MISTER ED (TV SERIES) - DVD review

The Sixties are known as the decade of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. But it was also the decade of silly novelty sitcoms. There were shows about flying nuns, talking cars, hillbillies in Beverly Hills, Manhattanites in the country, a real estate agent with a family of chimps, monster families, martian houseguests, housewife witches, and beautiful genies. And while this sitcom about a talking horse didn't earn any Emmy nominations or crack the Nielsen Top-30, "Mister Ed" did win a Golden Globe for Best TV Show-Comedy in 1963. It's also become a minor classic, especially in reruns.

During it's hey-day (or rather, hay-day), "Mister Ed" was a silly as sitcoms get, right from the get-go. In the opening episode we're introduced to two newlyweds: Architect Wilbur Post (Alan Young) and his stay-at-home wife, Carol (Connie Hines). They buy a home in the country at which a horse was left behind by previous renters who "had to leave in a hurry," explains neighbor Roger Addison (Larry Keating). But there's no explaining the talking horse, or the fact that Ed (the name the horse gives himself) chooses to talk only to Wilbur because he says Wilbur's the only human worth talking to. While early episodes had Wilbur trying to get others to hear his horse speak, the show soon settled into an equine version of a private joke, with Mister Ed and Wilbur functioning as a comedy team as they traded asides while the rest of their sitcom world was clueless. Most of the early plots involved situations in which Wilbur's interest in his horse appeared to the outside world as a kind of strange obsession or fetish, with Ed always put in some minor jeopardy and Wilbur feeling guilty or pained. But as the season wore on, the writers focused more on Ed, with the titles telling it all: Ed does this and Ed does that. The horse was the star, and whatever could happen to a talking horse DID . . . for six seasons, in fact--143 episodes.

Shout! Factory really did a nice job of packaging the first complete season for fans. Though the company's boilerplate intro rolls across the screen with all the subtlety of screams in a theater (come on guys, turn down the volume), and though the sound varies throughout--usually softer than you'd wish--the production values are generally quite good, and fans and newcomers to the show will find that nothing gets in the way of the show itself. The menu animated menu screens are well-designed, with little insets from each episode presented in an oval that's framed by two horseshoes. So it's a pleasant experience in every aspect. The situational comedy is typical of the period, with much of it centered on gender roles (now considered sexist) and the type of mild humor that depended on cuteness for its laughs.

Keep your eyes peeled as you watch this, and not just because the golden Palomino who played Mister Ed (voiced by B-movie western star "Rocky" Lane) really could answer the telephone and open and close doors. This show is full of recognizable TV faces, like Donna Douglas, who a year later would play the buxom Elly May Clampett on "The Beverly Hillbillies"; Richard Deacon, who'd turn up a few years later as Mel Cooley on "The Dick Van Dyke Show," or Jack Albertson, who would become best known for playing opposite Freddie Prinze in "Chico and the Man."

Here's a rundown on the 26 episodes, which are presented on four single-sided discs and housed in two slim clear-plastic keep cases. To give some idea of the extent of annotation, I'll use descriptions from the four-color 11-page booklet that lists complete information for each episode:

1) "The First Meeting." Wilbur Post and his wife Carol move into their new home and find that the barn out back is still being occupied by a horse. Carol wants to sell the horse, while Wilbur wants to keep him--but everyone, including his wife, thinks he's gone bonkers when he claims that "Mister Ed" can talk.

2) "The Ventriloquist." When Mr. Addison overhears Wilbur and Mister Ed talking, Wilbur tells him he's a ventriloquist. Now Mr. Addison wants Wilbur to help him win a bet by using his "skill" of throwing his voice.

3) "Busy Wife." Carol joins the Women's Committee for Civic Improvement, and Wilbur starts to feel neglected. To win back her attention and make her jealous, he decides to hire a beautiful model to stage a painting of Lady Godiva. Donna Douglas guests.

4) "Kiddy Park." Mister Ed runs away on his birthday when Wilbur won't take him along on a fishing trip with Mr. Addison and the wives.

5) "Stable for Three." Ed, Wilbur, and Mr. Addison all end up in the dog house--actually, the stable--when they get in trouble with Carol and Kay (Edna Skinner).

6) "Sorority House." Mr. Addison asks Wilbur to loan Ed to his old fraternity, Sigma Nu Delta, and while Ed is there he is horse-napped by a rival university.

7) "Ed the Lover." Ed gets a job as an extra on a western directed by one of Wilbur's clients. The film's star, a horse named Daphne, falls in love with Mister Ed.

8) "The Pageant Show." Ed won't stop listening in on the phone extension in the office, so Wilbur takes it out. Ed decides to get back at him by not participating in a pageant.

9) "The Aunt." Aunt Martha comes to visit with her parrot Tootsie--but can two talking animals coexist in one household?

10) "The Missing Statue." Carol buys a statue for $50, which leads to a game of "musical statues" and a major headache for one shop owner.

11) "Ed the Witness." When Wilbur, Carol, Ed and the Addisons get lost on a trip to Ensenada, they end up stuck in a small town. Wilbur gets put in jail when his car is involved in an accident, but Ed is the only witness.

