History Series / TheEdSullivanShow

* HairTriggerTemper: While a kind man, Ed was also known for having a fiery temper and could hold a grudge for a long time when he felt he'd been slighted or betrayed, a fact he owned up to, and a few acts were never invited back if they got on his bad side. One biographer described him as having "an Irish temper and thin skin".
* 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 Milton Berle on NBC) on a minuscule budget and with the provision that Sullivan could be replaced at any point; this is why the show was called ''Toast of the Town'' for the first few years. In fact, after negative criticisms of Sullivan's stiff hosting scared off their first sponsor Emerson, CBS tried to sell the show to sponsors "with or without Sullivan", though they relented after being confronted by a very angry Sullivan.

* BerserkButton: Ed did ''not'' take kindly to any inappropriate behavior on air or guests doing anything they were strictly told not to do. Music/TheDoors were never asked back after Jim Morrison sang a lyric in "Light My Fire" he was asked to change but claimed to forget about, while Sullivan had a famous feud with Jackie Mason after a miscommunication which led him to believe Mason was [[FlippingTheBird giving him the finger]] on air, with Mason even suing Sullivan over the issue.

* BerserkButton: Ed did ''not'' take kindly to any inappropriate behavior on air or guests doing anything they were strictly told not to do. ''Music/TheDoors'' were never asked back after Jim Morrison sang a lyric in "Light My Fire" he was asked to change but claimed to forget while Ed had a famous feud with Jackie Mason after a miscommunication which led him to believe Mason was [[FlippingTheBird giving him the finger]] on air, with Mason even suing Ed over the issue.

The show's legacy continues in another way: Studio 50, the converted Manhattan theater from which most of its episodes emanated, was officially rechristened the Ed Sullivan Theater in 1967, and it has since gone on to serve as a home for such other CBS series as ''Series/TheLateShowWithDavidLetterman'' and ''Series/TheLateShowWithStephenColbert''.

* LongRunners: The show lasted for 23 years (1948-1971) and within the series, the Canadian comedy duo, Series/WayneAndShuster, appeared ''67'' times.

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. Studio 50, the converted Manhattan theater from which most of ''The Ed Sullivan Show''[='s=] episodes emanated, was officially rechristened the Ed Sullivan Theater in 1967. It has since gone on to serve as a home for such CBS series as ''Series/TheLateShowWithDavidLetterman'' and ''Series/TheLateShowWithStephenColbert''.

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.

A television VarietyShow, hosted by ''New York Daily News'' theater columnist Ed Sullivan, that was required Sunday-night 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.

It is best remembered for the numerous rock music acts it featured, particularly Music/ElvisPresley and Music/TheBeatles, as well as its comedy and novelty acts such as Series/WayneAndShuster. And it played a key role in the early history of Franchise/TheMuppets, as one of a number of shows that featured Creator/JimHenson's creations prior to ''Series/SesameStreet'' and ''Series/TheMuppetShow''.

It is best remembered for the numerous rock music acts it featured, particularly Music/ElvisPresley and Music/TheBeatles, as well as its comedy and novelty acts such as Series/WayneAndShuster. And it played a key role in the early history of Franchise/TheMuppets, as one of a number of shows that featured Creator/JimHenson's creations prior to ''Series/SesameStreet''.

It is best remembered for the numerous rock music acts it featured, particularly Music/ElvisPresley and Music/TheBeatles, as well as its comedy and novelty acts such as Series/WayneAndShuster. And it played a key role in the early history of Franchise/TheMuppets, as one of a number of shows that featured Creator/JimHenson's creations.

It is best remembered for the numerous rock music acts it featured, particularly Music/ElvisPresley and Music/TheBeatles, as well as its comedy and novelty acts such as Series/WayneAndShuster. And it played a key role in the early history of Franchise/TheMuppets, as one of the several shows that featured Jim Henson's creations.

* 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.

* {{Muppet}}: Creator/JimHenson and company made several appearances in the show's later years, and one of Henson's first full-length Muppet productions, ''[[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Great_Santa_Claus_Switch The Great Santa Claus Switch]]'', was produced as a SomethingCompletelyDifferent episode of the Sullivan show in 1970.

* {{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 below, Music/TheDoors were also asked to changed the lyrics of "Light My Fire", but didn't.

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

As usual, you can find the basics at [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ed_Sullivan_Show The Other Wiki]] and at [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040053/ IMDB]].

* {{Muppet}}: Creator/JimHenson made several appearances in the show's later years, and one of Henson's first full-length Muppet productions, ''[[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Great_Santa_Claus_Switch The Great Santa Claus Switch]]'', was produced as a SomethingCompletelyDifferent episode of the Sullivan show in 1970.

A long-running VarietyShow, hosted by ''New York Daily News'' theater columnist Ed Sullivan, that was required Sunday-night viewing on American television 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.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ed_sullivan.jpg]]

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

Briefly revived in the 1990s as ''The Virtual Ed Sullivan Show'', with a CGI recreation of its famous host a la ''Series/MaxHeadroom''.

[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ed_sullivan.jpg]]

* BroadcastLive: With the exception of the occasional film clip or short subject, it was all live every Sunday at 8 pm Eastern for most of the run, though toward then end he relied more on pre-recorded segments. The introductions of celebrities in the audience were often pre-taped as well.

* {{Malaproper}}: Particularly with first time guests, Ed was known to mangle the introductions. For example, the first time the Muppets appeared, he introduced them as "Jim Newsom's Puppets".

It is best remembered for the numerous rock music acts it featured, particularly Music/ElvisPresley and Music/TheBeatles, as well as its comedy and novelty acts. And it played a key role in the early history of Franchise/TheMuppets, as one of the several shows that featured Jim Henson's creations.

* BroadcastLive: With the exception of the occasional film clip or short subject, it was all live every Sunday at 8 pm Eastern.

* CoolOldGuy: Ed himself. He was already in his sixties when Music/TheBeatles first appeared on his program in February 1964. 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.

** EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The puppets that were to evolve into [[Series/SesameStreet Cookie Monster and Grover]] made their earliest appearances in these skits; the former as a generic monster who devours an advanced computer piece-by-piece, and the latter as a minor villain in a Christmas sketch. ''The Great Santa Claus Switch'' debuts [[Series/TheMuppetShow The Great Gonzo]] also as a minor villain.

** EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The puppets that were to evolve into [[Series/SesameStreet Cookie Monster and Grover,]] and [[Series/TheMuppetShow The Great Gonzo]] made their earliest appearances in these skits; the former as a generic monster who devours an advanced computer piece-by-piece, and the latter as a minor villain in a Christmas sketch. ''The Great Santa Claus Switch'' debuts [[Series/TheMuppetShow The Great Gonzo]] also as a minor villain.