Episode Guide: Season 14 1967-1968

The fourteenth season stories were interconnected by having characters overlap from episode to episode, or having two or three stories have an interconnecting theme (wind shears studies, balloon logging, atomic snow probes, etc.).

"Perils of the Prairie" (09/10/67):

While Corey surveys a prairie area to examine damage done by an earthquake, Lassie becomes absorbed first in a little sparrow named "Dinky" rebuilding her nest and then in the day to day life in a prairie dog village. Then an aftershock sends a flood of water from a cracked water tower toward the prairie dogs. Pete Baxter: Hank Brandt.

"Inferno" (09/17/67):

Corey and Pete race to the site of an oil well fire precipitated by the earthquake, where Lassie befriends Driller, the terrier belonging to one of the fire fighters. Then shrapnel from an accidental explosion injures the little Yorkie. Wayne Hillman: Roy Engel. Pete Baxter: Hank Brandt. Johnny Merlin: John Milford. Pat Rockford: Judson Pratt. Grant Hayes: Lane Bradford.

"Cry of the Wild" (09/24/67):

Corey and his partner Bert enlist a sailplane pilot in a Forest Service project to learn about wind-shears; meanwhile, Lassie aids a pregnant cougar who was mistakenly shot as the predator who savaged a ranch's chickens—the culprit is really a feral dog. Carol Dawson: Merry Anders. Len Briggs: Stuart Randall. Rick Dawson: Les Brown Jr. Bert: Burt Douglas.
   • Note: Randall previously played series semi-regular Al Livermore.

"The Guardian" (10/01/67):

While Corey accompanies Carol on flights to learn more about sailplaning, Lassie becomes protector for the cougar and her newborn cubs, stealing meat from the ranch to feed them. Carol Dawson: Merry Anders. Len Briggs: Stuart Randall. Rick Dawson: Les Brown Jr. Bert: Burt Douglas.

"Starfire" (10/08/67):

When the feral dog raids the ranch chicken coop, Carol's unbroken mare Starfire flees her corral in fear, then later is attacked by the animal. A disappointed Carol takes off next morning to perform one last, high-altitude—and potentially dangerous—survey. Carol Dawson: Merry Anders. Len Briggs: Stuart Randall. Rick Dawson: Les Brown Jr. Bert: Burt Douglas.

"Brink of Oblivion" (10/15/67):

The community of Fawn Lake is growing, to the detriment of the quality of the lake and environs. Particularly offensive is Fowler's Landing, where Lassie becomes friendly with an affable mutt named Skipper ("Spike" in an obligatory guest star role). Kirby Norman: John Archer. Emmett Fowler: Tol Avery.

"The Homeless" (10/22/67):

While Corey tries to enlist the local newspaper editor in the fight against pollution at Fawn Lake, Lassie befriends a ring-tailed cat named Ringo and his mate, displaced and separated by excavation for a motel. Kirby Norman: John Archer. Anson Booth: Karl Swenson.

"A Time for Decision" (10/29/67):

Anson Booth's young assistant at the Fawn Lake Mountain News tries to enlist him in the war against pollution, but Booth is too tired to take a stand. Kirby Norman: John Archer. Anson Booth: Karl Swenson. Chuck Rawls: Kevin Coughlin.

"Rim of Disaster" part 1 (11/05/67):

Corey, Lassie, and their pilot are trapped when their small plane makes a forced landing on a glacier. Not only is the plane damaged, but Jack has broken ribs and a storm is approaching. Jack: Dewey Martin.
   • Note: The atomic snow probe is mentioned again in "White Wilderness."

"Rim of Disaster" part 2 (11/12/67):

Corey and Jack fix the plane before the storm breaks, but every pound aboard is precious; Jack says the aircraft will not be able to take off with Lassie's added weight. Determined not to leave Lassie behind, Corey rigs a device so she can be picked up after the plane is airborne. Jack: Dewey Martin.

"Ride the Mountain" (11/19/67):

When Corey is assigned to a balloon logging detail, his first stop is the Columbia Gorge, where Lassie is injured playing with the foreman's cat, Dandelion. Doc Simms: Don Brodie. Andy Burke: Chick Chandler. Merle Dixon: Richard Devon.
   • Note: Lassie is brought down the mountain on the Columbia Gorge log flume, an exciting sequence that was profiled in many magazines, including TV Guide, and is the subject of the Lassie View-Master set, "Lassie Rides the Log Flume."

"Dangerous Journey" (11/26/67):

Corey and Lassie visit a small logging operation owned by the inexperienced son of the original owner and his father's former partner Walt; Lassie is aboard Walt's tug when the elderly man starts having head pains and loses control of the boat. Steve Powers: Alan Reed Jr. Walt Johnson: Ray Teal. Roy: Dale Johnson. With Lloyd Nelson.
   • Trivia: Corey's license plate number is A113393. Walt is a friend of Andy Burke from "Ride the Mountain."

