Editing The Ed Sullivan Show (section)

==History==
[[File:Ed Sullivan Cole Porter Toast of the Town 1952.JPG|thumb|right|Ed Sullivan with [[Cole Porter]] in 1952.]]
[[File:Carmen Miranda and Ed Sullivan, 13 September 1953.JPG|thumb|[[Carmen Miranda]] and [[Ed Sullivan]] on ''Toast of the Town'', 1953.]]
From 1948 until its cancellation in 1971, the show ran on [[CBS]] every Sunday night from 8–9 p.m. [[Eastern Time Zone|Eastern Time]], and it is one of the few entertainment shows to have run in the same weekly time slot on the same network for more than two decades (during its first season, it ran from 9 to 10 p.m. ET). Virtually every type of entertainment appeared on the show; classical musicians, [[opera]] singers, popular recording artists, songwriters, comedians, [[ballet]] dancers, dramatic actors performing [[monologues]] from plays, and [[Circus (performing art)|circus]] acts were regularly featured. The format was essentially the same as [[vaudeville]] and, although vaudeville had undergone a slow demise for a generation, Sullivan presented many ex-vaudevillians on his show.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.edsullivan.com/show-history |title=History of the Ed Sullivan Show  |website=Edsullivan.com |date=1964-02-09 |access-date=2016-10-28}}</ref>

Originally co-created and produced by [[Marlo Lewis]], the show was first titled '''''Toast of the Town''''', but was widely referred to as ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' for years before September 25, 1955, when that became its official name. In the show's June 20, 1948, debut, [[Dean Martin]] and [[Jerry Lewis]] performed along with singer [[Monica Lewis]] and [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] composers [[Richard Rodgers]] and [[Oscar Hammerstein II]] previewing the score to their then-new show ''[[South Pacific (musical)|South Pacific]]'', which opened on Broadway in 1949.

From 1948 through 1962, the program's primary sponsor was the [[Mercury (automobile)|Lincoln-Mercury Division]] of the [[Ford Motor Company]]; Sullivan read many commercials for Mercury vehicles live on the air during this period.

''The Ed Sullivan Show'' was originally broadcast via [[live television]] from CBS-TV Studio 51, the [[Maxine Elliott Theatre]], at [[Broadway (Manhattan)|Broadway]] and 39th Street, before moving to its permanent home at CBS-TV Studio 50 in New York City (1697 Broadway, at 53rd Street), which was renamed the [[Ed Sullivan Theater]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.edsullivan.com/ed-sullivan-theater |title=Ed Sullivan Theater &#124; Ed Sullivan Show |website=Edsullivan.com |access-date=2016-10-28}}</ref> on the occasion of the program's 20th anniversary in June 1968. The last original Sullivan show telecast (#1068) was on March 28, 1971, with guests [[Melanie Safka|Melanie]], [[Joanna Simon (singer)|Joanna Simon]], [[Danny Davis (country musician)|Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass]] and [[Sandler and Young]]. It was one of many older shows with followings in undesirable [[key demographic]]s that were [[rural purge|purged from the network lineups]] that summer. The purge led into the [[Prime Time Access Rule]] taking effect that fall. Repeats were scheduled through June 6, 1971.