Lassie
The most popular dog, in my opinion, is not Tinkerbell (Hilton’s Chihuahua). Hands down, it would be Lassie, the female rough collie that lived in a small farming community. Lassie is an American television series that ran from September 1954 to March 1973. It dealt mostly with themes that explored the relationship between boys and their dogs while giving the viewers a better understanding of mid-twentieth century American boyhood.
Lassie was consistently depicted as caring, nurturing, and responsible with a commitment to family and community, often rescuing those in peril and righting wrongs. She was the perfect ‘mother’ within the American ideology of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Lassie was always portrayed as having wholesome family values that were very common values in the society during the period. I’m sure, if Lassie was shown to be placed in a wood cremation urn when the show finally ended, that urn would be visited by a staggering number of people and would probably be placed in the Guinness Book of World Records.