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![Video thumbnail — CSI: Crime Scene Investigation [Intro] - The Who - Who are you](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/yt4sM0eRPSE/hqdefault.jpg)
The Vegas crime lab that took over primetime. CSI premiered on CBS in 2000 and turned forensic science into television's dominant formula — William Petersen's Gil Grissom, The Who's "Who Are You" over the credits, and spinoffs from Miami to New York. It got so big that real juries started expecting what the show delivered every week.
Horatio Caine turns to the camera, delivers the pun, puts on the sunglasses — and The Who scream "YEAAAH." The first CSI spin-off gave David Caruso the comeback nobody expected, made the cold-open one-liner an internet meme, and in 2006 was named the most popular show in the world.
"Funny how? Do I amuse you?" Martin Scorsese's 1990 life of mob associate Henry Hill: the Copacabana tracking shot, Joe Pesci's Oscar, and the fastest two and a half hours in gangster movies. The film that taught a generation how wiseguys talked, and the one that inspired The Sopranos.
Steven Bochco and David Milch's 15th Precinct brought handheld cameras, raw language and bare backsides to network television in 1993 — and dozens of ABC affiliates refused to air it. The ratings won the argument, Dennis Franz's Andy Sipowicz became the squad room's battered conscience, and the show ran twelve seasons.
FX's first drama opened with Vic Mackey shooting a fellow cop and spent seven seasons making you root for him anyway. Michael Chiklis shaved his head, lost the weight and won the Emmy, and basic cable found out it could do what HBO did.