March 1971…The End Of An Era: Ed Sullivan Canceled By CBS
March 1971…The End Of An Era: Ed Sullivan Canceled By CBS
Ed Sullivan began with CBS in 1948, when he was hired to host their first variety show endeavor called “Toast of the Town,” which debuted on June 20, 1948. Sullivan assembled a show for the launch that included the budding comedy act of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Rodgers and Hammerstein, a pianist, a ballerina, a troupe of crooning firemen and a boxing referee whose next assignment was the much anticipated Joe Louis – Jersey Joe Wolcott match the next week.
The first five years of the show came from the first theater CBS had converted for television, The Maxine Elliott Theater, which was designated Studio 51. Still titled “Toast of the Town,” the show moved from Studio 51 to Studio 50 in January of 1953. At the start of the eight season, on September 18,1955, the program was renamed “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
I don’t have to tell you how much history was made on this show, because you already know. Everyone does, but…
Towards the end of the show’s 23 year run, with the country divided by the Vietnam War and polarizing values, the show’s format had lost much of it’s wide range of demographic appeal. In it’s heydays, Sullivan and company had owned the 8 o’clock Sunday night slot, and although occasionally someone could beat their ratings, like “Maverik” or “The Steve Allen Show”, Sullivan always came back. By this time though, counter programming from NBC’s “Wonderful World Of Disney,” and ABC’s “The FBI,” were gaining on the show.
When producer Bob Precht got the call from CBS president Bob Wood, he was in an edit session. When Wood delivered the news, it wasn’t a total surprise to Precht, but it was to Sullivan who did not take the news well.
Bob called Ed at his Delmonico suite with the news and Ed took it as yet another example of the network’s lack of respect for him. “Well I’ll be a son of a bitch…after all I’ve done for the network over the years”, was Ed’s reply.
Precht (who is also Sullivan’s son in law) had already been reading some of the handwriting on the wall. When CBS did not renew “The Red Skelton Show” and canceled “The Jackie Gleason Show” in 1970, that was a warning signal, but around the same time Ed’s show was canceled, so was “The Beverly Hillbillies”, “Green Acres”, “Petticoat Junction” and “Hee Haw”. It was the CBS “rural purge” that was based on the idea of dumping the older, less affluent demographic and shooting more for the younger demo that advertisers would pay more for.
Unfortunately, there is a more heartbreaking side to the story. In what is a very personal and difficult topic for many of us that have experienced the effects of dementia with a loved one, the Sullivan show family was there too.
Edward Vincent Sullivan died October 13, 1974, at New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital. His funeral was attended by 3,000 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, on a cold, rainy day. Sullivan is interred in a crypt at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.
Although gone, as long as there is such a thing as television and people to study its history…he will never be forgotten. Long Live The King! -Bobby Ellerbee
When CBS canceled the regular Sunday night show, they did give Ed several specials the following season. A 23 year run for a prime-time entertainment show – better than Gunsmoke or Law & Order – is nothing to complain about. And he had a career in radio and as a newspaper columnist going back before television.
Seen the picture and thought that was Richard Nixon at first. lol
Excellent.
I did that show with The University of Georgia Men’s Glee Club on June 30, 1957. It remains a strong memory.
He had a great run, and was an early icon of television. That can never be cancelled.
I remember right before the show was cancelled, CBS was airing commercials for it that showed majestic vistas, towering mountains, thundering waterfalls, while a choir sung “Ed Sullivan! Ed Sullivan! Ed Sullivan!” Even as a kid, it seemed a strange thing to do in the run up to giving the show the axe.
June 20,1948-June 6,1971:)
It is one of the great tragedies in Television history that the CBS Television Network, the “Tiffany” Network, heartlessly cancelled his show. Could you imagine the ratings had there been a farewell show? It might easily have been one of the highest rated Television shows of all time.
He was the most unlikely person to host a variety show but it worked. I had a friend who worked as the Show’s script supervisor for many years. He said that Ed never got to know his name.
My first job in the TV industry was as a CBS page. I served as an usher at the Ed Sullivan theater on his shows and What’s My Line. I was also a Desk Assistant for Walter Cronkite during the 1968 Elections. Nice introduction to the business.
I grew up watching this show with my parents every Sunday night. I still remember the first appearance of Joan Rivers, Elvis, and the Beatles like it was yesterday.
I grew up with Ed Sullivan. We were exposed to such a great variety of talent and entertainment through shows like his. Kids today don’t get this type of exposure. Everything is in a box. I only like this or that. They don’t know about jazz or theater or classical music. They don’t know about the various types of dance. Even the acts like jugglers and magicians and acrobatic performers are just not seen. There was also such a wide variety of comedians, they may not have been politically correct but at least a family could listen to them and not be embarrassed by what came out of their foul mouths like today. They were so much better than today.
Thank you for researching and posting these great stories of the early years of TV!
What year is this photo?
Strange. Maybe it’s because I was only a kid when the show went off the air, but I don’t recall him being in any way senile, but I do remember thinking how in the world could CBS take the show off? That, and being on a car trip with my folks what seemed (to me) only a few short years later and hearing on the radio that he’d died.
Not being able to do a proper farewell show was also a heartless move. It would have easily won the ratings for the night, if not the year. Ed Sullivan deserved better than the treatment he received by CBS’s managers in his final days there.
there are those who suggest Mr. Sullivan would end his days with dementia.