44 Fun Facts About Lassie

Lassie is a fictional dog of which breed?

Lassie is a Rough Collie, the long-coated variety that differs from the Smooth Collie only in coat; screen Lassies have been sable-and-white dogs with the breed's full ruff and white blaze.

Lassie first appeared in a 1938 short story published in which magazine?

The Saturday Evening Post ran Eric Knight's short story 'Lassie Come-Home' in its 17 December 1938 issue, before he expanded it into a full novel.

In what year was Eric Knight's full-length novel Lassie Come-Home published?

Lassie Come-Home was published as a novel in 1940 by the John C. Winston Company of Philadelphia, with illustrations by Marguerite Kirmse.

In which English county is the novel Lassie Come-Home set?

The novel is set in Yorkshire: Joe Carraclough's family lives in the fictional mill village of Greenall Bridge, and Lassie treks hundreds of miles back there after being sold to a duke.

How did Lassie's creator Eric Knight die in January 1943?

He was a US Army major in Special Services when his C-54 went down in Dutch Guiana, months before the first film opened.

Which studio made the 1943 film Lassie Come Home?

It was the first of seven MGM Lassie films, all in Technicolor.

Which two young stars appeared in the 1943 film Lassie Come Home?

Roddy McDowall played Joe Carraclough and a young Elizabeth Taylor played Priscilla, the Duke's granddaughter, in MGM's 1943 Lassie Come Home.

In Lassie Come Home, the Carracloughs sell their collie to which aristocrat?

The Duke of Rudling buys Lassie from the cash-strapped Carracloughs and takes her to his estate far to the north, from which she escapes and walks hundreds of miles back to Joe.

For which Academy Award was the 1943 film Lassie Come Home nominated?

Lassie Come Home earned cinematographer Leonard Smith a nomination for Best Cinematography, Color at the 1944 Academy Awards, where it lost to The Phantom of the Opera.

How did Pal win the role of Lassie after producers had hired a female collie?

The director reportedly had tears in his eyes; the first six weeks were reshot with Pal.

Who was Pal's owner and trainer, who later acquired the Lassie name and trademark from MGM?

Rudd Weatherwax owned and trained Pal, and in the early 1950s took the Lassie name and trademark from MGM in settlement of money the studio owed him.

In which year did the Lassie television series debut?

It ran until March 1973, first on CBS and then in syndication.

On which network did Lassie air for its first 17 seasons?

It won its Sunday 7 p.m. time slot every year of that run.

How many episodes of the Lassie TV series were produced in total?

That is 19 seasons, from September 1954 to March 1973.

Who played Lassie's first TV master, farm boy Jeff Miller?

Tommy Rettig played Jeff Miller from 1954 to 1957; Jeff lived on the Miller farm with his widowed mother Ellen and his grandfather, Gramps.

Which actor played the orphan Timmy, Lassie's master from 1957 to 1964?

Jon Provost played Timmy Martin from 1957 to 1964, joining as a runaway orphan taken in first by the Millers and then adopted by Ruth and Paul Martin.

Who played Ruth Martin, Timmy's adoptive mother, from 1958 to 1964?

June Lockhart played Ruth Martin from 1958 to 1964, having already appeared in the Lassie world as the grown-up Priscilla in MGM's 1945 Son of Lassie.

Which future Oscar winner played Ruth Martin for a single season, 1957 to 1958?

Cloris Leachman played Ruth Martin for just the 1957-58 season; she later won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for 1971's The Last Picture Show.

After the Martin family left, Lassie was taken in by Corey Stuart, who worked as what?

Robert Bray played him from 1964 to 1968, the start of the show's 'Ranger years'.

Under what title were the first 116 episodes of Lassie later syndicated?

The Jeff Miller episodes were repackaged for syndication as Jeff's Collie, while the later Timmy Martin years were sold under the title Timmy & Lassie.

The famous whistled Lassie theme that debuted in season five was composed by whom?

Les Baxter composed the whistled Lassie theme; the whistling was performed by Muzzy Marcellino, who also supplied the whistling in the 1954 film The High and the Mighty.

In what year did the Lassie TV series switch from black and white to colour?

By then Lassie had moved from the farm to the forest service.

How many Emmy Awards did the Lassie TV series win?

Lassie won two Emmy Awards, for Best Children's Program in 1955 and 1956, and also received a Peabody Award for its early seasons.

Which pseudonym did producer Robert Maxwell use when writing many early Lassie episodes?

