Alan Sepinwall, “The Revolution Was Televised” (Touchstone, 2015)

What do Tony Soprano and Archie Bunker have in common? Alan Sepinwall, longtime TV writer and critic, knows that the 1970s comedic bigot and 2000s Jersey mob boss are not as different as we may think. Both broke new ground in TV and made viewers sit up and take notice, although in very different ways. In his newly revised book, The Revolution Was Televised: How The Sopranos, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Lost and Other Groundbreaking Dramas Changed TV Forever (Touchstone, revised edition December, 2015), Sepinwall takes readers on a spin through 12 television shows that changed the medium forever.

The book takes readers behind-the-scenes of 12 groundbreaking TV dramas, including “Oz,” “Deadwood,” “The Wire,” “The Shield,” and of course “Breaking Bad.” Sepinwall isn’t in it to merely recap the plots – he speaks to the writers, actors and directors who made the shows happen, and puts their information together with his own insights to show how this new form of drama developed. Sepinwall also discusses how his book, at first self-published, became a New York Times favorite, and shares what he’s added to this new version. (Spoiler alert—don’t listen if you still don’t know how “The Sopranos” ended, but do tune in if you want Alan’s incisive take on Tony’s family’s final fade-to-black.)

You’ve seen the shows – now go behind the curtain with Sepinwall and podcast host Gael Fashingbauer Cooper as they remember the characters and plots that ushered in this new golden age of television.

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