holy_buckeye wrote:
You say that as if it's a bad thing.

Amen.

Of all the shows that you mentioned, I've only watched The Sopranos. I've seen a few Sex and the City's, but only b/c it is my wife's favorite show. I've seriously never even cared to watch an episode of any of the others, so I'm not going to call them influential.

I'll go with the following, b/c they changed TV forever. Networks are making millions on NOT paying actors b/c of these shows:

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
American Idol (opens door for Dancing with the Stars)
Survivor/Bachelor(ette)/Big Brother
Deal or No Deal (spawn of Millionaire)

NO shows have been more influential b/c the above have CHANGED TV forever.

ernest_t_bass wrote: Of all the shows that you mentioned, I've only watched The Sopranos. I've seen a few Sex and the City's, but only b/c it is my wife's favorite show. I've seriously never even cared to watch an episode of any of the others, so I'm not going to call them influential.

I'll go with the following, b/c they changed TV forever. Networks are making millions on NOT paying actors b/c of these shows:

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
American Idol (opens door for Dancing with the Stars)
Survivor/Bachelor(ette)/Big Brother
Deal or No Deal (spawn of Millionaire)

NO shows have been more influential b/c the above have CHANGED TV forever.

I was waiting for someone to mention this. It started a wave of network prime-time big money game shows that we'd never seen before. While most of the shows themselves have been short lived, the genre was basically created by this show. Before Millionaire, you had Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune and that was it.

krambman wrote:I was waiting for someone to mention this. It started a wave of network prime-time big money game shows that we'd never seen before. While most of the shows themselves have been short lived, the genre was basically created by this show. Before Millionaire, you had Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune and that was it.

Someone mentioned it on the first page, so I won't take credit for it.

ernest_t_bass wrote:

krambman wrote:I was waiting for someone to mention this. It started a wave of network prime-time big money game shows that we'd never seen before. While most of the shows themselves have been short lived, the genre was basically created by this show. Before Millionaire, you had Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune and that was it.

Someone mentioned it on the first page, so I won't take credit for it.

Oops, must have missed it.

Jersey Shore.

Survivor.

I'm not even a fan of Survivor, my wife is though, but it has to be the most influencial show of the last decade, bar none.

Sadly --- and this is REALLY sad --- but the "Surreal Life" deserves some mention, amazingly, only because it spawned a ridiculous number of spinoffs ...

Surreal Life--->Strange Love--->Flavor of Love--->I Love New York--->New York Goes to Work--->Frank the Entertainer in a Basement Affair ... and I think I missed 2 or 3 "classics" in there as well ... ughhh

BigAppleBuckeye wrote: Sadly --- and this is REALLY sad --- but the "Surreal Life" deserves some mention, amazingly, only because it spawned a ridiculous number of spinoffs ...

Surreal Life--->Strange Love--->Flavor of Love--->I Love New York--->New York Goes to Work--->Frank the Entertainer in a Basement Affair ... and I think I missed 2 or 3 "classics" in there as well ... ughhh

That would make it VH1's most influential show ever. In terms of overall television or cultural influence, it has had very little.

How about the The Osbourne's?

First reality show about supposedly famous people that I remember. Now we about a million other "celebs" who have had there own show.

BigAppleBuckeye wrote: Sadly --- and this is REALLY sad --- but the "Surreal Life" deserves some mention, amazingly, only because it spawned a ridiculous number of spinoffs ...

Surreal Life--->Strange Love--->Flavor of Love--->I Love New York--->New York Goes to Work--->Frank the Entertainer in a Basement Affair ... and I think I missed 2 or 3 "classics" in there as well ... ughhh

Surreal life started back in the mid-90's so I don't think it qualifies within the past decade. But it is rather pathetic that it is the most of the last 20 years, basically jump starting reality TV.

Sonofanump wrote:
Surreal life started back in the mid-90's so I don't think it qualifies within the past decade. But it is rather pathetic that it is the most of the last 20 years, basically jump starting reality TV.

Have you seen the movie Idiocracy? Brilliant movie. It's not surprising why our population is generally dumbing down.

Jersey Shore or are you smarter than a 5th grader.

SQ_Crazies wrote:

I Wear Pants wrote:

gut wrote:

SQ_Crazies wrote: UFC doesn't qualify as a show, it's a sporting event.

And that's different from "contests" like AI or Survivor how?

UFC has been on television regularly and it's made fights popular again and has had a noticeable impact on pop culture, as well.

They have background stories, even have a show "Ultimate Fighter" or whatever it is. Very similar in structure to AI.

Sporting events are the original reality tv.

The Ultimate Fighter is on it's 11th season.

Nah. It's different, doesn't qualify here. Isn't close to American Idol anyways even if it did.

I wasn't saying it was. I was just pointing out that the series is still going and doing well.

It isn't one of the most influential shows of the past decade unless we have subcategories like "most influential sports show".

Heretic wrote: No debate. Joe Millionaire.

*Slurp, gulp, slurp*

Bigger than Jesus.

Survivor or American Idol

Survivor has slipped into the modern lexicon with "the tribe has spoken" and Idol has changed the way pop culture evolves by mainlining Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Daughtry et al into our consciousness. Definitely these two.

depends one what we mean by influential. Id say in terms of changes in Society, it is clearly survivor as it completely changed television.

But for myself, not being a religious person at all, the finale of LOST (which was obviously after a tremendous run of 6 seasons) really got me thinking a ton about heaven, hell, and purgatory. Now, I still dont believe any of it, but in terms of that type of influence, Id say its tough to top LOST.

Laley23 wrote: But for myself, not being a religious person at all, the finale of LOST (which was obviously after a tremendous run of 6 seasons) really got me thinking a ton about heaven, hell, and purgatory. Now, I still dont believe any of it, but in terms of that type of influence, Id say its tough to top LOST.

Cue Bible thumpers!

SQ_Crazies wrote:

Laley23 wrote: But for myself, not being a religious person at all, the finale of LOST (which was obviously after a tremendous run of 6 seasons) really got me thinking a ton about heaven, hell, and purgatory. Now, I still dont believe any of it, but in terms of that type of influence, Id say its tough to top LOST.

Cue Bible thumpers!

Except that LOST was far from being a Christian show.

Ummmmmm.....

Here's one that nobody has thrown out there ye (granted Big Apple was close but I think this show is the actual genesis of the subsequent shows)t: The Bachelor/The Bachelorette. Now before you get upset consider the show spawned a ton of copycat type shows who then took their own twists on the show: The Rock of Love, Flava of Love, I Love New York, For the Love of Ray J , A Shot at LoveWith Tila Tequila, Megan Wants a Millioinaire, I love Money, Daisy of Love, Charmed School, Frank the Entertainer In a Basement Affair, and many more.

Granted, I think this is all terrible television: but you can't say the parent show did not help shape television for the past decade.

The decade before spawned MTV's The Real World, which is probably the genesis of all of these shows. However, it was a not a dating show like these above and I would equate it more with shows like The Hills, The Surreal Life, et al.

^^^
I mentioned it.

The LOST finale literally made me think about my life, and my relationships. It makes me want to use my life to make good choices and be a good person.