Well they approved "Saved By The Bell" for E/I, so I can totally see "Lassie" as qualifying. (Supposedly the "Saved" thing is because it shows teenagers resolving moral and ethic issues.)
Yeah but that criteria everything from "Father Knows Best" to the Norman Lear sitcoms could qualify as E/I. (Then again, I heard of somebody mentioning he watched "All in the Family" episodes in AP History class!)Once upon a time children could learn from the lessons Timmy learned. There was usually a moral to the story, in addition to forming character.
If it was on Smile of a Child, that network has a blanket E/I icon on all shows; in fact TBN could call anything it wants E/I on the main channel and just not put it in the Kidvid report because with SoAC, even on their new over-the-air split channel with JUCE to accomodate the Spanglish Salsa, TBN far exceeds FCC regulations for E/I content thanks to SoAC also taking the E/I loads for The Church Channel and Enlace.
I think Road Runner cartoons should be classified E/I because they teach kids not to create dumb Rube Goldberg-type traps like Wile E. Coyote.
I've seen every version of "Lassie" and in every incarnation the collie is doing more than saving someone down the well, even without the owners. They even had Lassie suffer from amnesia in one episode. But given that this is a family friendly show, this would qualify as a E/I program.
So let's leave off the E/I wart. Lassie, the classic CBS series (and its predecessor) isn't eligible.