What are the most influential shows in history?

[9erempiree]

I know people are infatuated with all these great shows on cable but which shows are the most influential in history?

I think shows like Star Trek is huge but I don't see why it was influential?

How about Seinfeld?

[gts]

Mash

Perry Mason was like the show that wouldn't quit... that show has so many reincarnations

The Tonight Show obviously


SNL

[TylerOO]

Roseanne

[Derka]

The Three Stooges when their shorts went to television in the 60s.
Mash
The Simpsons
Married...With Children
The Cosby Show
The Wire

[KingBeasley08]

The Sopranos pretty much started the whole anti-hero trend on TV. Gotta go with it at #1

[T_L_P]

The Sopranos.

"To get a sense of how The Sopranos changed TV, get a pen and make a list of the 20 best TV dramas before 1999. That list will very likely include Magnum, P.I. This mafia saga showed just how complex and involving TV storytelling could be, inspiring an explosion of ambitious dramas on cable and off. In Tony Soprano’s world, it wasn’t the Mob that kept pulling you back in to old, destructive patterns, it was your family: your controlling mother, your maddening wife, your feckless kids. Meanwhile, the big-F Family drama of the declining Mafia business offered popcorn entertainment alongside the deeper insights. Some fans may have hated the series’ abrupt ending, but the fact that the show’s last moments obsessed us demonstrates that America never stopped believin’ in the power of this story."

[TheReal Kendall]

Roots
Good Times
What's Happening
The Jeffersons
The Cosbys
Brady Bunch
Giligan's Island
MASH
I Dream of Jeannie

[SpecialQue]

I Love Lucy. First show to be shot on film instead of broadcast live, and I believe the first one to show that an assload of cash can be made on syndication. It's only because of I Love Lucy that people in the business started caring about their shows and making any kind of effort to preserve them.

I don't find the show funny at all, but it's probably the most influential show in TV history just because of how deeply it changed the medium at a core level.

Also, Cops proved that you can spend little on production but still get huge ratings. All modern reality TV probably extends from the model introduced by Cops.

[miller-time]

I know people are infatuated with all these great shows on cable but which shows are the most influential in history?

I think shows like Star Trek is huge but I don't see why it was influential?

How about Seinfeld?

It was influential to the sci-fi genre, it is just that the genre itself is not so broad or well received.

Seinfeld was definitely influential. So was the UK Office and Curb. Both were hugely popular and changed the style of a lot of comedy shows that came after them. They dropped the laughter track and took to using more subtle and cringe worthy/dark humor, this gave them an element of realism that shows before them lacked. They had influences themselves like the Larry Sanders Show and Spinal Tap but they both kicked off the 21st century style.

Oz may not have been hugely influential in terms of style but it definitely tested the waters for the more gritty and morally questionable shows that came after it. Without it would we still have the Sopranos?

[JohnFreeman]

Seinfeld
Simpsons

[T_L_P]

There's no way The Sopranos can be outside the top 10 to be honest.

I know it's probably easier to see how the earlier shows influenced the medium, but Breathless (1960) was more influential to cinema than City Lights was.

In terms of shifting TV, The Sopranos had one of the biggest influences of them all.

[SpecialQue]

Yup.

Top 13 is probably:

Honeymooners
I Love Lucy
Guiding Light
MASH
All In The Family
Seinfeld
Simpsons
Law and Order
Cops
UK Office
The Ed Sullivan Show
SNL
+ some one hour drama, probably Sopranos.

Great list. You can also argue that Ren & Stimpy ushered in a return to creator-driven animation on TV, after an absolute dark age of shit in the 80s where you had crap like He-Man and The Care Bears stinking up the tube.

Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy have to be somewhere on the list as well. I think I heard that these two shows are probably the biggest money makers in TV history because they consistently bring in high ratings and have been on the air for decades.

As for dramas, pretty much every TV anti-hero in recent memory can be traced directly back to the Sopranos.

[Raymone]

Walker, Texas Ranger

[SpecialQue]

It was influential to the sci-fi genre, it is just that the genre itself is not so broad or well received.

Seinfeld was definitely influential. So was the UK Office and Curb. Both were hugely popular and changed the style of a lot of comedy shows that came after them. They dropped the laughter track and took to using more subtle and cringe worthy/dark humor, this gave them an element of realism that shows before them lacked. They had influences themselves like the Larry Sanders Show and Spinal Tap but they both kicked off the 21st century style.

