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  • Television has been evolving ever since Americans first welcomed TVs into their living room.

  • Today there's more money to be made on the small screen than ever before.

  • Whether it's on HBO, Netflix or any other platform, there's something out there for everyone,

  • no matter what their taste.

  • Nailing down which shows have been most influential in television's development is pretty tough;

  • there's so much TV to choose from that we could write multiple top tens and they'd all be unique.

  • But we're always up for a challenge, so here are our picks for

  • the ten most influential TV shows of all time.

  • The Wire

  • Before Boyd Crowder toed the line between being a good guy and a total heel,

  • before Game of Thrones shocked audiences by taking Sean Bean's head,

  • and before Walter White made ruthless meth dealing cool, there was The Wire,

  • a show where main characters were never safe and amorality ruled.

  • Sure, The Wire has been influenced by other entries on this list, but the show reminded viewers

  • that great TV could exist outside of network stations.

  • Although it owes a debt to its predecessors, this police drama was groundbreaking on its own.

  • Even casual fans probably can't hear The Farmer in the Dell without looking over their shoulders.

  • Law & Order

  • Law & Order aired between 1990 and 2010. During that time it spawned four spin-offs

  • and immortalizing actors like Jerry Orbach, Jesse L. Martin, Mariska Hargitay, and Sam Waterston.

  • So if you detect shades of the iconic series while watching, say, The Shield, or The Practice,

  • it's probably not an accident. The original Law & Order is the best of the brand,

  • but the show's ripped from the headlines realism has had

  • a massive role in molding police and courtroom dramas.

  • Lost

  • Five years after it ended, some of its viewers are still Lost. But if the story's lingering questions

  • and unsolved mysteries still drive debate about the show's quality,

  • then there is no denying the impact it had on television during and after its six season run.

  • Consider shows like Flashforward, Person of Interest, and Fringe - each of them has benefitted

  • in some way from Lost's massive popularity. The series also took J.J. Abrams' mystery

  • box approach to storytelling and brought it to new heights. Audiences would continue to

  • see in films like Cloverfield and Star Trek Into Darkness - it's not a stretch to think

  • that these movies might not exist without the success of Lost.

  • Star Trek: The Next Generation

  • Speaking of Star Trek, how much do you love your tablet? Gene Roddenberry beat Steve Jobs

  • to that idea by several decades. So next time you load up Candy Crush on your Android or

  • iPad, just remember to give credit where it's due.

  • More importantly, Star Trek: The Next Generation carved a foothold for sci-fi shows at a time

  • when the genre was in a slump. It helped geek culture get break into the mainstream

  • and paved the way for shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, and even Lost. Who knows,

  • we might not have comic book blockbusters like The Avengers if Star Trek hadn't made

  • it cool to be a nerd in the 80s and 90s.

  • The X-Files

  • The X-Files might seem more like a benefactor of Star Trek: The Next Generation's influence than an influence in itself.

  • But The X-Files brought things a step further.

  • It introduced niche concepts to a wide audience, and made aliens, werewolves, and ghosts interesting

  • for people who otherwise didn't care about the paranormal.

  • The X-Files was also one of the earliest shows to use the Internet to engage with fans.

  • It's also where Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan started his career. Plus, without the adventures

  • of Scully and Mulder, we'd probably be missing out on shows like Supernatural and Bones.

  • Seinfeld

  • Seinfeld took what people knew about sitcoms and completely turned it inside out.

  • The show that gave us Festivus, Pigman and The Soup Nazi is somehow still relatable to our day-to-day

  • lives.

  • Seinfeld meddled with the sitcom's traditional A-plot/B-plot structure. It introduced audiences

  • to the unlikeable jerk as protagonists, it didn't use multi-camera set-ups,

  • and it turned self-referentialism into art. From Girls to It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

  • to The Big Bang Theory, Seinfeld has been copied but never cloned. Not too shabby for a show about nothing.

  • Saturday Night Live

  • Saturday Night Live is a comic institution, one that's been making names for four decades.

  • Adam Sandler, Bill Murray, Steve Martin, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig,

  • Eddie Murphy, Seth Meyers, Chris Rock, and the list goes on.

  • SNL's influence expands beyond the stage, too. A world without SNL would probably mean

  • a world without The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. The show's format has also been

  • ripped off by Mad TV, All That, and Mr. Show, and its humor is echoed in Tina Fey's 30 Rock.

  • The Simpsons

  • The Simpsons has shaped just about every cartoon that has aired since it started in 1989.

  • Sure, cartoons were around before The Simpsons, and people would have still made them without The Simpsons

  • , but Springfield's first family changed the game by showed that cartoons didn't

  • just have to be for kids.

  • Without The Simpsons there's no Family Guy or American Dad, (and pretty much everything

  • Seth MacFarlane has ever done), as well as South Park, King of the Hill, and The Critic

  • (which had a crossover with The Simpsons back in 1995). Live-action shows like Arrested

  • Development can also trace influence to Matt Groening's TV landmark.

  • I Love Lucy

  • Seinfeld may have influenced the sitcoms of today, but I Love Lucy gave birth to the sitcom

  • way back in the 1950s. Small things we take for granted - like reruns, continuously running

  • storylines, or the multi-cam set-up - didn't exist until I Love Lucy conjured them into

  • being with a knowing wink.

