The Ed Sullivan Show

The Ed Sullivan Show
File:EdSullivan.jpg Ed Sullivan
Genre	Variety
Presented by	Ed Sullivan
Narrated by	Bern Bennett (1948–1949) Art Hannes (1949–1959 & 1961–1964) Ralph Paul (1959–1961 & 1964–1971)
Theme music composer	Ray Bloch
Opening theme	"Toast of the Town"
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	24
No. of episodes	1087
Production
Executive producer	Ed Sullivan
Producers	Bob Precht Chester Feldman Jack McGeehan
Production location	CBS Studio 50 Ed Sullivan Theater
Running time	60 mins.
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	June 20, 1948 – June 6, 1971

The Ed Sullivan Show was a popular American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan.

History

The program ran on CBS every Sunday night from 8–9 p.m. ET (originally from 9–10 p.m. ET, until March 1949), and is one of the few entertainment shows to have been run in the same weekly time slot on the same network for more than two decades. Virtually every type of entertainment appeared on the show; opera singers, popular artists, songwriters, comedians, ballet dancers, dramatic actors performing monologues from plays, and circus acts were regularly featured. The format was essentially the same as vaudeville, and although vaudeville had died a generation earlier, Sullivan presented many ex-vaudevillians on his show.

The show was originally titled Toast of the Town, but was widely referred to as The Ed Sullivan Show for years before September 25, 1955, when that became its official name. In the show's June 20, 1948 debut, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis performed along with Broadway composers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II previewing the score to their new show South Pacific.

The show was broadcast via live television from the CBS-TV Studio 50 in New York City, which was renamed the Ed Sullivan Theater on the occasion of the program's 20th anniversary in June 1968. The last Sullivan show telecast (#1071) was on March 28, 1971 with guests Melanie, Joanna Simon, Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass, and Sandler and Young. Some claim that the cancellation was a result of CBS's rural purge, but this is highly debatable, since there was nothing "rural" about a show that sometimes featured opera stars, ballet dancers, classical soloists, and even dramatic actors performing excerpts from Shakespeare. Many Broadway musical stars also performed songs from shows in which they were currently appearing. Whatever the case, Sullivan may have also felt that it was time to retire; he died only three years after the last Ed Sullivan Show was broadcast.

so azia is related to ed sullivan and they r in love...insest!!! umm i love azia cuz she is my wuvey bear! and she is dating nicholas!!! <3

Background

Along with the new talent Sullivan booked each week, he also had recurring characters appear many times a season, such as his "Little Italian Mouse" puppet sidekick Topo Gigio, who debuted April 14, 1963, and ventriloquist Señor Wences. While most of the episodes aired live from New York City, the show also aired live on occasion from other nations, such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan. For many years, Ed Sullivan was a national event each Sunday evening, and was the first exposure for foreign performers to the American public. On the occasion of the show's tenth anniversary telecast, Sullivan commented on how the show had changed during a June 1958 interview syndicated by the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA):

The chief difference is mostly one of pace. In those days, we had maybe six acts. Now we have 11 or 12. Then, each of our acts would do a leisurely ten minutes or so. Now they do two or three minutes. And in those early days I talked too much. Watching these kines I cringe. I look up at me talking away and I say "You fool! Keep quiet!" But I just keep on talking. I've learned how to keep my mouth shut.

The show enjoyed phenomenal popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. As had occurred with Amos 'n Andy on the radio in the early 1930s, the family ritual of gathering around the television set to watch Ed Sullivan became almost a U.S. cultural universal. Ed Sullivan was regarded as a kingmaker, and performers considered an appearance on his program as a guarantee of stardom. The show's iconic status is illustrated by a song from the 1960 musical Bye Bye Birdie. In the song "Hymn for a Sunday Evening", a family of viewers expresses their regard for the program in worshipful tones.

In 1965, CBS started televising the programs in compatible color, as all three major networks began to switch to 100 percent color prime time schedules. CBS had once backed its own color system, developed by Peter Goldmark, and resisted using RCA's compatible process until that year.