Claire Kennedy was the pen name producer Robert Maxwell used on many Jeff Miller-era scripts; the team of Robert Schaefer and Eric Freiwald later wrote scores of episodes.

Timmy Martin's shirt, jeans and Keds from the show are on display where?

Jon Provost's Timmy costume of shirt, jeans and Keds sneakers was donated to the Smithsonian Institution and is held by its National Museum of American History in Washington.

Which of these was NOT one of the collies who played Lassie on the TV series?

Buddy was never a Lassie; on television the role passed from Pal to his son Lassie Junior and then to Spook, Baby, Mire and Hey Hey, all from Pal's line.

Which two animals share Lassie's distinction of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?

Rin Tin Tin and Strongheart, both German Shepherd stars of the silent era, are the other two animals with Hollywood Walk of Fame stars; all three honourees are dogs.

In 2005, Variety named Lassie to which list, as its only animal?

Variety's 2005 list of 100 Icons of the Century, published for the trade paper's centenary, included Lassie as the only animal among the entertainment figures honoured.

Which studio made Lassie's Rescue Rangers, the animated ABC series of 1973–75?

Filmation, the studio behind Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, produced Lassie's Rescue Rangers, which premiered on ABC in September 1973, months after the live-action series ended.

A Japanese anime series about Lassie aired in which year?

Famous Dog Lassie (Meiken Lassie) aired in Japan in 1996 as an entry in Nippon Animation's World Masterpiece Theater series of literary adaptations.

The 1997 Lassie TV series was produced by Canadian company Cinar for which US network?

Cinar's 1997 Lassie was made for Animal Planet in the United States, aired on YTV in Canada, and ran for two seasons until 1999.

Which studio released the 1994 film Lassie, directed by Daniel Petrie?

Paramount Pictures released Daniel Petrie's Lassie in July 1994, with Tom Guiry as the boy Matt Turner and Helen Slater as his stepmother.

The collie in the 1994 film Lassie was what generation descendant of the original Pal?

Michelle Williams and Richard Farnsworth were also in the cast.

Which veteran actor starred with Samantha Morton in the 2005 British remake of Lassie Come Home?

Peter O'Toole played the Duke in Charles Sturridge's 2005 Lassie, alongside Samantha Morton, John Lynch and Peter Dinklage; the film reached US cinemas in 2006.

The 1945 sequel Son of Lassie starred which leading man?

Peter Lawford played the grown-up Joe Carraclough in Son of Lassie (1945), with June Lockhart as Priscilla; Elizabeth Taylor returned the next year for Courage of Lassie.

Which producer, whose wife Bonita Granville narrated many episodes, owned Lassie for most of its run?

Jack Wrather bought the Lassie franchise from Robert Maxwell in 1956 and controlled it until his death in 1984; his wife Bonita Granville, the 1930s screen Nancy Drew, was a producer on the series.

What is Eric Knight's other famous novel, a significant work about the Second World War?

This Above All, Eric Knight's 1941 novel about a British soldier who deserts after Dunkirk, was filmed in 1942 with Tyrone Power and Joan Fontaine.

Where was the Lassie TV series filmed?

The 'farm' and later the ranger's forests were both Californian locations and sound stages.

Who directed the 1943 film Lassie Come Home?

Fred M. Wilcox, who later made Forbidden Planet (1956), directed Lassie Come Home from Hugo Butler's screenplay of Eric Knight's novel.

In which year was Lassie Come Home added to the US National Film Registry?

The Library of Congress added Lassie Come Home to the National Film Registry in 1993, its fifth annual selection, as 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant'.

In the 1943 film, where does the Duke take Lassie, hundreds of miles from Yorkshire?

The Duke takes Lassie to his estate in Scotland; his granddaughter Priscilla, sensing the dog's misery, lets her slip away to begin the long walk home to Yorkshire.

To which country did the Martin family emigrate, leaving Lassie behind after season ten?

Paul Martin took a job teaching agriculture there, so Lassie went to Forest Ranger Corey Stuart instead.

Which traditional folk tune became the Lassie theme for the show's final seasons?

Greensleeves, the traditional English tune, became the Lassie theme in an arrangement by series composer Nathan Scott from season 17 in 1970 through the final syndicated seasons.

Which hazard, joked about in Jon Provost's autobiography title, did Timmy never actually fall into?

Timmy fell down mine shafts, off cliffs and into rivers, lakes and quicksand, but never a well.