executives then sought a way to break Weatherwax's contract. Weatherwax was concerned about protecting Pal and the Lassie image he had created from future diminishment at the hands of others. In lieu of US$40,000 in back pay owed him by the studio, Weatherwax bargained for and received the Lassie name and trademark. Television series Following their departure from MGM, Pal and Weatherwax went on the road performing an 18-minute program at dog shows and department stores. Television producer Robert Maxwell convinced Weatherwax that Pal's future lay in television. Together, the men created a boy-and-his-dog scenario about a struggling family on a weatherbeaten farm in Middle America. The field for the role of the boy in Lassie was narrowed to three young actors, but the final decision was left to Pal. After spending a week with the boys at Weatherwax's North Hollywood home, Pal seemed to like eleven-year-old Tommy Rettig more than the other two. Rettig won the role based on Pal's response, and filming for the two pilots began in the summer of 1954, with Pal portraying Lassie in both. After viewing the pilots, CBS executives immediately signed the 30-minute show to its fall 1954 schedule. Pal retired after filming the two pilots, and his son, Lassie Junior (who was three years old and had been in training for a couple of years), stepped into the television role. Pal would come to the show's studio home at Stage One of KTTV in Los Angeles every day with his son during filming. He had a bed behind the set, and was respectfully termed The Old Man. Series star Tommy Rettig later recalled, "When Rudd would ask Lassie, Jr. to do something, if you were behind the set, you could see The Old Man get up from his bed and go through the routine back there." Death By 1957, Pal was growing blind, deaf, and stiff, and rarely visited the Lassie set. The star of the show Jon Provost later recalled, "As young as I was, I recognized how much that dog meant to Rudd. Rudd loved that old dog as much as anyone could love an animal or person." Pal died of natural causes in June 1958 at age 18, which is about 85 in "dog years" for his Rough Collie breed; and for months Weatherwax slipped in and out of deep depression. Robert Weatherwax, Rudd's son, later recalled, "It hit