When Alan Young was offered the role of Wilbur Post in Mister Ed, producers wanted to name the program The Alan Young Show. He feared that the show would fail and didn't want his name on a canceled show. So the talking horse got top billing and Mister Ed was born.
Alan's fears of a colossal failure were unfounded; Mister Ed was a huge success. In fact, the show did something that very few shows do- it began life as a locally syndicated show and got picked up by a television network. In this case, it was CBS.
Perhaps the strangest thing about the show, however, was that they were able to entice Mae West, the bawdy pre-code actress out of retirement. Ms. West played an exaggerated version of herself in a fourth season episode entitled (obviously) Mae West Meets Mister Ed.