"Fury at Wind River" (12/03/67):

Deer are eating seedling trees that will be used for watershed, so the rangers plan to move them across the river to a nature preserve. But when Lassie tries to help one deer family, they meet with unexpected dangers, including an almost drowned fawn. Tom Anderson: Kenneth Tobey. Merle Dixon: Richard Devon.

"Showdown" (12/17/67):

A man who professes to be protecting the forest tries to sabotage the Forest Service's new balloon logging program. After shooting at Corey's truck, cutting a telephone line, and sabotaging a bulldozer, he's ready to do even more damage. Bob Stokes: Leo Gordon. Merle Dixon: Richard Devon. Freddie: Albe Fernandez. Deputy: Glen Stensel.

"Miracle of the Dove" (12/24/67):

A small girl's new puppy, an inquisitive Yorkshire Terrier named Whiskers, is lost in the woods on Christmas Eve, but a dove Corey and Lassie saved figures in his salvation. Terri: Eve Plumb (later Jan of The Brady Bunch). John: Patrick Waltz. Elaine: Anne Bellamy.

"Have You Any Wool?" 12/31/67):

One of the innovations of the Corey Stuart years was something called "the all-animal episodes," involving Lassie's interaction with various wild creatures. IMHO, Lassie always worked best with humans to play off and I found most of the all-animal episodes pretty dull. The exception is this wonderfully humorous episode about Lassie's effort to find a home for a lost black lamb. Lassie's reaction at the end to yet another stray is a classic.

     Caution: Spoilers!: Lassie is out feeding her forest friends, including a squirrel, a fawn, a fox, and a bear cub when she comes upon a black lamb. The little creature was caught in a snare and being stalked by a coyote. Lassie chases away the coyote and chews the snare rope free. She is about to leave when the pathetically bleating lamb makes her realize it has no home. First she finds a flock of white sheep and the lamb runs up and eagerly nurses on a ewe. But the ewe doesn't recognize the black lamb as hers and savagely drives it away. Next they find a cow, and the lamb tries to nurse on her. But she kicks it away. By now the little fellow is so weak from hunger that Lassie wants to leave it while she reconnoiters, but a hawk appears, so first she must hide the lamb in some brush. To her relief, ahead she finds a flock of black sheep, but returns to find the hawk attacking the lamb, who has broken cover, and must fight the bird off.
     To Lassie's relief, the black sheep accept the black lamb. But a white lamb is loose in the flock of black ones, being rejected as well, and Lassie takes on its charge. She's on firmer ground now, recalling where she saw a flock of white sheep, and sure enough, the white lamb is accepted there.
     Having had a busy day, Lassie heads off in relief. Then she hears a lamb's bleat. She stares. Here is another stray lamb trotting toward her—this one white with black spots! She gives a howl of despair and tries to run off, but a pathetic bleat makes her pause in her tracks. She stops as the spotted lamb catches up with her, licks it in resignation, and the two of them trot off together as the episode ends.

"The Bracelet" (01/07/68):

Corey escorts Miss Ridgeway, a nature painter of renown, to a secluded area where she can work, leaving Lassie with her for company. When her insulin supply is destroyed after a lightning strike sets her cabin afire while she is away painting, Lassie must help get her back to the ranger station over a treacherous bridge before she goes into a diabetic coma. Mike: Jed Allan. Miss Ridgeway: Jacqueline Scott.

"The Foundling" (01/14/68):

Corey, investigating a potential campsite at Emerald Forest, and Bill the resident ranger, are chagrined when well-meaning tourists rescue an "abandoned" fawn from the forest; believing the fawn's mother will not take it back, they plan to send it to a game ranch. But Lassie has other ideas. Wife: Diana Christian. Tom: Ron Hagerthy. Bill: Mark Tapscott.

"Rescue Ridge" (01/21/68):

Lassie rescues a coati-mundi's wayward kit—and a lost lamb as well—while Corey and his compatriots battles the forest fire threatening its home. Dave: Richard Webb.

"White Wilderness" (01/28/68):

While Corey and his fellow rangers test a new atomic probe that helps them analyze the snowpack, Lassie saves a snowshoe rabbit from a hungry fox. Cal: Cal Bartlett. Dave Madden: Jack Catron.

