Guide Note: When former syndicated news columnist Ed Sullivan was asked on the air by Jack Benny, "What do you do on this show, he replied, "I introduce the acts." Every Sunday night for 24 years, families gathered around the television set to watch the awkward and fumbling Sullivan introduce jugglers, opera, ballet, lions and tigers and bears, singers, comediennes, pupetteers, ventriloquists... and eventually Rock Stars. As the longest running variety show in the history of television, it became a Sunday night institution.
Fast Facts:
- Network: CBS
- First Aired: June 20, 1948
- Number of Seasons: 24
- Starring: Ed Sullivan
- Genre: Variety
- No tape exists of his first show for which the talent budget was $375. ($200 went to Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis)
- The only video of Richard Burton and Julie Andrews Camelot performance is from the Sullivan stage