10 TV Masterpieces Considered The Gold Standard Of Their Genre

Published Nov 10, 2026, 8:30 AM EST

Adrienne Tyler is a movies & TV features writer, with a focus on horror. She has written for Netflix, FanSided, & more. She was a regular guest on the Netfreaks podcast and was a YouTuber at some point. Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once.

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TV has seen many great shows considered masterpieces, but only a couple became the gold standard of their genre. The list of the best TV shows of all time covers a variety of genres: comedy, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, animation, and even historical dramas. What they have in common is engaging stories, relatable characters, well-written stories, and overall outstanding quality. However, not all of them can be considered “influential” in their respective genre.

The most influential TV shows of all time have either broken the established mold of their genres, taken them above and beyond, or done something completely different and never seen before. Surely, for many, the risk was very high, but with their narrative and visual quality, they proved the versatility of TV and established a new blueprint for subsequent shows. In many cases, even though decades have passed, they are still the prime example of the best in their genre.

While some of these shows came out decades ago, more recent TV shows have also left their mark and brought new life into their genres, becoming the new model to follow for future TV shows. This proves that TV, like other forms of art and entertainment, is always evolving and finding new ways to innovate and adjust to current audiences.

Friday Night Lights (Sports)

2006-2011

Inspired by H. G. Bissinger’s 1990 book of immersive journalism of the same name, Friday Night Lights takes place in the fictional town of Dillon, in rural West Texas. Friday Night Lights follows Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler), the new coach of the high school football team, the Dillon Panthers, his wife Tami (Connie Britton), and the players, students, and families involved in this community.

Friday Night Lights added much-needed depth to the sports genre on TV by focusing on the emotional weight, social impact, vulnerability, and struggles of the coaches, students, and families involved with the team rather than just on the team’s development, wins, and losses. Friday Night Lights is an immersive experience with relatable, complex, and well-developed characters.

The West Wing (Political)

1999-2006

Created by Aaron Sorkin, The West Wing takes the audience into the West Wing of the White House and follows the daily operations and struggles of those working alongside President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen), as well as their personal lives. The West Wing is widely regarded as the best TV show of all time and has been praised for its accuracy, writing, tone, and performances.

The brilliance of The West Wing is, in large part, thanks to Sorkin’s writing and style of dialogue, being witty and fast, thus dictating the pace of every scene. The West Wing pioneered the “walk-and-talk” dynamic, following the characters through the corridors of the West Wing in single-take shots. The West Wing also gave an idealistic vision of the government and those involved in it, staying away from the cynical approach of most political dramas.

Band of Brothers (History)

2001

Created by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, and based on the 1992 non-fiction book of the same name by Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers explores the history of “Easy” Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, during World War II.

Band of Brothers is a miniseries, but it left a huge mark on TV history, being regarded as a pioneering entry into Peak TV thanks to its high production value. Band of Brothers is a perfect blend of drama and historical accuracy, with brilliantly written character depth and development, and cinematic quality that make it both a narrative and visual delight.

The Wire (Crime)

2002-2008

Created by David Simon, The Wire takes viewers to Baltimore, Maryland, to explore the systemic failures of the city. For this, The Wire focuses on a different organization in every season, such as the drug trade in season 1, the port system in season 2, city hall and bureaucracy in season 3, the school system in season 4, and print media in season 5.

The Wire goes beyond traditional crime shows by focusing not just on the individuals involved in, well, criminal activities, but on the systems themselves, offering a deeper exploration of these and the impact of their failures and corruption. The Wire also made the city its main character, rather than a single character or group.

24 (Action)

2001-2010

Created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran, 24 follows Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), a senior agent assigned to the fictional Counter Terrorist Unit. The particularity of 24 is that each episode takes place over the course of an hour, depicting events as they happen in real time. This, of course, was a novelty when 24 was released, thus reinventing how action shows are made.

Through this format, 24 left behind episodic and predictable stories and mastered suspense through cliffhangers. 24 was also a high-stakes show that was never afraid to kill notable characters, which is something that many other TV shows, and not just action ones, took note of.

Game of Thrones (Fantasy)

2011-2019

Based on George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series, Game of Thrones takes viewers into the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos. Game of Thrones explores simultaneous plotlines as different noble families want to claim the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, unleashing a series of alliances, betrayals, deaths, conflicts, and more.

Game of Thrones turned TV into an event, with high anticipation around every episode thanks to the show’s high production value, loyalty to the source material, writing, narrative high stakes, performances, and how graphic it was. No character was safe in Game of Thrones, and they all dealt with the consequences of their actions, which made the show and its stories even more engaging and exciting.

Doctor Who (Sci-Fi)

1963-1989, 2005-2025

Created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber, and Donald Wilson, Doctor Who follows the adventures of the Doctor, a humanoid extraterrestrial being from the species of Time Lords, from the planet Gallifrey. With the help of his time-traveling spaceship known as the TARDIS, the Doctor, along with a human companion (or more), goes on different adventures across time and space.

Doctor Who is now part of pop culture and is one of the most influential TV shows of all time, even recognized by Guinness World Records as the most successful sci-fi show of all time by breaking different records. Thanks to its creative premise and the Doctor’s capacity to regenerate, Doctor Who has shown how to successfully reinvent itself without sacrificing emotional depth, character development, and exciting stories.

The Twilight Zone (Horror)

1959-1964

Created by Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone is an anthology TV series, meaning that each episode told a different story and starred a different cast, though the show ended up having some frequent collaborators. The episodes of The Twilight Zone usually had a twist and a moral at the end, and were either original stories or adaptations, all of them with a good dose of different types of horror.

The Twilight Zone proved that horror can have depth and a message worth listening to. Through its horror stories, The Twilight Zone offered social commentary (most of which is still relevant to this day), and some stories even served as cautionary tales, which is something now seen in Black Mirror, a show heavily inspired by Serling’s. The Twilight Zone was a pioneer in psychological horror too, with perfectly built-up tension in short stories that always surprise the audience.

Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)

2005-2008

Created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, Avatar: The Last Airbender is set in a fictional world formed by four nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads. In this world, there are people who can telekinetically manipulate one of the four elements, and they are known as “benders.” However, there’s one individual who can manipulate all four and is known as the “Avatar.” Twelve-year-old Aang is the current Avatar, and so he has to do his best to maintain balance between the physical and the spiritual worlds.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the best animated TV shows of all time, and it completely changed animated TV shows by elevating them. Avatar: The Last Airbender mixes mature storytelling, serious topics, flawless world-building, and complex characters with fun animation that turns it into an immersive experience.

I Love Lucy (Comedy)

1951-1957

Based on the radio program My Favorite Husband, I Love Lucy follows housewife Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) and her husband and bandleader Ricky Ricard (Desi Arnaz), as Lucy comes up with a variety of funny and elaborate schemes to become a star. I Love Lucy is one of the best sitcoms of all time, and comedies/sitcoms have a lot to thank it for, as it shaped the genre into what it is now.

I Love Lucy was innovative, starting with its three-camera setup, the creation of the model for TV reruns through a deal made by Arnaz, and showing the first major interracial married couple on TV, among many other things. Lucy brought physical comedy, hilarious facial expressions, and a charming lead character worth rooting for, becoming the blueprint for all sitcoms that came after it.