwax and was televised from September 12, 1954, to March 25, 1973, making it theninth longest-running scripted American primetime television series. The show ran for 17 seasons onCBS before enteringfirst-run syndication for its final two seasons. Initially filmed in black and white, the show transitioned to color in 1965.
Associate producerBonita Granville Wrather (wife of producerJack Wrather), 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 byRobert Maxwell under the pseudonym Claire Kennedy.[2] In later years, the writing partnership of Robert Schaefer andEric 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 byWilliam Lava, the orchestral theme was originally created for the 1940 radio showThe 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 thearia, "Dio Possente" (Even Bravest Hearts May Swell) fromCharles 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 byMuzzy 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 toNathan Scott's arrangement of the traditional folk tuneGreensleeves, 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 composerNathan 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. The first four seasons Lassie lived with the Miller family (Jeff, his mother Ellen, and her father-in-law George—who was called "Gramps" by Jeff). Ellen’s husband and Jeff’s father, John Miller, a soldier, was killed during World War II. 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 actorGeorge 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 RangerCorey Stuart (who appeared in a few episodes of season 10) and began to work with theU.S. Forest Service.[7]Color filming was exploited during the Ranger years with Lassie and her friends sent to exotic locations such asSequoia National Forest andMonument Valley, creating mini-travelogues for viewers. Other rangers would be featured during the latter part of this era whenRobert Bray (who played Stuart) left the series.[8]
For season 17, the program shifted gears again and became essentially ananthology series, with Lassie traveling on her own, getting into different adventures each week (similar in format toThe Littlest Hobo and, later, toHere'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 tofirst run syndication), Lassie was taken in by Garth Holden (played byRon 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 released | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | Network | ||||
| 1 | Miller years (Jeff's Collie) | 26 | September 12, 1954 (1954-09-12) | March 6, 1955 (1955-03-06) | CBS | |
| 2 | 39 | September 11, 1955 (1955-09-11) | June 3, 1956 (1956-06-03) | |||
| 3 | 38 | September 9, 1956 (1956-09-09) | May 26, 1957 (1957-05-26) | |||
| 4 | Martin years (Timmy & Lassie) | 40 | September 8, 1957 (1957-09-08) | June 8, 1958 (1958-06-08) | ||
| 5 | 39 | September 7, 1958 (1958-09-07) | May 31, 1959 (1959-05-31) | |||
| 6 | 37 | September 6, 1959 (1959-09-06) | May 22, 1960 (1960-05-22) | |||
| 7 | 36 | September 11, 1960 (1960-09-11) | May 28, 1961 (1961-05-28) | |||
| 8 | 36 | September 10, 1961 (1961-09-10) | May 27, 1962 (1962-05-27) | |||
| 9 | 32 | September 30, 1962 (1962-09-30) | May 19, 1963 (1963-05-19) | |||
| 10 | 29 | September 29, 1963 (1963-09-29) | May 3, 1964 (1964-05-03) | |||
| 11 | Ranger years | 33 | September 6, 1964 (1964-09-06) | May 16, 1965 (1965-05-16) | ||
| 12 | 32 | September 12, 1965 (1965-09-12) | May 1, 1966 (1966-05-01) | |||
| 13 | 30 | September 11, 1966 (1966-09-11) | April 30, 1967 (1967-04-30) | |||
| 14 | 28 | September 10, 1967 (1967-09-10) | March 24, 1968 (1968-03-24) | |||
| 15 | 28 | September 29, 1968 (1968-09-29) | April 13, 1969 (1969-04-13) | |||
| 16 | 22 | September 28, 1969 (1969-09-28) | March 8, 1970 (1970-03-08) | |||
| 17 | On her own | 22 | September 20, 1970 (1970-09-20) | March 21, 1971 (1971-03-21) | ||
| 18 | Holden Ranch years | 20 | October 7, 1971 (1971-10-07) | March 10, 1972 (1972-03-10) | Syndication | |
| 19 | 24 | September 16, 1972 (1972-09-16) | March 24, 1973 (1973-03-24) | |||
First-runLassie 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, theFederal Communications Commission movedprimetime Sundays to 8:00 P.M. EST with the institution of thePrime Time Access Rule. CBS executives feltLassie 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, along with network being forced to air late afternoon football games in their entirety during the fall months beginning in1970 as part of itscontract with the NFL, the show was canceled.[11] (Lassie was among several shows that CBS canceled during this time period as part of achange 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 (thepilot movie aired in 1972 while the live-action series was still on the air).Lassie's Rescue Rangers was denounced by both Weatherwax and theNational 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 program calledLassie's Rescue Rangers produced byFilmation.[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 calledLassie – debuted, airing in the U.S. on the then newAnimal Planet cable network. This show (which was filmed in Canada and set inVermont) 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 2014–2020, an animated series calledLassie orThe 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 series was released to DVD between 2001–2007.
| DVD Name | # Ep | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| 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 byDan Spiegle, distributed byGold 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 theNielsen 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 yearLassie did not climb into the top twenty-five was 1960, when it ran oppositeWalt Disney Presents onABC andShirley Temple Theater onNBC.[18] However,Lassie still ran opposite Disney when theDisney 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 |
|---|---|
| 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 autobiographyTimmy'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 ofThe 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 artistWilly Vandersteen created his own version of the TV show with a collie namedBessy 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.
