The Horse Behind Mr. Ed

A lot of movie and TV story concepts grew out of a desire to show off what could be done with special effects. One example is the service of movies featuring Francis the talking Mule in the 1950s. Arthur Lubin, who directed six Francis films, couldn't get the rights to bring the mule to TV, so he looked into the stories of a talking horse by children's author Walter R. Brooks. Still, there were problems making a TV series about a talking horse work, until the perfect horse was found. That horse was named Bamboo Harvester, and he is what this video is mainly about.  

Mr. Ed aired from 1961 to 1966, and lived on for years afterward in syndication. In case you're interested, the Mr. Ed theme song is here, and the Tiny Tim version is here.