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49-531: The New Lassie is essentially a sequel to the 1954 series , and was the latest in the line of works featuring the Lassie character, which debuted in the 1943 film Lassie Come Home , followed by several more movies and the aforementioned television series, which ran from 1954 to 1973. The series centers on the McCulloughs, a middle-class family living in suburban Glen Ridge, California. The McCulloughs are

98-506: A scena . There might also be opportunities for participation by orchestra or chorus. An example is Casta diva from the opera Norma of Vincenzo Bellini . After around 1850, aria forms in Italian opera began to show more variety – many of the operas of Giuseppe Verdi offer extended narrative arias for leading roles that enable, in their scope, intensification of drama and characterisation. Examples include Rigoletto 's condemnation of

147-407: A heroine), aria buffa (aria of a comic type, typically given to a bass or bass-baritone ), and so on. M. F. Robinson describes the standard aria in opera seria in the period 1720 to 1760 as follows: The first section normally began with an orchestral ritornello after which the singer entered and sang the words of the first stanza in their entirety. By the end of this first vocal paragraph

196-492: A larger work. The typical context for arias is opera , but vocal arias also feature in oratorios and cantatas , or they can be stand-alone concert arias . The term was originally used to refer to any expressive melody , usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The Italian term aria , which derives from the Greek ἀήρ and Latin aer (air), first appeared in relation to music in the 14th century when it simply signified

245-403: A major role in grand opera , and in Italian opera through the 19th century. A favoured form of aria in the first half of the 19th century in Italian opera was the cabaletta , in which a songlike cantabile section is followed by a more animated section, the cabaletta proper, repeated in whole or in part. Typically such arias would be preceded by recitative , the whole sequence being termed

294-490: A manner or style of singing or playing. By the end of the 16th century, the term 'aria' refers to an instrumental form (cf. Santino Garsi da Parma lute works, ('Aria del Gran Duca'). By the early 16th century it was in common use as meaning a simple setting of strophic poetry; melodic madrigals , free of complex polyphony , were known as madrigale arioso . In the context of staged works and concert works, arias evolved from simple melodies into structured forms. In such works,

343-638: A time slot other than its traditional 7:00 p.m. slot, and, with the network's other family programs set, the show was canceled. ( Lassie was among several shows that CBS canceled during this time period as part of a change in its target demographics .) Lassie then entered first-run syndication with Jack Wrather and Campbell's Soup still on board, and remained on the air for another two years with its final episode airing in March 1973. All totaled, 591 episodes were produced. An animated reworking, Lassie's Rescue Rangers , followed in fall 1973, immediately after

392-525: A variation of this theme, titled simply "Lassie Main & End Title", was used for the opening and ending theme. Raoul Kraushaar , the music director for the series, is the listed composer for the theme; however the changes he made to the original are so slight that only a trained ear can tell the difference. The third theme used for the series is an orchestral rendition of the aria , "Dio Possente" (Even Bravest Hearts May Swell) from Charles Gounod 's opera, Faust . The exact time this theme started being used

441-463: Is uncertain due to conflicting records; however it is agreed that it was the third series, and was used for at least part of season four for the change of ownership of Lassie. The most famous of the Lassie theme songs appeared at the start of the fifth season. Copyrighted as "Lassie Main & End Title", the composer credit has never been definitively claimed to this day. The melody is whistled by Muzzy Marcellino . Nicknamed "The Whistler," it remained

490-410: The tonic for the final vocal cadence after which the orchestra rounded the section off with a final ritornello. The nature and allocation of the arias to the different roles in opera seria was highly formalized. According to the playwright and librettist Carlo Goldoni , in his autobiography, The three principal personages of the drama ought to sing five arias each; two in the first act, two in

539-454: The French term, airs ) are frequently in extended binary form (ABB') or sometimes in rondeau form (ABACA), (a shape which is analogous to the instrumental rondo ). In the work of Italian composers of the late 17th and early 18th century, the da capo aria came to be include the ritornello (literally, 'little return'), a recurring instrumental episode which featured certain phrases of

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588-526: The Grand Mountain National Park. Her best friend is Harvey Smith, whose mother Beth works in the park visitor center. Harvey's late father was a mountain climber. The children's antagonist is a snooty rich girl named Samantha Humphrey. Two seasons were done, the first with traditional drawn animation and the second season with computer-generated animation. The second season (tagged as Season 1) is available on Paramount Plus. The series

637-401: The aria proper and provided, in early operas, the opportunity for dancing or entries of characters. Da capo aria with ritornelli became a typifying feature of European opera throughout the 18th century and is thought by some writers to be a direct antecedent of sonata form . The ritornelli became essential to the structure of the aria – "while the words determine the character of a melody

