(Bark) What Lassie, Timmy’s in Trouble? (Bark) You Mean He’s Stuck in a Well?

I’ll have to admit, even as a child who grew up in the 1960’s, I didn’t watch Lassie much when it ran on CBS-TV.

The dog was a TV star and I’m sure if it hadn’t been for Lassie there would have been no Gentle Ben or Daktari.

My dogs Sadie and Annie can attack an ironing board or a piece of pizza with skills that should be studied by the military. But leading rescue workers to Timmy who was stuck in a well (again) is all the domain of TV’s Lassie.

You saw that episode, didn’t you? The one where Timmy falls down into a well and gets trapped and Lassie runs off to find the humans for help. Lassie barks and you always heard the adult say:

“What’s wrong Lassie?“

(Bark, bark)

“Oh, Timmy’s stuck in a well. Come on boys..grab your shovels.. we have to go save Timmy!“

My favorite episode was one they shot years later at Cape Kennedy. Lassie was led around the base by some NASA pilot/astronaut as the Apollo spacecraft stood on the launch pad. Lassie was then taken to a conference room to meet an Army 4-star general.

The general actually shakes Lassie’s paw, offers the dog a seat and runs a film showing Apollo in action. They show the spacecraft lifiting off from the cape with shots of Lassie watching.

As if the dog was taking in the complex science needed to launch such a spacecraft.

This Lassie rant is brought to you by The CBS Early Show, which interviewed former child star Jon Provost, who just wrote a book about his life during and after the series.