02/12/2023
57 years ago today, February 6, 1966, the final episode of Mister Ed aired. It is an American television sitcom produced by Filmways that aired in syndication from January 5 to July 2, 1961, and then on CBS from October 1, 1961, to February 6, 1966. The show's title character is a talking horse which originally appeared 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. All 143 episodes were filmed in black and white.
The original, unaired pilot for the series was titled "Wilbur Pope and Mister Ed" and featured an unrelated instrumental big-band theme (with footage of Studebaker Hawk automobiles being driven underneath the opening credits). This pilot, which used a script that was nearly identical to that which would be used on the series premiere, used a totally different cast. Scott McKay played the title part of Wilbur Pope (surname later changed to "Post" prior to the series making it to air) and Sandra White played the role of Wilbur's wife.
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 (1949–1970), 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.
Mister Ed's producers left the talents that performed the title role uncredited. The show's credits listed Mister Ed as being played only by "Himself."
The voice actor for Ed's spoken lines was Allan "Rocky" Lane, a former B-movie cowboy star. Sheldon Allman provided Ed's singing voice in episodes; his solo line ("I'm Mister Ed") at the close of the show's theme song was provided by its composer, Jay Livingston. Allan Lane was alluded to by the producers only as "an actor who prefers to remain nameless." After the show became a hit, Lane campaigned the producers for screen credit but accepted a raise in salary instead.
The horse Bamboo Harvester portrayed Ed throughout the run. Ed's stablemate, a quarter horse named Pumpkin, also served as Bamboo Harvester's stunt double for the show. This horse later appeared again in the television series Green Acres.
Bamboo Harvester's trainer was Les Hilton. To create the impression that Ed was having a conversation, Hilton initially used a thread technique he had employed for Lubin's earlier Mule films; in time, though, this became unnecessary. As actor Alan Young recounted: "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."
Reports circulated during and after the show's run that the talking effect was achieved by crew members applying peanut butter to the horse's gums. Alan Young said in later interviews that he invented the story. "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."
Young added that Bamboo Harvester saw trainer Les Hilton as the disciplinarian father figure. When scolded by Hilton for missing a cue, the horse would move to Young for comfort, treating the actor as a mother figure. Hilton told Young this was a positive development.
There are conflicting stories involving of the death of Bamboo Harvester, the horse that played Mister Ed.
Alan Young said that he had frequently visited Harvester in retirement. He states that the horse died inadvertently from a tranquilizer, administered while he was in a stable on Sparks Street in Burbank, California, where he lived with his trainer Lester Hilton. Young says Hilton was out of town visiting relatives, and a temporary caregiver might have seen Bamboo Harvester rolling on the ground, struggling to get up. Young said Harvester was a heavy horse, and he was not always strong enough to get back on his feet without struggling. He suggests that the caregiver thought the horse was in distress, administered a tranquilizer and, for unknown reasons, the horse died within hours. The remains were cremated and scattered by Hilton in the Los Angeles area at a spot known only to him.
Another story claims that Bamboo Harvester, suffering from age-related ailments, was euthanized in 1970 with no publicity and buried at Snodgrass Farm in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
A third story claims that after Mister Ed, Bamboo Harvester's health was failing. He suffered from arthritis and kidney problems, and had to be euthanized at the age of 19.
A different horse who died in Oklahoma in February 1979 was widely thought to be Bamboo Harvester, but this horse was, in fact, a horse that posed for the still pictures of Mister Ed used by the production company for the show's press kits. The death of this horse, unofficially known as "Mister Ed," led to death reports in the mainstream press, as well as a mock interview of the grieving Mrs. Ed on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update segment.
