I’m no Barry fan, but that’s good. 
This is not a truly far-fetched scenario – except imagining that a dog is capable of abstract thought sufficient to make the connection between a shape made by a hand and a tool. Many dogs, including my own, will respond to “find it” or “go get it” with an attempt to bring what is requested without a firm idea of what it is (unless they’ve been taught a large vocabulary), using a “is this it?” approach. One of my dogs has found and brought all sorts of lost things she was sent after that she had no ‘word’ for, including a hat dropped in the woods and an entire flock of sheep.
There’s a wonderful late 19th century book of stories by Ernest Thompson Seton, a staple of my childhood in my grandmother’s house, called Wild Animals I have Known, which included some dog stories. Fictionalized but based on his own experiences as a naturalist and hunter. In one, his dog Bingo brings him a wolf trap wrench (admittedly close at hand, but out of reach), when he gets caught in one while out trapping. Bingo does bring several other items first.
Maybe the Lassie writers stole it from him.
A young Ellen Degeneres used it in her stand-up routine (she sequed into it after remarking on how her outfit and hairstyle made he look like Timmy).
It occurs to me that it’s a good thing Timmy never became proficient with a musical instrument. Lassie would have locked him in his room if he came home saying he’d been invited to go to a summer workshop at Wolf Trap…
OMG! You may be right! After I posted my WAG, I started thinking it may have been Elayne Boosler’s joke. Last night, I searched Google videos forever but couldn’t find it.
EDG aired a compilation of clips throughout her career. At about 1:08, there’s a clip of her doing her Lassie joke: YouTube. No mention of a well, but I’ll keep searching.
“Lassie! I’m trapped on all fours with my hands down this grate. Go get help!”
woof woof woof
“Um, what do you mean I smell like a bitch in heat? NO LASSIE! BAD DOG!”
Of course, the well was only a symbol of Timmy’s unresolved existential angst.
Obligatory link to In Living Color’s Lassie 90, with Lassie cast as a slum dwelling pit bull. It was a continuing bit – here’s another.
Obvbiously, Lassie brought her a Carving Knife.
But Lassie was a girl. Played by a male dog…
Not true. Episode 24 of the first season (which was originally called Jeff’s Collie) was titled “The Well” and involved Jeff and Lassie helping rescue a man who had fallen down a well.
http://www.locatetv.com/tv/jeffs-collie/1106649/episode-guide
How did she use a C clamp to escape from a bear trap?
Of a breed where you can tell gender at a glance. Female collies don’t have that magnificent mane. I have to wonder why they didn’t just name the dog Laddie.
The C clamp would be used to compress the spring that was holding the trap closed. Normally, you would stand on the spring to compress it and then set the trigger with a stick.
Thanks. Ignorance fought. I’ll always carry a C clamp when hiking in the woods.
that will only help you if you step in a bear trap.
what if you fell down an abandoned mine shaft?
best to always take Lassie.
Then you need an “A” clamp.
Or stick with the time proven strategy of not stepping in bear traps.
that would make for a boring tv adventure show.