Trivia / Lassie

• Adored by the Network: Nickelodeon and by extension Nick at Nite regularly reran the series (from season 4 onward) quite frequently from 1984 going into 1996. It’s very telling of its popularity that Lassie was the ONLY Nickelodeon-acquired program to be released under the Nickelodeon Video label through Sony Wonder.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: For all of the other trouble he got into, Timmy never did fall down a well. Other people did fall into wells, however. In S1E24 (aptly titled "The Well", when Lassie was owned by Jeff, not Timmy), a corrupt water-company owner fell into a well; his mother and grandfather didn't intuit the situation from Lassie's barking - Jeff wrote a note and attached it to his collar. In S4Ep37 ("The Crow"), Timmy's great-uncle Petrie fell into a well; but instead of Lassie fetching humans, Lassie is fetched by, of all things, a crow, and lowered a rope into the well all by herself. And much later in the series, in Season 10, Lassie herself fell down a well.
• Channel Hop: Moved from CBS to syndication in 1971.
• Missing Episode: One episode in which Timmy comes across a fallen satellite and is exposed to radiation wasn't shown originally due to a widespread radiation fears at the time. It was eventually aired much later.
• The Other Darrin: The various Lassies; and among the human cast, the actors playing Timmy's adoptive parents were both replaced after one season.
• The Pete Best: The third dog to play Lassie, Spook, was quickly replaced by his littermate Baby when it became clear he didn’t have much screen presence, and is typically not included in official cast lists.
• Pet Fad Starter: Collies rose in demand after the show aired, leading to the spread of unhealthy and inbred dogs. Many people blame this for the health problems the breed has today.
• Screwed by the Network: The show was one of the casualties of The Rural Purge. Like fellow victims Hee Haw and The Lawrence Welk Show, Lassie moved into syndication, but unlike those other shows it only lasted a couple more seasons.

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