What would you say are the shift years for TV? In other words, a "shift year" can be defined as being a year has significant implications for the future years for majority of the population and often drastically changes day-to-day lives.

I think that 1985-1987, 1993-1994, 2004-2005, 2009-2010, 2013-2016, and 2020 were all shift years.

1985-1987: Many of the shows from the 1970's had ended their runs or were ending their runs and a new batch of brightly lit, fast paced TV series took their place. Shows like Miami Vice, L.A. Law, The Golden Girls and Married With Children all replaced the more traditional and slower paced shows of the 1970's. In the late 1980's, the FOX network launched and introduced an entirely new type of TV programming with raunchy shows like MWC and The Simpsons, and more youth oriented fare like 21 Jump Street, Parker Lewis Can't Lose and Totally Hidden Video.

1993-1994: Shows that were hugely popular in the 1980's began to end their runs or get cancelled. The Cosby Show, Cheers, A Different World, L.A. Law, Night Court, The Golden Girls, Who's The Boss and Growing Pains were all cancelled in 1992 and between 1993 and 1994 we saw a new crop of edgier, darker and more complex shows replace them.... shows like The X-Files, NYPD Blue, E.R., Chicago Hope. On The Comedy side, Grace Under Fire, Mad About You, Friends and The Nanny all debuted. All of them were decidedly more complex, in your face and over the top than the sitcoms of the previous decade.


2004-2005: Viewers had become stared for television series with continuing storylines as reality TV had taken over much of the early Aughts. Shows like Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy and Boston Legal debuted. Favorites like Frasier, Friends and SATC all ended their runs, leaving a drought of great sitcoms. NBC began it's fall from #1.

2009-2012: I would consider this the last era when Broadcast Network shows were the standard and the most popular shows on TV. New hits like Glee, Modern Family, New Girl, The Good Wife, Castle all debuted and enjoyed long runs. This was the last era before Streaming took over and started to kill off broadcast networks. This is also the last era when cable programming was still strong.

2013-2016: This is when Netflix began to dominate with the launches of shows like Orange is the New Black, House of Cards and The Crown. In the years the followed other streamers began to pop up like Paramount Plus, Max, Tubi and Disney Plus. The era of broadcast networks was clearly ending.

2020-Present: The COVID pandemic shut down the TV industry for most of 2020 and 2021, advertisers began to pull out of cable TV and invest in streaming instead, many once beloved networks began to stop producing original scripted series (TBS, TNT, USA, Showtime, E!) or severely limit their output. A writer's and Actor's Strike delayed the TV season in 2023, shutting everything down and putting thousands out of work. Viewers turned more to streaming services to binge watch reruns of old shows and reality shows.

This was the start of the end, as many institutions once exclusive to broadcast began to move over to streaming: Award Shows, Sports and soap operas moved over to streaming....