Trivia / Mister Ed

• Actor Allusion: Ed expresses a distaste for westerns. His voice actor, Allan Lane, was a well-known Western star.
• Channel Hop: Rather unusually, from first-run syndication (season 1) to CBS (seasons 2-6).
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends:
  • Snopes.com, for a joke, posted a page that Ed was really played by a female zebra named Amelia.
  • A popular rumour (referenced in the movie Dr. Dolittle), which may or may not have been started by Alan Young, was that in order to make Ed "talk" the production crew smeared peanut butter on the horse's gums. In actuality, the effect was initially pulled off by pulling on a nylon thread in the horse's mouth (which can be seen on occasion); however, eventually the horse learned to flap its lips on its own when someone touched its hoof. The horse soon figured out to simply wait until Young stopped talking before "talking" back, with no further cues necessary.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The Addisons were replaced by the Kirkwoods because Larry Keating, who played Mr. Addison, died of leukemia in 1963.
• What Could Have Been: The show was originally called "The Wonderful World of Wilbur Pope". The original pilot starred Scott McKay as Wilbur and Sandra White as his wife Carlotta.
• Word of God: A persistent rumor, started by star Alan Young, states that peanut butter was smeared inside Ed's mouth to get his lips to move, but according to cast and crew members, nylon fishing line slid under his lips was used to make him "talk". Over time, Ed learned to pick up on cues that it was 'his turn' to talk.

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