686-538: The court, "Cortigiani, vil razza dannata!" (1851). Later in the century, the post-1850 operas of Wagner were through-composed , with fewer elements being readily identifiable as self-contained arias; whilst the Italian genre of verismo opera also sought to integrate arioso elements although still allowing some 'show-pieces'. Concert arias , which are not part of any larger work, (or were sometimes written to replace or insert arias in their own operas or operas of other composers) were written by composers to provide

735-477: The farm, but Timmy and Lassie would stay behind with his new foster parents, Paul and Ruth Martin, who also took over the farm. All 10 of the Miller/Martin farm seasons would for the most part focus on "boy and his dog" adventures with Jeff or Timmy getting involved in some sort of trouble, and Lassie eventually coming to the rescue. Seasons 11–16 were the "Ranger years" of the series, as Lassie (because she

784-431: The head', i.e. with the opening section repeated, often in a highly decorated manner). In the da capo aria the 'B' episode would typically be in a different key – the dominant or relative major key. Other variants of these forms are found in the French operas of the late 17th century such as those of Jean-Baptiste Lully which dominated the period of the French baroque. Vocal solos in his operas (known of course as

833-543: The idea of having Lassie with a forest ranger. Lassie used several pieces of theme music during its long broadcast history. For the first season, "Secret of the Silent Hills (Theme from the Lassie TV series)", is used for both the opening and ending theme. Composed by William Lava , the orchestral theme was originally created for the 1940 radio show The Courageous Dr. Christian . For the second and third season

882-592: The later works of Mozart ; the arias now become far more expressive of the individual emotions of the characters and are both more firmly anchored in, and advance, the storyline. Richard Wagner was to praise Gluck's innovations in his 1850 essay " Opera and Drama ": " The musical composer revolted against the wilfulness of the singer"; rather than "unfold[ing] the purely sensuous contents of the Aria to their highest, rankest, pitch", Gluck sought "to put shackles on Caprice's execution of that Aria, by himself endeavouring to give

931-578: The latter part of this era when Robert Bray (who played Stuart) left the series. For season 17, the program shifted gears again and became essentially an anthology series , with Lassie traveling on her own, getting into different adventures each week (similar in format to The Littlest Hobo and, later, to Here's Boomer ). No explanation was given as to why Lassie was no longer with the Forest Service. Some episodes during this final CBS season were animals only. During seasons 18 and 19 (with

980-639: The minuets and rondeaus. He must, above all things, avoid giving impassioned arias, bravura arias, or rondeaus, to inferior characters. By contrast, arias in opera buffa (comic opera) were often specific in character to the nature of the character being portrayed (for example the cheeky servant-girl or the irascible elderly suitor or guardian). By later in the century it was clear that these formats were becoming fossilized. Christoph Willibald Gluck thought that both opera buffa and opera seria had strayed too far from what opera should really be, and seemed unnatural. The jokes of opera buffa were threadbare and

1029-433: The music, if it were in a major key as it usually was, had modulated to the dominant . The orchestra then played a second ritornello usually shorter than the first. The singer re-entered and sang the same words through a second time. The music of this second paragraph was often slightly more elaborate than that of the first. There were more repeats of words and perhaps more florid vocalisations. The key worked its way back to

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1078-445: The normal to be exploited with telling effect." In the early years of the century, arias in the Italian style began to take over in French opera, giving rise eventually to the French genre of ariette , normally in a relatively simple ternary form. Types of operatic aria became known by a variety of terms according to their character – e.g. aria parlante ('speaking-style', narrative in nature), aria di bravura (typically given to

1127-562: The opportunity for vocal display for concert singers; examples are Ah! perfido , Op. 65, by Beethoven , and a number of concert arias by Mozart , including Conservati fedele . The term 'aria' was frequently used in the 17th and 18th centuries for instrumental music modelled on vocal music. For example, J. S. Bach 's so-called " Goldberg Variations " were titled at their 1741 publication "Clavier Ubung bestehend in einer ARIA mit verschiedenen Verænderungen" ("Keyboard exercise, consisting of one ARIA with diverse variations.") The word

1176-524: The original series ended (the pilot movie aired in 1972 while the live-action series was still on the air). Lassie's Rescue Rangers was denounced by both Weatherwax and the National Association of Broadcasters , the latter of which made note of the animated series' "violence, crime and stupidity." In 1973, ABC created an animated Saturday-morning animated program called Lassie's Rescue Rangers produced by Filmation . In 1989, what

1225-405: The owners of the then-present-day descendant of Lassie. Real life spouses Christopher and Dee Wallace-Stone played Chris and Dee McCullough, with Will Estes (credited by his given name of Will Nipper) and Wendy Cox appearing as their young son Will and teenage daughter Megan respectively. Jon Provost , who starred in the original Lassie series, portrayed Chris' brother Steve McCullough who

