The Littlest Hobo

‘Sometimes we expats are like the Littlest Hobo.’

Those are the words we uttered to our American friends, whilst musing about the fact that we expats never really seem to ‘settle down’ anywhere.

They looked at us blankly and slightly baffled.

‘You know,’ we said, ‘Like the Littlest Hobo, from the 80s TV show.’

‘Nope.’

‘But you must know it,’ we said ‘- it’s from the USA.’ And we sang this very theme tune, word for word (don’t you know), to them.

How I loved this show, as, I imagine, did any other Brits born between 1970ish and 1980ish. Ah, the joy it brought!

But, our American friends had not had the pleasure of the Littlest Hobo, which I could not understand.

‘It’s probably a Canadian show,’ they offered. I Googled it to check. Yes, it was Canadian.

‘The Littlest Hobo is a Canadian television series based upon a 1958 American film of the same name directed by Charles R. Rondeau. The series first aired from 1963 to 1965 in syndication, spanning six seasons and was revived for a popular second run on CTV from October 11, 1979 to March 7, 1985. It starred an ownerless dog.

Love this little doogie

‘The storyline revolved around a stray German Shepherd, the titular Hobo, who wanders from town to town, helping people in need. Although the concept (of a dog saving the day) was perhaps similar to that of Lassie, the Littlest Hobo’s destiny was to befriend those who apparently needed help. Despite the attempts of the many people whom he helped to adopt him, he appeared to prefer to be on his own, and would head off by himself at the end of each episode.

‘Never actually named on-screen, the dog is often referred to by the name Hobo or by the names given by temporary human companions. Hobo’s background is also unexplained on-screen. His origins, motivation and ultimate destination are also never explained.

‘Although some characters appeared in more than one episode, the only constant was the Littlest Hobo himself.’

My American friends, you missed out on so much! And all because you didn’t get Canadian imports 😉

A Different Perspective

It’s blog voting season and I have written an entry in an expat competition about what’s super-dooper about my host country (that’ll be America). This is my entry.

It would be terribly nice of you if you would be so kind as to vote for my entry, like it and tweet it and wot not and leave a lovely comment.

Cheers America!

Thanks ever so blog readers! 🙂