Fifty-seven years after the hit show Mister Ed went off the air, and 53 years after Bamboo Harvester (Ed) died, something finally occurred to me. Something’s wrong in the tune. The theme song is in two parts. First part is the show’s opening, followed by the closing section that accompanied the credit roll. The song goes like this….

Opening theme:

“Hello, I’m Mister Ed.”

A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
And no one can talk to a horse of course
That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mister Ed.

Go right to the source and ask the horse
He’ll give you the answer that you’ll endorse.
He’s always on a steady course.
Talk to Mister Ed.

Closing Theme:

A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
And no one can talk to a horse of course
That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mister Ed.

Go right to the source and ask the horse
He’ll give you the answer that you’ll endorse.
He’s always on a steady course.
Talk to Mister Ed.

People yakkity-yak a streak and waste your time of day
But Mister Ed will never speak unless he has something to say.

A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
And this one’ll talk ’til his voice is hoarse.
You never heard of a talking horse?

Well listen to this:

“I am Mister Ed.”

(Mister Ed Lyrics by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston)

The problem is this line: “And no one can talk to a horse of course.”

Oh baloney. Of course you can talk to a horse. Every horse owner talks to their horse. The problem comes with getting a conversational answer from the horse. Talk to a horse, yes. Talk with a horse, no.

It took me a while but I finally figured out the truth! And I’m delighted to have helped you out with this detail.

Check out the Mister Ed theme song on video.