History Series / TheEdSullivanShow

A television VarietyShow, hosted by ''New York Daily News'' theater columnist Ed Sullivan, that was Sunday night appointment viewing in American homes for more than two decades. It aired on Creator/{{CBS}} as ''Toast of the Town'' from June 1948 to September 1955, and then as ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' until June 1971, when it fell victim to UsefulNotes/TheRuralPurge.

* ScatterbrainedSenior: It's been heavily speculated (and was outright claimed by Creator/JoanRivers) that Ed suffered from dementia in the final years of his life, struggling to remember names and failing to recognize Music/PaulMcCartney when the two met again in the early 1970s.

CBS aired several retrospective {{clip show}} specials in the '90s, and in 1998 Creator/{{UPN}} offered ''The Virtual Ed Sullivan Show'', with impressionist John Byner voicing a motion-captured CGI recreation of the host a la ''Series/MaxHeadroom'' and introducing various contemporary acts.

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: When Sullivan and producer Marlo Lewis first pitched the show to CBS in 1948, the network's reaction was rather lukewarm. They only picked up the show as a temporary stopgap (there were a lot of scheduling holes to fill in those early days of network TV and CBS wanted something to compete against the ''Series/TexacoStarTheater'' with Creator/MiltonBerle on Creator/{{NBC}}), on a minuscule budget and with the provision that Sullivan could be replaced as host at any point; this is why the show was called ''Toast of the Town'' for its first few years. In fact, after negative criticisms of Sullivan's stiff hosting scared off their first sponsor, Emerson Radio, CBS tried to sell the show to sponsors "with or without Sullivan", though they relented after being confronted by a very angry Sullivan.

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: When Sullivan and producer Marlo Lewis first pitched the show to CBS in 1948, the network's reaction was rather lukewarm. They only picked up the show as a temporary stopgap (there were a lot of scheduling holes to fill in those early days of network TV and CBS wanted something to compete against the ''Texaco Star Theater'' with Creator/MiltonBerle on Creator/{{NBC}}), on a minuscule budget and with the provision that Sullivan could be replaced as host at any point; this is why the show was called ''Toast of the Town'' for its first few years. In fact, after negative criticisms of Sullivan's stiff hosting scared off their first sponsor, Emerson Radio, CBS tried to sell the show to sponsors "with or without Sullivan", though they relented after being confronted by a very angry Sullivan.

* ScatterbrainedSenior: It's been heavily speculated and even claimed by Joan Rivers that Ed suffered from dementia in the final years of his life with him struggling to remember names and forgetting even Paul [=McCartney=] when the two met again in the early 1970's.

* WhamEpisode: Possibly the biggest ever when The Beatles were on.

* CoolOldGuy: Ed Sullivan himself. He was already in his sixties when Music/TheBeatles first appeared on his show in February 1964 (and he'd booked them even before they hit it big in America, after seeing how huge Beatlemania was in Britain when he made a visit there in late '63). He also gave national exposure to the likes of Creator/RichardPryor and Creator/GeorgeCarlin and featured other youth-friendly musical artists such as Music/TheRollingStonesBand, Music/TheMamasAndThePapas, Music/JeffersonAirplane, and Music/TheDoors (even if the latter were never invited back after Jim Morrison defied the censors' request not to sing "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" while performing "Light My Fire"). And even though Creator/JoanRivers and Music/BarbraStreisand aren't exactly considered "youthful" these days, they got a big career boost from appearing on Sullivan's show as young (or young''er'', in Rivers's case) showbiz upstarts in TheSixties.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: Music/TheRollingStonesBand were infamously forced to change the chorus of "Let's Spend the Night Together" to "Let's Spend Some Time Together".[[note]]A band called The L.A. Power & Light Company even capitalized on this by releasing "Let's Spend Some Time Together" as a single. It wasn't a hit, but, oddly, the instrumental version released as the BSide became a cult favorite among Northern {{Soul}} fans in England[[/note]] As mentioned above, Music/TheDoors were also asked to changed the lyrics of "Light My Fire", but didn't.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: Music/TheRollingStones were infamously forced to change the chorus of "Let's Spend the Night Together" to "Let's Spend Some Time Together".[[note]]A band called The L.A. Power & Light Company even capitalized on this by releasing "Let's Spend Some Time Together" as a single. It wasn't a hit, but, oddly, the instrumental version released as the BSide became a cult favorite among Northern {{Soul}} fans in England[[/note]] As mentioned above, Music/TheDoors were also asked to changed the lyrics of "Light My Fire", but didn't.

