calico
Member
I would put The West Wing in there too, though I don't know where that fits in the American formats of television.See the basic cable part on my post.
HBO was spending on quality content since the 90's.
By the time FX / The Shield took the risk, HBO was already burning money hard on series (OZ, Sopranos, The Wire, Band of Brothers, Six feet under, Carnivale and later Rome)
Imho the turning point was these with 3.
Sopranos and The Wire (for Premium), and The Shield (for basic. And later BB, of course.)
ps. BoB too, although its miniseries. It's a different animal
Unreal era for tv shows.