In the late 1960s, Sullivan remarked that his program was waning as the decade went on. He realized that to keep viewers, the best and brightest in entertainment had to be seen, or else the viewers were going to keep on changing the channel. Along with declining viewership, Ed Sullivan attracted a higher median age for the average viewer (which most sponsors found undesirable) as the seasons went on. These two factors were the reason the show was canceled by CBS after the end of the 1970-1971 season. Because there was no notice of cancellation, Sullivan's landmark program ended without a series finale. Sullivan would produce one-off specials for CBS until his death in 1974.

Many kinescopes and tapes still exist. In the 1990s, performances were repackaged as The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show and Ed Sullivan—Rock & Roll Classics in syndication and on the VH1 and TV Land cable channels. From 2001 through 2004, PBS stations across the U.S. aired edited versions of The Ed Sullivan Show (usually airing two 30-minute programs back-to-back). These were produced by WQED Multimedia in Pittsburgh. Since then, CBS has reacquired the rights to the show, and rebroadcasts them on its Web site.

The Canadian comedy troupe Wayne & Shuster appeared on the program 67 times, a record for any performer.

Famous performances

The Ed Sullivan Show is especially known to the WWII and "baby boom" generations for airing breakthrough performances by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, African-American artists, The Rolling Stones, and performances from Broadway shows by their original cast members.

Elvis Presley

On September 9, 1956, Presley made his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show (after earlier appearances on shows hosted by the Dorsey Brothers, Milton Berle, and Steve Allen) even though Sullivan had previously vowed never to allow the performer on his show. According to biographer Michael David Harris, "Sullivan signed Presley when the host was having an intense Sunday-night rivalry with Steve Allen. Allen had the singer on July 1 and trounced Sullivan in the ratings. When asked to comment, the CBS star said that he wouldn't consider presenting Presley before a family audience. Less than two weeks later he changed his mind and signed a contract. The newspapers asked him to explain his reversal. 'What I said then was off the reports I'd heard. I hadn't even seen the guy. Seeing the kinescopes, I don't know what the fuss was all about. For instance, the business about rubbing the thighs. He rubbed one hand on his hip to dry off the perspiration from playing his guitar.' "

Sullivan's reaction to Presley's performance on the Milton Berle Show was, "I don't know why everybody picked on Presley, I thought the whole show was dirty and vulgar."

Elvis mythology states that Sullivan censored Presley by only shooting him from the waist up. Sullivan may have helped create the myth when he told TV Guide, "as for his gyrations, the whole thing can be controlled with camera shots." In truth Presley's whole body was shown in the first and second shows.

At the time Presley was filming Love Me Tender so Sullivan's producer Marlo Lewis flew to Los Angeles, California to supervise the Hollywood telecast from CBS Television City. Sullivan, however, was not able to host his show in New York City because he was recovering from a near fatal automobile accident. Charles Laughton guest-hosted in Sullivan's place. Laughton appears in front of plaques with gold records and states, "These gold records, four of them... are a tribute to the fact that four of his recordings have sold, each sold, more than a million copies. And this, by the way, is the first time in record making history that a singer has hit such a mark in such a short time. ...And now, away to Hollywood to meet Elvis Presley."

However, according to Greil Marcus, Laughton was the main act of Sullivan's show. "Presley was the headliner, and a Sullivan headliner normally opened the show, but Sullivan was burying him. Laughton had to make the moment invisible: to act as if nobody was actually waiting for anything. He did it instantly, with complete command, with the sort of television presence that some have and some—Steve Allen, or Ed Sullivan himself—don’t."

Once on camera, Elvis cleared his throat and said, “Thank you, Mr Laughton, ladies and gentlemen. Wow”, and wiped his brow. “This is probably the greatest honor I’ve ever had in my life. Ah. There’s not much I can say except, it really makes you feel good. We want to thank you from the bottom of our heart. And now..." "Don't Be Cruel", which was, after a short introduction by Elvis, followed by "Love Me Tender". According to Elaine Dundy, Presley sang "Love Me Tender" "straight, subdued and tender ... —a very different Elvis from the one in the Steve Allen Show three months before".

