When I was a kid, my favorite dog – next to my own dog, of course – was Lassie!  I used to love watching her adventures on TV and believe me, I cried many a tear when she got into trouble, even though I knew everything would probably work out for the best.  Way back then I fell in love with the softness and shape of Lassie’s ears.  To this day, I still loooveee those Collie ears!  Here’s a little Lassie trivia:
– Lassie first aired on TV in 1954    [note – I was not alive to see the first episode!  :-)]  It was aired on CBS until 1974! 
– All Lassies were actually played by male dogs though some of the stunt dogs were females!  This was because females would ‘blow coat’  [shed] with each heat cycle and spaying was not as commonplace in those days.  Shedding in males was much less noticeable.  Also, it was felt that the larger male dogs would look more impressive on TV.
– Frank and Rudd Weatherwax owned all of the dogs that played Lassie
– Lassie is based on a 1937 short story by Eric Knight called “Lassie Come Home”, which was later turned into a novel.
– “Leave It To Beaver” regulars Hugh Beaumont, Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow all made appearances in episodes of Lassie.
– The only show that regularly “bumped” Lassie out of it’s Sunday evening time slot was the annual showing of “The Wizard of Oz” from 1957 to 1967.
– Despite many spoofs and misquotes, in the history of the show, Timmy never needed to be saved from falling down a well!