Cheap Ed Sullivan Presents the Beatles (DVD) (Tim Kiley, Kenneth Whelan, John Moffitt, John Wray (II)) Price

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Customer Reviews of Ed Sullivan Presents the Beatles

I can't believe that some other reviewers are complaining about the inclusion of all the other Sullivan acts and the commercials. First, did they even READ the Amazon.com description of the product?? ["A great concept: The Beatles appeared four times on CBS' The Ed Sullivan Show, and while one is tempted to skip through this collection to watch only the Fab Four's 20 performances, there is historic value in seeing Sullivan's complete programs."]

Second, if you're a die-hard Beatles fan THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT. Every single live Beatles performance aired from the stages of the Ed Sullivan show, placed within the context of the original airings. And none of the performances truncated, as they are on many other collections and in subsequent television airings.

And, guess what? With the wonderful state-of-the-art, cutting-edge technology of DVD, if you don't like the other performances you can go right to the Beatles songs directly from the menu. No fast forwarding! ISN'T TECHNOLOGY WONDERFUL?? Hey, hey! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!!!

A few words of advice: Buy it. Now. The Beatles, unlike the people running the Elvis Presley enterprise, are notorious for being concerned about the amount of product on the market. You never know when something of theirs will go out of print, or how long it will take to come back into print. (Remember the long-gone "Rock and Roll Music" and "Love Songs" albums ... or the many years that "Live at the BBC" was out of print?) Yes, I know it's a SOFA production and not Apple, but who knows how much Apple's blessing had to do with this DVD's appearance on the market?

And just what have some people got against Soupy Sales doing "The Mouse" anyway???"

Ed and the Beatles live on!!!
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of receiving my copy of this marvelous, long-awaited DVD from another retailer, and boy, am I glad it's in my library. (I'm getting another copy soon since one of the discs is unplayable...boo hoo).

Here for your viewing pleasure are four episodes of the "Ed Sullivan Show" from February 1964 (3) and September 1965 (1) featuring the Fab Four in all their early chart-making glory (20 songs), along with other great acts such as Cilla Black, Allen and Rossi, Mr. Acker Bilk, Gordon and Sheila MacRae, Cab Calloway, Soupy Sales, and others.

These are the complete one-hour shows as originally broadcast in glorious black and white...with classic commercials for Anacin, Pillsbury, Lipton Tea, and others.

Too bad that the TV variety show genre is virtually non-existent (except for American Idol). This is a glorious trip back to a time when we had wholesome, family-oriented programming - in stark contrast to the junk that we're currently viewing.

PILSBURY PUSH BUTTON CAKE DECORATOR !
I give it 5 stars just for the ads alone! I'd already seen the Beatle footage over the years, most of the other acts were very ordinary with the exceptions of Soupy Sales, Morecombe and Wise, Cab Calloway, and Acker Bilk. The ads make the buying of this DVD worthwhile. My favorites were the silly 1965 Lipton Ice Tea ad with George Fenneman in the little boat, the Stepfordish 1964 Lipton ad with the wife making her husband a cup of tea in the creepiest looking kitchen I've seen, and of course the cute "Pilsbury Push Button Cake Decorator" ad from the second show. If Pilsbury made and sold products in Australia I would have bought one just because I like the old commercial so much. Who said old advertising doesn't work? But seriously, that's what I personally like about this set, buy it yourself, even if you don't like ads or whatever. You can always skip thru them, they couldn't back in the 60's.