College’s Tribute to an Enduring TV Series: ‘Lassie’

Lassie can’t talk, but her actions speak volumes.

For more than 50 years she’s been boys’ best friend, and the tributes are starting to roll in. The Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington is heralding the occasion with a special exhibit to honor the popular pooch and her creator, Eric Knight, author of the 1940 novel “Lassie Come Home” that launched the legend.

Here in Orange County, Rancho Santiago College will salute Lassie’s place in broadcast history Sunday night at its annual “Tribute to a Television Classic.” The 7 p.m. fund-raiser in Phillips Hall on the Santa Ana campus is in keeping with the Sunday night time slot the original series occupied for 17 years on CBS from 1954-71. It aired three more years in first-run syndication.

The show returned to television last season--again in first-run syndication--marking 21 years of production and making “Lassie” the longest-running dramatic episodic series in history.

Lassie buffs know that Knight first introduced the famous collie in the December, 1938, issue of the Saturday Evening Post. Nine feature films, a national radio show, comic book series, and both live-action and animated television shows followed. Her enduring popularity is reflected in the No. 1 ratings “The New Lassie” garners in major markets from Atlanta to New York City.

“People tune in because they want to feel the same things they felt as children,” says actress Dee Wallace Stone (of “E.T.” fame), who co-stars in “The New Lassie.”

At Sunday’s tribute, old and new cast members will reunite to swap Lassie stories, sign autographs for fans and answer the audience’s questions. The current Lassie, a seventh-generation descendant of the original collie, is billed as the night’s special guest and will be accompanied by his trainer, Bob Weatherwax, son of the original Lassie’s owner and trainer, Rudd Weatherwax. Lassie is expected to offer fans his “pawtographs.”

A special 21-minute video salute to the collie and her various human co-stars will be screened. It notes, among other tidbits, that while Lassie the character is a girl, she has always been portrayed by male dogs. (More such facts can be found in trivia books that will go to the first 250 attendees.)

“Working with Lassie was just wonderful,” recalls Tom Rettig, who played the boy Jeff Miller from 1954-57. He remembers the original black-and-white series as a mix of humor and adventure. “There were three stories: Lassie saves the boy, the boy saves Lassie or they both saved someone else, and frequently that someone else was another animal--a lion, a fox or a raccoon. You name it, Lassie saved it.”

Now 48 and living in Marina del Rey, Rettig left acting years ago for a career as a writer. He’s known in computer circles as the author of programming books, magazine articles and columns, but is breaking into commercial television with original scripts for--what else--”The New Lassie.”

An episode he co-wrote, “The Computer Study,” is set to air in mid-November. In it, he also reprises his role as Jeff Miller, only this time he’s a grown-up professor of computer science, who teaches Lassie how to use the modern marvel.

Sunday night, Rettig will join the entire cast of regulars from “The New Lassie,” including Jon Provost, who has a recurring role as Uncle Steve. Provost, however, is best known for the seven seasons he played the dimple-faced Timmy Martin from 1957-64. Those episodes currently air on cable television’s Nickelodeon channel.

Like Rettig before him, Provost eventually grew weary of the television grind (and of eternal boyhood) and left the double Emmy-winning show to seek “a normal life.”

“I literally grew up with Lassie,” said the 40-year-old in a telephone interview from his home in Santa Rosa. “I started when I was 7 and finished when I was 14. When I left the show in ‘64, half my life had been with Lassie.”

Yet, he never really let go. Through the years of college, marriage and raising a family, Provost kept track of the property. “Each time it changed hands, I contacted the new owners,” he said. “I always knew that something would happen, and I would get back into show business.”

He had hoped to consult on any new version of the series. “I wanted to see . . . were they going to destroy my memories?”

But after meeting with Al Burton, TNL’s executive producer, and others who noticed how much he looked like the show’s husband and father, Christopher Stone, Provost struck a deal for an on-screen role as Stone’s brother, Steve.

Now when TNL is in production, he commutes to Los Angeles and bunks with relatives. “It works out great for me,” said Provost, who spends more time selling real estate in Northern California, where he’s often recognized as Lassie’s longtime companion.

He also acts informally as the show’s “walking encyclopedia” answering historical questions for the writers, producers and publicists.

The series has taken its cues from the soaps to weave intricate story lines that explain the many cast changes, including Provost’s return as Timmy-turned-Steve. You see, he was a runaway orphan who was taken in by the Martins and . . . well, it’s all wrapped up neatly in the video retrospective Al Burton Productions produced especially for Sunday’s tribute.

“It’s a treasure in itself,” says Terry Bales, organizer of the event and chair of Rancho Santiago College’s telecommunications department. (The night’s proceeds will fund equipment and scholarships for the department.)

The video uses film and television clips to trace the history of Lassie and salute its creator, trainers and co-stars--from Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor to June Lockhart and Jimmy Stewart. (A shorter version of the tape was sent to the Smithsonian for its exhibit, which continues through Jan. 27.)

Both McDowall and Lockhart have “come home” to the Lassie series. Lockhart, who played Timmy’s mom from 1958-64, guest-starred in a special reunion show that aired last season, and she is due back next year. Meanwhile, McDowall, who played the 11-year-old boy in the very first Lassie film in 1943, has returned to play a writer of children’s stories in a character modeled after Lassie-creator Knight.

Sunday’s in-person lineup includes the Stones, who are married to one another in real life and on the series; Wendy Cox, who plays their teen-age daughter; and Will Nipper, the son and newest boy in Lassie’s life.

The tribute will mark the first time that all three television “Lassie” boy co-stars will be together for a public appearance.

And like the other boys before him, 11-year-old Nipper enjoys playing with the collie between takes. “There are a lot of places to go on the back lot at Universal Studios,” said Nipper. “When we shoot outdoors, I can ride my bike and he runs along behind.”

To hear those associated with “Lassie” tell it, the show has not strayed far from its beginnings in the Miller household in the Midwestern farm town of Calverton to its present-day setting in the suburban Glen Ridge, Calif., home of the McCulloch family.

Mom has swapped her skirts for slacks, the checkerboard kitchen tablecloth is gone, and the wind-up telephone has given way to a push-button model, but the concept remains the same.

“ ‘Lassie’ remains basically a boy and his dog,” said Burton, who noted that new scripts feature an expanded role for the daughter.

“It’s the old ‘Lassie’ in its heart,” said Dee Wallace Stone, “but in its style, it’s a brand new show for today’s audiences. It’s family programming that we desperately need right now.”

Said Bales: “The scripts are full of humor and pathos and the usual things that make you laugh and cry a little bit, with a moral lesson that doesn’t hit you over the head.”

Added Burton: “She represents a warmth and a caring and a togetherness in family life that is fast disappearing from television.”

“Lassie” airs on Nickelodeon twice daily. “The New Lassie” airs at 9:30 a.m Fridays on KCOP Channel 13. Tickets to “Tribute to a Television Classic” are $12 for adults and $10 for children and seniors and are available at the box office. The event will be held Sunday at 7 p.m. at Phillips Hall Theatre, Rancho Santiago College, 17th and Bristol streets, Santa Ana. Information: (714) 667-3177.