When the camera returns to Laughton, he states, “Well, well, well well well. Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis Presley. And Mr. Presley, if you are watching this in Hollywood, and I may address myself to you. It has been many a year since any young performer has captured such a wide, and, as we heard tonight, devoted audience.”

"Ready Teddy"

Elvis's second set in the show consisted of "Ready Teddy" and a short on air comment to Sullivan, "Ah, Mr Sullivan. We know that somewhere out there you are looking in, and, ah, all the boys and myself, and everybody out here, are looking forward to seeing you back on television." Next, Elvis declares, "Friends, as a great philosopher once said, ‘You ain’t nothin’ but a Hound Dog...,' " as he launches into a short (1:07) version of the song.

According to Marcus, "For the first of his two appearances that night, as a performer Elvis had come on dressed in grandma’s nightgown and nightcap." Concerning the singer's second set in the show, the author adds that there were "Elvis, Scotty Moore on guitar, Bill Black on stand-up bass, D. J. Fontana on drums, three Jordanaires on their feet, one at a piano. They were shown from behind; the camera pulled all the way back. They went into 'Ready Teddy.' It was Little Richard’s most thrilling record," however, "there was no way Elvis was going to catch him, but he didn’t have to—the song is a wave and he rode it. Compared to moments on the Dorsey shows, on the Berle show, it was ice cream—Elvis’s face unthreatening, his legs as if in casts ..."When "he sang Little Richard’s 'Reddy Teddy' and began to move and dance, the camera pulled in, so that the television audience saw him from the waist up only."

Although Laughton was the main star and there were seven other acts on the show, Elvis was on camera for more than a quarter of the time allotted to all acts. The show was viewed by a record 60 million people which at the time was 82.6% of the television audience and the largest single audience in television history. "In the New York Times," however, "Jack Gould began his review indignantly: Elvis Presley had 'injected movements of his tongue and indulged in wordless singing that were singularly distasteful.' Overstimulating the physical impulses of the teenagers was 'a gross national disservice.'"

Second and third appearances

"Hound Dog", October 28, 1956

Sullivan hosted a second appearance by Presley on October 28 later the same year. Elvis performed "Don't Be Cruel", then "Love Me Tender". Sullivan then addressed the audience as he stood beside Elvis, who began shaking his legs, eliciting screams from the audience. By the time Sullivan turned his head, Elvis was standing motionless. After Presley left the stage, Sullivan stated, "I can’t figure this darn thing out. You know. He just does is this and everybody yells." Elvis appeared a second time in the show and sang "Love Me". Later on, he sang a nearly four minute long version of "Hound Dog" and was shown in full the entire song.

For the third and final appearance on January 6, 1957, Presley performed a medley of "Hound Dog", "Love Me Tender", and "Heartbreak Hotel", followed by a full version of "Don't Be Cruel". For a second set later in the show he did "Too Much" and "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again". For his last set he sang "Peace in the Valley". According to Sullivan’s co-producer Marlo Lewis, the rumor had it that "Elvis has been hanging a small soft-drink bottle from his groin underneath his pants, and when he wiggles his leg it looks as though his pecker reaches down to his knee!" Therefore, it was decided to shoot the singer only from the waist up during his performance. Although much has been made of the fact that Elvis was shown only from the waist up, except for the short section of "Hound Dog", all of the songs on this show were ballads. "Leaving behind the bland clothes he had worn on the first two shows," Greil Marcus says, Elvis "stepped out in the outlandish costume of a pasha, if not a harem girl. From the make-up over his eyes, the hair falling in his face, the overwhelmingly sexual cast of his mouth, he was playing Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik, with all stops out. That he did so in front of the Jordanaires, who this night appeared as the four squarest-looking men on the planet, made the performance even more potent." Sullivan praised Elvis at the end of the show, saying "This is a real decent, fine boy. We've never had a pleasanter experience on our show with a big name than we've had with you.... You're thoroughly all right."

