It appears I've never reviewed this series, so I'll chip in. Condensed version: All the many other reviewers and message board commentators are quite right when they say the shows with Jeff were far better than what came later.When I was a little kid, it was Timmy and Lassie. I think my family watched because my older sister was a huge fan of the Jeff episodes, and just kept watching, even though admitting it wasn't as good. As a kid I didn't like some elements, particularly that they seemed to want me to cry almost every week.When Lassie became paired with Corey the episodes really got dull and we quit watching. There was no family, no fun times, just work at saving the forest every week. No wonder Smoky Bear never got a series.Years later in reruns I got to see the episodes with Jeff. "WOW!" First of all, the characters were much more real--about as realistic as any TV family ever in the ways they interacted with each other. Jeff made mistakes, but wasn't in any way stupid. Ellen was usually doing all the right things in raising her son, but occasionally erred as well. Gramps was the funniest of the group, but was not a buffoon in any way.With Jeff, it was the story of a boy, who had a dog who he was seen training to do some tricks. They sometimes showed how he had to spend time training Lassie to do anything. Most of Lassie's heroics were running home to "Get Gramps" and bring him to wherever Jeff was. Totally believable.With Timmy, it was more like "Superdog" who understands hundreds of words and does all sorts of tricks, seemingly without any training at all. Nearly every week Lassie saved either Timmy or someone else from either death or serious injury. I think almost everyone who likes Timmy better, does so because that is the era they first saw. Even though I fit that description, I don't like Timmy years nearly as much. I think the difference between the Jeff years and the Timmy years is like the difference between a Corvette and a VW Bug. The Bug might have lots of good points, but it's not nearly the auto a Corvette is.I loved the comedy episodes, which were fairly frequent in the Jeff years. I remember Jeff phoning for help because "There's a lion in the yard." Another time Ellen's meeting with other women is disrupted by a seal Jeff put in the bathtub.Two of the most dramatic episodes that I remember that did make me cry: First the one where Jeff tries to shoot a fox and finds out he accidentally hit Lassie. He cried "I shot my Lassie." I just thought that was about the most horrible thing that could happen to a boy's dog, from the boy's perspective. The other episode came when Jeff, trying to help a blind soldier who had come home and whose parents didn't want him to know his collie had died, agreed to lend Lassie to this family for a couple of weeks, "just so it'll be easier" for the soldier. Somewhere along the way, with Jeff telling Lassie to stay with the other family, just got to me.The series was mostly drama, but with Jeff there were not so many life-threatening episodes. There were poachers of various kinds and thieves, but lots of the episodes dealt sick or wounded animals or the family being worried about the health of the other members. It was about a family that had a smart dog. The family was the center of the action, with the dog doing some nice tricks. It was rare for Lassie to do something so extraordinary you would think it hard to believe a dog could do that. I think the Timmy years saw "Superdog" nearly every week, which was the biggest flaw.I'd like to give a rating to the different eras.Jeff years 9Timmy years 5 Corey years 2 I never watched the later years.

In my early NCY kiddy-hood, I recall when Timmy buried Lassie's toys, assuming as she was lost, he would never see her. again. Then there was a bark, and Lassie was HOME! I remember the scene well because my quite grumpy maternal Grandfather watched the episode with tears streaming down his face. When I saw that I was one stunned kid I can tell you! No one has mentioned the very last season of Lassie which was like Lassie on LSD. She was lost and lived on her own in the wild (though magically she didn't kill and eat prey, but somehow stayed healthy). She met and fell in love with a male farm collie. Then, Lassie gave birth to her love-puppies in a cave. Then, because that wasn't far fetched enough, she proceeded to travel the country side, finding unhappy people and gifting them with one of her puppies. She 'gave away' her own litter of babies. I think the show's writers were on some kind of drug. You think I made that all up? I did not!

"LASSIE," in my opinion, is a must-see CBS hit! Despite the fact that I've never seen every episode, I still enjoyed it. It's hard to say which one is my favorite. Also, I really loved the theme song. If you ask me, even though I liked everyone, it would have been nice if everyone had stayed on the show throughout its entire run. Everyone always gave a good performance, the production design was spectacular, the costumes were well-designed, and the writing was always very strong. In conclusion, even though it can be seen on TV Land now, I strongly recommend you catch it just in case it goes off the air for good

Hoo-boy, am I going to be the bad-guy regarding comments about this show. Everybody loves dogs and animals, and yes, Lassie (who, I understand was played by a series of male Collies - they found that female collies were difficult to train and work with) was an incredibly well-trained and smart dog. That part was fun. But, as a t.v. show, I found the plots to be contrived and the pace of the shows to be slow, filled with long spaces with no dialog. The music was schmaltzy and maudlin, as were the plots, I'm afraid. Timmie, played by John Provost was a cute child actor. He seemed to go for long periods without checkin' in with Mom or Dad. You'd think as much trouble as he got in where Lassie had to go find Mom and Dad to rescue him, the Martins would have kept a little tighter reign on their boy. Lassie had this uncanny ability to communicate long complex sentences with only a bark or two. She also had an amazing ability to understand fairly complex English sentences. As a family show, it was obviously aimed at families with younger children. It was a fun show, if you could suspend reality enough to stay with it.