Filmmaker and iconoclast Robert Altman died Monday evening in Los Angeles at the age of 81. While his legacy is firmly rooted in the cinematic realm with films like Nashville, MASH and The Player to his credit, television wouldn't be the same with him. Altman's career actually started in television in the early 1950s. He directed dozens of television episodes for shows like Combat! and Bonanza, as well as the short-lived, but critically-acclaimed 1997 series Gun, which followed the history of a single gun as it passed through different owners and scenarios. The mini-series Tanner '88 is still the guidepost for political satire in film and television. His film MASH, of course, became a revolutionary television series of the same name.
His real TV contribution, however, comes from the style he developed over his years making film. Altman employed huge ensemble casts, encouraged improvisation, used long tracking shots that introduced multiple characters and was a master of overlapping dialogue. There certainly wouldn't be an Aaron Sorkin or J.J. Abrams without him, and I'd be willing to bet that most of today's dramatic television would look different had he not been around shaping the way we engage with characters on the screen. Here's hoping that Altman's rebellious ways continue to inform the way television is made for years to come.
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