This article, written by Tom Weigel, was published in TV Showtime, The Cleveland Press on March 3, 1972.
It is © 1972 The Cleveland Press
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A dog's life hasn't turned out badly for ex-child star Bonita Granville, who has been executive producer of the Lassie series for over a decade. Miss Granville is the wife of Jack Wrather and is a member of the board of directors of the Wrather Corp. which owns Lassie, the Lone Ranger, Sgt. Preston of the Yukon, the Disneyland Hotel and the Muzak Corp.
Now in its 18th year, the Lassie series is the longest-running half hour TV show in history. Until last season the program was on CBS, but last spring the network dropped it when the government ordered a cutback in network prime time programming. Undaunted, the Wrather Corp. put the show in syndication instead. Under the new set-up 206 stations carry the show as compared to 185 while on CBS. The show is seen in Cleveland Wednesday nights on WKYC (7:3O, Ch. 3).
Lassie, of course, existed long before TV entered the picture. The now-famous collie was the heroine of a story written by Eric
Knight for the Saturday Evening Post. It was published as the novel, "Lassie Come Home," in 1940 and became an MGM movie two years later. The film starred Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor (in her first major movie role).
A series of Lassie motion pictures were made during the next eight years, ending in 1952 when MGM decided not to renew the collie's contract. A year later Lassie switched to television and hasn't been away since.
The dog has had a succession of masters over the years. Young Tommy Rettig, mom Jan Clayton and grandfather George Cleveland were the first owners. They lasted several years and were replaced by Jon Provost (as the boy), Claris Leachman (the mom) and Jon Sheppod (the dad). Next came June Lockhart and Hugh Reilly who played the parents while Provost continued as the boy. No explanation was given to viewers for the switch in parents.
Later Lassie was given to a neighbor (Andy Clyde), then she became the pal of a forest ranger (Robert Bray). When the latter accidentally lost a hand in a gun accident, Jed Alien and Jack DeMave were hired to be the new owners.
During her last TV season with CBS Lassie had no home base — she merely wandered from one adventure to another, meeting few humans along the way. The roaming stopped this year with Lassie now living with the clan pictured on the TV Showtime cover. They are Ron Hayes (in green), Joshua Albee (with Lassie), Skip Burton (in white) and Larry Wilcox.