12) "Ed's Mother." When Wilbur and Ed find Ed's mother working as a plow horse on a local farm, Ed wants Wilbur to buy her out of servitude.

13) "Ed the Tout." When Ed is able to predict eight winners at the horse races, Addison thinks Wilbur is the one who can pick the horses. He wants to use his ability as a way to get rich, and the wives want to use it to raise money for their charity . . . but Ed doesn't believe in betting for money.

14) "Ed the Songwriter." When music producer Paul Fenton hears Wilbur humming a tune he heard Mister Ed hum, he wants to know the lyrics. Wilbur makes an attempt at writing lyrics on his own, but luckily Ed has already written them.

15) "Ed the Stoolpigeon." Ed becomes jealous when Carol takes in a poodle as a new pet. Ed decides someone needs to go . . . and it won't be him.

16) "Psychoanalyst Show." Wilbur hires a psychiatrist to get Ed over his acrophobia (the fear of heights), but the shrink thinks Wilbur is the one with issues.

17) "A Man for Velma." When Carol sprains her wrist, Wilbur hires a woman to move in and cook for them. She's such a great cook that no one, including Ed or the Addisons, wants her to leave.

18) "Ed's New Shoes." Wilbur hires a handyman to fix up the house before Home Beautiful magazine comes to take phtos, but it looks like he may do more damage than repairs.

19) "Little Boy." When a new little boy in the neighborhood is getting picked on, Ed finds a way to make him look like a hero.

20) "Ed Agrees to Talk." Wilbur won't buy Carol her own car, so she hitches Ed up to a surrey and takes him out on the town. Ed feels abused and calls the SPCA.

21) "The Mustache." Addison encourages Wilbur to grow a mustache because he'll look more distinguished to prospective clients. Never has hair on one's upper lip caused more problems . . . .

22) "The Other Woman." Carol thinks Wilbur is having an affair when he starts mumbling the name "Bernadine" in his sleep--but "the other woman" is no woman.

23) "Ed Cries Wolf." Wilbur buys Carol a pair of earrings for her birthday, but before he can give them to her, a their shows up at the house. Wilibur gets a call from Ed about the intruder--is it "real" or is it just a case of "the horse who cried wolf"?

24) "The Contest." When Ed answers a quiz show question correctly on the phone, he uses Wilbur's name. Now Wilbur must compete for the big prize of $5000.

25) "Pine Lake Lodge." This episode was a pilot for a spin-off show starring character actor William Bendix that was never sold to a network. The episode features Wilbur and Carol going to Pine Lake Lodge, owned by their friend Bill Parker (Bendix). The episode is primarily focused on the cast of characters who work at the lodge, including Nancy Kulp portraying a version of her Mrs. Hathaway character a year before "The Beverly Hillbillies."

26) "Wilbur Sells Ed." Ed falls in love with Princess Helen, the horse of one of Wilbur's clients. Ed is so in love that he asks Wilbur to sell him to the client so he can be near Helen.

Don't panic if the famous theme song appears first as just a musical jingle. The words ("A horse is a horse, of course, of course . . .") kick in later in the season!

Video:
The video is really sharp for an old show from the Sixties. Contrast levels vary slightly from episode to episode, with blacks a little lighter in some, but overall the black-and-white picture looks great. "Mister Ed" is presented in 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

Audio:
Unfortunately, the audio is a little muffled--a condition that's not helped by the lower volumes that the episodes were recorded on or transferred with. There isn't a lot of distortion, at least, but you'll find yourself tinkering with the volume control if you click "play all" and watch a number of episodes in a row.

Extras:
The booklet is an awfully nice bonus feature, but so is an interview with stars Young and Hines as they look now. I don't want to spoil anything, but Young has some incredible stories that I'm guessing also appear in his book, Mister Ed and Me and More!. Stories of the way things were in Hollywood, and not just "Mister Ed" anecdotes, make this interview a valuable one. The structure is nice, too, with Young and Hines interviewed alone and shown on-camera intercut with clips from the show, but then shown together so we can see them interact. They've remained close friends all these years. See what working together eight hours a day, five days a week, for six years can do? As with the animated menu screens, the presentation of the interview (it's framed on a graphic-filled screen) enhances the viewing experience. The only unfortunate thing is that the subtitle person misspelled "Wilbur" as "Wilber." But hey, that's a small goof-up. "Mister Ed" Season 1 is a package that fans should love.

Young and Hines also turn up on a commentary track, though it's not nearly as informative as the interview. The problem is that they were caught a little off-guard, being shown something that so powerfully shaped each of their lives, and for the first time in many, many years. And so there are long pauses as they're understandably watching the show as we are. Comments are often restricted to one-liners, like "look at those skirts."

Rounding out the bonus features is an old advertisement for Studebaker, the show's sponsor in the early years. And it's Young's anecdote about how the show got started that's worth the whole price of this DVD!

Bottom Line:
Some shows become classic not because of high-quality writing, innovative plots, or stellar ensembles, but because they connect somehow with the TV public. Like "The Beverly Hillbillies" or "My Favorite Martian," "Mister Ed" gave audiences a gimmick that tickled their funny bones . . . enough to where they wanted to see that persnickety Palomino once a week for six years straight.