[Ron Ramirez]

I posted in another thread about watching several episodes of Lassie (aka Jeff's Collie) while home under the weather the past couple of days.

While watching the episode The Twister, I noticed Gramps listening to a Philco 38-12C in the basement:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...38-12C.jpg]

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum..._close.jpg]

[Radioroslyn]

Kewl!!!
Terry

[Paul Philco322]

Why is it with 395 channels of TV I wind up watching the Rifleman, Donna Reed, Timmy&Lassie, especially during the day? Most of those shows had a good message and wear pretty well. Don't forget Andy Griffith. What is that Radio in Rob and Laura Petrie's kitchen?

Fell better Ron.

Paul

[shaler78]

Looks like it's plugged into a trusty light socket adapter,too!

[PAradiogeek]

That is funny. I was watching some classic movies over the weekend, and I found myself looking for old radios in the background of the scenes. I saw a couple, but I am not experienced enough to identify any of them.

Get well soon Ron.
J

[Arran]

I had my fill of "Lassie" years ago, they used to play it every morning before I went to school. I could easily say the same about the Andy Griffith show and Gilligan's Island as well. However I have spotted some interesting radios in assorted movies on Turner Classic Movies, one I spotted was in a gangster film from around 1930 with Lew Ayers and James Cagney, it was a Brunswick console with a vertical operated peek hole dial, in another movie I spotted a 1936 vintage Philco table set with the oval escutcheon, in another a 1938 vintage G.E console.
Regards
Arran

[Groundhog74]

COOL! That looks an awful lot like mine.....I'll bet it's EXACTLY the same one....I need to put it on the bay for sale.....$3500.00 sound like enough?

[Jamie]

I bet somewhere, in some movie prop warehouse, there are 100's of extremely nice old radios.

[codefox1]

Tommy Retting , (child star of the Lassie Series) became a really good programmer in his later life with the now nearly obsolete "FoxPro" programming language from which I made a somethat respectful living for a couple of decades. Pre aqusition licensing issues killed it. So far as I know he's gone, and probably all the Collie pups too.

[don'tdomelikethat]

Quit leaning on the radio!

[Ron Ramirez]

Yes, Tommy Rettig passed away in 1996 - he was only 54. He played Jeff Miller through the first third of the fourth season of Lassie (1957-58 ). It was at the beginning of season four that Jon Provost was introduced as Timmy, as Rettig had become too old for his Jeff Miller part - he was nearly sixteen when he was written out of the series after playing Jeff since 1954.

When George "Gramps" Cleveland died during filming of the fourth season in 1957, producers quickly put together an episode where Gramps has passed away and Ellen must sell the farm and move with Jeff to Capitol City. Paul and Ruth Martin buy the farm and adopt Timmy. And to tie it all up neatly, Jeff leaves Lassie with Timmy.

As a programmer for Ashton-Tate, Rettig also worked on dBASE, Clipper and FoxBASE as well as FoxPro.

Rudd Weatherwax, who was Lassie's owner and trainer (there were several "Lassies" throughout the 19 years the show was on TV), passed away in 1985. His son Bob continues to own collies and trains them and other dogs for movies and television.
http://www.weatherwaxtraineddogs.com/

Trivia: Did you know that June Lockhart and Hugh Reilly were not the original actors to play Timmy's mother and father?

[shaler78]

Jan Clayton and Cloris Leachman were Jeff/Timmie widowed mother. The Millers sold the farm to the Martins when Gramps died. (George Cleveland actually died suddenly in 1957.) Timmie was adopted by The Martins and Jeff left Lassie with Timmie when they moved to the city. Hugh Reilly is the only father I remember.

[Ron Ramirez]

Okay, we have a 1/2 winner! Ding ding ding ding ding

Jan Clayton played Ellen Miller, Jeff's mom and Gramps' daughter-in-law. I posted two screen shots of her in my other thread asking for identification of the cathedral radio in the parlor.

Timmy appeared in the first episode of season 4 as a runaway. His elderly aunt and uncle could not care for him and allowed Ellen and Gramps to take him in. So Jan Clayton served more as a foster mom to Timmy for the first dozen episodes of season 4.

Then George Cleveland unexpectedly died after appearing in the first 12 episodes of season 4...

Cloris Leachman was indeed the original Ruth Martin. She disliked the role and did all she could to get out of her contract, which she was able to do at the end of the fourth season.

So, anyone know the name of the actor who played Paul Martin before Hugh Reilly took over the role?

Unless you're a big fan of the show, you may not be able to guess this answer because season 4 of Lassie was generally not made available for syndication although a few cable channels have showed them on a limited basis.

[BrendaAnnD]

Darn... I should KNOW this, since I've watched that very episode at least 10 times (I have it on a DVD set I purchased some time ago with various episodes with both Tommy Rettig and Jon Provost, including the one where Jeff moves to Capitol City and leaves Lassie on the farm. Alas, the brain is a sieve anymore...

[Ron Ramirez]

Okay, I'll tell you: His name is Jon Shepodd.

From what I've read, not only did Cloris Leachman dislike the Ruth Martin role, she was apparently also not popular with the TV audience. When she was let go at the end of the fourth season, the producers decided to let Shepodd go as well as it was felt that Paul Martin suddenly having a different wife would be hard to explain to the audience (keeping in mind that Lassie was mainly a children's show).

As if Timmy suddenly having a different mommy and daddy with the same names wouldn't be hard to explain...

Well, the audience accepted June Lockhart and Hugh Reilly. I think June Lockhart was a much better choice as Ruth Martin. Both Jon Shepodd and Hugh Reilly performed well in the Paul Martin role...in my opinion.

The "Timmy" years lasted more than twice as long as the "Jeff" years, which may be why people are more familiar with Timmy Martin than Jeff Miller.

Personally, I saw Timmy and Lassie (the syndicated name for the "Timmy" years of the series) in reruns for a long time before I ever got to see Jeff's Collie. But once I was finally able to see Jeff's Collie, I found that I preferred the earlier version of the series. The writing seemed better...somewhat more believable and less hokey. And Tommy Rettig, Jan Clayton and George Cleveland were excellent actors that all made their roles more believable, as well. Not that Jon Provost, June Lockhart and Hugh Reilly were bad actors...because they were very good as well...but I do think the quality of the scripts slipped somewhat after the "Jeff" years. Maybe it's because for every "Jeff" episode I've seen, I've seen a "Timmy" episode five times as often (due to repeated viewing as I grew up), and I'm now sort of burned out on the "Timmy" episodes for the most part.