Other Lassie Series Lassie's Rescue Rangers The New Lassie Lassie (Animal Planet) Meiken Lassie

In 1972, ABC began a cartoon series called The Saturday Superstar Movie, a series of one-hour cartoon films. While many of them were "cartoon type" shows, we also had animated versions of live-action series and characters—Don Adams as a bumbling detective very like Maxwell Smart and cartoon versions of The Addams Family, Lost in Space, and Lassie. The last, entitled Lassie and the Spirit of Thunder Mountain, served as a pilot of sorts for 1973's animated series, Lassie's Rescue Rangers.

Lassie and the Spirit of Thunder Mountain was a not-bad adventure story about a supposed treasure stored in a sacred Native American landmark. It introduced the Turner family and the series regular, Gene Fox, the family's Indian friend.

When Lassie's Rescue Rangers appeared in the fall Saturday morning lineup, the Turner family—father Ben; mother Laura, a doctor (no, you're not mistaken—"Turner" is the name of the family in 1994's Lassie, and mom is "Laura Turner"); teenagers Jackie and Susan; and the youngest child, Little Ben, who is blind—now own a rescue organization, complete with a helicopter and a motley crew of wild animals who help Lassie save the forest, including Old Toothless, an elderly mountain lion; and Robbie, a raccoon. Gene Fox, the Turner's Native American friend, was also a continuing character.

In keeping with the "relevant" theme of the early seventies, the scripts emphasized ecology, which wasn't bad except the theme was pretty much primary to the stories. Filmation Association, which also did the excellent Star Trek animated series the same year, did a much more typically kids' version of this cartoon, with cartoon animal humor being provided by Lassie's wild animal "colleagues."

More information can be found on the Lassie's Rescue Rangers episode guide page.

N.B. Rudd Weatherwax apparently hated Lassie's Rescue Rangers and once commented, "That's not Lassie, that's trash."

The New Lassie, a production of Palladium Entertainment, was syndicated in the fall of 1988. It was neither an excellent nor a truly terrible series, but despite a good cast it again lacked the traditional Lassie "spark" that made the Jeff, Timmy, and early Corey Stuart episodes so good.

In this series, Lassie's family were the McCulloughs: father Chris, an architect and draftsman; mother Dee; and the two children, Megan and Will. They lived in the small town of Glenridge in California and episodes usually involved Will and Lassie's adventures, although sometimes Megan was added to the mix.

Tougher restrictions on the content of children's programming seriously curtailed the type of adventures Lassie and Will could get into. Finding escaped convicts in the woods and Lassie battling bad guys was pretty much a thing of the past. While no one wanted Lassie to "make like Rambo," the supposedly "serious" situations in some of the episodes were just so innocuous that you couldn't believe anyone was worrying about them.

Additionally, despite the care given to present proper values, the show sometimes left children with the wrong impression about important issues. For instance, the old TV series had been very serious when it came to firearms. Gramps, Paul, Ruth, and Corey had all used a gun at one time or the other, usually to defend themselves or someone else from predators. People who misued guns—careless hunters, kids who didn't know what they were doing—were usually portrayed in a bad light and shown to be either evil or stupid and learned their lesson at the end of the episode by being arrested or punished in some other way.

In the first episode of The New Lassie, a man hunting deer out of season unknowingly shoots the kids' Uncle Steve. However, the hunter has seen Lassie, so after she runs for help, the hunter accuses her of biting him so she can't lead anyone back to the area where he was using his rifle, knowing they will find evidence of his crime. The animal control officer immediately cages Lassie and when Will helps her escape, the officer pulls out a rifle and aims it at the dog, although Will is standing in front of her!

I was horrified. Although authority figures have been known to do unlawful things, it's the exception rather than the rule. It's definitely not a good image to show children that persons such as animal control officers and policemen are cruel and careless with firearms. In addition, the hunter eventually got his comeuppance, but the situation about the animal control officer was never resolved!

Another story I found disconcerting involved Chris' reluctance to take a job designing a bar for one of Will's friend's fathers, despite the fact he was out of work and the family needed money. Although it is emphasized strongly in other episodes that this family is always honest with each other, it took Lassie herding them into a room and forcing them to stay there to have Dee finally reveal that Chris did not want to do the job since Dee's father had been an alcoholic and he respected her feelings about excessive drinking. This seemed very at odds with the family philosophy of openness.

Other times the stories took really bizarre turns. It reached its most bizarre in a first season episode featuring Uncle Steve. With nostalgia in mind, the producers had cast Jon Provost in this semi-regular role, and in this episode they examined Lassie's background—the McCulloughs had gotten her when, as a puppy, Steve had pulled her from a burning car.

