Mister Ed

Mister Ed was a popular US television comedy show that aired on CBS from 1961 to 1966. The stars of the show were Mister Ed (Bamboo Harvester) an intelligent talking palomino American Saddlebred, and his owner, architect Wilbur Post (played by Alan Young). The comedy came from Mister Ed talking only to Wilbur.

The other main characters in the show were Wilbur's tolerant wife Carol (Connie Hines) and their neighbours the Addisons (Larry Keating and Edna Skinner) until 1963 and then the Kirkwoods (Leon Ames and Florence MacMichael).

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 unaired pilot was called The Wonderful World of Wilbur Pope; reworked, it was first broadcast in January 1961 as a syndicated program before being acquired by CBS and aired by that network beginning in October. The 143rd and last episode was shown on September 4, 1966.

Mister Ed was voiced by Allan Lane (speaking) and Sheldon Allman (singing). Bamboo Harvester was the name of the gelding that portrayed Mister Ed. This horse, born in California in 1949, died in 1970 and was buried north of Tahlequah, Oklahoma. He was trained for the show by Les Hilton. Another horse that had played Mister Ed in some publicity work died in 1979. Allan ("Rocky") Lane remained anonymous as the voice of Mister Ed, and was listed on the show as "an actor who prefers to remain nameless".

A remake was planned for the Fox network, with Sherman Hemsley as the voice of Mr. Ed, David Alan Besche as Wilbur, and Sherilyn Fenn as Carol. However, the show's writer and producer, Drake Sather, committed suicide in March of 2004. The pilot was filmed, but has yet to be picked up by FOX.

The theme song was written and sung by Jay 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!

Sponsorship

The series was sponsored from 1961 to 1963 by Studebaker Corporation, a now defunct American auto company. Studebaker cars were featured prominently in the show during this period. The Post are shown owning a 1962 Studebaker Lark convertible, and the company used publicity shots featuring the Posts and Mister Ed with their product. The Addisons are shown owning a 1963 Studebaker Avanti.

\"Mister Ed was a zebra\" hoax

In the 1990s, a parody of typical urban legends said that 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. The story frequently pops up as a "little-known fact," but is not true. Mr Ed was really an American Saddlebred horse. #redirect

External links

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.