Tonight's Saturday Night Halloween Countdown Special is a goodurn!
It might not seem like "Jeff's Collie" is a very good Halloween treat, but then a lot of things in life don't make much sense!
I grew up watching "Lassie" on Saturday mornings, but I didn't find out until tonight that "Lassie" was also known as "Jeff's Collie," but it makes sense, until Timmy came along!
The reason this is a Halloween episode is that Lassie and Jeff, and his best friend Porky are reading up on witches!
Just in case you don't know it, Lassie as a character was a female, but they used a male dog on the show because males are larger and looked more impressive, but some of the stunt doubles were female! Either way, Collies are beautiful people!
Porky's spooked because he thinks the neighbor lady is a witch!
And by the looks of it, he might not be wrong!
The neighbor lady is named Sarah Dibble, and she's come over just to deliver some mint jelly, but it's lost on the boys who are deep into their fantasy!
Porky is convinced that Sarah Dibble has put the "evil eye" on Lassie!
Porky and Jeff go over to Sarah Dibble's place to see for themselves if the witch rumors are true! Not being very good role models, they decide to peek inside her window!
What the boys see isn't about to change their minds any, the place is full of black cats, she's stirring up a brew, AND she's got a freakin' crow on her shoulder!! In the "Pretty Funny Department," Gertrude (Damn I like that name) Graner played the role of a witch many years later in the 1971 movie, "The Brotherhood Of Satan!"
Here's basically the whole cast of "Lassie!" You know about the boys and the dog, and the other two are Jan Clayton as Jeff's Mother, who, believe it or not had previous roles as a singing inmate, and Edgar Allen Poe's Mother, and George Cleveland as Gramps! This was the end of George's career, but before "Lassie" he was in things like "Revolt Of The Zombies," "Dick Tracy's G-Men," "Drums Of Fu Manchu," and "The Ape!"
Lassie has suddenly become sick, so the boys go to Sarah Dibble's house to see if she can reverse her evil eye curse. It doesn't seem like she's home, so they boldly enter her house, but it doesn't work out too well for them!
Tommy Rettig's most memorable role was probably in "The 5000 Finger Of Dr. T." He was also an early pioneer in his advocacy of marijuana, and got busted for growing the herb back in the 70's when it was a big deal. He'd be proud to see the that it's legal a lot of places in the U.S. these days but he passed away years ago. And...Here's some information you will not probably find anywhere else, Tommy Rettig was short at 5' 4." "Lassie" came on the airwaves in 1954, and he died at the age of 54! Some times numbers are just weird!
It's funny, I knew a portly gentleman as a kid named Porky too, but I'm sure that's not a nickname that would be acceptable today! The hilarious thing about it is that Joey D. Vieira, aka Porky is still alive and kickin' today! The Porkster was in 91 episodes of "Lassie" from 1954 to 1957!
Sarah's not really a witch, but she does have a home brewed concoction that will get Lassie up and going again in no time at all, and even the vet agrees!
Sarah makes sure Jeff understands that she's not really a witch!
"Don't believe me? Pull my finger boy!"
"Don't believe me? Pull my finger boy!"
After Sarah goes back home, this witchy woman apparition passes in front of the full moon and freaks the boys out!
The broom's still here, so it couldn't be her, right? Right!!
This might not be the last time you hear about Lassie here, because the episode before this was called "The Monster," and there was another episode called "Haunted House!"
