A Horse Is A Horse, Of Course, Of Course

One of the most famous horses on TV was Mister Ed. He seemed to think more like a human than a horse, except when it came to his food. He never craved human food and was content with oats and hay, although he was constantly trying to find where Wilbur had hidden the carrots. And he craved Addison's (their next door neighbor) prize-winning apples, stealing them more than once. He wanted to go wherever Wilbur went. If Wilbur and Carol were planning a trip, Mister Ed moped until Wilbur gave in and took him along. He frequently accused Wilbur of loving Carol more than he loved him. He must have fancied himself a ladies' man (horse?) since he never seemed to be interested in the same filly for more than one episode.

One of his hobbies seemed to be getting Wilbur into trouble as often as he could. He either didn't realize how much trouble his antics caused for Wilbur or else he didn't care. He generally did end up rescuing Wilbur in the end, though. That was only fair, since most of the time Wilbur's problem was Mister Ed's fault.

He wrote and recorded some songs. Wilbur lip-synced to the songs while Mister Ed sang, since only Wilbur was allowed to know that his horse could talk. Wilbur would say he could only sing at his barn. He'd have a fake microphone in front of the barn and the real microphone was with Mister Ed inside the barn. I personally think his first song - Pretty Little Filly - was better than his second song - Empty Feedbag Blues.

Mister Ed was played by a gelding named Bamboo Harvester. According to Alan (Wilbur) Young, Bamboo Harvester didn't like to take care of his personal needs on the set. This caused some major concern when they were shooting on location. The location was near a freeway and at one point Bamboo Harvester disappeared. Panic ensued when they thought the horse might have wandered onto to the freeway and had become roadkill. Fortunately, Bamboo Harvester had merely walked away to take care of personal business.

Bamboo Harvester also had a little bit of a ham in him. When Mister Ed first started, wires were used to move his lips to make it appear he was talking. (Alan Young had started a story that peanut butter was used to make the horse's lips move, even though he knew that wasn't true.) Eventually, Bamboo Harvester started moving his lips on his own whenever Alan wasn't talking - whether Mister Ed was supposed to be speaking or not.

For horse owners who are reading this, what do you think your horse would say to you if he or she could talk? For pet owners, what would your pet say to you if he or she could talk?