Lassie Trivia
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44 free Lassie trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Lassie has been coming home since 1938, when Eric Knight's short story ran in The Saturday Evening Post. This quiz follows the collie from the Yorkshire novel to the 1943 MGM film with Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor, through the 591-episode television series with Jeff, Timmy, June Lockhart and Ranger Corey Stuart, and on to the cartoons, the anime, the 1994 and 2005 films and the streaming-era revival. Along the way you will meet Pal, the male collie who won the part with a single swim across a river, and the dynasty of his descendants who have played the role ever since. There are questions on theme tunes, Emmys, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the well that Timmy never actually fell into. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the character, the TV series, the films and the people behind them, so it holds up for classic-TV fans and dog lovers alike.
30 of 44 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Lassie is a fictional dog of which breed?
Rough Collie
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.
Q 02Lassie first appeared in a 1938 short story published in which magazine?
The Saturday Evening Post
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.
Q 03In the novel Lassie Come-Home, why must the Carracloughs sell Lassie?
Unemployment
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.
Q 04In which English county is the novel Lassie Come-Home set?
Yorkshire
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.
Q 05How did Lassie's creator Eric Knight die in January 1943?
In a military plane crash
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.
Q 06Which studio made the 1943 film Lassie Come Home?
MGM
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.
Q 07Which two young stars appeared in the 1943 film Lassie Come Home?
Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor
Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor played Joe and the Duke's granddaughter Priscilla; the small part won Taylor a long-term studio contract.
Q 08In Lassie Come Home, the Carracloughs sell their collie to which aristocrat?
The Duke of Rudling
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.
Q 09For which Academy Award was the 1943 film Lassie Come Home nominated?
Best Cinematography, Color
Best Cinematography, Color was the nomination Leonard Smith earned for Technicolor footage in which the American West stood in for the British countryside.
Q 10By his trainer's account, how did Pal win the Lassie role from the female collie first cast?
Swimming a flooded river
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.
Q 11Which Hollywood animal trainer owned Pal, the first dog to play Lassie on screen?
Rudd Weatherwax
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."
Q 12Why did TV's Lassie write out Gramps in 1957?
Actor's death
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.
Q 13On which network did Lassie air for its first 17 seasons?
CBS
CBS carried Lassie on Sundays for 17 seasons, then dropped it in 1971; the show simply carried on, running two more years in syndication.
Q 21Lassie's best-known TV theme, introduced in the show's fifth season, is famous for being performed how?
Whistled
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.
Q 22What did the Lassie TV series switch to in 1965?
Colour film
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.
Q 23Lassie's two 1950s Emmys both named it the best what?
Children's program
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.
Q 14How many episodes of Lassie were made across its 19 television seasons?
About 600
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.
Q 15Who played Lassie's first TV master, farm boy Jeff Miller?
Tommy Rettig
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.
Q 16Which actor played the orphan Timmy, Lassie's master from 1957 to 1964?
Jon Provost
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.
Q 17Who played Ruth Martin, Timmy's adoptive mother, from 1958 to 1964?
June Lockhart
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.
Q 18Which future Oscar winner played Ruth Martin for a single season, 1957 to 1958?
Cloris Leachman
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.
Q 19After the Martin family left, Lassie was taken in by Corey Stuart, who worked as what?
A US Forest Ranger
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.
Q 20Under what title were the first 116 episodes of Lassie later syndicated?
Jeff's Collie
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.
Q 24What does the word 'lassie', which gave the famous collie her name, mean?
A young girl
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.
Q 25Where did Timmy's shirt, jeans and Keds sneakers from the Lassie TV series end up?
The Smithsonian Institution
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.
Q 26Why have only male collies played the female Lassie?
Fuller coats
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.
Q 27Which two animals share Lassie's distinction of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?
Rin Tin Tin and Strongheart
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.
Q 28After Lassie, the actress who played Timmy's mother from 1958 became a TV mother again in which 1960s series?
Lost in Space
Lost in Space cast her as Maureen Robinson, another devoted TV mother, and NASA later honoured her for inspiring public interest in space exploration.
Q 29Which studio made the 1970s animated ABC series Lassie's Rescue Rangers?
Filmation
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.
Q 30In 1996, animators in which country retold Lassie Come-Home as a 26-part television serial?
Japan
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.