Product Description

Over 90 minutes of incredible talent - new footage and extended performances featuring: Louis Armstrong, Lucille Ball, The Beatles, James Brown, The Doors, Ella Fitzgerald, Jackson 5, Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, Barbra Streisand, The Supremes, Topo Gigio and many more!
In its 23-year run, The Ed Sullivan Show presented an incredible array of over 10,000 performers, including the most spectacular ensemble of stars in show business. From over 1,000 hours of classic television, THE VERY BEST OF THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW brings you some of the biggest names in comedy, Broadway, variety, rock and pop captured LIVE in the prime of their careers. This retrospective special originally aired on CBS to huge numbers (#2 highest rated special that year, second only to the Oscar® telecast).
Hosted by Carol Burnett.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12868 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-07-22
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 98 minutes

From the Back Cover
The greatest variety show in the history of television is now available on DVD for the first time. In its 23-year run, "The Ed Sullivan Show" presented an incredible array of over 10,000 performers, including the most spectacular ensemble of stars in show business. From over 1,000 hours of classic television, "The Very Best of the Ed Sullivan Show" brings you some of the biggest names in comedy, Broadway, variety, rock and pop captured LIVE in the prime of their careers.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic Retrospective--Part One!
This DVD highlights just a comparative few of the very special moments of the classic Ed Sullivan Show on television. It is a real treat to own and watch; the viewer plays and can replay a classic comedy routine by Jackie Gleason as well as countless novelty acts. Ed Sullivan exercised enormous control over the show and the result is quality entertainment. A very young Julie Andrews sings "I Could Have Danced All Night" from My Fair Lady during a episode in 1956. Sammy Davis Jr. and Ella Fitzgerald sing together in another wonderful clip. The Beatles. The Rolling Stones. Some of the clips are in black and white but it doesn't diminish the viewer's enjoyment one bit. The quality of earlier color video clips is not as good as I had wished it be but color tv wasn't up to today's quality standards at that time. Although the DVD show is 98 minutes long it goes by as if it were just a few minutes. Included is a rare interview with Ed Sullivan and his wife from 1958. I would strongly recommend this DVD as a BUY! for those who want to reminisce or for anyone who wants a splendid introduction to the talents of that time.

Made for the MTV crowd
I suspect the five-star reviews of this DVD were written by spammers working for the company that sells it.

These compendium DVDs are routinely made by stupid jackasses who figure our attention span is only 10 seconds (the MTVers) so there's no point in showing an entire performance. What we get here is Carol Burnett talking about Ed Sullivan and occasionally throwing out little snippets of the acts. We get only a few seconds of the comedians and novelty acts, though they sometimes provide a whole song, other times a fraction of the song. This format is so annoying I didn't much like the DVD.

An excellent collection of wonderful performances
The best thing about this DVD is that the performances shown appear in their entirety - not as excerpts! So many documentary collections just give you a portion of a performance. Also, the quality of the old films, especially the ones in color, is remarkable.