Customer Reviews

The Best of Mister Ed - Volume Two

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have a young daughter, and anyone who has a daughter knows, girls love horses. I think that's a universal law. Anyway with all the crap on TV these days, with the violence, sex, and profanity (including cartoons!!), it's good to know that my daughter can have her own DVD sets in her own collection.

My daughter just loves to see a talking horse and all the trouble he and Wilbur get into. I don't have to worry about content and can let her watch it until her heart's content.

A show like Mister Ed would never make it past the pilot episode these days, so I'm glad there's the technology to bring wholesome entertainment to our kids. I may sound like a prude in this review, but when your kids start yelling 'You bastard!', 'Kiss my ass!' and 'What a bitch!' because they hear it on FOX cartoon shows, enough is enough.

Instead of getting the entire classic First Season of Mister Ed, these are the disappointing episodes that are offered in the so-called "Best Of Mister Ed - Volume Two":

Disc One: Ed Gets the Mumps; Ed Visits a Gypsy; Ed, the Chauffeur; Ed, the Donkey; Mae West Meets Mister Ed; Mister Ed Writes Dear Abby; Like Father, Like Horse; Ed, the Race Horse; Ed, the Pilot; Ed, the Stowaway; Animal Jury; Ed's Juice Stand. Disc Two: Ed's Contact Lenses; The Bank Robbery; My Horse, The Mailman; Robin Hood Ed; Ed, the Artist; Ed a Go-Go; Coldfinger (aka Ed Sniffs Out a Cold Clue); Ed Breaks the Hip Code (aka Spies Strike Back).

This is such a pity. Mister Ed is such a wonderful family show. If only they would just release it in its original order!! Three-stars for the second disappointing and out-of-sequence release of a DVD set of a five-star show. A mixed bag and a mishmash of episodes of Mister Ed, but not the best episodes. There are still many classic First Season episodes yet to be released.

I have both "Mister Ed" DVD sets, and both are excellent. The second set has the edge, because by 1964 "Mister Ed" was hitting on all cylinders. This set has at least four classic TV episodes: "Ed Visits a Gypsy" (one of the best-written sitcoms ever, with Ed "itching to have his hoof read" by a gypsy so that he'll know whether the filly he loves will treat him like a doormat if they get married); "Mae West Meets Mister Ed" (hysterical, with Mae getting interested in Wilbur Post's "associate" [the last syllable rhymes with "weight" here] on the phone, because of his "deep masculine voice"); and the two part "Coldfinger" episode (a parody of James Bond wherein Wilbur and Ed stop a plot to smuggle secrets out of the United States via a Chinese woman fan-dancing a wicked "hip code" that Wilbur cracks and performs for the feds). Watching these episodes has given me new admiration for all the actors involved. Connie Hines does superb supporting work as Carol, Wilbur's long-suffering wife. Leon Ames is inimitable as Wilbur's old military commander next door, "The Colonel" (even his wife calls him that). Florence MacMichael as Winnie, the Colonel's wife, shows her range when she imitates Mae West. Alan Young is brilliant playing straight man to a horse. And whoever trained the palomino deserves credit; Mister Ed can do just about anything, including driving a van (in a sequence worthy of Chaplin or Keaton). Hearing Mae call Ed "just a playful baby" is worth all of the sitcoms in the last ten years alone. Highly recommended.

The Best Of Mister Ed Volume 2 contains the following 20 episodes

Ed Gets The Mumps
Ed Visits A Gypsy
Ed, the Chauffeur
Ed, the Donkey
Mae West Meets Mister Ed
Mister Ed Writes Dear Abby
Like Father, Like Horse
Ed, the Race Horse
Ed, the Pilot
Ed, the Stowaway
Animal Jury
Ed's Juice Stand
Ed's Contact Lenses
The Bank Robbery
My Horse, the Mailman
Robin Hood Ed
Ed, the Artist
Ed a Go-Go
Coldfinger (aka Ed Sniffs Out A Cold Clue)
Ed Breaks the Hip Code (aka Spies Strike Back)

I love Mister Ed, but I don't understand why, if the first "best of" set was profitable enough to make a second "best of" set worthwhile to produce, we can't have season-by-season box sets. I don't want someone else deciding for me what the "best of" is; I want to watch the show in order of broadcast and enjoy it.

So, a year or two from now will there be four, five or more "best of" sets out there -- in other words the entire series -- all jumbled out of order? Or, will the seasonal box sets be released thus making these sets worthless?

Or, worse yet, will half the series eventually be released as "best of" sets while the other half sits collecting dust in a warehouse somewhere forever because someone was too cheap to create seasonal box sets?

If you're a fan of Bewitched, Gilligan's Island, Green Acres, and others, you get to buy the entire series a year at a time, but not us Mister Ed fans! We get a pre-selected mess for the price of a seasonal box set.

Neeeeeeeigh to that! I'll bet if Mister Ed were alive today he'd have something to say.

This is a wonderful family show. It was before the time of TV violence, sexual content and swearing, which means it's okay for adults and kids alike. Contrary to what another reviewer has said, Mr. Ed does NOT go to the glue factory. He and his owner Wilbur have many adventures. Yes, there are times when Wilbur does look slightly off his rocker to his peers, but Ed is a good friend to him. Look for great guest stars and funny jokes. Mr. Ed will continue to be a great show for years to come and I highly recommend it.

I suppose there's no chance at all that we'll ever get the rest of the Mr. Ed shows and that's a real shame. For sure some of the best episodes are included in vol 2, including my all-time favorite 'Ed The Chauffeur', but they were all good, watchable, enjoyable shows and I have to believe there is a market for them. I was nine or ten years old when Mr. Ed premiered and I enjoy the show as much today as I did back then. Some of the episodes with the Addisons living next door were real classics, but they are nowhere to be found in either of these sets. I don't know why the studios find satisfaction in teasing us with a sampling of shows we love when they have no intention of following through with the rest. Ahh, well, Leave it to Beaver fared no better and it was another family classic!

Volume 2 was equally as funny as volume 1. Mr. Ed is one of the greatest, delightful, refreshing and purely funny shows, ever. Now I can see this great comedy at anytime that I prefer to do so.

We really enjoyed the first collection of Mister Ed shows and look forward to the release of this second collection. Mister Ed is a light-hearted, funny show with great nostalgia. Would highly recommend.

Loved this. If you watched Mr.Ed as a kid and need a escape back in time, this would be a nice treat. Picture quality is outstanding.