From: ahk@chinet.com   
      
   Lawrence DOliveiro  wrote:   
   >On Sun, 26 Oct 2025 11:54:03 +1300, Your Name quoted:   
      
   >>     She took over from Cloris Leachman as the Martin family moved on   
   >>     to the famous collie's farm and became foster parents to both the   
   >>     orphaned Timmy and Lassie.   
      
   >Whaat?? You mean the actress (in)famous for those demonic villainesses,   
   >Nurse Diesel and Frau Blucher, was once ... the loving foster mother of   
   >Timmy and Lassie??!??   
      
   After the end of season 3, producers decided that they wanted a younger   
   boy. Jeff (Tommy Rettig) was fired, along with his family. It was the   
   most awkward transition possible. Timmy (Jon Provost) was taken in.   
   Gramps (George Cleveland) was killed off as the actor had died. Then the   
   Miller simply got written out. The audience was supposed to accept that   
   the Martins, Ruth and Paul, would simply take over the farm from the   
   Martins, who dumped both Timmy and the dog on them. Cloris Leachman and   
   Paul (Jon Shepodd) were there during a portion of season 4 only.   
      
   With the start of season 5, Ruth and Paul had been re-cast with the   
   better remembered June Lockhart and Hugh Reilly.   
      
   I don't know what the reason was.   
      
   I sure don't understand how audiences would have forgiven the Millers   
   for abandoning the dog.   
      
   Timmy wasn't just younger but oh so incredibly dumb. I've concluded that   
   it wasn't the actor's performance but scripts that just made Timmy   
   unlikeable, but he carried the show for 5 1/2 years, telling you that   
   audiences cared about the dog and not the humans. The audience didn't   
   give a shit if Timmy were rescued from that well, but wanted to see the   
   heroic dog, despite the futility of rescuing Timmy week after week   
   without Timmy ever learning to take care.   
      
   The Martins were fired after season 10 and there was no more farm.   
      
   >>     She then starred as Dr. Maureen Robinson on the CBS series "Lost   
   >>     in Space" from 1965 to 1968. She played a brilliant biochemist and   
   >>     loving mother of three who is marooned in space along with her   
   >>     family.   
      
   >I remember being highly bemused by that particular bit of casting-against-   
   >type ... not that I recall her doing much biochemistry ...   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)