Lassie

Those of us “of a certain age” remember the iconic TV show “Lassie”, about a rural farm family, Timmy the adopted lad who wore Elmer Fudd hats even in the dead of summer and, of course Lassie. Actually there were six “regular” Lassies, each with a slightly different personality, used in appropriate scenes, and a host of specialty Lassies. There was a barking Lassie, a stunt Lassie and an “attack” Lassie. The “regular” Lassie was played by original Lassie or one of his male offspring, even though Lassie was supposed to be female. Under all that hair, who could tell?

That classic story line provided the bulk of the shows, originally aired from 1957 to 1964. For the first season, Cloris Leachman played Timmy’s adoptive mother, before she was thankfully replaced by the sanguine June Lockhart.

About the only thing that remained constant through the entire series was the show’s sponsor, Campbell’s Soup. Unlike today, where program content is developed and commercial time slots sold to whoever wants them, back in the day, it was the sponsor who brought the show to the networks. Campbell’s used Lassie as a vehicle to become the best-selling condensed soup brand in the US. They pioneered the concept of product placement. Scenes of the Martin kitchen showed cans of Campbell’s Soup (labels all conveniently facing front) or Mrs. Martin cooking soup with the can strategically placed by her side. The commercials often featured Mrs. Martin, Timmy and Lassie.

Perhaps their greatest Campbell’s coup was the genius introduction of “Recipe” dog food, touted as “the food that Lassie eats”, which was a bit of an exaggeration, but nonetheless propelled the brand to number one for several years. Again, product placement and use of the TV actors in commercials blurred the line between TV show and advertisement.

There were other iterations of Lassie, but none as dear to my heart as the ’57-’64 program, which aired during the peak of my childhood.