Years later, Sullivan "tried to sign the singer up again... He phoned Presley's manager, Col. Tom Parker, and asked about a price. Parker came up with a list of instructions and conditions and after hearing the demands Sullivan said, 'Give Elvis my best—and my sympathy,' and he hung up." The singer never again appeared in Sullivan's show, although in February 1964 at the start of the first of three broadcasts featuring the Beatles (see below), Sullivan announced that a telegram had been received from Presley and Parker wishing the British group luck.

The Beatles

File:Ed Sullivan-Beatles-Help.jpg

The Beatles performing "Help!" in August 1965.

In late 1963 Sullivan and his entourage were at Heathrow and witnessed how The Beatles fans' greeted the group on their return from Stockholm, where they have performed a television show as warmup band to local star Lill Babs. Sullivan was intrigued, telling his entourage it was the same thing as Elvis all over again. He initially offered Beatles manager Brian Epstein top dollar for a single show but the Beatles manager had a better idea—he wanted exposure for his clients: the Beatles would instead appear three times on the show, at bottom dollar, but receive top billing and two spots (opening and closing) on each show.

The Beatles appeared on three consecutive Sundays in February 1964 to great anticipation and fanfare as "I Want to Hold Your Hand" had swiftly risen to #1 in the charts. Their first appearance on February 9 is considered a milestone in American pop culture and the beginning of the British Invasion in music. The broadcast drew an estimated 73 million viewers, at the time a record for US television, and was characterized by an audience composed largely of screaming hysterical teenage girls in tears. The Beatles followed Ed's show opening intro, performing "All My Loving", "Till There Was You" which featured the names of the group members superimposed on closeup shots, including the famous "Sorry girls, he's married" caption on John Lennon, and "She Loves You". They returned later in the programme to perform "I Saw Her Standing There" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand".

The following week's show was transmitted from Miami Beach where Muhammed Ali was in training for his return bout with Sonny Liston. The occasion was used by both camps for publicity. On the evening of the television show (February 16) a crush of people nearly prevented the band from making it onstage. A wedge of policemen were needed and the band began playing "From Me to You" only seconds after reaching their instruments. They continued with "This Boy", and "All My Loving" and returned later to close the show with "I Saw Her Standing There" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand".

They were shown on tape February 23 (this appearance had been taped earlier in the day on February 9 before their first live appearance). They followed Ed's intro with "Twist and Shout" and "Please Please Me" and closed the show once again with "I Want to Hold Your Hand".

The Beatles appeared for the final time on 14 August 1965. The show was broadcast 12 September 1965 and earned Sullivan a 60 percent share of the nighttime audience for one of the appearances. This time they followed three acts before coming out to perform "I Feel Fine", "I'm Down", and "Act Naturally" and then closed the show with "Ticket to Ride", "Yesterday", and "Help!". Although this was their final live appearance on the show, the group would for several years provide filmed promotional clips of songs to air exclusively on Sullivan's program such as the 1966 and 1967 clips of "Paperback Writer", "Rain", "Penny Lane", and "Strawberry Fields Forever".

Although the appearances by The Beatles and Elvis are considered the most famous rock and roll performances on Ed Sullivan, several months before Elvis debuted, Sullivan invited Bill Haley & His Comets to perform their then-current hit "Rock Around the Clock" in early August 1955. This was later recognized by CBS and others (including music historian Jim Dawson in his book on "Rock Around the Clock") as the first performance of a rock and roll song on a national television program.

African-American artists

The Supremes performing "The Happening" live from Expo 67.

In an era when few opportunities existed for African-American performers on national television, Sullivan was a champion of black talent. He launched the careers of many performers by presenting them to a nationwide TV audience and ignored the criticism. In an NEA interview, Sullivan commented:

"The most important thing [during the first ten years of the program] is that we've put on everything but bigotry. When the show first started in '48, I had a meeting with the sponsors. There were some Southern dealers present and they asked if I intended to put on Negroes. I said yes. They said I shouldn't, but I convinced them I wasn't going to change my mind. And you know something? We've gone over very well in the South. Never had a bit of trouble."