1274-580: The repetition of the same characters made them seem no more than stereotypes. In opera seria the singing was devoted to superficial effects and the content was uninteresting and stale. As in opera buffa , the singers were often masters of the stage and the music, decorating the vocal lines so floridly that audiences could no longer recognise the original melody. Gluck wanted to return opera to its origins, focusing on human drama and passions and making words and music of equal importance. The effects of these Gluckist reforms were seen not only in his own operas but in

1323-419: The ritornello instruments often decided in what terms it shall be presented." By the early 18th century, composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti had established the aria form, and especially its da capo version with ritornelli, as the key element of opera seria . "It offered balance and continuity, and yet gave scope for contrast. [...] The very regularity of its conventional features enabled deviations from

1372-561: The same dog breed with a similar name, it had little to do with the series overall, since the comic was a Western comic. Aria In music, an aria ( Italian: [ˈaːrja] ; pl. : arie , Italian: [ˈaːrje] ; arias in common usage; diminutive form: arietta , Italian: [aˈrjetta] ; pl. : ariette ; in English simply air ) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompaniment , normally part of

1421-410: The second, and one in the third. The second actress and the second soprano can only have three, and the inferior characters must be satisfied with a single aria each, or two at the most. The author of the words must [...] take care that two pathetic [i.e. melancholy] arias do not succeed one another. He must distribute with the same precaution the bravura arias, the arias of action, the inferior arias, and

1470-477: The series having moved to first run syndication ), Lassie was taken in by Garth Holden (played by Ron Hayes ) who was in charge of the Holden Ranch – a home for orphaned boys – which he ran with his college-age son and his friend. This (somewhat) brought the show back to its roots by giving Lassie a farm/ranch home base, which is where she settled in for the final two years of the series. First-run Lassie

1519-519: The series saw Lassie living on a farm, first with the Miller family (Jeff, his mother Ellen, and her father George - who was called "Gramps" by Jeff). Season 4 saw the Millers taking in young orphan Timmy, who then lived with them on the farm, as well as the unexpected death of Gramps, (reflecting the real life death of actor George Cleveland , who played the character), and with that the Millers moved off

The New Lassie - Misplaced Pages Continue

1568-409: The series theme for the rest of the "Martin years". With the coming of the "Ranger years", the opening and ending theme was changed to an orchestral version of "The Whistler". Beginning in season 17 (where Lassie traveled alone), and continuing throughout the Holden Ranch era, the theme was changed again, this time to Nathan Scott 's arrangement of the traditional folk tune Greensleeves , which became

1617-448: The series theme song for the rest of its run. For the final two seasons, the familiar closing visual of Lassie standing on a hill and lifting her paw, was replaced by the credits on a green background, and flashing from one slate to the other instead of scrolling as in most of the series run. Television composer Nathan Scott scored the music to nearly every episode between 1963 and 1973, except for four episodes. The first 10 seasons of

1666-468: The sung, melodic, and structured aria differed from the speech-like ( parlando ) recitative – the latter tending to carry the story-line, the former used to convey emotional content and serve as an opportunity for singers to display their vocal talent. By the late 17th century operatic arias came to be written in one of two forms. Binary form arias were in two sections (A–B); arias in ternary form (A–B–A) were known as da capo arias (literally 'from

1715-503: The time of, or specifically related to the TV series) Jon Provost called his autobiography Timmy's in the Well! because a well was the one place Timmy never fell into—abandoned mine shafts, off cliffs, into rivers, lakes, and quicksand, but never a well. Mad parodied the show as "Lizzy", where it was revealed that the collie was actually a circus midget in a dog suit, while the real Lizzy

1764-509: The top twenty-five was 1960, when it ran opposite Walt Disney Presents on ABC and Shirley Temple Theater on NBC . However, Lassie still ran opposite Disney when the Disney anthology television series moved to NBC in 1961, and still managed to climb into the Top 25. With the advent of the Forest Service seasons, the show began a steady decline in ratings. (All awards listed given during

1813-518: The tune [...] an expression answering to the underlying Word-text". This attitude was to underlie Wagner's would-be deconstruction of aria in his concept of Gesamtkunstwerk . Despite the ideals of Gluck, and the trend to organise libretti so that arias had a more organic part in the drama rather than merely interrupting its flow, in the operas of the early 19th century, (for example those of Gioachino Rossini and Gaetano Donizetti ), bravura arias remained focal attractions, and they continued to play

