Television Variety Shows

Variety shows were the staple of American television in the early days, and if you could say that television variety shows have a "father," that father would have to be Ed Sullivan. The first airing of "The Ed Sullivan Show" was on June 20, 1948, and the last program to air was on June 6, 1971. That's 23 YEARS, folks — about five lifetimes in the world of television entertainment.

The program was first aired under the name "The Toast of the Town," but everybody simply called it the "Ed Sullivan Show," so the name was changed in 1955.

The very formal (and stiff) Ed Sullivan was the emcee. Ed had been a boxer in his early years, so when he jumped into the media ring, it was as a sports writer. He was good at his job, and he proved that he had a lot of other hidden talent as well over the years. In 1948 CBS hired him to host a new variety show that was scheduled to be aired on Sunday nights.

Ed Sullivan was called "Old Stone Face," and the columnist Harriet Van Horne wrote that, "he got where he is not by having a personality, but by having no personality." Whatever! It certainly worked well for Mr. Sullivan, and the impressionists had a ball with exaggerating his stiffness, raised shoulders, and nasal tenor phrasing. They loved to imitate his introductions, such as "And now, right here on our stage..." and "For all you youngsters out there..." and "...really big shoe..." which only added to his popularity.

There have been a lot of variety shows on television over the years, although right now they seem to be out of vogue. The closest thing we have on television right now that even remotely resembles the variety shows of old is "America's Got Talent."