Red and Rover by Brian Basset for July 16, 2022

The Hallmark channels are constantly runnng Christmas movie all year long.

Considering how early the Xmas ads start in the year it wouldn’t surprise me…..

Timmy gets lost in a blizzard, Timmy falls down a well, Timmy is trapped in a mineshaft!!

Finally, Lassie marches up to the producers and says, You don’t pay me half-enough for these stupid story lines—I QUIT!!"

I understand what Red means, but it’s really not beyond him. It’s pretty simple: It’s summer right now and it’s a rerun – so it’s a summer rerun.

Good things are worth repeating!

Rover and Lassie are always on a mission

just to clear things up, Timmy never fell down a well in any episode of Lassie….and Jon Provost turned 72 this past year

That brings back such fond memories for me! Lassie… I’m bleary eyed.

Obviously, Rover, too, watches too much TV with Red.

I was a bit skeptical about Lassie still airing new episodes during R&R’s era, so I was surprised to learn it ran from 1954 to 1972. I had always figured they were watching old syndicated reruns of Lassie.

There was a time when “Winter Is Coming” seemed to be year-round.

I never watched Lassie. Any movie or TV show in which a dog might be in danger was too traumatizing for me. Not only dogs: Even the Ferdinand the Bull cartoons would get me crying. For that matter, even Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoons, that often had Casper being mistreated or unloved, were upsetting. Back when I was still driving, one of my window stickers read:“I don’t care who dies in a movie, as long as the dog lives.“

For years in the 70s, Coke would run ads saying, “We interrupt your summer with…” then show a quick cut montage of people having fun in winter sports activities. Then in the winter they would have similar ads showing people having fun in the summer.