• Factory sealed DVD.

In its second season, Mister Ed trotted out some impressive star power for three fan-favorite episodes that make this four-disc set a must-own--"Clint Eastwood Meets Mister Ed," "George Burns Meets Mister Ed," and "Zsa Zsa," as in Gabor. The Clint episode is best as the star of Rawhide is hounded (horsed?) by Ed on a party phone line because, Ed complains, Clint's horse is stealing his fillies. Burns, who produced the series' pilot episode, doesn't actually meet Mister Ed, but he does play straight man to Wilbur (Alan Young), who wants to audition Ed for Burns's Las Ve show. The glamorous Gabor, whom Ed helps get over her fear of horses, is an endearingly game comedian. Beyond the stunt casting, this second season has much to recommend it. Early in the series' six-season run, the writers could still make hay out of the show's fantastic premise of a newly married architect whose best friend just happens to be a talking horse. Wilbur and Ed (voiced by character actor Alan Lane) are a great comedy team with a genuine, and oddly touching friendship. "I'd rather have you than 25,000 carrots," Ed tells Wilbur at one point. Some of the episodes are saddled with ridiculous plots (Ed joins the beatnik set in "Ed the Beachcomber," Wilbur harbors a magician's elephant in "Ed and the Elephant," and a neglected Ed volunteers to be the first horse in space in "The Horsetronaut"), but many keep it as real as a show about a talking horse can get. In "Horse Wash," Ed overhears a con man planning to scam Wilbur's her-in-law and alerts Wilbur. In "Ed the Hunter," he uses well-timed bumps and tail flicks to foil attempts by Wilbur and neighbor Roger (Larry Keating) to hunt ducks. This boxed set corrals two special features--vintage Studebaker car commercials and an Internet radio interview with Young and Connie Hines, who portrayed Wilbur's unwitting wife Carol. Mister Ed holds up exceedingly well. Those who have never had the pleasure are in for a treat. As Roger remarks when Wilbur reels from another Ed-instigated predicament, "Never a dull moment with this boy." --Donald Liebenson