I grew up with the Tommy Rettig "Lassie" series. Looking back on
it, I would say that I was addicted to that show and that I fantasized
that I was the Jeff who lived with Lassie on the Miller farm, not the
Jeff who lived in New Jersey suburbia with a teddy bear. When George
Cleveland died, the show decided that Tommy Rettig was too old to be
Lassie's boy and the scenario was that since Gramps was dead, they had
to sell the farm and go live in a crummy apartment in Capital City
where Mom would get some miserable job and Jeff would simply go to
school. Mom explained all this to Jeff at the kitchen table, adding
that they couldn't take Lassie to live in some crummy Capital City
apartment, so...... I was ten years old when seeing this unfortunate transition. I
remember it felt like it was my life that was being eviscerated. I
never enjoyed the "Lassie" show much after that.