1862-411: Was a dimwitted mutt. In an episode of The Flintstones ("Dino Goes Hollyrock"), the character Dino wins an appearance on the smash hit TV show "Sassie" starring a heavily made-up and snobby girl dinosaur and her Lassie-like adventures. Belgian comics artist Willy Vandersteen created his own version of the TV show with a collie named Bessy in 1954. Apart from the fact that his comic strip starred

1911-454: Was a fifth generation of Lassie. The dog was trained by Robert Weatherwax, the son of Rudd Weatherwax who trained the original Lassie. Robert was assisted by his only son Robert Jr. Reruns of The New Lassie aired on TV Land Canada in 2007. Lassie (1954 TV series) Lassie is an American television series that follows the adventures of a female Rough Collie dog named Lassie and her companions, both human and animal. The show

1960-493: Was essentially a sequel series, The New Lassie – featuring Jon Provost as Steve McCullough – aired in first-run syndication. In its seventh episode ("Roots"), June Lockhart reprised her Ruth Martin role when Steve McCullough is revealed to be the adult Timmy Martin. It is revealed that Timmy was never properly adopted by the Martins and consequently was forced to remain in the U.S. when Ruth and Paul emigrated to Australia. Timmy

2009-626: Was filmed in Canada and set in Vermont ) also revolved around a boy named Timmy and his dog, though differences in setting and character circumstances precluded it from being an exact remake of the original series. From 2014-present, a new animated series called Lassie or The New Adventures of Lassie was aired. Lassie lives with the Parker family, 10-year-old red-headed Zoe and her family, Ranger Graham Parker and Dr. Sarah Parker (a veterinarian), in

The New Lassie - Misplaced Pages Continue

2058-591: Was later adopted by the McCullough family, and began going by his middle name of Steven (Steve). Guest stars with a Lassie past included Roddy McDowall , who had starred in the first movie Lassie Come Home (1943) and Tommy Rettig , who had played Jeff Miller in the early years of the original television series (later syndicated as Jeff's Collie ). Other guest stars included Leonardo DiCaprio and Todd Bridges . The collie featured in The New Lassie

2107-540: Was not able to go to Australia with the Martins when Paul got a job teaching agriculture there) was taken in by U.S. Forest Ranger Corey Stuart (who appeared in a few episodes of season 10) and began to work with the U.S. Forest Service . Color filming was exploited during the Ranger years with Lassie and her friends sent to exotic locations such as Sequoia National Forest and Monument Valley , creating mini- travelogues for viewers. Other rangers would be featured during

2156-646: Was released to DVD between 2001–2007. The TV series was adapted into a comic book by Dan Spiegle , distributed by Gold Key Comics . Every year of its 17-year run on CBS, Lassie placed first in its time slot, Sunday 7:00 P.M. EST, and often ranked among the top 25 shows on television. The show's highest ranking years in the Nielsen ratings were the Martin years when the show placed #24 in 1957, #22 in 1958, #15 in 1959, #15 in 1961, #21 in 1962, #13 in 1963, and #17 in 1964. The only Martin year Lassie did not climb into

2205-417: Was revealed in a later episode to be the adult Timmy Martin in an episode guest-starring June Lockhart in a reprisal of her role as Timmy's foster mother Ruth Martin. In the episode titled "Roots", Timmy reveals that he was never officially adopted by the Martins, and thus couldn't go with them to Australia when they moved there (at the beginning of season 11 of the original Lassie series). Subsequently, he

2254-564: Was televised September 12, 1954 to March 24, 1973 with its first 17 seasons airing on CBS Sundays at 7:00 p.m. EST . In 1971, in order to promote community-related programming among local affiliates, the Federal Communications Commission moved primetime Sundays to 8:00 P.M. EST with the institution of the Prime Time Access Rule . CBS executives felt Lassie would not be well received in

2303-461: Was the creation of producer Robert Maxwell and animal trainer Rudd Weatherwax and was televised from September 12, 1954, to March 25, 1973, making it the eighth longest-running scripted American primetime television series . The show ran for 17 seasons on CBS before entering first-run syndication for its final two seasons. Initially filmed in black and white, the show transitioned to color in 1965. Wrather's wife, Bonita Granville Wrather , who

2352-409: Was the series' associate producer, narrated numerous episodes throughout the run of the series, usually the beginning and/or ending of multi-part episodes. Many early episodes were written by Robert Maxwell under the pseudonym Claire Kennedy. In later years, the writing partnership of Robert Schaefer and Eric Freiwald was responsible for over 150 episodes. They were also responsible for developing

2401-409: Was then subsequently adopted by the McCullough family and began going by his middle name Steven. In 1992, Tommy Rettig made a guest appearance in the final episode, "The Computer Study". This would be his last television appearance prior to his death in 1996. In 1997, a modified remake – also called Lassie – debuted, airing in the U.S. on the then new Animal Planet cable network. This show (which

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