In this episode, a woman named Mrs. Chadwick suddenly appeared, claiming Lassie was her dog; apparently it was her car that had been on fire, and she had assumed the collie puppy with her had run away or been killed. Will, of course, was heartbroken, and the family offered to buy Lassie, but Mrs. Chadwick refused to take the money, instead showing up at the house to take Lassie away. The first person she sees is Uncle Steve and she exclaims, "Timmy!".

The woman playing Mrs. Chadwick, of course, was June Lockhart, and as the story progressed, we found out that when the Martins had moved to Australia, they hadn't been able to take Timmy with them because they hadn't ever really adopted him (after seven years!!!!). While the Martins made the decision to give up Lassie, it was absurd that they would have chosen to move to Australia and lose their son! in any case, Timmy resented this and when he was adopted by the McCulloughs, he started using his middle name, Steve. Then evidently Paul died and Ruth Martin had married a Mr. Chadwick. If this wasn't hard enough to swallow, Mrs. Chadwick then claimed she wanted Lassie back because there had always been a Lassie in her family! Never mind that Timmy got Lassie from Jeff!

(N.B. They eventually bought off Mrs. Chadwick by offering her one of Lassie's puppies.)

A later episode that brought back Tommy Rettig as now Professor Jeff Miller, a computer specialist, was better, but it was still pretty jarring.

Despite the gaffes, there were several interesting stories. One episode, for instance, featured the McCulloughs attending a local Highland Games/gathering of the clans. (Lassie, of course, is right at home in a Scottish gathering.) And Lassie's first co-star, Roddy McDowall, was featured in three stories as author Andrew Leeds.

The best, most imaginative episode of the lot featured Tony Jay (Paracelsus from the Beauty and the Beast series and Lex Luthor's ex-henchman on Lois and Clark). Jay played an elderly handyman named Mr. Shepherd who entranced the entire family, except Megan. This is a lovely episode with moments of suspense and mystery. Would that the entire series had been as good.

None of these episodes are available on video in the United States so far as I know. Two British videotapes with three episodes each existed at one time, but are now out of print. They are sometimes available on e-Bay.

The cast for The New Lassie:

• Chris McCullough: Christopher Stone.
• Dee McCullough: Dee Wallace Stone (the mom in E.T.).
• Will McCullough: Will Nipper (a.k.a. Will Estes, later the voice of Jonny Quest in the USA movies).
• Megan McCullough: Wendy Cox.
• Steve McCullough: Jon Provost.

On March 2, 1997, Lassie returned to the small screen with a series of 52 episodes.

Discovery Channel's Animal Planet cable channel, in conjunction with Cinar Productions and Golden Book Entertainment television, produced a new Lassie series filmed, as with many others these days, in Canada.

The story: Widowed veterinarian Karen Cabot and her young son Timmy have moved back to Karen's old home town of Hudson Falls, Vermont, where Karen bought out the practice of elderly Dr. Donald Stewart, the town's vet. Timmy is uncertain of the move and still smarting from his father's recent death. In short order, we are introduced to Ethan Bennett, an old classmate of Karen's (who looks to be still interested in her) and owner of the local sporting goods store, and a neighbor girl, Wilhemina ("Billie").

In the introductory two episodes, "The Great Escape" and "Lassie Comes Home," a neglected collie living at Hollering Hank's junkyard escapes and is hurt by a passing truck. She's found by young Timmy and brought home to his mother to treat. Posters are put up around town, but when no one claims the dog after ten days, Karen tells Timmy he can keep her, and he names her Lassie.

Which of course is when Hank—a town character in the true sense of the word—comes back to claim her.

The series opened fairly well, with some pleasant characters and a touch of humor to the writing that was sorely missing from the last new series. The Les Baxter Lassie theme was nicely integrated into the new opening music—the score is by Milan Kymlicka—as well. However, the second part of the initial story rather degenerated into silliness, Hank not being a very threatening character. Folks looking for the old Lassie sense of adventure were probably disappointed by most of the episodes.

The use of some of the old series' names, however—presumably as a tribute—was a bit jarring. The updated version of Willy Brewster, Billie, was a definite improvement on Linda Wrather's typically 1960's girl character—one almost wished she was the one who ended up with Lassie rather than Timmy, who's nice but rather predictable. Unfortunately, Billie only appeared in the first three episodes, to be replaced by Timmy's friends Jeff (son of Jay Mack, Ethan's best friend and owner of the town diner) and Natalie. [Note: Jeff and Natalie's names were seen in several credits/synopses as "Geoff" and "Nathalie." However, in credits to the final episodes, Jeff and Natalie are the versions used.]

Unfortunately the "touch of humor" seemed to be a harbinger for the attitude of the entire series, which really isn't about Lassie at all, but about Timmy and his friends. In too many episodes Lassie is simply a bystander, and when she does get to do something, it's usually as moral support. The later episodes of second season seem to involve Hollerin' Hank into almost every other situation; while the character isn't bad comic relief, he's annoying to watch that often.

