Toast of the Town
| The Ed Sullivan Show | |
|---|---|
Ed Sullivan
|
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| Also known as | Toast of the Town |
| Genre |
Variety Sketch Comedy |
| Presented by | Ed Sullivan |
| Narrated by |
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| Theme music composer | Ray Bloch |
| Opening theme | "Toast of the Town" |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 24 |
| No. of episodes | 1068 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Ed Sullivan |
| Producer(s) |
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| Location(s) |
Ed Sullivan Theater New York |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 48–50 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Picture format |
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| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | June 20, 1948 – June 6, 1971 (22 years, 11 months, and 17 days) |
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948, to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, a single season failure.
In 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 2013, the series finished No. 31 in TV Guide Magazine's 60 Best Series of All Time.
From 1948 until its cancellation in 1971, the show ran on CBS every Sunday night from 8–9 p.m. E.T., and is one of the few entertainment shows to have run in the same weekly time slot on the same network for more than two decades. (During its first season, it ran from 9 to 10 p.m. E.T.) 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.
Originally co-created and produced by Marlo Lewis, the show was first 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 singer Monica Lewis and Broadway composers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II previewing the score to their then-new show South Pacific, which opened on Broadway in 1949.
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