CBS/Syndication: September 12, 1954 – March 24, 1973

The show Lassie was the fourth longest-running primetime television series
after The Simpsons, Gunsmoke, and Law & Order. It  received critical favor
at its debut and won two Emmy Awards in its first years. Stars Jan Clayton
and June Lockhart were nominated for Emmys.

It took Elvis Presley 31 takes to get just the right version of "Hound Dog" on
acetate. The record became the most successful two-sided hit on Billboard’s
Top/Hot 100 chart. The two titles spent a combined 55 weeks in the Top 100
in 1956-1957.

The Lassie radio show was broadcast from 1947-1950. It first aired
on ABC, then on NBC. Lassie played a different dog each week in
different kinds of situations. The shows ran for 15 minutes. The
series was sponsored by Red Heart dog food.

Original run on CBS: January 6, 1963 – 1971.

The program was syndicated from 1971 to 1988, and was revived in 2002. The
show’s second incarnation currently airs on Animal Planet.

Perkins was host of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom from 1963 to 1985. He
was also director of the New York Zoo in Buffalo, N.Y., the Lincoln Park Zoo
in Chicago and the St. Louis Zoo. He died in 1986 at age 81.

Enos the chimp is being prepared for the launching of the
Mercury 5 spacecraft on this day in 1961.