Elvis, the Beatles, Barbra, Liza, puppets with acerbic views of life, acrobats, jugglers, everything old school vaudeville, Broadway shows, rock stars, all coming to life for decades in a show that still amazes audiences today when it pops up in frequent reruns. Ed Sullivan got a song in a Broadway show, "Bye Bye Birdie", where Paul Lynde and his family sang a homage to him about their adoration for Sunday Evenings of simple, well-rounded entertainment. The king of the variety show, Ed Sullivan has been imitated and spoofed for years, long even after his death, appearing as himself in a few movies (including "Bye Bye Birdie" and "The Singing Nun"), yet beloved even by those who weren't around when these shows first aired.
While the seemingly square Ed Sullivan had influence going back years, long before changes in music had stuffy adults claiming, "Rock and roll has got to go!", that didn't stop him from changing with the times. If there was a new group coming out that was getting attention, they always ended up on his show. He never made his feelings about these groups known, although with performers like Elvis, filming them from above the waste to avoid allegedly explicit visuals and censorship issues. This was the basis for the spoof of Conrad Birdie in the Broadway hit, and even the homage to Ed got on the air, presented sweetly and not all with an air of ego.
It's the Broadway clips I remember from re-runs of the show, whether the original casts of "The King & I", "My Fair Lady", "West Side Story" and "Camelot", or flops like "Pipe Dream", "I Had a Ball!" and "Gantry" late in the show's run. If Ed went to see a Broadway show, it was certain as apple pie as the all American desert that an invitation would be made to the producers and cast to get the show to perform on TV. Not every show became a hit because of an appearance on his show, but many of them had longer runs than they would have had they not been there. With over 20 years of episodes sitting out there, a treasure trove of entertainment awaits, whether it be forgotten acrobatic acts or puppeteers or superstar girl groups like the Supremes. Opening up the vaults to bring out the tired, the forgotten, the obscure, and showing modern audiences what American culture has been all about. Sometimes re-discovery can prove that everything old is new again.
While the seemingly square Ed Sullivan had influence going back years, long before changes in music had stuffy adults claiming, "Rock and roll has got to go!", that didn't stop him from changing with the times. If there was a new group coming out that was getting attention, they always ended up on his show. He never made his feelings about these groups known, although with performers like Elvis, filming them from above the waste to avoid allegedly explicit visuals and censorship issues. This was the basis for the spoof of Conrad Birdie in the Broadway hit, and even the homage to Ed got on the air, presented sweetly and not all with an air of ego.
It's the Broadway clips I remember from re-runs of the show, whether the original casts of "The King & I", "My Fair Lady", "West Side Story" and "Camelot", or flops like "Pipe Dream", "I Had a Ball!" and "Gantry" late in the show's run. If Ed went to see a Broadway show, it was certain as apple pie as the all American desert that an invitation would be made to the producers and cast to get the show to perform on TV. Not every show became a hit because of an appearance on his show, but many of them had longer runs than they would have had they not been there. With over 20 years of episodes sitting out there, a treasure trove of entertainment awaits, whether it be forgotten acrobatic acts or puppeteers or superstar girl groups like the Supremes. Opening up the vaults to bring out the tired, the forgotten, the obscure, and showing modern audiences what American culture has been all about. Sometimes re-discovery can prove that everything old is new again.