Mister Ed (1961-1966)

Status: Ended

Airdate: 1961-01-05

Runtime: 30 minutes

Rating(s): 7.1

Genre(s): Comedy

Language(s): English

Mister Ed is an American television situation comedy produced by Filmways that first 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 fictional talking horse, originally appearing in short stories by Walter R. Brooks. The stars of the show were Mister Ed, a palomino horse who could "talk", played by gelding Bamboo Harvester and voiced by former Western star Allan Lane, and his owner, an eccentric and enormously klutzy, yet friendly, architect named Wilbur Post. 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. Other running jokes centered on Wilbur's character being a huge klutz and inadvertently causing harm to himself or 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". Lubin, a friend of Mae West, scored a coup by persuading the screen icon to guest star in one episode. In the United States, reruns aired on Nick at Nite from March 3, 1986, to February 1, 1993. Sister station TV Land also reran the show from 1996–98 and again from 2003-06. The series is currently broadcast every morning on This TV, along with Highway Patrol, and The Patty Duke Show. It is also currently broadcast on Hallmark Movie Channel. As of January 1, 2011, the first two seasons of the show are available on Hulu.