Lassie

When i was growing up in the late 50's are early 60's there was only one program we ever watched at 7pm on Sunday and it was Lassie. I remember the 2 part episode when Tommy and Lassie were lost and

i cried at the the end of part 2 when Lassie found her way home . I was very dissapointed when the Martin's sold the farm and gave Lassie to Forest Ranger Cory Stewart. The show was never that same after that. Thanks to Discovery Kids Channel i can now see these wonderfull shows including the 1st three seasons 1954 to 57 when Jeff Miller and his family owned Lassie and the farm.

I, too, have to chime in with the folks who prefer "Jeff's Collie" to the other incarnations of "Lassie". Tommy Rettig, rest his soul, was superb, as were Jan Clayton and George Cleveland (and the wonderful boy who played Porky, sorry, I've forgotten his name). Perfect family entertainment -- and a brilliant vehicle for teaching young and old alike the all-important lessons in empathy and do unto others. What better way to learn how to look beyond appearances and taking things at face value, than taking the time to understand what a dog is feeling or trying to tell us? Sometimes the storylines were amazing, considering the time. I saw a rerun last week that dealt with the evils of people who engage in pit bull dogfights! I feel very fortunate to have grown up with Lassie.

BTW, thanks to the poster who remembers the book "Lassie and the Secret of the Summer" -- I LOVED that book!

I live and grew up in Melbourne, Australia. When I was a kid in the 1960s, I was given a book, a novel, called "Lassie: The Secret of the Summer", based on the Jeff's Collie cast of characters - Jeff, Porky, Ellen, Gramps. The story was that Jeff was trying to save up enough money to buy a record player for his room... and the Millers took in vacation guests on their farm. It was one of my favourite books of that time, in fact, I still have it somewhere. It was published by Whitman Publishing Co. of Racine, Wisconsin, I believe. I first saw the Timmy series of episodes -- and was confused when his parents changed actors suddenly. Later in the 1960s, another network reran the Jeff's Collie episodes from the 1950s. I loved the Jeff's Collie theme music -- wasn't it something classical... Mozart? All in all, a great childhood memory.

Peter Kohn, Melbourne, Australia

Of the variations of this series, the 6 seasons that featured June Lockhart, Hugh Reilly and Jon Provost seemed to hold the episodes that worked the best for me (the other variations of the series, while good, seemed to lack the small family environment that existed with the above), and, I must admit that "Lassie" is one of the reasons that I pursued a job in the field of meteorology in my adult years (and why to this day I still enjoy camping in National Parks or Forests) - as the Bible says, a good influence at a young age is very important, and I'm grateful that through television, the program "Lassie" was the good influence I needed. After watching some of these early episodes during the TVLand "Lassie" 50th Anniversary Marathon this past weekend (4/23-24/05), the program still remains in my mind as my all-time favorite television series during my grade school years.

In watching these episodes over the weekend, what also came to mind was the "poor simplicity" of a child living in those post-World War II times - some might think that what is shown in "Lassie" was an exaggeration for television, but, in reality was mostly true - of our favorite "toys" at that time (I was born in the mid-1950's), our green garden hose was one of our favorites during the summer months (a very inexpensive way to "go to the beach"), along with our clothesline, which we used to "transport" our stuffed animals on "long journeys" far from our house (with the use of wooden clothespins - a stuffed rabbit had the ears for just this purpose) - try explaining that to a child today!

People should also remember that this "poor simplicity" was also a reflection of the country's recent past at that time - while in today's world, 30 years ago means 1975, in 1960 30 years earlier meant 1930 - the height of the depression, and as older Americans know, it took the country many years to recover from those very poor and simple times, and could still be felt in some ways, even during the early 1960's.

Florida2

I watched that great series without fail. I always thought how great it would be to be a friend of "Jeff Miller". Of course, knowing he was really Tommy Rettig the boy actor gave me a strong desire to somehow be like him. I even dreamed of getting a part on the show. This was, of course, pure fantasy and yet I remember the intense dedication I had as a boy toward that show. I was not aware, until now, that Tommy had passed away. It saddens me to learn this. I am about the same age as he was.