Ed Sullivan Show Research Paper

Peoples of various countries around the world during the 1940’s spent countless hours tuned into to their radio for news, entertainment, and inspiration; the popularization of television sets was given immense cursory due to this. With the rise of television came heartwarming comedies, such as The Andy Griffith Show, thrilling episodic shows, such as Twilight Zone, and prime time variety shows, such as the wildly popular Ed Sullivan Show. These variety shows featured countless up and coming rock and roll performers and catapulted them into the hearts and minds of the American public.

While television was an extreme influence on the rising popularity of many rock and roll stars, radio performances did not go away. In actuality, these exposures

Stars and starlets such as Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, The Doors, even Zippy the Chimp, and many more made appearances on the show. The show ran in both black and white and in color; it truly created stars overnight and pioneered its genre. The Beatles performed their live American debut on this show. The Jackson 5 performed as well. It is almost as if Sullivan has a hand in every bit of the rise of many of our favorite classic rock musicians. Every Sunday night, over half of the total television viewers would be glued to their sets, ready to experience the new delights Sullivan wished to share this week. Viewing the show’s “Parody” section of its wikipedia page is enough to convince anyone of the tremendous impact of this show on present day media. How, one may ask, did Sullivan specifically influence the public? He seems to have had the perfect mix: a devoted audience, connections to up and coming performers, and a coveted time slot. Nevertheless, it was not without incident. For example: Bo Diddley appeared on the show and was to sing “Sixteen Tons”; however, he decided to play his own song, “Bo Diddley,” which was a smash

This show was controversial and satirical, thusly, it got cancelled after only three seasons - or seventy-two episodes. The modern-day ‘claim to fame’ that arose from this show took place on September 17, 1967. One of the most influential bands of the 20th century, the Who, infamous for their destructive tendencies towards instruments, planted explosives in the kick drum during rehearsal; however, said explosives were not used during rehearsal. Because of this, the drum had double the power during the real show— so much so, the show got literally knocked off the air for a few moments. Pete Townshend, vocalist and guitarist, attributed his 90% hearing loss to this incident. This series over-all was another great influencer and teleported the sounds of rock to American households. Possibly the opposite end of the spectrum, The Dinah Shore Show was a very short, live variety show. It debuted on November 27th, 1951. The show was praised for its simplicity, and it quickly expanded into an hour long show of nearly the same name: The Dinah Shore Chevy Show. Though the show only aired in 15 minutes blocks, many guest stars made appearances, including Fred Waring, Kitty Kallen, and Gene Nelson! When the show transitioned to The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, it attracted many more guests, such as Groucho Marx, Roy Rogers, and many others. It also increased to 1 hour long, creating more time for rock and