"The Lonely One" (02/04/68):

While Corey is at Cape Kennedy participating in a paracute-testing project and visiting his old smoke-jumping buddy Chuck Conway, now an astronaut, Lassie encounters Atlas, a guard dog gone wild after the death of his handler. The dog seems impossible to catch until he is trapped in quicksand. Chuck Conway: Peter Haskell. Dan (Gate Guard): Med Flory. Austin Redmond: Parley Baer. Paul Lowry: Richard Crane.
   • Note: Some fabulous shots of the Kennedy Space Center during the beginning of the Apollo moon missions: the bus tour, the VAB (the largest building in area in the world; clouds actually form at the top of the building if the air conditioning malfunctions), the crawler that transported the huge Saturn 5 rockets to the launch pad, etc.). Historical note: The U.S. spaceport was originally named "Cape Canaveral," the name of the piece of land the launch area was built on. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, who had wholeheartedly supported the space program, the entire area was renamed "Cape Kennedy." In 1973, the area reverted to its old name, but the space complex remained the Kennedy Spaceflight Center.

"The Searchers" (02/11/68):

Still in Florida, Corey and Lassie befriend young Donnie Baker, whose puppy Duke was struck by a car and killed while chasing a rabbit, and try to tame Atlas after his rescue from the swamp. Chuck Conway: Peter Haskell. Dan (Gate Guard): Med Flory. Jack (Tourguide): Jed Allan. Donnie Baker: Bobby Riha.
   • Note: Allan went on to play one of Lassie's "godfathers," Scott Turner, starting in "The Holocaust."

"Countdown" (02/18/68):

As the parachute tests begin, Lassie keeps watch over a bald eagle badly injured after one of the test capsules knocked over his nest. Chuck Conway: Peter Haskell. Austin Redmond: Parley Baer. Parachute Testing Supervisor: Jack DeMave. Paul Lowry: Richard Crane. Television Newscaster: George "Bob" Beban.
   • Note: DeMave went on to play one of Lassie's "godfathers," Bob Erickson, starting in "The Holocaust."

"Escape to Danger" (02/25/68):

Animal trainer Tom Whitney, having received permission to give shows at the Franklin National Forest campgrounds, is in a wreck, and all his animals, including a precocious raccoon named Zelda, escape. It takes the lazy dog Tom dubbed "NoCount" to save him—but it's Lassie who rescues his pets. Tom: Jay Novello.
   • Trivia: Tom renames the dog "Count."

"The Ledge" (03/03/68):

A shutterbug Boy Scout is so intent on following an eagle to take a photo that he disregards where he is going and is trapped on a ledge.

"Hanford's Point" part 1 (03/10/68):

Making Pine Lake into a recreation area will help a town, but the plans depend on buying land from two friendly but independent young men who inherited the land from their father and whom the townspeople view as "kooks." But Lassie immediately befriends their mutt "Big Dog" and is helped by them when she falls into an old mine shaft. Barnaby Cornell: Karl Swenson. Dan Peterson: Ray Hemphill. Chris Hanford: Jan-Michael Vincent (credited as "Michael Vincent"). Drew Hanford: Tony Dow (yet another Leave It to Beaver alumni). Luci Wade: Barbara Hunter. Clyde (Barber): James McCallion.
   • Note: This episode marked the unofficial beginning of Lassie's "relevant" period: very Sixties "Flower Power" type decor on the car and in the cabin, Sixties slang as part of the dialog, even "groovy" theme music for the Hanford boys and the sign "Hanfords Point. Where it's at." The town where this story is filmed in closely resembles the town of Fawn Lake in an earlier trilogy of episodes. Karl Swenson even plays the newspaper editor, although in this story he's Barnaby Cornell rather than Anson Booth!

"Hanford's Point" part 2 (03/17/68):

The Hanford boys refuse Corey's offer, to the dismay of Tom Wade, who is worried by the boys' influence on Luci. Then Luci's boat fails in the middle of the lake; when she tries to swim to shore she must be rescued by the Hanfords and stay overnight due to a storm. Tom Wade: Robert Rockwell. Luci Wade: Barbara Hunter. Chris Hanford: Jan-Michael Vincent (credited as "Michael Vincent"). Drew Hanford: Tony Dow.

"Hanford's Point" part 3 (03/24/68):

Luci awakens at the Hanford cabin feverish and unable to breathe, but is rushed to the hospital in time. In the meantime, the boys are still determined not to sell and continue building an addition on their cabin, which prompts potential problems. Luci Wade: Barbara Hunter. Chris Hanford: Jan-Michael Vincent (credited as "Michael Vincent"). Drew Hanford: Tony Dow. Tom Wade: Robert Rockwell. Mrs. Wade: Bonita Granville Wrather. Dan Peterson: Ray Hemphill. Ed: John Archer.
   • Note: Oddly, Bonita Granville Wrather is not credited.

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