angel, David Boreanaz

7. Angel (1999-2004)

Anybody who watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer would agree the first few seasons were exceptional. You couldn’t help but get sucked in as you witnessed the clear connection between a vampire killer, Buffy, and Angel, who was a vampire. But as the end of season three rolled around, the producers had pretty much milked that relationship to the point where no one cared anymore.

But viewers still cared about Angel, just not Angel and Buffy together. That’s when Angel got his very own show, where he became a private detective in Los Angeles, who was trying to redeem himself for all of the bad he’d done. Was it a sort of strange concept for a TV show? Yes. But was it widely popular? Absolutely. The show ran for five seasons, and vampires became huge. Twilight, True Blood – Angel beat them all to the punch.