A revised DVD about the Beatles' initial appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show is like cracking open a time capsule.

Ed Sullivan, centre, stands with the Beatles during a rehearsal for the British group's first American appearance in New York. From left are Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Sullivan, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The band known as the Fab Four was seen by 70 million viewers on The Ed Sullivan Show. (Associated Press)Almost as interesting as the British band making its musical introduction to America in 1964 is the context in which it is placed.

The DVD presents the programs exactly as they appeared that night — complete with hapless magicians or comedians, commercials that would shame Mad Men and illustrations of how the pace of television has changed.

The first night, Feb. 9, 1964, is a landmark in television. An estimated 73 million Americans tuned in, the largest ever for a TV show at the time, or three times the number of people who watched the latest American Idol finale, according to the Nielsen Co.

A generation of musicians can trace their career choices to that night. One was Dennis DeYoung, former Styx lead singer, who told the Montreal Gazette that he watched it while at a high school dance.

'I looked at that and I went, 'Oh, my God! What is that?'—Dennis DeYoung, former Styx lead singer

"I looked at that and I went, 'Oh, my God! What is that? And how do I apply for that job?"' he recalled. "That was it. There was never any doubt in my mind what I wanted in my life."

The DVD is similar to one made available in 2003 and another from 2006, but with punched-up video and sound quality. The 4 Complete Ed Sullivan Shows Starring the Beatles, as well as the earlier releases, are from SOFA Entertainment, which owns the archive of Sullivan shows (a staple on CBS' Sunday-night schedule from 1948 to 1971).

Even if not quite new, there's a willing audience of Beatles fans eager to see almost anything about their heroes that lands on the market.

Performance defines a generation

Cutaways to the audience show young girls who can barely stay in their seats from the excitement of it all. Older people look bored, annoyed and clueless to the generational change staring back at them.

The Beatles wave to fans assembled below their Plaza Hotel window after they arrived in New York City on Feb. 7, 1964, for a short tour of the United States. From left are Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison. (Associated Press)The Beatles' cheekiness, enthusiasm and talent was bracing.

"It's like they were in colour and everybody else was in black and white," said Andrew Solt, CEO of SOFA Entertainment.

Watching the magician with the hard luck of following the Beatles to the stage that first night is painful. Fred Kaps's show biz career never really recovered from that moment, Solt said. It seemed his routine would never end.

The sense that television moves much more quickly today is one of the most interesting finds in the DVD time capsule.

Mitzi Gaynor, once the princess of musical comedy, gave a sweaty performance from Miami, and has enough time for costume changes. Comic Frank Gorshin's routine with movie star impersonations was interminable.

The comic team of McCall & Brill, with a punch line about an "ugly girl," would not have made it past today's taste police.

One other performance in that first week came from the cast of the Broadway show Oliver, including a young Davy Jones, whose life was changed in the wake of the Beatles' performance in a way he couldn't have imagined. A few years later, he was cast as one of the Monkees, a prefab rock band that was a Beatles knockoff.

Sullivan "didn't spend too much money on talent that week because he knew he had the audience," Solt said.

DVD shows how TV has changed

Producers plainly believed people had an attention span then, certainly much more so than now. Perhaps the knowledge that viewers had to get out of their seats to turn the channel — and then had a couple of choices, not north of 100 other networks — was on their mind.

The Beatles face the media on their arrival at JFK airport in New York, Feb. 7, 1964. (Charles Tasnadi/Associated Press)The same is true of the ads. Can you imagine a commercial break with only one commercial?

Maybe it was what they were hawking, but the ads are stunningly unimaginative. What were the Madison Avenue pitch men of the day thinking? Then again, even an image of waves lapping up on a tropical shore couldn't save an instant pineapple upside down cake that was stocked in a supermarket freezer. Cold water detergent All was called "revolutionary."

The DVD also contains Sullivan shows from Feb. 23, 1964, and Sept. 12, 1965, when the Beatles also performed. Twenty songs in all are performed, including three versions of I Want to Hold Your Hand.