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. Mister Ed was the first series ever to debut as a midseason replacement.
The stars of the show are Mister Ed, an intelligent palomino American Saddlebred who could talk ("played" by gelding Bamboo Harvester and voiced by Allan Lane), and his owner, an eccentric and enormously klutzy architect named Wilbur Post (portrayed by Alan Young). Much of the program's humor stemmed from the fact Mister Ed would speak only to Wilbur, as well as Ed's notoriety as a troublemaker. 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."[2] Lubin, a friend of Mae West, scored a coup by persuading the screen icon to guest star in one episode.
Beginnings
The show was derived from short stories by Walter R. Brooks, including Ed Takes the Pledge. Brooks is otherwise known for the Freddy the Pig series of children's novels, which likewise feature talking animals who interact with humans.
The concept of the show was similar to Francis the Talking Mule, with the equine normally talking only to one person (Wilbur), and thus both helping and frustrating its owner.
Mister Ed
The horse that played Mister Ed for the pilot episode was a chestnut gelding.
Mister Ed (1949-1970) 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 coach 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 real name was Bamboo Harvester. Ed's stablemate, a quarter horse named Pumpkin, who was later to appear in the television series Green Acres, was also Ed's stunt double in the show.
Death
There are conflicting stories involving of the death of Mr. Ed.
One version is by 1968 the horse playing Mister Ed was suffering from a variety of health problems. In 1970 he was euthanized with no publicity, and buried at Snodgrass Farm in Oklahoma.[3]
A second story, which also occurs in Oklahoma, is a horse that died in Oklahoma in February 1979 who was widely thought to be Mister Ed, (it was in fact another horse that posed for the still pictures used by the production company for the show's press kits. See Alan Young's comments below). After Bamboo Harvester's death in 1970 this horse was unofficially known as Mister Ed which led to him being reported as such (including sardonic comments on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update) following his own death.[4]
A third version is quoted by Alan Young in his book "Mr. Ed and Me" (1994,St. Martins Press, New York, ISBN 0-312-11852-X). Young wrote in his book that he'd frequently visit his former "co-star" in retirement. He states that Mr. Ed died from an inadvertent tranquilizer administered while he was "in retirement" in a stable in Burbank, California where he lived with his trainer Lester Hilton. Young says Hilton was out of town visiting relatives and a temporary care giver might have seen Ed rolling on the ground, struggling to get up. Young said Ed was a heavy horse and he wasn't always strong enough for him to get back on his feet without struggling. The theory is the care giver thought the horse was in distress and administered a tranquilizer and for unknown reason, the horse died within hours. The remains were creamated and scattered by Hilton in the Los Angeles area at a spot known only to him.
Young says when the Oklahoma horse death story came out in 1979, he knew it wasn't the real Mr. Ed, but didn't have the heart to "shatter their illusions" that the horse being memorialized wasn't the real Mr. Ed. He believes it was a horse used for early publicity photos. [5]
The fact that the death of this 'Mister Ed' came less than a year after the last Triple Crown winner in 1978 has led some to speculate that this began "The Curse Of Mister Ed", during which no horse (or jockey) has managed to win the Triple Crown.
Other characters
The other main characters in the show were Wilbur's tolerant but domineering wife, Carol (Connie Hines); and their neighbors the Addisons, Roger (Larry Keating) and Kay (Edna Skinner) until 1963 (upon Larry Keating's death that year) and then the Kirkwoods, Gordon (Leon Ames) and Winnie (Florence MacMichael). In 1963, the child actor Darby Hinton, cast thereafter as Israel Boone on NBC's Daniel Boone, guest starred as Rocky in the episode "Getting Ed's Goat". Jack Albertson appeared occasionally from 1961 to 1963 as Kay Addison's older brother Paul Fenton.
For the final season, the show focused strictly on the home life of the Posts, which was made more interesting when Carol's grumpy and uptight father, Mr. Higgins (Barry Kelly), who appeared occasionally through the entire series, apparently moved in with Wilbur and Carol during the final episodes, and who never stopped loathing Wilbur since Wilbur's quirky eccentricity always clashed with the emotionless and uptight personality of Carol's barren father who never stopped trying to persuade Carol to leave Wilbur, whom he referred to as a "kook" because of his klutziness.
Although Connie Hines retired from acting a few years after the show's cancellation in 1966, she and Alan Young still make public appearances together.[6]
Theme song
The theme song was written by the songwriting team of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans and sung, for the show, by Livingston, who was not the first choice. Only the music was used to open the first six episodes, but when a professional singer could not be found, Livingston agreed to sing the lyrics, because the producers were so pleased with his vocals, and he was never replaced. [7]
Sponsorship
The series was sponsored from 1961 to 1963 by Studebaker Corporation, a now-defunct American car manufacturer. 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. The Addisons are shown owning a 1963 Avanti. Ford Motor Company provided the vehicles starting at the beginning of 1965. It is also interesting to note that, in the first episode ever aired, the Posts were driving a 1961 Studebaker Lark.
