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The Queen of Soul Reigns on Television

“Mr. Ed”: Hollywood Meets Mister Ed

Mister Ed’s success gave him the pull to get big name celebrities to make guest starring appearances on his show. One of the first was George Burns.

As a producer and the man who financed the pilot, George Burns had a financial reason for doing the show. His decision to finance the show had originally earned him little more than scorn from his fellow Hollywood denizens who mocked his talking horse show. After the show’s success, however, Burns had proved them all wrong and his guest starring role as himself was like a victory lap for him.

When Mae West signed onto the show, the gossip mongers theorized that she had taken herself out of mothballs because, like Chico Marx, she needed the money. It was true that Mae West had been out of pictures for years, choosing to retire after the Hayes Code made her trademark ribald situations and double entendres impossible to include in films, but Ms. West had invested her money wisely. Her legendary penthouse sat atop a luxury Hollywood apartment building that she owned outright, renting out the other apartments to wealthy celebrities and studios. She did spend money a bit lavishly, reportedly buying new cars every year and selling the old ones to friends for $1, but she could afford to spend as she wished, leaving behind an estate valued in excess of $75 Million. So why did she agree to star with Mister Ed? Only Mae knows for sure, but she possibly sensed that the Hayes Production Code was on its last legs and thus tested the waters to see if she could triumphantly return to Hollywood once her favored risqué types of films could be released again.

It was no secret why Zsa Zsa Gabor did her guest stint. Ms. Gabor was the prototype for useless celebutantes who were famous for being famous. She would attend the opening of a screen door if the paparazzi were involved. Mister Ed was a way for her to get more exposure and keep her name out there.

Mr. Ed: No One Can Talk to A Horse

The success of Mister Ed not only led to him making the jump from syndication to network television, it also inspired a seemingly never ending array of merchandise. There were comic books:

Board games, even in Germany:

Records:

and even buttons:

Mister Ed even began making personal appearances; at least his impersonators did. While the actual Mister Ed was a horse named Bamboo Harvester, a few lookalike horses toured the country to meet his fans. Television production limited Bamboo Harvester’s availability, so the lookalikes were seen as a way to satisfy the demands of his fans. The lookalikes were often used for publicity pictures, but only Bamboo Harvester ever appeared on the show because he had already been trained to “talk”.

Alan Young once commented that he always preferred working with Bamboo Harvester over the lookalikes, who were apparently more temperamental than the actual star. Apparently, his Hollywood success never went to his head.

“Mr. Ed”: Of Course, Of Course

Having figured out a way to bring a talking horse to television without attracting the ire of Universal Pictures, Arthur Lubin began taking his George Burns produced Mister Ed pilot to the networks. Would they be as optimistic about the show’s viability as he was?

Of course, they would not. Mr. Lubin had put so much effort behind this show that he wasn’t willing to take no for an answer. Taking some of the notes he had received from the networks, he re-cast Wilbur and reshot the pilot with new new actor: Alan Young. This time, he teamed up with Filmways Productions and sought to produce the show in syndication.

A syndicated television show has to be sold town to town, which can be quite a daunting challenge. A network show only has to be sold once - to the television network - which then requires its affiliates to air the show. With no such backing, Filmways had to find enough stations across the country that would be willing to carry the show to make its production worthwhile. Arthur Lubin personally took on this challenge, selling Mister Ed to local stations himself. The gambit worked and Mister Ed premiered in 1961.

The show was a huge success, proving Arthur Lubin correct. The show’s seemingly instant success prompted CBS to make a rare decision- it was picking up Mister Ed’s second season. Most of the time, shows go from network television to syndication. This amazing horse would do the opposite- a huge sign of its initial success.

“Mr. Ed”: A Horse is a Horse

In television’s early years, most of its comedic programming centered around the family unit. Leave it to Beaver, Ozzie and Harriet, The Donna Reed Show and many others derived laughs from family situations. With the sameness of such programming, some television producers sought to make their pitches stand out from the pack. Would a show with a talking horse stand out? Mr. Ed creator Arthur Lubin hoped so.

Arthur Lubin had been directing the lucrative Francis the Talking Mule series of feature length pictures for Universal Pictures and thought that the concept would make a successful transition to television. The series was about an army mule who would only speak to a young soldier, thus making many people think he was crazy. Lubin wanted to acquire the television rights and produce a weekly series. Universal, however, was unwilling to sell the rights at any price; though the series had fizzled out by the late 1950’s, it thought that the series might possibly make a comeback. Thus Lubin would get his first setback in his quest to get a Talking animal program produced.

Hard to say who is the biggest jackass in this picture.

Lubin could have just changed the name of the mule and pushed forward with his project, but since he was the director of five Francis films and had tried negotiating with Universal Pictures for the rights, a copyright case against him would have been a slam dunk. His secretary found an answer to this problem- a series of children’s stories by author Walter Brooks about a talking horse named “Mr. Ed”. Lubin could buy the television rights from Brooks to protect himself from any litigation from Universal. The gambit worked. Lubin, using financing from George Burns, produced a Mr. Ed pilot.

