The Ed Sullivan Show - Parodies

Parodies

The show's immense popularity has been the target of numerous parodies. These include:

• Numerous music videos, such as Billy Joel's "Tell Her About It" (Featuring Will Jordan as Sullivan), Nirvana's "In Bloom", Outkast's "Hey Ya!" and the Red Hot Chili Peppers's "Dani California", have all parodied the Sullivan Show style of performance
• RAIN – A Tribute to The Beatles open their concerts with prerecorded footage of a man doing an intentionally poor Sullivan impression in black and white and then introducing the band, which plays the first part of the show with an exact recreation of the set the Beatles used.
• All You Need Is Cash (1978), a mockumentary about a fictional group, The Rutles. The film contains original footage of Sullivan introducing The Beatles with some audio redubbed for comedic effect.
• The Fab Four, a Beatles tribute act hosted by an Ed Sullivan impressionist.
• One of the characters in Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp, a children's live action TV series with a cast of chimpanzees dubbed by actors' speaking voices), is "Ed Simian", a parody of Sullivan.
• Will Jordan, best known for his uncanny impersonation of Sullivan as the show's host.
• Comedian George Carlin included a routine titled Ed Sullivan Self Taught on his 1972 album FM & AM.
• On an episode of The Colgate Comedy Hour, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis did a parody called The Toast of the Colgate Town, with Lewis wearing fake teeth and slicked-back hair as "Ed Solomon".
• In the episode "Harry Canary" in the animated series Dumb and Dumber, it was named "The Earvin Mulligan Show" as Lloyd's family were performing in the late 60s as "The Happy Dunne Family".
• The first episode of the Late Show with David Letterman on Aug. 30, 1993 featured clips of Ed Sullivan spliced together to make it look as though he was introducing host David Letterman. Since moving to CBS from NBC, Letterman has taped his show in the Ed Sullivan Theatre, the studio where Sullivan also staged his program.
• The Tom Hanks-directed film That Thing You Do! has the Beatles-esque band The Wonders performing in The Hollywood Television Showcase, complete with a caption over the band's lead singer similar to Lennon's "Sorry Girls! He's Engaged!" The scene was shot at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, which Sullivan used for his West Coast shows.
• The 1954 film White Christmas features a pivotal scene that occurs on "The Ed Harrison Show", which was intentionally similar to Sullivan's show.
• The 1960s animated television series The Flintstones once featured a parody of Sullivan as "Ed Sulleyrock/Sulleystone".
• Gabe Kaplan did a comedy skit in the 1970s (also featured on his 1974 album Holes and Mellow Rolls), that had him impersonate a drunken Ed Sullivan on his final show, being nasty in general, and finally saying good night to the audience.
• The 1994 film "Pulp Fiction" features a scene in a 50's-60's-themed restaurant where Jerome Patrick Hoban does an imitation of Ed Sullivan introducing acts.