Mister Ed

Mister Ed
Colorized Mister Ed title
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Walter R. Brooks
Directed by	Justus Addiss Rodney Amateau Arthur Lubin John Rich Ira Stewart Alan Young
Starring	Alan Young Connie Hines Bamboo Harvester
Voices of	Allan "Rocky" Lane
Theme music composer	Ray Evans Jay Livingston
Opening theme	"Mister Ed" by Jay Livingston
Composer(s)	Raoul Krushaar Jack Cookerly Marlin Skiles Dave Kahn
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	143 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Al Simon
Producer(s)	Arthur Lubin
Cinematography	Archie R. Dalzell Maury Gertsman
Running time	28 mins.
Production company(s)	The Mister Ed Company
Distributor	Filmways Television MGM Television
Broadcast
Original channel	Syndication (1961) CBS (1961–66)
Original run	January 5, 1961 – February 6, 1966
Chronology
Related shows	Mister Ed (2004)

Mister Ed is an American television situation comedy produced by Filmways^[1] that first aired in syndication from January 5 to July 2, 1961, and then on CBS from October 1, 1961, to February 6, 1966.^[2] The show's title character is a fictional talking horse, originally appearing in short stories by Walter R. Brooks.

Mister Ed is one of the few series to debut in syndication and be picked up by a major network for prime time.^[2]

Beginnings

The show was derived from a series of short stories by Walter R. Brooks, which began with The Talking Horse in the September 18, 1937, issue of Liberty.^[3] Brooks is otherwise known for the Freddy the Pig series of children's novels, which likewise feature talking animals who interact with humans. Lubin's secretary, Sonia Chernus, is credited as having developed the format for television, by having introduced the Brooks stories to Lubin himself.

The concept of the show is similar to Francis the Talking Mule, with the equine normally talking only to one person (Wilbur), and thus both helping and frustrating its owner. The Francis movies were directed by Arthur Lubin, who performed the same duty on Mister Ed.^[4]

Synopsis

The stars of the show are Mister Ed, a palomino who can talk, played by gelding Bamboo Harvester and voiced by former Western star Allan Lane and his owner, an eccentric and often klutzy, yet friendly, architect named Wilbur Post (Alan Young). Much of the program's humor stems from the fact Mister Ed will speak only to Wilbur, as well as Ed's notoriety as a troublemaker. Other running jokes center on Wilbur being accident prone and inadvertently causing harm to himself and others. According to the show's producer, Arthur Lubin, Young was chosen as the lead character because he "just seemed like the sort of guy a horse would talk to".^[4]

The other main character throughout the series is Wilbur's generally tolerant young wife, Carol (Connie Hines). The Posts also have two sets of neighbors, to whom Ed delights in making Wilbur appear as eccentric as possible. They included the Addisons, Roger (Larry Keating) and his wife Kay (Edna Skinner), who both appeared from the pilot episode until Keating's death in 1963; thereafter, Skinner continued appearing as Kay alone, without mention of Roger's absence, until the neighbors were recast. During this period, Kay's brother Paul Fenton (Jack Albertson), who had made occasional appearances before, appears. Following the Addisons, the Posts' new neighbors were Col. Gordon Kirkwood, USAF (Ret.), portrayed by Leon Ames, Wilbur's former commanding officer, and his wife Winnie (Florence MacMichael). They appeared on the series from 1963 to 1965.^[2] In the final season, the Kirkwoods were phased out, while Carol's grumpy and uptight father, Mr. Higgins (Barry Kelley), who appeared occasionally throughout the entire series, apparently moved in with Wilbur and Carol during the final episodes. Mr. Higgins loathes Wilbur since Wilbur's quirky eccentricity always clashes with his own emotionless and uptight personality. Carol's father never stops trying to persuade her to divorce Wilbur, who he often refers to as a "kook" because of Wilbur's clumsiness. Alan Young performed double-duty during the final season of the series, also directing nearly all episodes.

Ed's ability to talk is never explained or, indeed, even much contemplated on the show. In the first episode, when Wilbur expresses an inability to understand the situation, Ed offers the show's only remark on the subject: "Don't try. It's bigger than both of us!"

Cast

Main cast

• Allan Lane as Mister Ed (voice only)
• Alan Young as Wilbur Post
• Connie Hines as Carol Post
• Bamboo Harvester as Mister Ed

Supporting cast

• Larry Keating as Roger Addison (1961–63); Seasons 1–3
• Edna Skinner as Kay Addison (1961–63); Seasons 1–4
• Leon Ames as Gordon Kirkwood (1963–65); Seasons 4–5
• Florence MacMichael as Winnie Kirkwood (1963–65); Seasons 4–5
• Jack Albertson as Paul Fenton (occasionally 1961–63); Seasons 2–4
• Barry Kelley as Carol's Father, Mr. Higgins (occasionally 1962–65, recurring 1965-66)

Guest stars

Several celebrity guest stars appeared as themselves during the course of the series.