Remake
In 2004, a remake was planned for the Fox network, with Sherman Hemsley as the voice of Mister Ed, David Alan Basche as Wilbur, Sherilyn Fenn as Carol, and Sara Paxton. 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.
The peanut butter legend
It is often said the crew was able to get Mister Ed to move his mouth by applying peanut butter to his gums in order for him to try to remove it by moving his lips. However, Alan Young admitted in 2004 that he had started that story himself, and explaining the actual method used.[8] Young, in an interview 7 April 2007 on radio station 3AW, Melbourne, Australia, again admitted that a loose piece of Nylon was inserted under Mr. Ed's lip which the horse attempted to remove on his trainer's cue. Mr. Ed was so well trained that the insert would be ignored until the required cue.
Examination of Mister Ed footage shows that the "marionette theory" (i.e., Ed's handler pulled strings to make him talk) was at work at least some of the time. Excerpts exist from a few episodes where the lighting and camera angle reveal a visible nylon "bit" being pulled for each word Ed spoke.[citation needed] Young denied this occurred in the radio interview mentioned in the above paragraph. Some may claim a nylon bit was needed in order to have Ed turn his head or perform some other movement without his trainer having to be in the camera shot, but the evidence is that the bit was also used when Ed was standing still and merely had to talk. Young finally admitted during his interview for the Archive of American Television that a string was pulled to make Ed talk, noting that "this is for the Archive, right?" before explaining that he had used the peanut butter fable for years in radio interviews instead of telling the truth.
Cast
Main cast:
Allan Lane (voice only) ... Mister Ed
Alan Young ... Wilbur Post
Connie Hines ... Carol Post
Supporting Cast:
Larry Keating ... Roger Addison (1961-1963); Seasons 1-3
Edna Skinner ... Kay Addison (1961-1963); Seasons 1-4
Leon Ames ... Gordon Kirkwood (1963-1965); Seasons 4-5
Florence MacMichael ... Winnie Kirkwood (1963-1965); Seasons 4-5
Jack Albertson ... Paul Fenton (occasionally 1961-1963); Seasons 2-4
Barry Kelly ... Carol's Father, Mr. Higgins (occasionally 1962-1966)
Housing development
Recent work has been done by a master builder in Oklahoma to create a community built around the supposed final resting place (although that fact is disputable) of Mr. Ed. It is intended to be themed to the style of the show and its period.
Appearances in other media
- In the American version of Tekkaman Blade, superhero Blade/Slade is given a flying, talking robot named Pegas after Pegasus, the flying horse of greek myth that carried the hero Bellerophon on its back. When Pegas transforms into a vehicle, Blade/Slade rides it and says, "It's a good thing you fly as well as you talk. They could have called you Mr. Ed."
- In the 1989 movie UHF, one of the sections with Philo has the theme playing in the background.
- Histeria! featured a recurring character in the form of a talking horse who spoke very much like Mr. Ed. One episode, "20th Century Presidents", also a theme song parodying that of Mr. Ed.
- The Beastie Boys use a sample of Mr. Ed's voice in their song Time To Get Ill from the album Licensed to Ill.
- In the first Dr. Dolittle movie with Eddie Murphy, some men are watching Mr. Ed and talking about the peanut butter myth.
- Mister Ed was referenced in Mortal Kombat Annihilation as Jax says "I'll Take on Mister Ed" referring to Motaro.
- In British TV Sketch show Harry Enfield's Television Programme featured a Grotesque character called Mr Dead. This was a parody of Mister Ed. 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.
- A Tribute Music CD called Mister Ed Unplugged [1] has recently been released. This CD features 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 the late Sheldon Allman, who was also the original singing voice of Mister Ed.
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 released entitled Mister Ed's Barnyard Favorites on July 26, 2005 which contains the first eight episodes featured on Volume One.
Judging by the pattern of other CBS and Filmways programs of the era, it is possible that some episodes from the early seasons may have had their copyrights lapsed, and thus have fallen in the public domain. The Internet Archive (archive.org) has the episode entitled "Ed the Beneficiary".
On October 6, 2009, Shout! Factory will release the complete first season of Mister Ed on DVD in Region 1. [2]
| DVD Name |
Ep # |
Release Date |
| The Complete First Season |
26 |
October 6, 2009 |
See also
Other films with talking horses include Hot to Trot (1988) and Ready to Run (2002). The names of the talking horses were Don and Thunder Jam (TJ) respectively.
References
- ^ The New York Times Encyclopedia of Television by Les Brown (Times Books, a division of Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Company, Inc., 1977), ISBN 0-8129-0721-3, p. 277
- ^ Trivia for Mr. Ed (1961), IMDB, accessed December 4, 2008
- ^ [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1551 Find a Grave
- ^ Biography of Bamboo Harvester
- ^ "Mr. Ed and Me" 1994,St. Martins Press, New York, ISBN 0-312-11852-X, Pgs. 181-3
- ^ http://www.mister-ed.tv/Photo%20Gallery.htm
- ^ Mister Ed's CyberStable-Mister Ed-Theme Song
- ^ Interview with Alan Young
External links
