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"James Gandolfini&amp;#039;s towering performance as mob boss and family man Tony Soprano in HBO&amp;#039;s multi-award-winning series The Sopranos is one of television&amp;#039;s all-time greats. Before the drama launched at the tail-end of the 20th century, TV had certainly had its anti-heroes, and - from the 1997 premiere of prison series Oz onwards - cable channel HBO had had its fair share of ground-breaking television moments. Nevertheless, the impact of Gandolfini&amp;#039;s Tony on the television landscape - particularly in the US - cannot be overestimated. In the wake of the 51-year-old actor&amp;#039;s tragic death, join us now as we take a look at five shows that would not have existed had Gandolfini never breathed life into David Chase&amp;#039;s conflicted creation.  &amp;gt; James Gandolfini 1961-2013: Obituary of award-winning Sopranos star &amp;gt; James Gandolfini dies: Acting world pays tribute to Sopranos star Mad Men  Jon Hamm&amp;#039;s suave, sharp-suited Don Draper might seem a world away from Gandolfini&amp;#039;s brutish, dressing-gown-sporting mobster, but in having the confidence to allow a complex character arc to unfold slowly across multiple seasons and to present a protagonist who&amp;#039;s as frequently loathsome as he is likeable, Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner clearly learnt from the best - David Chase and James Gandolfini. Dexter  HBO originally feared that Tony Soprano&amp;#039;s cold-blooded killing of rat Fabian &amp;#039;Febby&amp;#039; Petrulio (Tony Ray Rossi) in season one&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;College&amp;#039; would alienate the Sopranos audience. Instead, the episode has gone on to become a fan-favourite - would Showtime&amp;#039;s serial killer thriller Dexter have ever reached television if The Sopranos hadn&amp;#039;t already proved that viewers were willing to swim in such murky moral waters? We wouldn&amp;#039;t bet on it. The Shield  FX&amp;#039;s intense cop drama The Shield and its lead character Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) were originally conceived with a simple pitch - what if Tony Soprano was a detective in the LA police department? Series creator Shawn Ryan acknowledged the debt that the show owed The Sopranos back in 2008, saying: &amp;quot;Look, we wouldn&amp;#039;t be on TV at all if it weren&amp;#039;t for The Sopranos - they were a mould-breaker. They gave FX the courage to take our show.&amp;quot; Boardwalk Empire  In many ways HBO&amp;#039;s spiritual successor to The Sopranos, sprawling crime saga Boardwalk Empire features Sopranos veterans both in front of and behind the camera - Steve Buscemi leads the cast, while series creator Terence Winter was a writer and executive producer on The Sopranos, writing or co-writing 25 episodes and directing one of the show&amp;#039;s final instalments, season six&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Walk Like a Man&amp;#039;. Discussing the parallels with Digital Spy in 2011, Winter said: &amp;quot;Tony Soprano was sort of the end of organised crime in this country and this is now the beginning of organised crime, so we get to see the flipside. Nucky Johnson, the actual character, was really one of the architects of what became organised crime in this country.&amp;quot; Breaking Bad  A central figure who remains compelling and endlessly watchable, despite (or perhaps because of?) his dark deeds? A man whose criminal lifestyle has a devastating impact on his family? And who has a closer relationship with a surrogate son than he does with his real one? You could be describing either The Sopranos or AMC&amp;#039;s acclaimed Breaking Bad - and Vince Gilligan knows it. Share your own thoughts and memories of James Gandolfini and his work on The Sopranos below. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/news/a491666/sopranos-and-the-anti-hero-how-james-gandolfinis-tony-changed-tv/>