• Mae West
• Clint Eastwood
• George Burns
• Zsa Zsa Gabor
• Leo Durocher
• Jon Provost

Episodes

Production notes

The first horse that played Mister Ed for the first, unaired pilot episode was a chestnut gelding. The horse proved to be unruly and difficult to work with and was replaced with the horse named Bamboo Harvester (1949–70), a crossbred gelding of American Saddlebred, Arabian and grade ancestry. A second pilot episode was filmed and Bamboo Harvester remained with the series until its cancellation.

Making Ed "talk"

Mister Ed was voiced by ex-B-movie cowboy star Allan "Rocky" Lane (speaking) and Sheldon Allman (singing, except his line in the theme song, which was sung by its composer, Jay Livingston).

Ed was voice-trained for the show by Les Hilton. Lane remained anonymous as the voice of Mister Ed, and the show's producers referred to him only as "an actor who prefers to remain nameless," though once the show became a hit, Lane campaigned the producers for credit, which he never received. The credits listed Mister Ed as playing "himself"; however, his family tree name was Bamboo Harvester. Ed's stablemate, a quarterhorse named Pumpkin, who was later to appear in the television series Green Acres, was also Ed's stunt double in the show.

During and after the run of the series, there were reports that crew members made Mister Ed's mouth move to appear as if he were talking by applying peanut butter to his gums in order for him to try to remove it by moving his lips. However, Alan Young said in 2004 that this was untrue, and that he had started this story himself.^[5] In another interview, Young said, "Al Simon and Arthur Lubin, the producers, suggested we keep the method [of making the horse appear to talk] a secret because they thought kids would be disappointed if they found out the technical details of how it was done, so I made up the peanut butter story, and everyone bought it. It was initially done by putting a piece of nylon thread in his mouth. But Ed actually learned to move his lips on cue when the trainer touched his hoof. In fact, he soon learned to do it when I stopped talking during a scene! Ed was very smart."^[6]

Young added that Bamboo Harvester (Mister Ed) saw the trainer as the disciplinarian, or father figure, and when scolded for missing a cue, would go to Young for comfort, like a mother figure, which Les Hilton said was a good thing.^[7]

Theme song

The theme song, titled "Mister Ed", was written by the songwriting team of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans and sung by Livingston. However, they took a theme of the German Romantic era composer Emile Waldteufel as the basis of their song ... After using only the music to open the first seven episodes, a decision was made to replace the instrumental-only version with one containing the lyrics. Livingston agreed to sing it himself, at least until a professional singer could be found; however, the producers liked the songwriter's vocals and kept them on the broadcast.

In May 1986, Jim Brown, a preacher from South Point, Ohio, claimed that the Mister Ed theme song contains "satanic messages" if played in reverse. Brown and his colleague Greg Hudson held religious seminars covering a variety of religious topics but also focused on messages that they claimed exist in secular music. At one such seminar held for teenagers in Ironton, Ohio, Brown and Hudson said that after listening to "Mister Ed" on the album Television's Greatest Hits in reverse, the phrases "Someone sung this song for Satan" and "the source is Satan" were audible. After the seminar, the teenagers who attended burned over 300 records and cassettes with offending lyrics and alleged satanic messages. While the teens did not burn a copy of Television's Greatest Hits, Brown stated that, "Satan can be an influence whether they [the "Mister Ed" songwriters] know it or not. We don't think they did it on purpose and we're not getting down on Mr. Ed."^[8]

Sponsorship

The series was sponsored from 1961-63 by Studebaker-Packard Corporation and Studebaker Corporation.^[9] Studebakers were featured prominently in the show during this period. The Posts are shown owning a 1962 Lark convertible, and the company used publicity shots featuring the Posts and Mister Ed with their product (various cast members also appeared in "integrated commercials" for Lark at the end of the program). When another Lark convertible served as the official pace car at the 1962 Indianapolis 500, Connie Hines attended the race as part of the promotion.

The Ford Motor Company provided the vehicles starting at the beginning of 1965.

DVD releases

MGM Home Entertainment released two Best-of collections of Mister Ed on DVD in Region 1. Volume 1 (released January 13, 2004) contains 21 episodes and Volume 2 (released March 8, 2005) contains 20 episodes. Due to poor sales, further volumes were not released.

