From the 1970s through the 2000s, television went through an extraordinary transformation. The shows changed, the technology changed, and eventually even the way we watched changed.
The 1970s helped television grow up. Sitcoms and dramas became more willing to address subjects that earlier network television had usually avoided. All in the Family built comedy around uncomfortable social arguments. The Mary Tyler Moore Show centered on an independent professional woman at a time when that was still unusual on television. Meanwhile, detective shows such as The Rockford Files offered heroes who were decidedly less polished than their predecessors.
The 1980s made television bigger and glossier. Prime-time soaps like Dallas and Dynasty turned family feuds into national events, while Cheers demonstrated that a great ensemble could keep audiences coming back to essentially the same room every week. Cable television was also beginning to change the landscape, giving viewers far more choices than the traditional broadcast networks had offered.
By the 1990s, television characters had become an enormous part of popular culture. Friends, Frasier, ER and The X-Files produced characters, phrases and moments recognized even by people who didn't regularly watch the shows. Cable expanded dramatically, and the remote control became an increasingly powerful weapon in the battle for viewers' attention.
Then the 2000s began changing what audiences expected from television itself. The Sopranos helped establish the idea that television could deliver storytelling as ambitious as film. Lost turned episode-by-episode speculation into an online phenomenon. 24 experimented with real-time storytelling, while The Office helped popularize the mockumentary style for American sitcoms.
The technology evolved just as quickly. A viewer in the 1970s generally had to be in front of the television when a show aired. The VCR loosened that restriction, the DVR nearly eliminated it, and streaming eventually turned television schedules into suggestions rather than rules.
Four decades, thousands of shows, and one constant remained: audiences still loved discovering characters they wanted to invite into their homes every week.