We’ve survived the fight between the Mountain and the Viper, and (for now) the battle for control of the Wall, and this Sunday brings the grand finale to the fourth season of “Game Of Thrones.” In the four years since the show began, a curious thing happened—it became a phenomenon.
The show was the biggest gamble the pay-cable monster had ever taken, a hugely expensive take on a genre that had generally been seen as niche and uncool, with too many dragons to attract the chattering classes that had turned “The Sopranos” and “The Wire” into must-see television, and potentially too much blood and gore to become the mainstream blockbusters that “The Lord of the Rings” films had been.
And yet thanks to an outstanding cast, high production values, and perhaps most importantly, a truly remarkable job of adapting George R.R. Martin‘s books by showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the show picked up stellar reviews and proved to be a hit right out of the gate. But that was just the beginning. Viewing figures have skyrocketed with every season, and it’s now not just HBO’s biggest ever original series (recently overtaking “The Sopranos”), but one of the biggest dramas on TV, something that would have been unthinkable in the days of network TV dominance.
With this coming Sunday’s season finale, we’re probably approaching the halfway point of the show, and as such, it seemed like a good point to sit down and take a look back at the road to “Game Of Thrones.” HBO had already established themselves as a brand name for quality TV, and so we’ve picked out ten of their shows that directly or indirectly proved to be forerunners to their biggest ever blockbuster. Take a look below, and let us know your favorites in the comments section.
“Tales From The Crypt” (7 Seasons, 1989-1997)
Not the very first original HBO drama (it followed British co-production “Philip Marlowe, Private Eye” and Jim Henson and Anthony Minghella‘s excellent anthology show “The Storyteller“), but the first seminal hit, albeit somewhat overshadowed now by what came after, “Tales From the Crypt” was an anthology series based on the classic EC Comics horror series (though most of the episodes were actually lifted from other EC titles like “Vault Of Horror” or “Crime SuspensStories“), with each episode narrated by eerie old-school horror host the Crypt Keeper (a puppet voiced by John Kassir, who became something of an icon). The show doesn’t have much of an impact on pop culture these days, but was a big hit at the time, being recut for primetime showings on Fox, spawning theatrical features (1995’s “Demon Knight” and 1996’s “Bordello of Blood“), a Saturday morning cartoon, a game show, a short-lived sci-fi spin-off called “Perversions Of Science” and three soundtrack albums. While the anthology structure doesn’t share much DNA with “Game Of Thrones,” there were other crucial ways in which it served as a forerunner. Firstly, the way in which it married genre material with unrepentant, only-on-pay-cable nudity and gore, something that the network would try only sparingly over the next twenty years. Secondly, it was the first ongoing show to borrow big movie names for the network: A-list directors and producers Robert Zemeckis, Joel Silver, Walter Hill and Richard Donner were executive producers on the show (and all directed episodes), while helmers including William Friedkin, Tobe Hooper, Peter Medak, Brian Helgeland, Tom Hanks (!), Michael J. Fox (!!) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (!!!) stepped behind the camera for episodes. There was a who’s who in front of the camera, too, with faces like Kirk Douglas, Daniel Craig, Benicio Del Toro, Demi Moore, Donald O’Connor, Christopher Reeve, Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen, Isabella Rosselini and Ewan McGregor all popping up (some pre-fame, some after it). These days, it’s a little ropey in places, particularly when the Crypt Keeper is involved, but can be a lot of fun too. With the success of the EC-indebted “American Horror Story,” maybe it’s time for a reboot? Indeed, Cinemax were said to be interested a few years back…
lol, no. Nothing paved the way for Game of Thrones, nothing you mention was remotely like it in scope, scale, spectacle or characters. You hit a couple of shows that stepped outside the norm, but even those, not even close. And a couple that you include here are actually insulting to GoT.
I know you guys are struggling to make money here, but can we avoid the video ads that shout at me 15 seconds into viewing a page?
Last nights episode of a Game of Thrones did it for me !! I'm done,,
Through lay enjoyed it until now, but when you put a baby in the snow to be picked up by the devil-that's where I call it quits,and so should all the millions of other viewers too, I'd you have any ethics or morals left in this disgusting world!
So…..let me get this straight: "Sex & The City" is ON the list, and "Larry Sanders" gets HONORABLE MENTION?
More and more you reveal yourselves as privileged twenty-somethings with a limited world view and too much time on that laptop you parents bought for you when you moved to the big city.
To put Game of Thrones in the same sentence as The Wire, Carnivà le, The Sopranos, Deadwood, Rome and OZ is a gigantic insult to art. GOT is embarrassing, it's mindless entertainment. The writing sucks in every season and while on The Wire you have all the best characters in TV-history, all incredibly detailed, in GOT you have characters that are just there to serve the plot, characters you don't care about and don't know anything about. The problem is that today's audiences are dumb and lazy, so obviously they see GOT as something good, while it's actually one of the worst cable series i've ever seen. It doesn't mean anything(like Breaking Bad), it doesn't say anything about anything and doesn't make us think about anything. It's not even a good entertainment product considering that basically there are 100 different series in one, in every episode. It is so incredibly shattered and confused. Season 5 will start in 10 months and yet nothing has moved since the beginning. Only people dying for whatever reason…and people walking in ancient gardens…all the time, while talking about nonsense.
Honorable Mention? John From Cincinnati?
Nothing honorable there, as the creation of this show was the death of Deadwood.
I came to this article fully ready to rail on it for not including Carnivale, Like so many other articles do. I was pleasantly surprised.
DEADWOOD though the fact you don't even name check TREME hurts a bit…
EPIC GAME OF THRONES REMIX !
/watch?v=UwIsfno0hsM
Hey, I'll accuse Game of Thrones of social realism.
Martin starts with what I will flat-out call the deepest and most realistic depiction of medieval society, politics, economics and government in the history of fiction, and then gradually layers magic on top of it. Human interaction: family, love, enemies, and every other kind of interpersonal dynamic is there, and rich.
It's extremely socially realistic.
Ok, I'm happy with this
I believe Benioff and Weiss pitched Game of Thrones to HBO as "The Sopranos in Middle Earth." I'd argue that there's really nothing out there like Game of Thrones, but in terms of complexity, The Wire is the closest comparison. All the details matter in both series.
Thanks for reminding me about the awesome show, Carnivale, that was canceled too soon. What a cliffhanger, too!
Yet again Playlist, decent article, shame about comments.
"And yet thanks to an outstanding cast, high production values, and perhaps most importantly, a truly remarkable job of adapting George R.R. Martin's books by showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss"
Wow. I expect so much more from The Playlist. Not a mention of the rapes and sexual violence these esteemed show-runners added? Or is a blithe nod to the fact that the sex is "sometimes" gratuitous enough for you guys? I agree, this is click-bait – but worse, it's click-bait that glorifies something which good critics should be deconstructing not propping up for the sake of a few $$.
this is a ridiculous post because it's literally just a list of shows that came before Game of Thrones on HBO rather than a critical assessment of things within the genre and void that GoT fills that might actually have paved the way for it. click-bait, click-bait, click-bait. sad.