The Ed Sullivan Show

Since the late 1940’s, television has been a staple in American culture. A show that was very important in American television history is The Ed Sullivan Show, created by Ed Sullivan and Marlo Lewis in 1948. The show lasted until 1971, making it the longest running variety show in history and the twenty-fourth longest running show in primetime history. The show aired on CBS from 8:00-9:00 pm after being filmed in what was eventually named, The Ed Sullivan Theater. The Ed Sullivan Show lasted as long as it did because it was able to target all audiences in the hour show, which was one of the first television programs truly to do so. It was cancelled in 1971 because of the technological advances of television which made any television program available to anyone, at any time. Although other variety shows have been incredibly popular, The Ed Sullivan Show is the most important variety show to date because of its appeal to all ages. An agreeable argument is that both the Milton Berle Show and The Steve Allen show had great talents and success as variety shows. The Milton Berle show was started in 1948 by host Milton Berle, who became one of the most famous television show hosts ever. His nickname developed into “Mr. Television” because of how great a host he was. The show aired originally on the radio and then the idea of the public use of television sparked its television debut. Milton Berle was so successful as host, which is evident in the fact that while on the radio, the show went through four different hosts before it reached him, and then did not change after that point1-6. Another variety show that showed great success on television was The Steve Allen Show. The show debuted many impressive new acts of all kinds. Steve Allen himself was “innovative, funny, and whimsical”2-15, which made him apart of the show with jokes and comedy skits. His talents helped the show tremendously. The show’s comedy talents were so famous that a few years after the show was