It’s a trope that all of us Americans have seen countless times in sketch comedy or other media. Lassie barks without any particular urgency, and a human understands her perfectly. As in:
LASSIE: [barks]
HUMAN: What’s that Lassie? Little Timmy has fallen down a well?!
Did this actually happen or is it a Mandela Effect, like how Elsa never actually said, “play it again, Sam”?
I don’t think it ever happened.
Timmie was always in a fix. So Lassie was always “going” for help.
Maybe the adults just knew that was the case and ran after Lassie to see the next stupid thing that kid got into.
Timmy was always with Lassie and vice versa. (Those of us old enough remember that before Timmy was Jeff.) If Lassie showed up at the farmhouse without either Timmy or Jeff, and started barking, folks knew to follow her. The plot was that simple.
As a kid I liked Jeff but I never liked Timmy for some reason. However, it’s nice to know that Jon Provost grew up to have a perfectly well-adjusted adult life, unlike Tommy Rettig, who played Jeff, whose life after Lassie was a mess.
By the way, Jon Provost’s autobiography was titled “Timmy’s in the Well: The Jon Provost Story.” That’s a guy with a sense of humor.
No, I don’t think Lassie ever did that. In fact as I recall from the reruns I watched as I kid it was quite the opposite.
LASSIE: [barks]
HUMAN: I can’t play now, Lassie, I’ve got to get the hay into the loft.
LASSIE: [barks more]
HUMAN: [Still doesn’t get it]
LASSIE: [Barks more, then literally grabs the person’s arm and tugs]
At this point the human is maybe starting to get the Lassie wants them to follow her, but Lassie is unable to convey any more information than that.
That’s what I’m thinking. There’s episodes on youtube and it’s fairly easy to skip through them until you see Lassie barking. Only checking a few episodes, the closest thing I’ve found so far is Lassie bringing Jeff (earlier than Timmy?) to Gramps, but I don’t think anyone knew something was wrong until they got there.
Around 15 minutes in.
And couldn’t Jeff have written a note calling for help that actually gave some sort of indication where he and Gramps were, something like “down the Old Mill Road”? Instead that poor dog had to run back and forth and back and forth.
I don’t think that Lassie was so smart, but rather that the humans were incredibly dumb.
Timmy never fell down a well, but I’m certain I remember an episode where he did fall into a hole/gap in a mine or cave.
But to answer the question you’re really asking, I think we can safely say that humans were capable of understanding that Lassie was upset, and deciding to follow her back to the source of her anxiety.
Also: same here about Jeff vs. Timmy. Eight-year old Me couldn’t stand Jon Provost, too icky-poo sweet for me. Missed Jan Clayton as well, Jeff’s mom was a babe. Not to mention Porky pulling in on his bike, announcing his arrival with “EEE yah KEE !”
Unable to prevent myself from posting this
Recent discussion:
Funny.
If I remember, some animals seemed to sorta understand Lassies barking.
When Lassie worked with the ranger, she’d get help all the time. Effective help.
No she wasn’t conveying “John is trapped under an overturned truck at mile marker 3 on forest service road 125.” But she did effectively convey “you must come with me RIGHT NOW! Follow me, please”, and the rescue is conducted.
Most recent one I watched, “The Silent Threat”, she led the rangers to the loco weed that was killing a rancher’s horses. He thought the ranger’s spraying was killing his animals. Lassie solved the mystery and saved a horse by her determined barking.
In the multi-part “The Road Back”, Lassie brought a soldier to help a sad girl that Lassie had met on the Golden Gate Bridge. They may have even ended up a couple. Lassie the yenta!
“Where the hell did Timmy run off to, and will somebody please shut that damn dog up!”
Did Lassie save someone in every episode? Did that not get old? Did they not get the hint that because Lassie led them to some stranded or injured person the first 48 times, that’s probably what was up this time around?
If you count animals in the total of savees…no, not even then.
It worked for The Littlest Hobo:
I actually met London, who played Hobo, way back in the day.
And then there’s the Corner Gas version, where the Hobo alerts the fire fighters about a fire by pawing at a lighter fluid tin with a flame illustration on it.
But later locks Brent and Hank into a shed so he can run off with their steak from the barbeque, as the theme song from the Littlest Hobo played.
Of, course there’s Lassie the pitbull – tears your arm off then runs for help.
People sometimes conflate Lassie with Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.
But that’s pretty common for ‘case of the week’/episodic type shows. Just look at how many times they almost got off the island, only for Gilligan to screw it up. Or how often Flipper had to help someone.
I don’t see how there could be any confusion between Skippy and Lassie. Lassie was Shirley Temple. Skippy was The Little Rascals.