* CoolOldGuy: Ed Sullivan himself. He was already in his sixties when Music/TheBeatles first appeared on his show in February 1964 (and he'd booked them even before they hit it big in America, after seeing how huge Beatlemania was in Britain when he made a visit there in late '63). He also gave national exposure to the likes of Creator/RichardPryor and Creator/GeorgeCarlin and featured other youth-friendly musical artists such as Music/TheRollingStones, Music/TheMamasAndThePapas, Music/JeffersonAirplane, and Music/TheDoors (even if the latter were never invited back after Jim Morrison defied the censors' request not to sing "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" while performing "Light My Fire"). And even though Creator/JoanRivers and Music/BarbraStreisand aren't exactly considered "youthful" these days, they got a big career boost from appearing on Sullivan's show as young (or young''er'', in Rivers's case) showbiz upstarts in TheSixties.

* CoolOldGuy: Ed Sullivan himself. He was already in his sixties when Music/TheBeatles first appeared on his show in February 1964 (and he'd booked them even before they hit it big in America, after seeing how huge Beatlemania was in Britain when he made a visit there in late '63). He also gave national exposure to the likes of Creator/RichardPryor and Creator/GeorgeCarlin and featured other youth-friendly musical artists such as Music/TheRollingStones, Music/TheMamasAndThePapas, Music/JeffersonAirplane, and Music/TheDoors (even if the latter band was never invited back after Jim Morrison defied the censors' request not to sing "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" while performing "Light My Fire"). And even though Creator/JoanRivers and Music/BarbraStreisand aren't exactly considered "youthful" these days, they got a big career boost from appearing on Sullivan's show when they were young (or young''er'', in Rivers's case) upstarts in TheSixties.

* CoolOldGuy: Ed Sullivan himself. He was already in his sixties when Music/TheBeatles first appeared on his show in February 1964 (and he'd booked them even before they hit it big in America, after seeing how huge Beatlemania was in Britain when he made a visit there in late '63). He also gave national exposure to the likes of Creator/RichardPryor and Creator/GeorgeCarlin and featured youth-friendly musical artists such as Music/TheRollingStones, Music/TheMamasAndThePapas, Music/JeffersonAirplane, and Music/TheDoors (even if the latter band was never invited back after Jim Morrison defied the censors' request not to sing "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" while performing "Light My Fire"). And even though Creator/JoanRivers and Music/BarbraStreisand aren't exactly considered "youthful" these days, they got a big career boost from appearing on Sullivan's show when they were young (or young'''er''' in Rivers's case) upstarts in TheSixties.

* CoolOldGuy: Ed himself. He was already in his sixties when Music/TheBeatles first appeared on his show in February 1964 (and he'd booked them even before they hit it big in America, after seeing how huge Beatlemania was in Britain when he made a visit there in late '63). He also gave national exposure to the likes of Creator/RichardPryor and Creator/GeorgeCarlin and featured youth-friendly musical artists such as Music/TheRollingStones, Music/TheMamasAndThePapas, Music/JeffersonAirplane, and Music/TheDoors (even if the latter band was never invited back after Jim Morrison defied the censors' request not to sing "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" while performing "Light My Fire"). And even though Creator/JoanRivers and Music/BarbraStreisand aren't exactly considered "youthful" these days, they got a big career boost from appearing on Sullivan's show when they were young (or young'''er''' in Rivers's case) upstarts in TheSixties.

* CoolOldGuy: Ed himself. He was already in his sixties when Music/TheBeatles first appeared on his program in February 1964 (and he'd booked them even before they hit it big in America, after seeing how huge Beatlemania was in Britain when he made a visit there in late '63). He also gave national exposure to the likes of Creator/RichardPryor and Creator/GeorgeCarlin and featured youth-friendly musical artists such as Music/TheRollingStones, Music/TheMamasAndThePapas, Music/JeffersonAirplane, and Music/TheDoors (even if the latter band was never invited back after Jim Morrison defied the censors' request not to sing "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" while performing "Light My Fire"). And even though Creator/JoanRivers and Music/BarbraStreisand aren't exactly considered "youthful" these days, they got a big help by appearing on Sullivan's show when they were young (or young'''er''' in Rivers's case) upstarts in TheSixties.