# The 18 Most Influential TV Dramas of All Time

> Influence is not the same as quality, and a couple of these are on the list for what came after them rather than what they were. Networks copied all of them.

*By YPB Team · Published August 11, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-18-most-influential-tv-dramas-of-all-time*

---

## Current results (0 votes)

1. **The Sopranos**
   The HBO mob drama that made cable the home of serious television.
2. **Breaking Bad**
   The AMC drama that proved a basic-cable show could out-write the premium networks.
3. **Hill Street Blues**
   The 1981 cop show that introduced serialised, overlapping storytelling to network drama.
4. **The Wire**
   Baltimore as a system, told one institution per season, and studied ever since.
5. **Twin Peaks**
   The show that let a network drama be strange, and made the mystery box a format.
6. **Mad Men**
   The period drama that turned production design and silence into plot.
7. **Lost**
   The serialised puzzle that taught networks what a weekly online audience looks like.
8. **ER**
   The hospital drama that set the pace, literally, for two decades of procedurals.
9. **Game of Thrones**
   The fantasy series that made a global appointment out of a Sunday night.
10. **The X-Files**
   The mix of standalone cases and a running mythology that shaped genre TV.
11. **Star Trek: The Next Generation**
   The syndicated revival that proved a franchise could outlive its original cast.
12. **Oz**
   HBO's first hour-long drama, which cleared the ground The Sopranos built on.
13. **24**
   Real-time episodes and the split screen, copied everywhere for a decade.
14. **The West Wing**
   The walk-and-talk political drama that became its own genre and its own accusation.
15. **House of Cards**
   Netflix's first original drama, released all at once, which changed how shows are watched.
16. **Dallas**
   The 1980 cliffhanger that invented the summer-long television question.
17. **The Shield**
   The basic-cable drama that showed FX and AMC there was room outside HBO.
18. **Squid Game**
   The Korean drama that made a non-English series the biggest show on the planet.

Tags: tv shows, crime