Oz may not have been hugely influential in terms of style but it definitely tested the waters for the more gritty and morally questionable shows that came after it. Without it would we still have the Sopranos?

Damn, forgot about Oz. Oz definitely paved the way for the Sopranos, but gets forgotten because the Sopranos is one of the greatest dramas in TV history.

[Wang Zhi Zhi]

miami vice

[L.Kizzle]

60 Minutes
Cosby Show
Rowan and Martin's Laugh In
SNL
Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood
Sesame Street
Tonight Show Staring Johnny Carson
Ed Sullivan Show
Amos and Andy
All In The Family
Good Times
The Flinstones/The Jetsons
Showtime at the Apollo
The Simpsons
ER
Little House on the Prairie
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Yo! MTV Raps
An Evening at the Improv
Def Comedy Jam
Don Kirshner's Rock Concert
The Richard Pryor Show
The Arsenio Hall Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
Jerry Springer
Cops
The Real Word
In Living Color

[miller-time]

Damn, forgot about Oz. Oz definitely paved the way for the Sopranos, but gets forgotten because the Sopranos is one of the greatest dramas in TV history.

Yeah the next closest show before Oz would have to be Law and Order which I think is a good show but it didn't really change much in TV overall. The weird thing is a lot of the people in Oz ended up in Law and Order later on.

I think along side The Sopranos would be Lost. Lost was definitely the beginning of the big budget drama shows.

[ROCSteady]

Prolly ALF

[mr.big35]

simpsons
sopranos
x files
twilight zone

[SpecialQue]

Yeah the next closest show before Oz would have to be Law and Order which I think is a good show but it didn't really change much in TV overall. The weird thing is a lot of the people in Oz ended up in Law and Order later on.

What about NYPD Blue and Homicide, Life on the Street? I seem to remember hearing about those being game changers in terms of being grittier, more realistic cop shows on network TV.


I think along side The Sopranos would be Lost. Lost was definitely the beginning of the big budget drama shows.

Miami Vice had a huge budget back in the day. In a way, Cops was a reaction to that because if you're a low-budget network like Fox (at the time), how the hell do you compete?

[L.Kizzle]

What about NYPD Blue and Homicide, Life on the Street? I seem to remember hearing about those being game changers in terms of being grittier, more realistic cop shows on network TV.



Miami Vice had a huge budget back in the day. In a way, Cops was a reaction to that because if you're a low-budget network like Fox (at the time), how the hell do you compete?
21 Jumpstreet was Fox's reaction to Miami Vice, I would say,

[JohnFreeman]

Howard Stern show, at it's peak he had 20 million listeners

[Budadiiii]

The Twilight Zone is the most influential show of all time.

Jersey Shore is a close second.

HM: Duck Dynasty, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Flavor Of Love, I Love New York.

[Rodmantheman]

The Twilight Zone is the most influential show of all time.

Jersey Shore is a close second.

HM: Duck Dynasty, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Flavor Of Love, I Love New York.

Lebron took back the MVP tonight bitch:pimp:

[DonDadda59]

Probably would be easier to break it down by genre/category.

Comedy: The Honeymooners- so many shows both live action and cartoon (Simpsons, Flintstones, Family Guy, etc) took the success of this show and replicated its formula. The fat, oafish every man working some dead end job being played opposite his attractive, nagging wife.

All in the Family, I love Lucy, SNL as well. Seinfeld & the Simpsons get honorable mention.

Drama: For Cable it's the Sopranos. For general TV, maybe Hill Street Blues.

Mystery/Sci Fi: Twighlight Zone

Late Night: Johnny Carson

Talk Show: Oprah

News: 60 minutes

Education: Sesame Street

[miller-time]

Miami Vice had a huge budget back in the day. In a way, Cops was a reaction to that because if you're a low-budget network like Fox (at the time), how the hell do you compete?

But did it kick off a trend? Lost seems like it did the opposite and came out of a time when television was going hard with reality shows. And since then there have been several very big budget series and dozens of pretty big ones too. From what I can gather Lost and Miami Vice have similar costs per episode when adjusted for inflation. But while Miami Vice and the 80s ended and gave way to the 90s and the beginnings of reality TV, Lost shot back at reality TV and gave the way to more big budget dramas.

Although it is difficult to be black and white about any of this, trends are so varied and television itself is so broad you can really pin anything down to one show.

[Kungfro]

Monty Python is up there for sure.