2. The Network
When “The Larry Sanders Show” aired on HBO, it wasn’t the first series on the former movies-exclusive channel. They’d tried the series format, but not with success. “Dream On,” an adult R-rated comedy series did well enough to move to another station, where it promptly failed as a PG version of itself. “The Larry Sanders Show,” however, showed HBO that they had something. More audiences tuned in than they expected. Were it not for Garry Shandling, there would not have been a “Sopranos,” a “Six Feet Under,” or a “Sex and the City.” There mightn’t have been a “Game of Thrones!”