44 Fun Facts About Lassie

Lassie is a fictional dog of which breed?

Rough Collie is the long-coated breed Lassie made famous, yet Eric Knight's original story describes her as a tricolour dog, black, white and gold, not the sable collie of the screen.

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 the novel Lassie Come-Home, why must the Carracloughs sell Lassie?

Unemployment forces the sale: the pit where Joe's father worked has shut, and selling the family's prized dog to a wealthy buyer is the only way left to pay for food and rent.

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

Yorkshire is home to the Carracloughs, and after Lassie is sold and taken hundreds of miles away she escapes and walks all the way back to Joe.

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

In a military plane crash: Knight, by then a US Army major, was killed on duty, and when Lassie Come Home opened that October it carried a dedication to him.

Which studio made the 1943 film Lassie Come Home?

MGM made Lassie a film star, then ended the series in 1951 and let the rights go, just before she began a 19-season run on television.

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

Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor played Joe and the Duke's granddaughter Priscilla; the small part won Taylor a long-term studio contract.

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

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

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

Best Cinematography, Color was the nomination Leonard Smith earned for Technicolor footage in which the American West stood in for the British countryside.

By his trainer's account, how did Pal win the Lassie role from the female collie first cast?

Swimming a flooded river: hired only as the stunt dog, Pal handled the rapids so impressively that, his trainer said, the director had tears in his eyes and gave him the lead.

Which Hollywood animal trainer owned Pal, the first dog to play Lassie on screen?

Rudd Weatherwax owned and trained Pal and stayed protective of the character: of a 1973 cartoon version he said, "That's not Lassie. That's trash."

Why did TV's Lassie write out Gramps in 1957?

Actor's death: George Cleveland died in 1957, so Gramps's passing was written into the story and sends the Millers away, leaving Lassie on the farm with young Timmy.

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

CBS carried Lassie on Sundays for 17 seasons, then dropped it in 1971; the show simply carried on, running two more years in syndication.

How many episodes of Lassie were made across its 19 television seasons?

About 600: the 591 episodes outlasted two boy masters and several sets of adult co-stars, and for one season Lassie carried the show with no human leads at all.

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

Tommy Rettig played Jeff until 1957, then got out of his contract because he longed for a normal teenage life, so the show found Lassie a younger master.

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

Jon Provost's Timmy first appears as a runaway hiding in the Millers' barn; when the Millers leave the farm, he stays on with its new owners and inherits Lassie.

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

June Lockhart took over as Ruth in 1958, when the producers recast both of Timmy's adoptive parents after a single season, and stayed until the family left the show in 1964.

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

Cloris Leachman found the farm-wife role thin and wanted out; her young co-star later recalled that she lost interest once she saw the part was mostly baking cookies.

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

A US Forest Ranger: Robert Bray played Corey Stuart from 1964, and the job took Lassie off the farm and out into wild country across America.

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

Jeff's Collie covers the Jeff Miller years, ending early in season four when Jeff moves away and leaves Lassie on the farm with young Timmy.

Lassie's best-known TV theme, introduced in the show's fifth season, is famous for being performed how?

Whistled by Muzzy Marcellino over strings, Les Baxter's tune became so tied to Lassie that the show kept the melody, in orchestral form, after the whistle itself was dropped.

What did the Lassie TV series switch to in 1965?

Colour film came with the twelfth season, a year after the stories left the farm, in time to show off American scenery filmed on location.

Lassie's two 1950s Emmys both named it the best what?

Children's program honours came first; in 1958 the Television Academy went further and nominated Lassie as one of the year's best dramatic series.

What does the word 'lassie', which gave the famous collie her name, mean?

A young girl is the meaning: 'lassie' is 'lass' plus the ending -ie, first recorded in the early 1700s, though the dogs cast as the character on screen were all male.

Where did Timmy's shirt, jeans and Keds sneakers from the Lassie TV series end up?

The Smithsonian Institution received the costume from the actor himself, and its National Museum of American History notes that he had doodled on the rubber soles of his Keds.

Why have only male collies played the female Lassie?

Fuller coats: collies shed in summer, when most filming was done, and the thicker-furred males looked less scrawny; they were also bigger, as befits a screen hero.

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

Rin Tin Tin and Strongheart were both German Shepherds; Strongheart reached stardom first, in 1921, and his success set other owners, Rin Tin Tin's among them, chasing film careers for their dogs.

After Lassie, the actress who played Timmy's mother from 1958 became a TV mother again in which 1960s series?

Lost in Space cast her as Maureen Robinson, another devoted TV mother, and NASA later honoured her for inspiring public interest in space exploration.

Which studio made the 1970s animated ABC series Lassie's Rescue Rangers?

Filmation turned Lassie into the leader of the Rescue Rangers, a squad of wild animals including a mountain lion and a raccoon, in stories built around ecology.

In 1996, animators in which country retold Lassie Come-Home as a 26-part television serial?

Japan's Nippon Animation made it for its World Masterpiece Theater slot, renaming Joe as John and opening with Lassie as a stray puppy he takes in and raises.

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

Animal Planet aired the Canadian-made series from 1997 to 1999; as a nod to the original, its makers named Lassie's new young master Timmy.

Which future star played Matt's classmate April in the 1994 film Lassie?

Michelle Williams played April, the classmate who befriends newcomer Matt, in a version that swapped the British setting for a family sheep farm in America.

Which company sponsored the Lassie TV series through all 17 of its network seasons?

Campbell's backed Lassie through every network season. In 1964 the show wanted three more years of Timmy, but its 14-year-old star was tired of the part and chose to leave.

Which veteran actor played the Duke opposite Samantha Morton in the 2005 British remake of Lassie Come Home?

Peter O'Toole played the Duke in a remake that kept the story British but shot much of it elsewhere, with Ireland doubling for parts of Britain.

Which future Rat Pack member played the grown-up Joe Carraclough in the 1945 sequel Son of Lassie?

Peter Lawford played the adult Joe as an RAF airman shot down over occupied Norway, a war adventure far from the gentle family drama of the first film.

Jack Wrather, the producer who owned Lassie for most of her TV run, also owned which other television hero?

The Lone Ranger was Wrather's too; the Texas oilman also built the Disneyland Hotel in 1955 after Walt Disney ran short of money for one.

In the classic closing credits of the Lassie TV series, what does Lassie do?

Lifts a front paw: Lassie held the pose until the credits ended, a sign-off used for years until the last two seasons swapped it for plain credits on a green background.

The farm seasons of the Lassie TV series were filmed mainly in which US state?

California's movie ranches around Chatsworth supplied the farm, country that had already stood in for Britain when the 1943 film shot scenes there.

In the 1945 sequel Son of Lassie, what is the name of Lassie's son?

Laddie stows away on Joe's RAF bomber and is shot down with him over occupied Norway; Pal, who had played Lassie in the first film, took the part of her son.

Whose National Film Registry added Lassie Come Home in 1993?

The Library of Congress named it to the 1993 list, a choice that commits the Library to obtaining a best-quality print for preservation and study.

In the 1943 film Lassie Come Home, where does the Duke take Lassie, hundreds of miles from her home?

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

Australia was where Paul Martin took a job teaching agriculture; Lassie could not make the move with the family, so she stayed behind and found a new master.

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

Greensleeves took over in 1970, the season the show dropped its human co-stars and sent Lassie roaming on her own, and it stayed until the series ended.

In the long-running joke about the Lassie TV series, Timmy is forever falling into what?

A well is the one hazard Timmy never met: he was trapped in mines, caught in quicksand and dunked in lakes, and his actor titled his memoir Timmy's in the Well.