Welcome to '99 Rewind, our 25th anniversary celebration of the movies, television, and music of 1999. To start, it's time to get a gun as we look back. The sopranos.
In 1999, television was ready to grow. Although compelling series had been produced for the small screen for decades, the medium was considered inferior to cinema by both the industry and critics. Certainly, unlike movies, television had the power to interact with audiences on a much more personal level: by bringing memorable characters directly into our homes, where they would make weekly visits for years, classic series like Hill Street Blues, Healthand emergencies They created deep emotional connections with their audiences.
However, back in the days when broadcast television still reigned supreme, the demands of 22-episode seasons and limited budgets sometimes meant that storytelling could struggle week to week, and production quality wasn't always the same. to what was expected. you might see it at the local multiplex. In the television world you could feel the desire to up the game in the 1990s, whether it was NBC Homicide: life on the street bringing deep nuances to the world of criminal procedures, or The x files experimenting with black and white episodes and long one-shots.
The sopranos It wasn't the first HBO drama to stride toward greatness, but it became the first to transform not only the way the general public watched cable television, but television in general. And it seems uniquely appropriate as a portrait of what 1999 represents as a year: the turn of the century coincided with important cultural moments that caused real upheaval. That's exactly what The sopranos it did, unlike any show before or since.
There is a quantifiable way to measure this and it comes from watching the Emmy Awards. The sopranos was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series at the Emmys every year it was eligible, beginning with Season 1. It did not receive the trophy during its initial run, as it coincided with the heyday of The west wing, which won first prize for four consecutive years. But after creator Aaron Sorkin left the NBC political drama, he lost enough luster to The sopranos make history with season 5 as the first cable series to win in this category.
That first victory represents an important turning point for television as a whole: from The sopranos' In 2004, only two more broadcast dramas to date have won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama: Lost in 2005 (a year in which The sopranos was not eligible) and 24 in 2006 (when only the first half of The sopranos Season 6 was considered.
Since the last season of soprano won in 2007, no broadcast drama has won in this category and broadcast dramas in general are now fighting to be nominated. (NBC We are Season 5 managed to sneak into 2021, a rare exception.) At a certain point aftersoprano, all the television networks wanted to be HBO, that is, they did not want to be television at some level. It's not difficult to understand why: only recently has television been praised for its virtues above the world of cinema. Before that point, the industry's inferiority complex was enormous, although even the most smug moviegoer, back then, would deign to admit that he liked them. The sopranos.
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