Lassie

Elizabeth Gaskell short story

Elizabeth Gaskell's 1859 short story "The Half-Brothers" features a collie named "Lassie" with "intelligent, apprehensive eyes", also described as "an ugly enough brute, with a white, ill-looking face". Lassie rescues two half-brothers who are lost and dying in the snow. When the younger brother can no longer carry on, elder brother Gregory, Lassie's master, ties a handkerchief around Lassie's neck and sends her home. Lassie arrives home, and leads the search party to the boys. When they arrive Gregory is dead, but his younger half-brother is saved. There is no known connection between Gaskell's Lassie and the better-known character created by Eric Knight.

Eric Knight short story and novel

The fictional character of Lassie was created by English author Eric Knight in Lassie Come-Home, first published as a short story in The Saturday Evening Post in 1938 and later as a full-length novel in 1940. Set in the Depression-era England, the novel depicts the lengthy journey a rough collie makes to be reunited with her young Yorkshire master after her family is forced to sell her for money.

Movies and television

In 1943, the novel was adapted into a feature film, Lassie Come Home, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) that stars Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor. The movie was a hit and enjoyed favorable critical response.[3] MGM followed this with several additional films, including a sequel entitled Son of Lassie (1945), starring Peter Lawford and June Lockhart, and Courage of Lassie (1946) with Elizabeth Taylor again. A radio series, Lassie Radio Show, was also created, airing until 1949.

Between 1954–1973, the television series Lassie was broadcast, with Lassie initially residing on a farm with a young male master. In the eleventh season, it changed to U.S. Forest Service rangers as her companions, then the collie was on her own for a season, before ending the series with Lassie residing at a ranch for orphaned children. The series was the recipient of two Emmy Awards before it was canceled in 1973. Lassie won several PATSY Awards (an award for animal actors).[4] A second series followed in the 1980s. In 1997, Canadian production company Cinar Inc. produced a new Lassie television series for the Animal Planet network in the U.S. and YTV in Canada. It ran until 1999.

In 2005, a remake of the original Lassie Come Home movie was produced in the United Kingdom. Starring Peter O'Toole and Samantha Morton, Lassie was released in 2006.[5]

Additionally, two animated TV series featuring the canine were produced. The first was Lassie's Rescue Rangers, created by Filmation Associates, which aired on ABC from 1973 to 1975.[6] Nearly four decades later, a new animated series titled The New Adventures of Lassie was co-produced by Superprod Animation and Classic Media, in which Lassie was owned by the Parker family and lived in a national park. The series was primarily a traditionally animated (2D hand-drawn) TV series, though it also used some CGI animation. It was first seen in the United States starting in 2020 via the CBS All Access streaming service, then carried over to successor service Paramount+.

Lassie continues to make personal and TV show appearances as well as marketing a line of pet food and a current pet care TV show, Lassie's Pet Vet on PBS stations in the United States. Lassie is one of only three animals (and one of very few fictional characters, such as Mickey Mouse, Kermit the Frog, and Bugs Bunny) to be awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—the others being silent-film stars Rin Tin Tin and Strongheart. In 2005, the show business journal Variety named Lassie one of the "100 Icons of the Century"—the only animal star on the list.[7]

Art

Lassie is featured in Our Nation's 200th Birthday, The Telephone's 100th Birthday (1976) by Stanley Meltzoff for Bell System.[8]

Films

List of films

Box office performance

Radio

Television

Video games

Books

• Lassie Come-Home
• Lassie: The Prize
• Forest Ranger Handbook
• Lassie: A Boy's Best Friend & Buried Treasure
• Lassie: Party Nightmare & Water Watchdog
• Lassie: Skateboard Stunt & Danger Zone

Seafarer Books

• Lassie and the Lost Little Sheep
• Lassie's Forest Adventure

Whitman Cozy-Corner

• Lassie: Rescue in the Storm

Whitman Novels

• Lassie and the Mystery of Blackberry Bog
• Lassie and the Secret of the Summer
• Lassie: Forbidden Valley
• Lassie: Treasure Hunter by Charles S. Strong
• Lassie: the Wild Mountain Trail
• Lassie and the Mystery of Bristlecone Pine
• Lassie and the Secret of the Smelter's Cave
• Lassie: Lost in the Snow
• Lassie: Trouble at Panter's Lake

Big Little Books

• Lassie: Adventure in Alaska
• Lassie and the Shabby Sheik
• Lassie: Old One Eye

Golden Books

• The Adventures of Lassie
• Lassie and Her Day in the Sun
• Lassie and Her Friends
• Lassie and the Big Clean-Up Day
• Lassie and the Daring Rescue
• Lassie and the Lost Explorer
• Lassie Shows the Way
• Lassie: The Great Escape

Tell-a-Tale Books

• Hooray for Lassie!
• Lassie and the Cub Scout
• Lassie and the Deer Mystery
• Lassie and the Firefighters
• Lassie and the Kittens
• Lassie Finds a Friend
• Lassie's Brave Adventure
• Lassie: The Busy Morning

Tip-Top Books

• Lassie: The Sandbar Rescue

Wonder Books

• Lassie's Long Trip

Marian Bray

• Lassie to the Rescue
• Lassie: Hayloft Hideout
• Lassie Under the Big Top
• Lassie: Treasure at Eagle Mountain
• Lassie: Danger at Echo Cliffs

The New Lassie

• The Puppy Problem
• Digging Up Danger
• The Big Blowup
• Water Watchdog
• Skateboard Dare
• Dangerous Party