Lassie
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photo courtesy State Archive of Florida
Lassie, a female Rough Collie fictional character has starred in, or been the subject of, many radio shows, movies, TV shows, and books, entertaining generations of children around the world from 1938 to the present.
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[edit] History
The character of Lassie was created by British-American author Eric Knight in Lassie Come Home, published as a short story in the Saturday Evening Post in 1938 and as a novel in 1940. In Knight's story set in Depression-era England, a young Yorkshire boy owns an exceptionally beautiful and loyal collie, but when the family faces severe economic hardship, the dog is sold to a wealthy nobleman. Both boy and dog grieve over the separation, made worse when the new owner transports Lassie hundreds of miles away to his estate in Scotland. However, the collie's instinct and courage cause her to escape, and the book follows Lassie's desperate efforts to return to the boy she loves.
In 1943 the book was made into what would become the first Lassie movie, Lassie Come Home, which generally followed the plot of the book, and in which Roddy McDowall starred. Since then, there have been numerous sequels, television series and spin-offs. Other television series followed in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, made by various production companies, with varied casts and themes, making the Lassie concept as a television series one of the very longest running of any collective series so focused.
Lassie is one of only three dog characters, and one of very few fictional characters (another being Mickey Mouse) who have been awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – the others being Rin Tin Tin and Strongheart. In 2005, the show business journal Variety named Lassie one of the "100 Icons of all time" – the only animal star on the list.
On the 1954-1974 television series Lassie, she had a series of owners, the first two being "Jeff Miller", played by Tommy Rettig and, later, "Timmy" (Jon Provost). Both were farm boys frequently helped out of scrapes by their super-intelligent dog. June Lockhart, who had previously appeared in Son of Lassie, took over the role of Timmy's mother from Cloris Leachman. Ranger Corey Stuart (Robert Bray) came later and, near the end of the series, Lassie struck out on her own, with no regular human master.
The first dog to play the 1943 movie role of Lassie was Pal, originally from Glamis Collies of California. The original owner could not train the dog and hired Weatherwax Trained Dogs to do the job. When the owner couldn't pay the bill, Pal became owned by animal trainer Rudd Weatherwax and his brother Frank Weatherwax. Some of the dogs that played Lassie were owned and trained by Rudd Weatherwax until his death, and then by his son Robert Weatherwax. Today the dogs are owned and trained by Carol Riggins.
Before Pal's death, he was bred with a number of bitches, resulting in hundreds of offspring, Nine direct line descendants of Pal have performed as Lassie. All offspring not chosen to be the next Lassie were adopted with spay/neuter contracts.
All 9 Lassies have been male, playing a female character. The female collie loses her coat at least once a year making it unsuitable for use year round. Also, the male is larger and a child actor can play opposite the dog for a longer period of time.
In 1997 a Canadian company produced a new Lassie TV show, using a collie not in the original Pal line, generating protests from fans calling for only "authentic" Pal descendents to be used on a series billed as Lassie. Midway through the second season, an 8th-generation Lassie descended from Pal and trained by Carol Riggins of Weatherwax Trained Dogs was brought in until the series ended in 1998.
The current Lassie is busy making personal appearances and promoting dog food.
The copyrights to the films and series are various because so many production companies picked up the story (and changed its characters and focus) over the years. The rights to "Lassie" are held by Classic Media; however, Warner Bros./Turner Entertainment holds the rights to the "Lassie" films originally made by MGM. Many of the movies and TV episodes are available on VHS and DVD, and repeated on television in the U.S. The 1954 – 1957 episodes of the Lassie TV show were later syndicated as Jeff's Collie and televised on the Animal Planet channel. The later seasons' programs featuring Jon Provost and Rober Bray continue to be rerun in many countries.
[edit] Films
- Lassie Come Home (1943) Pal plays title character
- Son of Lassie (1945 - Pal plays title character, while a different dog appears as Lassie)
- Courage of Lassie (1946 - stars Elizabeth Taylor, who also appeared in first film; despite title, features Pal as "Bill."
- Hills of Home (1948 - a.k.a. "Master of Lassie" - Pal actually plays "Lass.")
- Challenge to Lassie (1949 - retells Greyfriar's Bobby story.)
- The Magic of Lassie (1978)
- Lassie (1994)
- Meiken Lassie (1996) - an animal television series which was produced in Japan
- Lassie (2005)
[edit] Radio shows
- Lassie Show (1947-1950) – on the ABC radio network in 1947; NBC radio network in 1948-1950. Lassie would bark on cue
[edit] TV shows
- Lassie (1954-1974) – produced in the U.S. on the CBS television network, first starring Tommy Rettig, later Jon Provost, and finally Robert Bray
- In the 1970s, Lassie appeared in a cartoon series by Filmation, Lassie's Rescue Rangers
- The New Lassie (1989-1991) – produced in the U.S. in first-run syndication, set in Glenridge, California
- Lassie (1997 TV series) (1997-1999) – produced by Cinar of Canada for the Animal Planet network, starring Corey Sevier as "Timmy Cabot" and set in mythical Hudson Falls, Vermont, although the show was actually filmed in Quebec
[edit] External links
- The Lassie Network
- The Official Lassie Site
- The Unofficial Lassie site
- Photographs of Lassie on location from the State Library & Archives of Florida
- Podcast about America's history with dog performers
