Lassie!!!

Not many of us can forget “Lassie” – the popular television series that aired on CBS every Sunday evening for 17 seasons before it had finally run its course. The last two seasons were syndicated.

“Lassie” had to have been one of the longest-running TV series of its time, and you can bet they had run out of ideas by 1974 when the show wrapped. I mean – how many times could Timmy fall down a well?

In truth, Timmy never had to be saved from the well. But that didn’t stop Lassie from her appointed rounds.

Lassie was a male “Rough Collie” long on adventure – sharing “her” life-saving skills with animals and with people. Few ever got that Lassie was a boy dog. I mean, you never saw any indication that Lassie was a male. I never did.

The Lassie concept was born of the genius of television producer Robert Maxwell and animal trainer Rudd Weatherwax, who developed the series into something long on love and hope. Children and adults alike loved the series.

Always a happy ending.

I remember when this popular black and white television series segued into color in 1965. We didn’t have a color TV at the time, but my friends did. “Lassie” was among many addictive animal shows like “Flipper”, “Daktari”, “Gentle Ben,” “Mister Ed” and a host of others that kept us entertained and out of trouble.

Well…not always in my house…

What we remember most was the “Lassie” theme, which evolved into different versions with time but was essentially the same. The launch theme “The Secret of the Silent Hills,” composed by Willaim Lava, was employed for both the opening and closing credits. Later on, Raoul Karushaar, who was the musical director for “Lassie, has long been recognized as the theme’s composer. Most of us remember the Muzzy Marcellino “whistled” version of the “Lassie” theme, which first ran in the show’s fifth season where we first came to know the Martin family.

The Martin years were what I remember most. We’d visit my cousins over in Wheaton, Maryland on a Sunday and become very familiar with Ed Sullivan, Disney, and of course, Lassie on a Sunday evening before it was time to head home.

I suppose “Lassie” could easily be considered right for the time and in a new medium known as television. Always a moral to be learned from television in those days. “Lassie” was surely all American in a society that had a lot to learn at the time – and we surely had a lot to learn.