[78-L] George Cleveland

[David Lennick]

DAVID BURNHAM wrote:
> dl (who still remembers when George Clayton died and the whole cast was 
> replaced in the very next episode..probably mostly because Rettig was needing 
> to shave at that point)
> 
> dl
> 
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
> 
> Do you mean George Cleveland?
> 
> I remember watching the episode just after he died, (btw, I assume you know that he was a Canadian), and they had his character die in the series.  They were all sitting around as the will was being read.  I thought the series carried on with the rest of the cast, at least for the rest of that season.  Tommy Rettig was sixteen at that point so I guess his chin was getting fuzzy.
> 
> db

I did indeed mean George Cleveland, and I didn't know he was Canadian. My 
memory is that he died and the whole family immediately moved away, leaving the 
mutt to new people including June Lockhart (who of course also has Canuckistan 
blood, being the daughter of Gene Lockhart, co-composer of The World Is Waiting 
For The Sunrise). However, I find I'm missing a half season..Cloris Leachman 
was Timmy's adoptive mom before June. Don't remember her at all, probably 
because I never cared for the show after that..Jeff was closer to my age. 
Timmy? Feh.

It seems as if they started easing Timmy into the 4th season because Jan 
Clayton wanted out and Tommy Rettig was getting too old, then they fired just 
about everybody when Cleveland died in July 1957.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassie_(1954_TV_series)

dl