THE LITTLEST HOBO

When I was growing up in the 1980s a lot of the TV shows aimed at young people used real life animals as  characters, to appeal to us. Black Beauty, Lassie, Gentle Ben,  Woof, Benji, Zak and the Alien Prince… The list is endless. However the one that always stands out to me is… Yep. The Littlest Hobo!

Who remembers that show? In fact who could forget it?

It was  a long-runing Canadian TV series (1979-1985) based on a a stray dog who travelled from place to place, running into various people along the way. And whoever he would bump into would be in a difficult situation, and the dog would become their friend and help in some way or another. It was like he had some extra intelligence or sixth sense to know who was in trouble and exactly how to help them.

He was like Lassie, without the annoying kid who owned him. By the end of the epsiode when the problem had been solved, he left said person and moved onto the next. Often the person he helped would want him to stay with them, but as the shot of him scampering off into the distance (which always made me blub) panned out, they had to accept his work with them was done, and he was on to help someone else.

Admittedly, sometimes the storylines was a little far-fetched. I remember one episode when he was supposed to be driving a van… Hmmmm… lol! And another when he went up in a hot air balloon by himself. But it was all in good fun!

The Littlest Hobo was played by a German Shepherd dog called London, and as well as being excited to see the interesting ways in which he would help someone each episode, my favourite part of the show was the theme tune! Anyone who grew up in the 80s knows that tune, the one which goes: ‘There’s a voice that keeps on calling me, down the road is where I’ll always be. Every stop I make, I make a new friend, can’t stay for long, just turn around and I’m gone again. Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want to settle down, until tomorrow, I’ll just keep moving on…..’ lol! Classic!

DID YA KNOW?

• Before the series which ran in the 1980s, there was an original series of The Littlest Hobo, which ran from 1963-1965.