The show included entertainers such as The Supremes (a favorite of Ed Sullivan; the group that featured the young Diana Ross appeared 17 times), Marian Anderson, Louis Armstrong, Pearl Bailey, LaVern Baker, Harry Belafonte, James Brown, Godfrey Cambridge, Diahann Carroll, Ray Charles, Nat King Cole, Bill Cosby, Count Basie, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr., Bo Diddley, Duke Ellington, Lola Falana, The 5th Dimension, Ella Fitzgerald, The Four Tops, Aretha Franklin, Dick Gregory, W. C. Handy, Lena Horne, The Jackson 5 (the early name of the singing group of Michael Jackson and his brothers), Mahalia Jackson, Eartha Kitt, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Little Anthony & The Imperials, Moms Mabley, Johnny Mathis, The Miracles (later known as Smokey Robinson & the Miracles), Melba Moore, The Platters, Leontyne Price, Richard Pryor, Lou Rawls, Della Reese, Nipsey Russell, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, The Temptations, Tina Turner (at the time known as "The Ike & Tina Turner Revue"), Leslie Uggams, William Warfield, Dionne Warwick, Dinah Washington, Ethel Waters, Flip Wilson, Jackie Wilson, Nancy Wilson, and Stevie Wonder. Before his untimely death in a plane crash in December 1967, soul singer Otis Redding had been booked to appear on the show the following year. One telecast included bass-baritone Andrew Frierson singing Ol' Man River from Kern and Hammerstein's Show Boat, a song that, at that time, was usually sung on television by white singers, although it was written for a black character in the musical.

However, Sullivan featured "rockers", and gave prominence to black musicians "not without censorship". For instance, he scheduled Fats Domino "at the show's end in case he had to cancel a guest – a year later he would do that to Sam Cooke, cutting him off in the middle of You Send Me. Aware that many white adults considered Domino a threat, Sullivan hid his band behind a curtain, reducing the number of black faces. He presented Domino alone at his piano singing as if he were a young Nat 'King' Cole or Fats Waller", and he "had Fats stand up during the last verse of the song to reveal his pudgy figure."

Broadway

The show is also noteworthy for showcasing performances from numerous classic Broadway musicals of the era. These include:

• West Side Story—Carol Lawrence and Larry Kert singing "Tonight"; the members of the Jets gang performing "Cool".

• My Fair Lady—Julie Andrews singing "I Could Have Danced All Night"' and "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?"; Rex Harrison performing "Why Can't the English?"; Stanley Holloway performing "With a Little Bit of Luck".

• Camelot—Richard Burton and Julie Andrews performing an extended scene including the title song and "What Do the Simple Folk Do?"; Robert Goulet singing "If Ever I Would Leave You" and "C'est Moi".

• Show Boat (New York City Center revival)—Andrew Frierson singing "Ol' Man River", and Carol Bruce, from the 1946 Broadway revival, singing "Bill".

• Carnival!—Anna Maria Alberghetti singing "Love Makes the World Go 'Round".

• Bye Bye Birdie—Dick Van Dyke singing "Put On A Happy Face".

• Oliver!—Georgia Brown singing "As Long as He Needs Me"; Davy Jones singing "Consider Yourself".

• Oklahoma!—John Raitt, Celeste Holm, Florence Henderson and Barbara Cook performing the title song; Celeste Holm performing "I Cain't Say No".

• Sweet Charity—Gwen Verdon performing "I'm A Brass Band".

• The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd—Anthony Newley singing "Who Can I Turn To?".

• Flower Drum Song—Pat Suzuki performing "I Enjoy Being a Girl".

• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes—Carol Channing singing "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend".

• Hair—the cast (including Melba Moore and co-authors Gerome Ragni and James Rado) performing "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In".

• Man of La Mancha—Richard Kiley singing "The Impossible Dream"; Joan Diener in a rare television appearance in her stage role as Aldonza/Dulcinea singing "What Do You Want of Me?".

• Hello, Dolly!—Pearl Bailey performing "Before the Parade Passes By" with the ensemble.

