Lassie - Episode 112 - "The Spartan" - Season 4, #9 (11/03/1957)

"The Spartan" (11/03/57):
Jeff and Porky persuade Timmy to keep quiet after a spill in the lake, but he gets sick and sneaks off to the treehouse to "endure his illness" like the Spartan boys Jeff had described. By the time he is found he has pneumonia.
TRIVIA: The history of Sparta (in ancient Greece) goes back so far into the haze of time - further than 1300 BCE (before common era) - that only legends of it's founding survive, and all of those legends are deeply wrapped up in the Greek gods. Records indicate that by 900-800 BCE Sparta was a highly cultured with beautiful art, aclaimed buildings and temples to their patron Goddess Athena, and scholars producing rich literature. Spartan musicians, dancers and singers were renowned in the known world, and her athletes were second to none. From 720 BCE to 576 BCE, she had 46 Olympic winners out of 81 total victors. Most, if not all, the reasons Spartan soldiers did so well on the battlefield, and in sports, was attributed to their reportedly incredibly strenuous and brutal training regiment, called "the Agoge". Emotion and.or weakness had no part in the program - and stoicism in the face of pain was highly regarded. This is what Timmy was striving to achieve... although not for the best of intentions!
NOTE: This recording has been edited to remove commercials and to add titles and descriptions. The re-broadcast has not been stretched or modified in any way from the original film which was distributed for TV viewing in classic black and white early 1950's "square TV screen" format. "Lassie" is copyrighted and owned by Classic Media. The first 4 seasons of "Lassie" were later syndicated as "Jeff's Collie". Recorded from COZI TV in 2013 via over-the-air antenna TV.