Before one fateful day in March of 2002, hardly anyone watched the small basic cable network F/X unless they happened upon a movie they liked that was playing... or they were really big fans of Son of the Beach. I started seeing all sorts of ads for this gritty new cop show that was billed as the show too bold for network TV. We saw the big bald guy who was The Commish in a way we've never seen him before. We even saw stuff on the ADS that we've never seen before. I was never really a TV person and I was one of the few who weren't even sucked into the phenomena of 24 a year earlier. However, after this heavy marketing campaign on F/X and on Fox networks as well, I was hooked. On March 12, 2002 at 10 PM ET, I tuned in to F/X and I saw things that I never thought I would ever see on television, even cable television. I saw The Commish transform into one of the most iconic and memorable characters in the history of television: Vic Mackey. I was stunned with the pilot's conclusion - Vic Mackey murdering fellow detective/stool pigeon Terry Crowley in cold blood... and I could barely wait six more days to see what would happen next. On March 12, 2002 I saw television history change in front of my very eyes with the phenomenal debut of The Shield. On November 25, 2008, I saw the series finale of The Shield (CLICK HERE for my review of this epic, historical finale), which will go down as one of the best series finales in TV history, but will go down in my book as the best series finale EVER. For a show that couldn't even find a home on a Big Four network, it is truly amazing what The Shield has accomplished in the seven seasons it was on the air.

The Shield Image #3{8} was the second-highest rated hour-long scripted series on basic cable in 2002, just below another newcomer that year, {9}. That year, according to Nielsen Media Research, there were all of 10 series in this category, and most of those series were sci-fi or other genre fare like {10}, {11} and The Invisible Man. In 2007, {12} dropped out of the ratings top 10 for the first time, in 11th place... out of 34 series. 34 hour-long basic cable series, more than triple the amount
The Shield Image #4Not only did {17} revitalize the basic cable hour-long drama movement, it was the catalyst for F/X to be the front-runner in the movement. {18}'s inception and tremendous success at F/X enabled the network to continually expand, adding a new original drama to the network almost every year since {19} came aboard, with such popular series as {20}, which has led this basic cable hour-long drama category in ratings every year since its second season, {21}, {22}, {23} and this year
The Shield Image #While Chiklis' performance is certainly towering, the superb material creator-showrunner Shawn Ryan kept giving him is the yin to Mackey's yang. Vic Mackey couldn't exist on any other world but Ryan's world of {26} and the stories that Ryan and his amazing writing staff gave us throughout the years is a credit to how talented Shawn Ryan truly is. While he didn't write most of the episodes himself (mainly just the season premiere's and finale's), he ran the show from Day 1 - des

The Shield Image #6So, to the unbelievable cast and crew of The Shield, I say thank you, all of you, from the bottom of my heart for such an incredible television experience. While there are many I haven't mentioned in this article, there is not one single person who has ever worked on this series that I don't truly salute for their work on this series. Not a single one. Anyone who has ever worked on this show deserves the utmost respect, in my book, because they were a part of history. A part of a series that single-handedly changed television. A part of my favorite show of all time. I have never really been a TV person... but after finding The Shield, that was all the TV I ever needed. Peace in. Gallagher out!