To make matters worse, in the final 13 episodes, spunky Natalie, who has "gone off to live in Montreal," has been replaced by a vacuous little girl named Pascale who makes you long for Willy Brewster again.

The series further suffered from Golden Books' contention that "Lassie" is just a character and didn't need to be played by the Lassie trained by Bob Weatherwax, a descendant of the original Lassie. They replaced Lassie by a French-Canadian trained collie in 13 episodes (this collie did an admirable job, but they didn't even bother looking for a dog that looked like Lassie, with the distinctive white blaze). The final 13  episodes credit Lassie as being handled by Carol Riggins, with collies supplied by Weatherwax Trained Dogs and Bob Weatherwax listed as a consultant. The collie you see in the final 13 episodes was a son of the eighth generation Lassie, who was then touring the country with Bob Weatherwax.

The series, before ending with the two parter "Graduation," did manage to clear up the onrunning mystery of Lassie's origin that was established in some of the earliest episodes: she was originally "Sable," the pet of a diplomat's daughter. She escaped from a caretaker while the girl and her father were assigned out of the States. Timmy heroically returns her to her original owner, but Lassie, whom we find out was expecting puppies at the time she left the Cabots, walks all the way home to Hudson Falls to have her litter. The diplomat's daughter, knowing Lassie's heart now lies with Timmy, asks for a puppy instead. (The ending of this episode was ruined a bit by the appearance of the puppies, who when found "newborn" by Hank, are romping, their eyes opened, looking in reality to be about six weeks old.)

We also find out that Doc Stewart's long-discussed book is to be published, and discover that he didn't write his memoirs after all, but a book about Timmy and Lassie's adventures!

Season 1 of the series is now out on DVD, but only in Canada (however, American fans can order it freely since Canada also uses Region 1 DVDs). A children's picture book, The Great Escape, based on the opening story, can be found.

Season One Episodes

"The Great Escape" * "Lassie Comes Home" * "Swamp Thing" * "The Raft" "Horse Healer" "Biker Boys" "Where's Timmy?" "Lassie is Missing" "The Big Smoke" "Open Season" "The Feud" "A Day in the Life" "Cats Out of the Bag"

"On the Case" "Sweet Science" "Poster Pup" "Rush to Judgment" "Fathers and Sons" "That Boy-Girl Thing" "Friends with Mr. Cairo" "Bone of Contention" "The Great Emu Hunt" "Not on the Map" "Dog Gone It!" "Collie Confusion" "The Lassie Files"

      * Episodes with Billie rather than Jeff and Natalie

Season Two Episodes

Episodes Without the Real Lassie "Dad's Watch" "Responsibility" "Wild Goose Chase" "Tale of the Noisy Ghost" "Full Circle" "Chain Letter"	"Monkeyin' Around" "Trains & Boats & Planes" (2 pts) "Manhunt" "Pet Therapy" "Amazing Grace" "Mayor for a Day"
Lassie handled by Carol Riggins "Sam Dupree" "The Good Neighbor" "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" "Feathered Friends" "Hookie for Hockey" "Fit to Print"	"Mad Dog" "Secrets and Lies" "New Dog in Town" "Breakout" "Bear Necessities" "Graduation" (2 pts)

The Cast for Lassie on Animal Planet:

• Timmy Cabot: Corey Sevier   [Later "Dan" on PAX-TV's Little Men]
• Dr. Karen Cabot: Susie Almgren
• Ethan Bennett: Tim Post
• Dr. Donald Stewart: Walter Massey
• Billie: Brigid Tierney
• Jeff MacKenzie: Tod Fennell
• Jay Mack: Al Vandecruys
• Natalie Blake: Natalie Vansier
• Pascale: Maude Gionet
• "Hollerin'" Hank Cranforth: Chip Chuipa

Unrelated to any of the Lassie live action series or Lassie's Rescue Rangers, Meiken Lassie was a 26-part anime series based on Lassie Come Home and produced by Nippon Animation. The Japanese production company World Masterpiece Theater had already done many other family classics as multi-part serials, including Anne of Green Gables, Heidi, Little Women, Little Men, and The Little Princess, and Meiken Lassie was the next to the last of these.

The story, which originally ran from January 14, 1996 through August 18, 1996, followed the adventures of young John (not Joe) who lives in a 1930s working-class coal-mining village, and who finds a sick collie puppy lost in a flock of sheep. He brings the young dog home and nurses her back to health and the two enjoy adventures together and with John's friends. Then the village mine closes and, in exchange for an official investigation into the closing, the owner of the mine takes Lassie back with him to Scotland, but his granddaughter Priscilla, who is also John's friend, cannot bear to see Lassie shut up away from the boy she loves and frees her to find her way home. However, because the series was cancelled after 26 episodes of a projected 52, Lassie's journey only lasted for three episodes.

Translated, the title means "Famous Dog Lassie."