Thank you - I’m glad I’m not alone in thinking Green Acres had almost surreal levels of deliberate off-beat humour coursing through its scripts. I think it suffered from being seen as a Beverly Hillbillies / Petticoat Junction spin-off, but there’s just something the Douglases had that sends me into hysterics.
It was common in the 50s to change the name of the show with when bundling episodes for a daytime version or for syndication when the show was still running to differentiate the new vs. reruns. Other Examples are Dragnet/Badge 714 and The Gale Storm Show/Oh! Susannah!
I never knew that about early syndicated shows! Lassie wasn’t one of the shows I watched as a kid, or at least not regularly. After all, I’d read the book, and none of those people were in it!
“What’s that Skippy? Little Johnny fell down the abandoned mineshaft and broke his leg? He was asking too many questions about your business dealings? If I’m smart I won’t ask any questions?”
And Happy Days Again! (probably one of the last renamed for syndication nsmes)
In addition to some really strange humor, Green Acres frequently broke the fourth wall. It was a very unusual show.
Yes! Green Acres was willing to bend reality for a laugh, and the result was surreal. For instance, the Eiffel Tower in Washington DC.
I think I’ve seen a version called “Timmy’s Collie,” but it may have been a false memory and actually Jeff’s collie.
I don’t think it’s “copyright problems” so much as, there was a time when, if a show was in syndication at the same time that it was still making new episodes, the syndicated ones were given a different title so it wouldn’t confuse people who might be expecting new episodes. The most recent example of this I can think of was Laverne & Shirley & Company.
I have also seen it done with shows that were originally “The {name of the star} Show” - for example, The Bob Cummings Show (aka The Reason Ann B. Davis got the “as Alice” credit on The Brady Bunch) became Love That Bob in syndication, and The Gale Storm Show became Oh Susannah!.
I never dreamed I’d ever feel compelled to track down an a old episode of Lassie
It was certainly spoofed for a TV commercial
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbsNnW4BW2k –
Not to hijack, but if you’ve ever watched The Bob Cummings Show closely (and I can’t really recommend you do) it’s clesr that Ann B. Davis was easily the best thing in the show and deserved the two Emmy awards she won (out of four nominations in the show’s four-year run.) She had an interesting quirk of never standing still in a scene - shifting her weight from foot to foot, rocking back and forth ever so slightly, tilting her head, etc. The result was that even with starlets like Joi Lansing in every episode, viewers ended up focusing on the plain but very animated Schultzy.
Just saw an episode of Wndor Woman where this happened. The dog named Tiger (same Tiger as in Brady Bunch? looked similar) went up to Diana and whimpered. Diana was like “What’s that Tiger? Tina is in trouble?”
Apparently communicating with animals is one of Wonder Woman’s powers (just googled that it has happened before - canonical?)
Episode in question:
Brian
Little man was an orphan. Back then you could go through a dozen orphans before the state took any interest.
Lassie stop production a few years before I was born and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a complete episode. I’m flabbergasted to learn the series was aired for 19 years.
So if Timmy’s agent starts making noises about wanting more money for his client, the writers just need to add a “Timmy fell down the well” storyline, except Timmy doesn’t survive this one. The same thing if Lassie’s handler starts getting greedy.
Just have Timmy move to Australia. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Wasn’t Lassie played by something like a dozen different dogs? And all male, IIRC.
Honestly, given Timmy’s predilection for getting into trouble, I doubt he’d live past the baggage line at the airport, let alone have an entire continent’s worth of deadly fauna lining up to bite him on the arse.