The initial pilot started Scott McKay as Wilbur “Pope”, who owned the titular Mr. Ed. Lubin proudly carried the pilot around town, trying to sell it to network television. He was soundly rejected. Sure, the pilot was unlike anything the networks had ever seen, but while Lubin had seen that as a positive, they saw it as a negative. He would have to come with a new strategy to get his talking horse on television.

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“The Facts of Life”: Closing Time

In 1986, The Facts of Life would suffer its biggest casting change since the post-season one purge. A health scare suffered by Charlotte Rae led her to step away from the show. She would return in guest roles, but Edna Garrett would be replaced by her sister Beverly Ann, played by Cloris Leachman. In a nice tribute, the character was named after Charlotte Rae’s real life sister.

The show, however, was on its last legs. Garrett’s Girls were now women and the show had to come up with increasingly implausible reasons for why these high school friends were still living together. In 1988, Lisa Whelchel and Nancy McKeon decided to call it quits, despite NBC’s desire to keep the show going. Certain that the show couldn’t survive such a huge loss, NBC chose to let the show end. At the time, the networks were infatuated with airing reunion films based on shows from the 1950’s and 1960’s. Many of the films were of dubious quality and some didn’t even bring back the original casts. When The Facts of Life ended, its cast swore that they wouldn’t participate in any similar films.

Except- in 2001 most of the cast did just that. Airing on a different network and produced by The Wonderful World of Disney, the two hour reunion show brought back Mrs. Garrett and three of her girls. Nancy McKeon, who was starring in a Lifetime Network show called The Division at the time, chose not to participate. Her character was represented on the show by Jo’s husband who awkwardly explained her absence by telling the cast that she was busy with her job back home at “the division”. Natalie lamented that she hasn’t seen Jo “in a Lifetime”. Subtle!

Despite Norman Lear’s reluctance to take credit for the show, it became one of his biggest and most profitable successes. The show is fondly remembered by its fans and it still airs in syndication around the world. While the show could be a bit broad and heavy handed at times, its depiction of regular teenage girls with regular teenage problems is what has attracted generations of viewers. Mrs. Garrett’s lessons about the facts of life not only reasonated with her girls but also the world.

“The Facts of Life”: You Take The Bad...

As The Facts of Life settled into its groove, the show sought to be more than just a mindless sitcom. Like other Norman Lear shows, social issues and controversial topics were frequently covered. Even episode one featured a storyline in which Blair insinuates that one of the other girls was a lesbian; a first for any American network show. Long before sex trafficking was on anyone’s radar, the show featured an episode in which Tootie was in danger of being prostituted.

Girls, girls, girls!

The topic of disabilities was covered with a memorable episode in which Blair’s cousin Geri pays a visit. While other shows depicted those with disabilities as saints who everyone loves, if they even depicted them, The Facts of Life  actually showed a more nuanced, realistic relationship between Cousin Geri and Blair. Blair was obviously embarrassed of Geri and the show depicted her struggle to accept a less than normal relative. Rather than sidestep the obvious, the show addressed it head-on.

As the years went on, however, the show had to come up with a way to keep these high schoolers together as they got older, went to college, etc. Midway through the show’s run, Mrs. Garrett setup her own shop- Edna’s Edibles, which sold various foodstuffs. Her girls helped her run the shop, which they all lived above.

Why, Mrs. Garrett- You sure know how to handle that sausage!

A disastrous fire forced them to rebuild; this time they opened up a shop that literally screamed ‘This is the 1980’s!’

What decade is this? The 1940’s?

A sad event would bring about the show’s biggest cast change since season two. Join us tomorrow as we wrap up our Facts of Life week.

“The Facts of Life”: A Real Beginning

When we last left off, NBC had renewed The Facts of Life against the wishes of its producer Norman Lear and despite its dismal ratings. Fred Silverman, the head of NBC programming at the time, saw some promise in the show provided it made some changes. He ordered just 16 episodes for season two and requested that the cast be slimmed down. Instead of seven main girls, he cut the cast down to four. Lisa Whelchel, Kim Fields and Mindy Cohn stayed. The rest of the girls were fired. Nancy McKeon was brought in as the tomboyish Jo. Of course, the girls were all overseen by Mrs. Garrett.

Outsiders probably didn’t give the show much hope, but the changes worked extremely well. The Facts of Life went from NBC’s gutter to the very top, ranking among its top five shows. While Mrs. Garrett was a house mistress to the live-in girls at the school in season one, in season two she was a dietician who planned and supervised the preparation of the school’s meals. The four girls constituted her “staff”.

The show earned an easy renewal for season three. In fact, NBC had wished it had picked up the usual 24 episodes it usually ordered for its regular series. Despite the show’s newfound success, Norman Lear still refused to put his name on the series. Despite this, The Facts of Life would become one of his most profitable shows.