Lassie - Episodes 353-4-5 - "The Wayfarers" - Season 11, Ep 1,2,3 - 09/06-13-20/1964

This was the final episode with Timmy and Lassie together. Season 11 opened with a 3 episode story that shows the Martins accepting an offer to a farm in Australia, and having to leave Lassie behind due to the 6 month quarantine restriction. A broken hearted Timmy asks Cully to take care of Lassie for him, and both promise to write every chance they get. At the end of Part 1, Timmy, in tears, leaves Lassie with Cully and goes home alone. In Part 2 Cully suffers a heart attack tells Lassie to get a doctor. She runs to get Doc Weaver, the vet, and as Doc Weaver is driving Cully to the hospital (40 miles away), Cully's little terrier, Silky, escapes the house and tries to follow the car. She and Lassie end up at a campsite, where a little girl decides to take Silky for her own when her parents are ready to leave. Lassie runs after the camper, and when a road shutdown forces the camper to wait, Lassie frees Silky from within and both turn to head back to Cully's farm. Part 3 opens with Ranger Cory Stuart dropping in to visit the Martin family before he leaves for an assignment out west, and is surprised to find the farm empty. A sign on the house directs him to Cully's place where he meets Doc Weaver. Doc tells Cory the dogs are missing, and Cory goes in search of them. In the meantime, poor Silky falls down an abandoned mine shaft, but Cory arrives in the nick of time to rescue the terrier with Lassie's help. Cory returns Silky to a delighted Cully who decides that his farm just doesn't have the excitement needed to make Lassie happy. With Lassie cuddling close to Cory, and Cory's evident affection for the collie, Cully asks Cory if he would like to keep Lassie. Cory is thrilled, promises to write Timmy as often as possible, and Lassie says "goodbye" to both Cully and Silky and runs to leap happily in Cory's car. The final scene is Cory and Lassie driving down the road, delighted to be with each other, and looking forward to years of adventure together. This is a very sweet, very sad yet also very happy trio of episodes that transition Lassie from a family farm dog to the faithful companion for a US Forest Service ranger.
TRIVIA: Since this was a very critical transition in the future direction in the Lassie series, the opening credits show Lassie coming through a woodland, and stopping at a outcropping to survey the forested countryside. The music was also changed. In Part 2 and 3 the opening credits was just Lassie making her way through the woods and standing on the outcropping. (I chose to use the new credit opening for this combined 3 episode story) Besides leaving the farm scenery behind, the new opening foretold a new life for Lassie in the wilds of the American forest lands. Incidentally, the segue that allowed Cory to know to look at Cully's farm for information was very well done. It also deserves mention that Andy Clyde's acting was brilliant - deeply moving, very heartfelt, and Oscar winning in every respect. The old Vaudeville and Silent Screen actor pulled out all the stops to make his character and his dialog in this story some of the best ever seen in any Lassie episode, past or future. Andy Clyde died 2 years later in 1967 at the age of 75 from natural causes. His name is found on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
NOTE: Lassie and the Lassie Trademark are owned by Dreamworks Animation LLC. This episode was publicly broadcast via free over the air (OTA) antenna TV by NBC affiliate COZI TV in April 2016. Recorded, edited to add titles, ending credits, and copyright information, and uploaded by Collie Lover to YouTube with no remuneration whatsoever. All YouTube pre-video advertisements are authorized and placed by Lassie copyright owner.

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