Most of these artists performed in the same makeup and costumes that they wore in the shows, often providing the only visual recordings of these legendary performances by the original cast members. Many have been compiled and released on DVD as The Best of Broadway Musicals—Original Cast Performances from The Ed Sullivan Show.

Mental illness program

In that same 1958 NEA interview, Sullivan noted his pride about the role that the show had had in improving the public's understanding of mental illness. Sullivan considered his May 17, 1953 telecast to be the single most important episode in the show's first decade. During that show, a salute to the popular Broadway director Joshua Logan, the two men were watching in the wings, and Sullivan asked Logan how he thought the show was doing. According to Sullivan, Logan told him that the show was dreadfully becoming "another one of those and-then-I-wrote shows"; Sullivan asked him what he should do about it, and Logan volunteered to talk about his experiences in a mental institution.

Sullivan took him up on the offer, and in retrospect believed that several advances in the treatment of mental illness could be attributed to the resulting publicity, including the repeal of a Pennsylvania law about the treatment of the mentally ill and the granting of funds for the construction of new psychiatric hospitals.

Controversies

On November 20, 1955, African-American rock 'n' roll singer and guitarist Bo Diddley appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show only to infuriate him ("I did two songs and he got mad"). Diddley had been asked to sing Tennessee Ernie Ford's hit "Sixteen Tons". But when he appeared on stage, he sang his #1 R&B hit "Bo Diddley". Diddley later recalls, "Ed Sullivan says to me in plain words: 'You are the first black boy—quote—that ever double crossed me!' I was ready to fight, because I was a little young dude off the streets of Chicago, an' him callin' me 'black' in them days was as bad as sayin' 'nigger'. My manager says to me 'That’s Mr Sullivan!' I said: 'I don’t give a shit about Mr Sullivan, [h]e don't talk to me like that!' An' so he told me, he says, 'I'll see that you never work no more in show business. You'll never get another TV show in your life!'" Indeed, Diddley seems to have been banned from further appearances, as "the guitarist never did appear on The Ed Sullivan Show again."

On October 18, 1964, Jackie Mason allegedly gave Sullivan the finger on air. A tape of the incident shows Mason doing his stand-up comedy act and then looking toward Sullivan, commenting that Sullivan was signaling him. Sullivan was reportedly telling Mason to wrap it up, since CBS was about to cut away to show a speech by President Lyndon Johnson. Mason began working his own fingers into his act and pointed toward Sullivan with his middle finger slightly separated. After Mason left the stage, the camera then cut to a visibly angry Sullivan. Sullivan argued with Mason backstage, then terminated his contract. Mason denied knowingly giving Sullivan the finger and later filed a libel suit. Sullivan publicly apologized to Mason when he appeared on the show two years later. At that time, Mason opened his monologue by saying "it is great to see all of you in person again." Mason dropped the lawsuit, but never appeared on the show again.

Bob Dylan was slated to make his first nationwide television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on May 12, 1963, and intended to perform "Talkin' John Birch Society Blues", a song he wrote lampooning the John Birch Society and the red-hunting paranoia associated with it. During the afternoon rehearsal that day, CBS officials told Dylan they had deemed the song unacceptable for broadcast and wanted him to substitute another. "No; this is what I want to do," Dylan responded. "If I can't play my song, I'd rather not appear on the show." He then left the studio, walking out on the stint.

The Doors were notorious for their appearance on the show. CBS network censors demanded that lead singer Jim Morrison change the lyrics to their hit single Light My Fire by altering the line, "Girl, we couldn't get much higher", before the band performed the song live on September 17, 1967. The lyric was to have been changed to, "Girl, we couldn't get much better". However, Morrison sang the original line, and on live television with no delay, CBS was powerless to stop it. A furious Sullivan refused to shake the band members' hands, and they were never invited back to the show. According to Ray Manzarek, the band was told "Mr. Sullivan liked you boys. He wanted you on six more times. ... You'll never do the Sullivan show again"; Morrison replied with glee, "We just did the Sullivan show." —at the time, an appearance was a hallmark of success. Manzarek claims the band agreed with the producer beforehand but had no intention of altering the line.

