Ed Sullivan Documentary ‘Sunday Best’ Comes To Netflix
Streaming now, the film explains how ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ amplified Black music and culture.
The Ed Sullivan Show is famous for its role in breaking the Beatles and Elvis Presley. But the variety show helped a wide range of performers connect with a larger audience—including, as a new documentary explains, a great many Black entertainers.
That film, Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan, is now streaming on Netflix. Directed by the late Sacha Jenkins, it explores Sullivan’s commitment to showcasing Black talent on his Sunday evening broadcasts at a time when segregation and discrimination prevailed in the United States. Airing on CBS from 1948 to 1971, The Ed Sullivan Show drew between 35 and 50 million viewers per week. The host made it a point to get a diverse assortment of performers in front of that audience.
“He was a door opener, especially for Black artists,” Otis Williams of the Temptations says in the movie. “This man opened up his door and let artists come on his show to express and be seen.”
Featuring never-before-seen interviews with Williams, Harry Belafonte, Dionne Warwick, Berry Gordy, and more, the movie illuminates Sullivan’s impact on Black music and media as well as the The Civil Rights Movement. In addition to its interviews, Sunday Best features an exciting array of performances from some of the most legendary names in 20th century music. In addition to the Beatles, Belafonte, and Presley, viewers can see Ray Charles and Billy Preston, Jackie Wilson, Bo Diddley, James Brown, Ike and Tina Turner, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Nat King Cole, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson 5, and the Supremes in action.
Jenkins, who died in May from multiple system atrophy, was a celebrated filmmaker and journalist. Perhaps best known for the rap zine ego trip and its assortment of related books, he also served as an editor at Vibe and Mass Appeal, wrote several books on graffiti, and co-authored memoirs with Eminem and the Beastie Boys among other written projects. His work for the screen includes the Showtime series Everything’s Gonna Be All White and documentaries about Rick James and the Wu-Tang Clan.