MGM also released a single-disc release entitled Mister Ed's Barnyard Favorites on July 26, 2005 which contains the first eight episodes featured on Volume One.

Shout! Factory announced in June 2009 that they had acquired the rights to release Mister Ed on DVD, and subsequently released the first five seasons on DVD in Region 1 in the U.S. Notably, Seasons 4 and 5 are not available outside of the continental U.S.

Syndicated versions of eight episodes were utilized for Season One DVD release. All other DVD releases contain unedited, full-length versions.^[10]

♦- Shout! Factory select title, sold exclusively through Shout's online store

Remakes

In 2004, a remake was planned for the Fox network, with Sherman Hemsley as the voice of Mister Ed, David Alan Basche as Wilbur, and Sherilyn Fenn as Carol.^[13] The pilot was filmed, but was not picked up by Fox. The show's writer and producer, Drake Sather, committed suicide shortly before the pilot's completion.

In 2012, Waterman Entertainment announced they were developing a new feature film based on Mister Ed.^[14]

Legacy

A racehorse named after the character in the television show took part in the 1994 Grand National steeplechase at Aintree, England, but did not complete the course.

In 2007, it was reported that a housing developer intended to create a community near Tahlequah, Oklahoma built around the supposed final resting place of Mister Ed (who died in 1970). It is intended to be themed to the style of the show and its period.^[15]

In popular culture

• Histeria! featured a recurring character in the form of a talking horse who spoke like Mister Ed: in the episode "20th Century Presidents," a parody of the theme song is featured.
• The Beastie Boys use a sample of Mister Ed's voice in their song "Time To Get Ill" from the 1987 album Licensed to Ill.
• The song "Mr. Klaw" by They Might Be Giants features lyrics based on those of the show's theme. The song appeared on the album Miscellaneous T.^[16]
• "Now That I Am Dead" by French Frith Kaiser Thompson features a Mister Ed impersonation on the line "I Am Mister Dead."
• British sketch comedy show Harry Enfield's Television Programme featured a Grotesque character called "Mister Dead," a talking human corpse who travels around with his living friend and often helps him get out of troublesome situations, such as in one sketch where he avoids a speeding ticket by pretending to rush Mister Dead to the mortuary.
• In the episode of the same name of Mr. Show, David Cross finds a "talking junkie named Mister Junkie," in a sketch that parodies Mister Ed, including a parody of the theme song.
• A tribute music CD called Mister Ed Unplugged was released, featuring new recordings of the "Theme From Mister Ed" and longer versions of "The Pretty Little Filly" and "Empty Feedbag Blues," which were both written by Sheldon Allman, the original singing voice of Mister Ed.
• Dell Comics published Mister Ed in Four Color #1295^[17]
• In the sitcom Dinosaurs, one of Earl Sinclair's favorite show is "Mister Ugh", a parody of Mister Ed featuring a caveman instead of a horse.
• In the videogame Dragon Quest IV for the Nintendo DS, there is a town where many NPCs with names reminiscent of famous people can be. The town features a talking horse named Mr. Ned.
• In an episode of Green Acres, Mr. Haney tries to sell a talking horse named "Mr. Fred" to Mrs. Douglas.
• In the Back at the Barnyard episode "Saving Mrs. Beady", Mister Ed was the last animal to jump into the hospital Mrs. Beady was in, but then looks at her and says "Wait a minute, you're not Aunt Mabel." He appears again later in the episode as Dr. Furtwangler's 4:00 patient.
• Talking horses are featured in other live action films such as Hot to Trot, Ready to Run and the Monkees' Head.
• In an episode of All in the Family in which Mike and Gloria feed the Bunkers horse meat without telling them, they finally cave in and tell Edith about it and she exclaims "I keep thinking about Mr. Ed!"
• A sketch from Chappelle's Show parodying the documentary series Frontline (U.S. TV series) "profiles" racist Hollywood animals, one of which was Mister Ed.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mister Ed.

• Mister Ed at the Internet Movie Database
• Mister Ed at TV.com
• A film clip "Ed the Beneficiary" is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• A film clip "Wilbur Gets The Message... About Payroll Savings!" is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• How did they get Mr. Ed to talk? from the Straight Dope
• Mister Ed at TV Acres
• Interview with Alan Young, October 17, 2007
• DVD review of Complete Season 1 and production history
• "Photo of Mr. Ed and director Arthur Lubin". June 7, 2013. 
• Mister Ed at the Internet Movie Database (2004 remake)