MISTER ED

'''Mister Ed''' is an American television situation comedy.
It first aired as a syndicated program on January 5, 1961 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, occurring before the premiere of ''Batman'', five years later.
The stars of the show are Mister Ed, an intelligent talking palomino American Saddlebred ("played" by gelding Bamboo Harvester), and his owner, architect Wilbur Post (played by Alan Young). Much of the program's humor stemmed from the fact Mister Ed would speak only to Wilbur. According to the show's producer,
Arthur Lubin, Young was chosen because "he seemed like a guy a horse
would talk to." Lubin, a personal friend of Mae West, scored a coup
and persuaded the legendary screen icon to guest star in one episode.

Contents

Beginnings

Ed

Death

Other characters

Theme song

Sponsorship

Remake

The peanut butter legend

"Mister Ed was a zebra" hoax

Housing development

Appearences in other media

DVD Releases

References

External links

Beginnings

The show was derived from the short story "Ed Takes the Pledge" by Walter R. Brooks, who 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.

Ed

Mister Ed was voiced by character actor 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 trained for the show by Les Hilton. Lane remained anonymous as the voice of Mister Ed, and the show's producers would refer to him only as "an actor who prefers to remain nameless". The credits listed Mister Ed as playing "Himself."

Death

By the time Mister Ed reached the age of 19 he was suffering from a broken leg and a variety of health problems, and in 1970 he was quietly put to sleep with no publicity. A horse that died in Oklahoma in 1979 (widely reported to have been Mister Ed, including sardonic comments on ''Saturday Night Live's'' ''faux'' news segment) was in fact an animal that once posed as Ed for publicity photos used by the production company ltd.

Other characters

The other main characters in the show were Wilbur's tolerant wife Carol (Connie Hines) and their neighbors the Addisons (Larry Keating and Edna Skinner) until 1963 (upon Larry Keating's death that year) and then the Kirkwoods (Leon Ames and Florence MacMichael).
For the final season, the show focused strictly on the home life of the Posts, which was made a little more interesting with Carol's father moving in at the beginning of the season.

Theme song

The theme song was written by the songwriting team of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans and sung, for the show, by Livingston.

A horse is a horse

Of course, of course

And no one can talk to a horse of course —

That is of course unless the horse

Is the famous Mister Ed.


Go right to the source and ask the horse —

He'll give you the answer that you'll endorse

He's always on a steady course

Talk to Mister Ed!


People yakity-yak a streak

And waste your time of day,

But Mister Ed will never speak

Unless he has something to say!


A horse is a horse

Of course, of course

And this one will talk 'till his voice is hoarse

You never heard of a talking horse?

Well listen to this:

"I am Mister ED!"

According to an urban legend when the theme song for Mister Ed was played backwards the words "''Someone sung the song for Satan''" and "''the source is Satan''" could be clearly heard. These phrases are heard by some listeners due to the phenomenon called phonetic reversal.^[1]

Sponsorship

The series was sponsored from 1961 to 1963 by Studebaker-Packard Corporation/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.

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, and Sherilyn Fenn as Carol. The pilot was filmed, but was not picked up by FOX. The show's writer and producer, Drake Sather, had 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.^[2] Alan Young, in an interview 7th 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 trainers cue. Mr. Ed was so well trained that the insert would be ignored until the required cue.
Careful examination of Mister Ed footage shows indisputable evidence 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. Alan 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 clear that the bit was also used when Ed was standing still and merely had to talk.
Another version was offered by the comedian George Burns, who was involved in Mister Ed on a production basis. He stated in an interview that the horse's lips were made to move by electric current; according to him, Mr. Ed's mouth muscles were wired in such a way that a series of small shocks at the appropriate moments would cause him to appear to mimic speech movements.

"Mister Ed was a zebra" hoax

In the 1990s, a parody of typical urban legends, created on purpose by the specialized site Snopes.com, said Mr. Ed was actually a zebra, not a horse, and was either painted a solid color for the series or else looked like a horse because of shortcomings of early black-and-white television.^[3] The story frequently pops up as a "little-known fact," but is not true. Snopes had created the story as part of an exercise meant to encourage skepticism of "respected" sources.^[4]

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.

Appearences in other media

★ In the American version of ''Tekkaman Blade'', superhero Blade gets a flying, talking robot ultimately named Pegas--short for Pegasus. Blade says, "Its a good thing you fly as well as you talk. They could have called you Mr. Ed."

DVD Releases

MGM Home Video has 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, it is unknown if any more volumes will be 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.

References

1. Miller, Rex: "Stone Shadow", page 57. New American Library, 1989
2. Interview with Alan Young
3. Horse of a Different Color — Snopes.com — "Claim: Mister Ed, the talking equine of television fame, was a horse."
4. False Authority - Snopes.com

External links

★

★

★ Urban legends page explaining "zebra" hoax

★ How did they get Mr. Ed to talk? from the Straight Dope

★ Mister Ed Online

★ Mister Ed at TV Acres