  • The show is also a major feminist milestone, which is admirable because it aired during

  • a time when most viewers expected women to be stay at home wives and mothers.

  • At a glance, I Love Lucy endorses those social norms, but Lucy Ricardo speaks up and lets her dreams

  • be known to her husband, Ricky, and defies him from one episode to the next.

  • I Love Lucy may look dated today, but it was totally progressive in its era.

  • The Sopranos

  • There are a number of creative types who have contributed to the renaissance we're seeing on TV today

  • , but one name rises above the rest. David Chase was the architect of The

  • Sopranos back in the late 90s and he emered as a champion for bold, risky television.

  • In the grand scheme of the TV history, The Sopranos is a fairly young series,

  • but it's already iconic and completely essential. Take away The Sopranos, and say goodbye to HBO

  • and other premium cable channels. It's possible that the show's influence is so strong that

  • competitors like Showtime may not have produced Homeland and Shameless without it.

Television has been evolving ever since Americans first welcomed TVs into their living room.

Subtitles and vocabulary

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10 Most Influential TV Shows Of All Time

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    VoiceTube posted on 2016/07/14
Video vocabulary

Keywords

exist

US /ɪɡˈzɪst/

UK /ɪɡ'zɪst/

  • verb
  • To be present, alive or real
  • other
  • To be real; to have objective reality or being.
  • To live, especially in very difficult conditions
  • To occur or be found
influence

US / ˈɪnfluəns/

UK /'ɪnflʊəns/

  • noun
  • The power to affect what happens, to persuade etc.
  • A person or thing that affects someone or something in an important way.
  • verb
  • To affect or change something indirectly
  • other
  • To have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something.
  • To persuade someone to do something.
  • other
  • The ability to control or affect what happens
  • The power to have an effect on someone or something.
series

US /ˈsɪriz/

UK /ˈsɪəri:z/

  • noun
  • Set of stories or articles on a particular subject
  • The sum of a sequence of terms.
  • A number of things, events, or people of a similar kind or related nature coming one after another.
  • A set of games or contests played to determine a winner.
  • A group of stamps or currency issued at the same time and with a similar design.
  • A set of television or radio programmes that have the same characters or deal with the same subject.
  • other
  • Number of things that happen one after another
  • adjective
  • Connected or arranged in a sequence.
show

US /ʃo/

UK /ʃəʊ/

  • verb
  • To be easily seen or displayed
  • To display your emotions or feelings
  • To let someone see something; display
  • To explain or teach how something is done
  • To lead someone somewhere; point them to something
  • To prove something to be true, correct
  • To reveal or allow something to be seen
  • noun
  • False display of love, emotion or action
  • An event for displaying or promoting goods
  • Play, opera or theater production
  • Presentation that is broadcast on TV or radio
generation

US /ˌdʒɛnəˈreʃən/

UK /ˌdʒenəˈreɪʃn/

  • noun
  • A group of people born and living during the same time.
  • Act or process of producing or causing something
  • People born and living at about the same time
  • A group of related people born around the same time in a family.
  • All the people born and living at about the same time.
  • All the people born and living at about the same time.
  • The production of something, such as electricity or heat.
  • A stage in the development of technology or a product.
  • A stage in the development of technology or a product.
  • other
  • The production of something.
live

US /liv/

UK /lɪv/

  • verb
  • To be alive
  • To experience a particular type of life
  • To make your home in a house or town
  • adjective
  • Being broadcast as events happen, not recorded
  • Carrying electric current; able to give a shock
  • Glowing because burning; hot
  • Not yet killed (for food)
  • adverb
  • (Music, drama) as it is performed
love

US /lʌv/

UK /lʌv/

  • noun
  • Person's name
  • A very strong feeling of affection
  • The person you care very deeply about
  • Strong, deep emotional and sexual attraction
  • verb
  • To care for and like someone very strongly, deeply
  • To like doing very much; enjoy greatly
  • To feel a strong emotional and romantic attraction
rip

US /rɪp/

UK /rɪp/

  • verb
  • To tear or split roughly or cause to tear or split
  • To become torn, opened, or split apart forcefully
  • To cheat or swindle someone.
  • To remove or take by pulling it forcefully
  • To tear (something) quickly or forcibly.
  • noun
  • A long tear in something, e.g. a piece of cloth
  • (Computing) A copy of data (especially audio or video) from a CD, DVD, etc., to a computer.
  • A tear or split in something.
  • (Slang) A puff of marijuana.
  • A tear or split in something.
  • other
  • (Computing) To copy data (especially audio or video) from a CD, DVD, etc., to a computer.
  • To tear (something) quickly or forcibly away from something or someone.
  • abbreviation
  • Rest in peace (used on gravestones or in obituaries).
lose

US /luz/

UK /lu:z/

  • other
  • To be defeated in a battle or war
  • To be unable to find something
  • To fail to take advantage of something
  • To become smaller in weight or size
  • verb
  • To be unable to keep in check or control something
  • To decrease in value or quantity (e.g. weight)
  • To stop having certain qualities or abilities
  • To stop having or being entitled to
  • To fail to win something that is being contested
  • To be unable to find something you once had
  • To be dependent on someone (used with 'not')
  • other
  • To fail to win a game or competition
night

US /naɪt/

UK /naɪt/

  • adjective
  • Working during the very early morning
  • noun
  • Time when sun does not shine

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