In contrast, the Rolling Stones were instructed to change the title of their "Let's Spend the Night Together" single for the band's January 15, 1967 appearance. The band complied, with Mick Jagger ostentatiously rolling his eyes heavenward whenever he reached the song's one-night-only, clean refrain, "Let's spend some time together". In revenge, the Stones went backstage, and came out on stage, dressed in Nazi uniforms with Swastikas, which caused an angry Sullivan to tell them to change back into their performing outfits, however, the Stones left the studio, and Sullivan declared that he would never again allow the Stones to ever appear on his show again. (Source: "Dick Clark's 25 years of Rock and Roll", published in 1981.) However, Diana Ross & the Supremes, frequent guests on Sullivan's show, performed their then-release and eventual controversial #1 hit song "Love Child" on Sullivan's show, but nothing about its title or its content about a woman in poverty having a child out of wedlock seemed to faze Ed or its producers, or the network.

Parodies

The show's immense popularity has been the target of numerous parodies. These include:

• Numerous music videos, such as Billy Joel's "Tell Her About It", Nirvana's "In Bloom", Outkast's "Hey Ya!" and the Red Hot Chili Peppers's "Dani California", have all parodied the Sullivan Show style of performance
• Rain: The Beatles Experience opens their concerts with prerecorded footage of a man doing an intentionally poor Sullivan impression in black and white and then introducing the band, which plays the first part of the show with an exact recreation of the set the Beatles used.
• All You Need Is Cash (1978), a mockumentary about a fictional group, The Rutles. The film contains original footage of Sullivan introducing The Beatles with some audio redubbed for comedic effect.
• The Fab Four, a Beatles tribute act hosted by an Ed Sullivan impressionist.
• Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp, a children's live-action TV series with a cast of chimpanzees dubbed by actors' speaking voices. One of the characters is "Ed Simian", a parody of Sullivan.
• Will Jordan, best known for his uncanny impersonation of Sullivan as the show's host.
• On an episode of The Colgate Comedy Hour, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis did a parody called The Toast of the Colgate Town, with Lewis wearing fake teeth and slicked-back hair as "Ed Solomon".
• In the episode "Harry Canary" in the animated series Dumb and Dumber, it was named "The Earvin Mulligan Show" as Lloyd's family were performing in the late 60s as "The Happy Dunne Family".
• The first episode of the Late Show with David Letterman on Aug. 30, 1993 featured clips of Ed Sullivan spliced together to make it look as though he was introducing host David Letterman. Since moving to CBS from NBC, Letterman has taped his show in the Ed Sullivan Theatre, the studio where Sullivan also taped his program.
• The Tom Hanks-directed film That Thing You Do! has the Beatles-esque band The Wonders performing in The Hollywood Television Showcase, complete with a caption over the band's lead singer similar to Lennon's "Sorry Girls! He's Engaged!" The scene was shot at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, which Sullivan used for his West Coast shows.
• The 1960s animated television series The Flintstones once featured a parody of Sullivan as "Ed Sulleyrock/Sulleystone".
• Gabe Kaplan did a comedy skit in the 1970s, that had him impersonate a drunken Ed Sullivan on his final show, where he was nasty with nobody coming out to cooperate with him, and finally saying good night to the audience.
• The 1994 film "Pulp Fiction" features a scene in a 50's-60's-themed restaurant where an unknown actor does an incredible imitation of Ed Sullivan introducing acts.

References

• Garner, Joe (2002). Stay Tuned: Television's Unforgettable Moments. Andrews McMeel Publishing, ISBN 0-7407-2693-5
• Kaplan, Fred (February 6, 2004). "Teen Spirit: What Was So Important About the Beatles' Appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show?". Slate Magazine.

External links

• The Ed Sullivan Show at the Museum of Broadcast Communications
• The Ed Sullivan Show at IMDb
• The Ed Sullivan Show at AllMovie
• The Ed Sullivan Show at TV Guide
• Template:Tv.com
• Sofa Entertainment
• Ed Sullivan: 40 Incredible Guests—a slideshow by Life magazine