Customer Reviews

Lassie: Lassie's Birthday Surprise

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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Three tales - two in b/w and one in color, from the beloved tv series.

In the first episode (1955), Jeff and his pal Porky come close to being blown to pieces by dynamite while picking flowers for Gramps's surprise birthday party.

In the second episode (1956), Ellen and Jeff gather friends and neighbors together to make the Calverton telephone operator's birthday a special one.

The third episode (1971, color) is set on the Holden Ranch where an emotionally withdrawn boy is surprised with a special birthday gift from his Holden Ranch family. This episode was from the final two syndicated years of the show and features "CHiPS" star Larry Wilcox.

I was a mite disappointed the collection didn't include a Jon Provost/June Lockhart episode but I can't complain with the episodes offered here: the stories are absolutely delightful! The dvd is of excellent visual and audio quality and will be enjoyed by viewers of all ages.

Lassie's Birthday Surprise is a nicely selection of two Jeff time tales and one in the Garth Holden Ranch. In all of them Lassie helps giving love and happiness to Gramp's, to Jenny -the town operator- and to the orphaned Mike Bishop who doesn't even know when his birthday is. We can pass 76 wonderful minutes watching these tender stories.

The common denominator of all these stories is that (surprise!) a birthday is celebrated. Two of the stories are from the Jeff era, the 1950's tale "Gramps' Birthday" and "Party Line," which is about the entire town of Calverton not knowing it's the birthday of Jenny the town telephone operator. The third episode is from 1971, in the Holden ranch sequence of episodes: the new foster son of Garth Holden has been so neglected he doesn't even know his birthday. Of course the Holdens do something about that immediately.

When I watch the "Gramps Birthday " and "Party Line" series,
I saw Jeff Miller and Porky as the Characters, I had concluded this series is award winning series and my investment for this series is a thousand more. this "Gramps Birthday" series was 1955 (Black and white) and "Party Line" series was 1956 ( black and white) found out to be an excellent stories I ever watched in this series.Of course I am 42 years old now. My kids loved it too.
The " Homecoming" series was 1971 (colored) it is no longer jeff and porky or george and ellen. but instead its another characters. this story is unthinkable and weird and characters are artificially acted through the sene and lassie dog appears all of sudden from nowhere in the scene. I think the SONY company should have think twice before they add the 1971 episode. The 1971 story is the bad part the Sony did something unthinkable. My kids never like to watch that part anymore. To be honest and positively sure , Only The Jeff Miller and Porky is the best rated Characters I ever , ever watched in LASSIE..
Please show this review on the online so viewers can see the viewpoint of the content of this DVD.
Respectfully and honestly,
JYong of Fremont, CA