Long before HBO turned Sunday night into TV-monoculture ground zero, there was Ed Sullivan. Born in Harlem and raised in Port Chester, New York, the sportswriter, syndicated columnist and radio-program personality was tapped by CBS to host a weekly variety show for the television network. The master of ceremonies had a few ideas about what […]
Watching Sunday Best is a bittersweet experience. Mostly because so many of the people featured in this brilliant Netflix documentary are no longer with us, including director Sacha Jenkins, who passed away in May of this year. The finished product is a beautiful special that pays homage to the wonderful legacy of Ed Sullivan and the legendary artists he showcased. Whether it’s Nat King […]
As the opening credits of the documentary “Sunday Best” roll, Billy Preston in a killer chartreuse suit takes to “The Ed Sullivan Show” stage. Ray Charles pounds the keyboards and brass players ready to enter a sped-up version of “Agent Double-O-Soul.” From the get-go, Sacha Jenkins’s film about the variety show trailblazer Ed Sullivan and […]
