How I define a cultural phenomenon is something that transcends its own medium (like television or books) to become even bigger. It becomes referenced in other shows, songs, movies, news and many other ways. It also becomes t-shirts, and posters and events at fan conventions with also the rise in celebrity of the actor/s playing certain beloved/hated roles.
Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire
Since I am in my Month of Thrones, I figured I would first discuss the atmospheric growth of the show and the books into something that everyone is either talking about or knows about. The book series called A Song of Ice and Fire, first came out in 1999 with A Game of Thrones (the first in the series). The next 2 books quickly gained a following within the fantasy community and were nominated for many awards including the Hugo (the best of sci-fi/fantasy that year). The third book, A Storm of Storms (currently seasons 3 and 4 of the show) was nominated for Best Novel but lost to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which is an interesting thought, as it is considered one of the best books in the series.
Years later (and one book later), it was announced that the books had been optioned for a television show with HBO, which started to bring up the hype. The creators of the show Daniel Weiss and David Benioff would head the project with author George RR Martin offering guidance and even writing one episode a season. Once the marketing came out the general public got excited because HBO had been known for quality programming that was free from any restrictions and Sean Bean (A fan favorite from his roles in Lord of the Rings and Goldeneye) was added as the lead role of Ned Stark. During the run of the first season in 2011, the show had groundbreaking ratings and was the talk of the town. It started to get featured on news outlets such as Entertainment Weekly, which brought more audiences into the fold. The media was hyping a catastrophic event at the end of the season that no one saw coming, except for book readers.
The death of Ned Stark broke the traditional rules of television, as it had tricked the viewers into a false sense of security with Ned as he was toted as the main character and was on all of the promotional material. And just like Alfred Hitchcock and his shocker "Psycho", it was all that people could talk about as they fell in love with the Stark family and hated the Lannisters/Joffrey. Seeing the bad guys win was devastating and showed people that this show didn't mess around and anyone could die. This got even more viewers as they were able to watch a show that wasn't cookie-cutter and that always had you worried for your favorite characters. The addition of the dragons at the end of Season One also got people excited for what was to come.
With the growth of the show, people wanted to know more and more about the series. This lead to increased book sales and the rise of GRRM as a renowned author (despite being one already in the known community). He went from being relatively unknown on the streets, to needing security walking the booths at Comic-Con San Diego and constantly being bothered about when his next book (the Wins of Winter) will be finished. The rise of Game of Thrones lead to countless podcasts (Podcast of Ice and Fire, Game of Owns), shirts, and crowded panels at fan convention (lines up to 6 hours for a seat!). Not to mention the addition it made to the cosplay (costume-play) community with numerous Daenerys', and Jon Snows to name a few. Forums have also grown with people wanted places to discuss the show/books and all of its intricacies (Westeros.org and Reddit having large audiences). I have also seen people create memes and say some of the memorable quotes like "winter is coming", "in the Game of Thrones, you win or you die", and "you know nothing" become about of the popular culture.
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