Posts filed under 'Jon Provost'
Today, in Springfield MA, I met Jon Provost and Bill Mumy. They were separated by the Connecticut River — Jon was on the west side and Bill on the east, at two very different events. Jon was appearing at the World of Pets, and Bill was at the United Fan Con. What they have in common is June Lockhart was their mother on TV — Jon as Timmy Martin on ‘Lassie’, and Bill as Will Robinson on ‘Lost In Space’.
Bill Mumy shares a distinction with another former child actor — Jerry Mathers, from ‘Leave It To Beaver’. They were both directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Bill was in ‘Bang! You’re Dead’, one of the most famous installments of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and one of the few that the master himself directed. Mathers was in Hitchcock’s film ‘The Trouble With Harry’.
I can honestly say that I liked all of these guys when I watched them on TV as a kid. I’ve never had a chance to see Mathers in person, but I was thoroughly impressed by Provost and Mumy. They’re both very smart guys, as nice as anybody could ever be, and as good at listening as they are at speaking; but, then, I guess that makes sense, given their training and experience, starting at such an early age. Or maybe it comes from having June Lockhart as their TV mom!
A while ago I posted an item about Jon Provost, whose autobiography, Timmy’s In The Well, will be out soon. Timmy was never in the well on TV, so I was pleased to show Jon the one piece of physical evidence I know of that Timmy, in cartoon form, was briefly in a well, and he was nice enough to sign it for me. Here I am today, with Jon Provost.
Bill Mumy has always been very much into music, and is a musician himself. He’s very, very good. Hear for yourself by playing the Mumy Jukebox. For a while he was in the band America. Mumy has a wide selection of great music available, and I bought his latest CD.
It was a fun day! Eric got to see somebody as well, and I’m hoping to post something about that later.
November 4th, 2007
Unless you subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog’s comments, you may not have noticed a follow-up to my “Timmy In The Well” post.
Hi,
I thought you might like this video. You are correct that Jon Provost (Timmy) was never in the well. The joke became so well known that he has named his new book “Timmy’s in the Well”. The book will be out mid-November.
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=894543076
Thx,
Bonnie Vent
Genesis Creations Entertainment
www.genesiscreations.biz
The video is from The O’Reilly Factor, but despite Bill O’Reilly I can recommend watching the segment, because Jon is interesting. Something that I didn’t know, and in fact joked about in my previous post, is that Lassie really did have a stunt double! I’ll embed the video here.
Jon’s Web site is here. The book can be ordered here from Amazon.com.
I hope copies of the book will be available in time for Provost’s appearance in West Springfield, MA on November 2-4, because I’m hoping to see him there to say hi. I’d like to give Jon the Give-a-Show slide that I scanned and posted, now that it’s confirmed he never fell into a well, playing Timmy Martin on Lassie.
September 30th, 2007
“Timmy’s In The Well” is a catchphrase that I suspect came from a comedian’s stand-up routine, but don’t ask me to say who or when. It’s a reference to the old Lassie TV show, when Jon Provost played Timmy, replacing Tom Rettig, who had played Jeff. There was a Simpsons episode where Bart faked being trapped in a well. Perhaps that added fuel to the popularity of the joke.
The skit involves Lassie running up to an adult, presumably Timmy’s caring and responsible, — yet somehow hapless — father, barking frantically. The joke is that the human can understand the barking. “What’s that Lassie? Timmy’s fallen in the well??” I don’t know with absolute certainty that Timmy never fell in a well on the TV show, but that assertion was made by somebody on a TV Land bulletin board.
So where exactly did the notion come from that Timmy fell in the well? Perhaps it came from a 1962 Kenner Give-A-Show slide. I’ve inserted a scan of the slide into the upper corner of this paragraph. Click to enlarge. This being the only proof offered on the Net that Timmy did, in fact, fall in a well, it deserves a thoughtful frame-by-frame analysis.
Click pictures to enlarge
- That isn’t a barbed wire fence, and Mr. Jones’ field appears to be for grazing cattle, making it likely the fence is electrified. Perhaps Timmy enjoys the tingling sensation.
- A few boards over the well? Enough to make it obvious the well is there, but not enough to protect it. Timmy is indeed a thrill-seeker. He’s walking over the boards intentionally.
- This is actually Lassie’s stunt double.
- Good thing the well is so shallow that standing on a collie’s back is enough of a boost to escape. One can presume the well had been partially filled in.
- If Timmy weighs enough to snap those boards, he’s breaking the stunt dog’s back. Otherwise, she’d be able to jump out by herself.
- Timmy knows he’s going to catch Hell, yet he promises to fetch Mr. Jones.
- But wait! Timmy doesn’t have to admit to being in the well, because this is the real Lassie with him. Her stunt double is back in the well, paralyzed.
All’s well that ends well for Timmy! But not for Mr. Jones, who finds a dead dog in his well and will later be sued by Timmy’s parents for failing to properly fill or seal the well.
September 29th, 2007
Next Posts
A while ago I posted an item about Jon Provost, whose autobiography, Timmy’s In The Well, will be out soon. Timmy was never in the well on TV, so I was pleased to show Jon the one piece of physical evidence I know of that Timmy, in cartoon form, was briefly in a well, and he was nice enough to sign it for me. Here I am today, with Jon Provost.
