Stamps honor early TV shows

One of America’s most revered canines was among 20 television icons that came out of retirement recently to be honored on the U.S. Postal Service’s "Early TV Memories" 44-cent commemorative first-class stamp sheet. Lassie participated in the first-day-of-issue dedication ceremony at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in North Hollywood.

Available nationwide now, all 50 million stamps, available in sheets of 20, commemorate "Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet;" "Alfred Hitchcock Presents;" "The Dinah Shore Show;" "Dragnet;" "The Ed Sullivan Show;" "The George Burns & Gracie Allen Show;" "Hopalong Cassidy;" "The Honeymooners;" "Howdy Doody;" "I Love Lucy;" "Kukla, Fran and Ollie;" "Lassie;" "The Lone Ranger; " "Perry Mason; " "The Phil Silvers Show; " "The Red Skelton Show;" "Texaco Star Theater;" "The Tonight Show;" "The Twilight Zone;" and, "You Bet Your Life."

Art director Carl Herrman of North Las Vegas, Nev., designed the stamps and worked with twenty2product, a San Francisco-based studio, to give the archival photos used in the stamp art a suitably “retro” look.