Shows like The Office, Game of Thrones and Friends have helped define the 21st century TV landscape, but they're honestly footnotes compared to the impact that Norman Lear TV shows have had on the history of television.
For anyone born after 2000, Norman Lear may not be a name you're overly familiar with and you may have never watched a second of any of his TV shows, but his work in TV, particularly sitcoms in the 1970s, helped chart the course for TV right up until today. In a clip from a PBS special on Norman Lear, TV producer Phil Rosenthal (Everybody Loves Raymond), said Lear was the most influential TV producer ever and splits the history of TV in two: "BN and AN, Before Norman and After Norman."
