Lassie - Episode #87 - "Chimp" - Season 3 Ep. 22 - 03/03/1957

A hilariously funny episode ensues when Porky and Jeff, who have ordered hamsters as a money making scheme, accidentally find a chimpanzee delivered to them instead. The jokes and vaudville comedy start from the very beginning of the episode with Ellen cutting up onions at the kitchen sink which soon has everyone shedding tears throughout their dialog, all the way to the very end of the episode with Gramps and "Happy" sitting at the breakfast table both consuming a dozen bananas. A delightful episode that cute and loveable with jokes that never get boring.
TRIVIA: In this Lassie episode the actor that plays "Earl", one of the two delivery men who mistakenly deliver the chimpanzee to the Miller farm, had just begun his TV career and this was his third TV acting job. The actor's name was Slim Pickens - born Louis Burton Lindley, Jr. (1919-1983) a former American rodeo performer who would later become a well known film and television actor for his comedy roles in such blockbuster films as "Dr. Strangelove", and Mel Brook's "Blazing Saddles".
As a high school grad Louis began working as a rodeo, being forewarned that working in the rodeo would be "slim pickings" (meaning 'very little money'). He decided it was the perfect stage name for him, and carried that stage name with him when transitioned to a film career in 1950 in the film "Rocky Mountain" starring Errol Flynn. In 1956 Slim Pickens began a TV career as well, starring in two episodes of The Lone Ranger before landing the role of "Earl" in this Lassie episode. He quickly began appearing in many other popular TV series, mostly westerns in which he played either a villain or a comic sidekick. Towards the end of his life his resume of appearances read like who's who of the most popular TV shows from 1956 to 1979. His last TV appearance was in an episode of the primetime show: "The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo", and his final two films were "The Howling" (1981) and "Pink Hotel" (1982).
In 1982 Pickens was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.He was also inducted in the Pro Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame (Colorado Springs, CO) for his early career work as a Rodeo Clown.
Slim Pickens died December 8th 1983 at age 64 from a brain tumor.
Lassie and the Lassie Trademark are owned by Dreamworks
Animation. This episode was publicly broadcast via over the
air (OTA) antenna TV by NBC affiliate COZI TV in March 2015