Over at The Atlantic, there’s an article that tries to make the case that All in the Family basically changed television forever.

All in the Family was the first program to genuinely reckon with the cultural upheaval of 1960s America. TV would never be the same.

I’d have to agree.

As the article (by Ronald Browstein) notes, before Norman Lear’s breakthrough sitcom, network TV was safe, down the middle of the road shows that could appeal to almost anyone. Think The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Petticoat Junction – bland, inoffensive time killers.

After All in the Family, the viewing audience was more open to more challenging shows, such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show and M*A*S*H, for example. Without these shows, I don’t know how we would have gotten to much more challenging fare, ushc as The Wire and Homicide: Life on the Streets..

And today this in-the-cultural-moment shows continue with Fleabag and Breaking Bad, among others.

But those last two shows also exemplify another trend – or connected series of trends – that has, over the past decade or so, has once again “changed television forever.”

When All in the Family first aired in 1971 (wow, that’s 50 years ago!), there were three networks (ABC, CBS and NBC). You watched shows in their time slot; if you missed a show, tough noogies until the summer reruns. Offerings were half-hour sitcoms and hour-long dramas, and most shows had 20-24 episodes per year.

No more:

• No more time slots – Shows drop – usually the whole series – on one day and you can binge watch it all.
• Streaming – Need I elaborate how this has changed everything?
• Networks are now the followers – Streaming services like HBO, Hulu, Amazon Prime have original content that over blows the networks’ offerings out of the water: Fleabag, Game of Thrones and so on. What’s the best network shows out there? Law and Order: SVU season 22? How about sitcoms? They’ve almost disappeared from network TV. But HBO’s brilliant Veep, Amazon Prime’s Fleabag (yes, I’m obsessed), and Catastrophe.
• Shorter seasons – I believe The Sopranos started this.- the first five seasons had only 13 episodes each, vs. networks series’ length of 20-25 episodes. Today, most streamers are just 10-13 episodes, some shorter. The brilliant Fleabag (I told you I was obsessed) has only two seasons of six episodes each. And that’s just right for this show.

And with the exception of big events (breaking news/weather, Oscars), there really isn’t a need to huddle around a TV as a family or whatever – stream it anytime you want on your smartphone, watch it on YouTube and so on.

Brave New World….