The BEATLES on The Ed Sullivan Show DVD underappreciated?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Clark Kauffman, Jan 12, 2008.

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  1. audiodrome

    audiodrome Senior Member

    Location:
    North Of Boston
    It's amazing how polished and professional they were on the February 1964 shows compared to the downright sloppy and "casual" performance of September 1965, but at that point, it didn't matter anymore. I don't think too many other bands could have gotten away with that.
     
  2. Clark Kauffman

    Clark Kauffman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    With the 45th anniversary of the Feb. 9, 1964 show right around the corner, I thought I'd revive this thread and remind everyone that new copies of this fabulous, but now out-of-print, double-DVD set can still be purchased through Amazon sellers for as little as $7.

    Where else can you hear (and see) 20 live Beatles performances -- only one of which, "All My Loving," was released on the "Anthology" albums?

    This is just about my favorite archival release of Beatles material. I loved the "Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl" LP, and the "Live At The BBC" and "Anthology" albums, but I never get tired of this DVD... And, as someone else pointed out, it's a great companion piece to the "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" movie, which is available on DVD, too.
     

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  3. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    It's a great DVD, and it's simply insanely cool to be able to watch these shows. Do you know how many people I'd have killed to have something like this when I was a super-Beatlemaniac as a kid? I'll bet I'd have watched it everyday for six months back then - it's just wonderful!

    My review:

    http://www.dvdmg.com/edsullivanpresentsthebeatles.shtml
     
  4. Yes, there was a time when these were lost, except in the mists of one's Beatle fevered brain.

    Now, thankfully, they can be viewed again and again, I've done it myself. The '65 show is the one I like best.:help::thumbsup:
     
  5. Clark Kauffman

    Clark Kauffman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I think the stand-out performance on this set is the version of "I Saw Her Standing There" from the Feb. 9 show. For some reason, that particular performance never made it onto the "First U.S. Visit" video or any of the Ed Sullivan Show compilations, but it's incredible.

    Here are some photos of the 1965 rehearsal and performance, along with the cover of the ticket folder used by the show in the mid-1960s. (Oh, to have had tickets to that Feb. 9 show! Bbut then again, I was only 3 years old at the time...)
     

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  6. PhilCohen

    PhilCohen Forum Resident

    No, CBS didn't broadcast in color until 1966.
     
  7. Clark Kauffman

    Clark Kauffman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I'm not sure that's correct. I believe Sullivan himself announces at the end of the 1965 program with The Beatles that the next week's show would be broadcast live "from the coast" -- funny how they referred to California that way back in the 1960s! -- in color.
     
  8. Driver 8

    Driver 8 Senior Member

    I believe that the second season of Gilligan's Island began on CBS in Fall '65 - in color.
     
  9. Clark Kauffman

    Clark Kauffman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I know what you mean about how great it would have been to be able to watch these shows again and again back in the 1960s or 1970s.

    Back then, the best one could hope for would be the occasional CBS retrospective that would show a very brief clip of The Beatles' Feb. 9 appearance along with an annoying voice-over. (When I was a kid, I kept a tiny photo taken during the first 1964 show. It was clipped from an old issue of "Newsweek." And that was how I "experienced" the group's debut on American TV: a small still photo!)

    Until the 1980s, if you saw a really great TV special or variety show, you had to live with the fact that you'd likely never see it again except for a one-time rebroadcast later in the season. (Sure, syndication meant there were endless reruns of "Hazel" and other sitcoms, but the variety shows and specials were essentially one-time broadcasts.)

    Great review, by the way!
     
  10. Driver 8

    Driver 8 Senior Member

    This is so true. TV was so different back then, before VCRs, Tivo, and cable. If your favorite band was on Saturday Night Live, etc., you made sure to be in front of the TV to watch it, because you might never see it again. Same deal really even with ordinary TV shows.
     
  11. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
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    [​IMG]

    The camera shown in those shots was the Marconi Mark IV monochrome camera, which CBS began putting into their studios during the 1962-63 period when their aging RCA TK-10 and TK-11 cameras came up for replacement. While the Mark IV has received praise for the relatively clean picture the 4.5" image-orthicon tubes produced (vs. 3" I-O's in the RCA cameras), for CBS part of the factor was the fact that these new cameras weren't made by RCA. (Can anyone clue me in on which microphones were purchased by CBS when the RCA model 44BX's and 77DX's were retired?) This was also the factor when, after regular color TV production began in earnest in 1965 (with Sullivan being in that first wave), CBS went with Philips' "Norelco" PC-60 three-tube Plumbicon cameras (with some studios, notably the future Ed Sullivan Theatre, using Marconi's four-tube Mark VII color cameras for a short time).

