The 4 Complete Historic Ed Sullivan Shows Starring the Beatles (DVD)

I was fortunate to watch these shows when they were first broadcast. Now, watching them years later, I ask myself : "Why did anyone think Allen & Rossi were funny? This kind of sums up the good and the bad about this set, which has been around in several incarnations, for years. The good: The Beatles performing live on American TV for the first time. the bad: everything else on the shows. Ed Sullivan used to like to book a smorgasbord of acts on his show to appeal to everyone. So in order to watch Beatles--who always opened the shows thank goodness--you then had to sit through horrible comics, Vegas lounge show novelty acts, scenes from Broadway shows, plus your Mom and Dad's favorite singers of the day who last had a hit record sometime back in the early 1950's. Well, these DVDs bring you all this PLUS all of the original commercials. Oh joy. Thank goodness for fast forward and chapter selection menus so you can skip right to The Beatles performances. In 1964, they were something none of us had ever seen before and their parts of the shows were riveting. Now, some 46 years later, although they played extremely well, it all looks so tame and the sound mixing is pretty bad. One example is the on the first show, John is hardly seen and his voice is way down in the mix. The engineers did better by him in the subsequent shows but the guitars and drums sound lifeless. Where "I Feel Fine" fairly leaped off the turntable at you, it's ho hum here, just like "Help!" and "Ticket To Ride". I would still buy the set for its historic value since these shows will still be talked about for as long as my generation is around. The video and sound quality on the discs is excellent so you will feel like you are back in front of the TV set in February 1964.