Robert Altman

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.