Remembering the Golden Age of TV

WRITTEN BY DARREN OKAFOR 

ILLUSTRATION BY GAB K DE JESUS

It’s Sunday evening. You just finished cleaning the house and preparing for the next grueling work week at your desk job. You choose not to cook but instead order a pizza to be delivered. You make sure to order it early because it has to be here before 9 PM, because, well, that’s when “The Sopranos” comes on.

It’s 8:57. You grab a slice of pizza, fill up a glass and plop yourself onto the couch. Grab the remote, flip through the channels till you hit HBO. Hear the familiar opening lyrics of “Woke Up This Morning” by Alabama 3. This is what you and the entire nation have been waiting for all week, even if it’s a newer experience. Afterall, TV wasn’t always an event that you’d look forward to like it was a big Hollywood movie. This was new. This is different. This is the Golden Age.

The Golden Age of Television or as many critics call it, Prestige Television, can be defined as a period in cable television where multiple critically and commercially successful shows were running concurrently. This period is usually labeled as beginning in the late 90s with The Sopranos, peaking in the mid-2000s with shows like “Mad Men,” “The Wire” and “Breaking Bad” premiering and ending in the late 2000s.

“Mad Men,” “The Sopranos,” “The Wire,” “Breaking Bad.” These are some of the biggest and most influential cable television shows in history. But why this period? What made these shows so special? The characters? The writers and directors behind them? For us to find out we’d have to go back to the beginning.

Before the Golden Age of television, TV was mainly dominated by three free-to-air broadcast networks, which they called the Big Three: ABC, CBS and NBC. But during the 1980s and 1990s, many cable television networks were created and began to become popular, leading to the deterioration of the Big Three. These paid cable channels offered more varied shows with better production values. While television shows such as “Friends” and actors like Jerry Seinfeld became household names, there was never much crossover between movies and television. Movie actors who appeared on television were seen as taking a huge step down in status and television actors rarely got the chance to even break through in cinema. Overall, society saw television as a cheaper, shorter entertainment medium compared to the movies on the big screen. That is until “The Sopranos” aired.

“The Sopranos” was the first of its kind in many respects. It was one of the first television shows to shoot on location instead of in prebuilt sets. It was one of the first shows to use multiple actors that had first appeared in movies such as Michael Imperioli, Lorraine Bracco, and later on Steve Buscemi. Not to mention all of the big-name celebrity cameos that appeared in later seasons such as Ben Kingsley and Jon Favreau.

But one of its biggest innovations was that it started the trend of television shows airing hour-long episodes instead of the typical 30-minute time slot other shows had. This gave writers more time to develop characters and stories and gave audiences the impression that they were watching a short film every week instead of a typical program. With this, writers began putting more thought into characters and their arcs. Storylines began developing that would span over the course of multiple seasons, which all lead to a more engaging and immersive experience for viewers.

Now you’re talking with your coworkers about how you’d survive the zombie apocalypse in “The Walking Dead” or how you couldn’t believe they killed off your favorite character in “Game of Thrones.” But none of these can hold up to the most important element introduced to television by “The Sopranos.” That element would instead go to the idea of the anti-hero.

Don Draper from “Mad Men.” Walter White from “Breaking Bad.” Omar Little from “The Wire.” The idea of the anti-hero isn’t a new one as they’ve been featured in movies and television throughout the years. But none have been written as well and have been as beloved as Tony Soprano.

“The Sopranos” episode “College,” the fifth episode of the first season, was a big turning point not just in the series but in television history. In the episode, mob boss Tony Soprano is on a college visit with his daughter Meadow. All is well until Tony spots a snitch from his past. Throughout the episode, Meadow is constantly asking her father whether he works for the mob or not. She pleads for his honesty but he continues to lie to her. At the episode’s end, Tony brutally murders the snitch who was just trying to move on with his life and leave his mob ties behind. Viewers will forever remember the iconic shot of Tony staring up at the sky as a flock of geese flies away, a sign of him losing his innocence.

Studio executives pleaded with series creator David Chase to change the ending to this episode, claiming it would ruin Tony’s character and make him totally unlikeable. Chase, however, stuck to his guns and went with the ending anyway and it paid off. The greatest anti-hero in television history was born and a legacy that influenced almost every single Golden Era television show after was created.

“Mad Men” creator Mattew Weiner, who wrote for “The Sopranos,” said that his vision for “Mad Men” and the way it handled its characters changed after working with David Chase. After James Gandolfini, the actor who portrayed Tony, died in 2013, “Breaking Bad” creator, Vince Gilligan, claimed that without Tony Soprano there would be no Walter White.

Serialized shows are what kept viewers coming back week after week to see what would happen next to their favorite characters. It’s what took TV from a smallbox past-time to true artistry. Hour-long episodes raised the prestige around shows and made them commitments instead of something you turn on in the background while you did your laundry and washed dishes. Dramatic storylines and deep, well-written characters made fans become emotionally invested in each episode. Explicit subject matter like sex, violence and drugs made everything feel more adult and important. And with the introduction of streaming, all of this was now at the tip of your fingers. This age, although over 20 years ago at this point, is still felt today, ushering in a new era of binge-watching, watercooler conversations, and shared experiences, connecting people across borders and generations. As we continue to witness this remarkable era unfold, it becomes even more-so evident that the golden age of TV has indelibly shaped our culture, leaving an enduring legacy that will resonate for years to come. Long live Tony Soprano!