    The Marconi Mark IV's were also used over at Television City in Hollywood for The Judy Garland Show. But that's for another thread.
     
  12. jgreen

    jgreen Well-Known Member

    Location:
    St. Louis,MO.
    I think it's overlooked because people seem to prefer the mid to late period Beatles and kind of look down on their early "love song" era. To me they may have equaled "She Loves You" but never surpassed it.
     
  13. jbg

    jbg Senior Member

    Location:
    SC

    Thanks Clark....I saw the shows when they happened back in the day and have seen the dvds but did not own a copy myself....until now. Just ordered it.:) I already have I Want To Hold Your Hand.
     
  14. drbryant

    drbryant Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Good idea to remind folks about this. It is an amazing DVD.

    I think I paid about $100 many years ago to get a beautiful footleg video of all of the performances. It's nice that its widely available now.
     
  15. Doug Sclar

    Doug Sclar Forum Legend

    Location:
    The OC
    I notice there are several different sets for sale on Amazon. The set I have has a gray cover and was from 2003, but there are other sets with different covers apparently from different years.

    Do they all have the same exact content?
     
  16. fabtrick

    fabtrick New Member

    Location:
    NorCal
    +1

    My brother has always wanted them to do some kind of synch up with a couple of the songs where John's mike seemed to be perpetually potted down, so you could actually hear john and paul singing together!

    Is it just me, or do those microphones look like the cheapo Mr. Microphone / karaoke pieces of junk from the 70's and 80's!?!
     
  17. Clark Kauffman

    Clark Kauffman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Yes, the set was reissued with various, different-colored covers, but the discs are all identical. (See posts 7 and 8 in this thread.)
     
  18. Clark Kauffman

    Clark Kauffman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Yeah, the only real technical flaw in these broadcasts was that they typically had John's microphone dialed down too far. (Based on the song selection for that first broadcast, the Sullivan tech who handled the sound balance may have assumed the group had one lead singer, Paul, and John was simply a backing vocalist. Although, for the third broadcast -- which was taped before the others -- John sang lead on "Twist And Shout," "Please Please Me" and shared the lead vocals on "I Want To Hold Your Hand," and it was Paul's microphone that was too low in the mix. Perhaps the techs simply didn't distinguish between harmony vocals and backing vocals...)
     
  19. Doug Sclar

    Doug Sclar Forum Legend

    Location:
    The OC
    Whoops, thanks for that. I did read the whole thread, but I guess it was a long time ago.
     
  20. Doug Sclar

    Doug Sclar Forum Legend

    Location:
    The OC
    Whoops, thanks for that. :o

    I did read the whole thread, but I guess it was a long time ago.
     
  21. Jeff H.

    Jeff H. Senior Member

    Location:
    Northern, OR
    The first Ed Sullivan Show to be broadcast in color was on September 19, 1965. One week after The Beatles fourth Sullivan appearance was broadcast.
     
  22. Emilio

    Emilio Senior Member

    Not greatly overlooked in my opinion. It was even released in Brazil, even though I had already bought it as an import. But I don't regret it. The American "silver" package is nicer and it wasn't much more expensive than the domestic release.

    The reissue of the "First U.S. Visit" contains a real gem: in the extras, there is a scene where kids are watching the first appearance of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan as it was being broadcast live! That's a real piece of history in the making!
     
  23. Trebor

    Trebor Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, USA
    Actually the first color Sullivan show was the following week after the '65 Beatles performance and it featured the Rolling Stones.

    EDIT: woops! JEFF H beat me to it.

    Also to correct any confusion on the multi-colored DVD packages, when issued this DVD set was offered in four different colored packages right from the start. I chose the brown one but I know people who bought one of each of the four when they came out.
     
  24. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host


    I was at CBS Television City as a little kid in 1966 (for Art Linkletter's Talent Scouts) and I remember that a modern mic was at the end of a boom. In my mind's eye thinking back it looked German...

    My question regarding the cameras is---Wasn't it quite silly of CBS to purchase all new monochrome cameras in 1963 when color TV was obviously coming to stay? I mean, CBS (kicking and screaming) went to some color-casting on a regular basis in 9/65. Those monochrome cameras were totally obsolete within a few years. Waste of money.
     

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  25. Derek Gee

    Derek Gee Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit
    Serve 'em Jelly Babies! ;)

    Derek
     
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