Sunday Best

Ed Sullivan is rightly considered to be one of the great figures of American television. For 23 years, The Ed Sullivan Show broadcast some of the biggest musicians into millions of homes, including Nat King Cole, Elvis Presley, and The Beatles’ record-breaking first appearance in 1964. Sunday Best affectionately recounts Sullivan’s show business career with an emphasis on his support of Black American artists, including his friendship with Bill Robinson. The Ed Sullivan Show ran for more than a thousand episodes, and Sunday Best is packed with some of its greatest moments and performances. There are also interviews with legends like Harry Belafonte and Dionne Warwick, who offer a more intimate perspective on what Sullivan was like as a person and an ally. Within every frame of Sunday Best, there is an affection for the early days of television, but beneath the showbiz glitz, a human tenderness towards Ed Sullivan. (Tribeca Film Festival)