This article, written by Craig Beaudine, was published in the September 1968 issue of Jack and Jill.
It is © 1969 Jack and Jill, The Curtis Publishing Company.
Back to Magazines and TV Guides
By Craig Beaudine, 12
My whole family is rather closely associated with the "Lassie" series on the CBS Television Network. My father, William Beaudine, Jr., is production manager of the "Lassie" program and my grandfather, William Beaudine, Sr., has directed more than 60 "Lassie" features.
Mornings when my father leaves for the studio he calls it "going to work." If I had a chance to be around Lassie as much as he does I wouldn't call it work, and that's for sure.
Of course I'm only kidding; Dad does work very hard, and often long hours, too. When the program is being done at the Desilu studio in Culver City he usually gets home at a reasonable time in the evening. But most of the time "Lassie" is filmed outdoors on location somewhere. Then it takes him a lot longer to get home.
Some time ago, they went to the East and South to film the seven episodes of "Lassie, the Voyager." Before the company left, Dad had to visit each of the proposed location cities, along with the cameraman and some of the men of the U.S. Forest Service. Their job was to make sure just where they would do the filming so that when the whole crew arrived, there wouldn't be any time wasted.
Dad was gone on that trip about a week; then the actual filming of the episodes took another three weeks or more. I'd really have liked to be along that time, but I guess school was more important.
I don't know everything my father has to do as a production manager, but finding location spots is one of the important parts of his job. He works with the Forest Service because almost all of the "Lassie" programs have to do with problems that face a forest ranger. Mr. Robert Bray is the man who stars as District Ranger Corey Stuart.
The Forest Service men are very helpful, Dad says, and they are familiar with most of the places where the "Lassie" scripts are to be filmed. But Dad still has to look them over first.
Dad says that whenever you're going to film on location — away from the studio, on a street or in a park or almost any place — one of the first things that you have to do is get a permit from whoever owns the place, or the person in charge of it. A lot of the "Lassie" stories, as well as a number of other television programs, are done on ranches, and it's Dad's responsibility to get permission from the ranch owner to use the section of the ranch they want. This prevents two different companies from trying to use the same area at the same time — and I guess that saves a lot of trouble.
If the location is on a street somewhere, permission to use the street has to be obtained from the city. That's Dad's job, too. He also has to arrange for enough policemen to keep onlookers from crowding around and getting in the way.
Transportation is always a problem which Dad has to double-check — the crew and the actors have to be driven to and from the location.
Dad must make sure there will be food on hand for everybody who's working on the location; he hires a catering firm to look after that.
With all he has to do, maybe Dad doesn't get to spend as much time with Lassie as I figured he did. But at least he's never too far away from the collie.
Every once in a while I get to watch them work and it's a lot of fun and very interesting, too. When Lassie isn't working, her owner and trainer, Mr. Rudd Weatherwax, lets me pet her — and usually Lassie kisses me in return. But I don't spend too much time with Lassie because I know Mr. Weatherwax wants her to rest between scenes.
Once in a while Dad directs an episode. Last year and again this year he directed sequences in which there were no humans at all in the cast — only birds and animals, with Lassie as the star, of course. In one episode a little skunk was the guest star. An eagle and a mother owl were guest stars in the other story.
Now he has just finished one that has people in it, as well as Lassie and a cute little tame coyote. The coyote was cute and tame, that is, so long as you didn't try to pet it. I didn't go near the coyote but I did get to play with Lassie. And I watched Dad direct some scenes with Mr. Bray and Lassie. It's work to Dad, I guess, but to me it seems like fun.