The joy of streaming means that many beloved shows from your past can be rewatched and relived all over again. It also means that such convenience makes the beloved shows that aren’t available to stream yet (or at least, aren’t available any more) stick out even more egregiously. After all, why can’t everything just be streaming? This is the age of Peak TV!
It’s a rhetorical question, but the actual answer as to why we can’t have everything ever, right now, is a mix of music rights, distribution rights, saving certain shows for certain streaming services, or some mix of all three. While some of these shows, as we’ve noted, are available for digital purchase — gotta keep those royalty checks coming! — it’s impossible to get them in their entirety as part of any ongoing subscription package.
With these elements to blame, IndieWire has compiled a list of a number of classic shows that aren’t currently available to stream — and may never be (again or ever):
Based on their work as hosts on NBC’s “The Colgate Comedy Hour,” the iconic comedy duo of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello got their own show: the appropriately-titled “The Abbott and Costello Show.” The sitcom saw Abbott and Costello play struggling actors who shared an apartment in a multi-tenant house in Los Angeles. The series has been released on DVD, and both seasons are — 26 episodes each — are available to purchase on Amazon Prime Video.
In this “weird western” series co-created by “Lost’s” Carlton Cuse, Bruce Campbell starred as the titular Brisco County, Jr., a Harvard-educated lawyer-turned-bounty hunter. The series only lasted one season — 27 episodes — but it garnered a cult following and critical acclaim during its run on Fox (and subsequently in syndication). The complete series is available to purchase on iTunes, YouTube, and Google Play.
One of the most beloved Nickelodeon series of all time, “Pete & Pete” is somehow unavailable to stream. In a time when we all acknowledge that more Toby Huss makes any show better, that’s just unacceptable. (In “Pete & Pete,” Toby Huss played Artie, The Strongest Man in the World. Seriously.)
Inspired by Martin Scorcese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” Linda Lavin starred as the titular Alice, a widow and single mother working at a roadside diner (Mel’s Diner) in Phoenix, Arizona. (Yes, Alice was starting her life over in Phoenix, of all places. Get it? You get it.) “Alice” is available to purchase on Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, YouTube, and Google Play.
In “Barnaby Jones,” Buddy Ebsen and Lee Meriwether starred as Barnaby and Betty Jones, a father and his widowed daughter-in-law, who ran a P.I. agency together. The series ran on CBS for eight seasons and 187 episodes, and if you search for it on Amazon Prime Video, it will suggest you watch a whole bunch of “Monk, “ starring Tony Shalhoub.
A more straightforward spin-off of the sitcom “Soap” — also unavailable to stream, after being on Crackle — Robert Guillaume reprised his role as wise-cracking butler Benson DuBois in “Benson.” If you have DirecTV, you can watch “Benson” on-demand, but if not, there are options to buy on Amazon, Google Play, and iTunes.
This four-season series is one of David E. Kelley’s seminal Boston series — along with “The Practice,” “Ally McBeal,” and “Boston Legal” — but unlike those other series, it’s not available to stream. Set in a public high school (in Boston, of course), “Boston Public” had quite the ensemble cast, with notable actors like Chi McBride, Jessalyn Gilsig, Loretta Devine, Rashida Jones, Kathy Baker (who was nominated for an Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series Emmy during the first season, before becoming a series regular), Jeri Ryan, Michael Rapaport, and Michelle Monaghan.
Another David E. Kelley joint, unavailable to stream. In this particular case, it’s mostly because of the always frustrating music rights licensing issue. Thanks a lot, Mandy Patinkin. You see, Patinkin’s character Dr. Jeffrey Geiger would constantly sing songs during surgery — expensive-to-license showtunes. Despite all the critical and awards recognition during its time, as “Chicago Hope” wasn’t exactly a huge hit and hasn’t gained a cult following or outcry for the series to show up on streaming, chances are low that it will ever stream. The series is out on DVD… for Region 2 players (which is not the United States or Canada).
The first television series to be set in a Mexican-American neighborhood, “Chico and the Man” starred the Freddie Prinze (until his suicide during the third season) and Jack Albertson as Chico and the Man (Ed Brown), respectively. In 2005, a six-episode “Chico and the Man” DVD was released, including “Ed Talks to God,” the episode filmed just hours before Prinze’s death.
A ratings failure — that saw the series move to Lifetime for its last three seasons, after having its first two on NBC — but critical success, “The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd” starred Blair Brown as the titular Molly Dodd, a divorced woman living in New York City and decidedly not having “it all.” “The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd” is another show where music rights — as Blair Brown sang a number of songs on the series — is the major hindrance to it finding an afterlife in the streaming era.
A spin-off of a five-season crime drama called “Jake and the Fatman” (seriously), “Diagnosis: Murder” starred Dick Van Dyke as Dr. Mark Sloan, who solved crimes with the help of his homicide detective son Steve (Van Dyke’s real-life son Barry). “Diagnosis: Murder” lasted for eight seasons — 178 episodes — and five TV movies.
Before Kyle Chandler was inspiring everyone as Coach Taylor on “Friday Night Lights,” he was getting tomorrow’s newspaper… today on “Early Edition.”
Inspired by the Tom Braden book of the same name, “Eight Is Enough” starred Dick Van Patten as Tom Bradford, a newspaper columnist and father of eight children. While all five seasons of “Eight Is Enough” are on DVD, only the first season to purchase for download on Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, and iTunes.
A spin-off of “The Golden Girls,” “Empty Nest” starred Richard Mulligan as recently widowed pediatrician Dr. Harry Weston, whose two grown-up daughters (played by Dinah Manoff and Kristy McNichol) return home to live with him. “Empty Nest” came out of a backdoor pilot within “The Golden Girls” but went through complete retooling and recasting before officially premiering as its own show; then during “Empty Nest,” it was established that the Golden Girls were the Westons’ neighbors, and Estelle Getty joined the series after “The Golden Girls” ended.
Oh, Debra. This one is shocking. In addition to purchasing it online (YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, Vudu, and Google Play), you can watch certain episodes of “Everybody Loves Raymond” on-demand on TBS and every episode on DirecTV, but that’s not exactly the ideal streaming situation, now is it?
Disney+ is streaming a number of notable live-action shows from this era — “Lizzie McGuire,” “Even Stevens,” “So Weird” — which only makes the lack of “The Famous Jett Jackson” stick out even more. However, unlike those other notable shows, there may be a distribution rights issue, as the Disney Channel series was co-produced with Canada’s Alliance Atlantic. (The same is possibly the case for other Disney Channel series currently not on Disney+, “Flash Forward” and “In a Heartbeat.”)
“Frank’s Place” only lasted for one season, and in that one season, it was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. Starring Tim Reid as the titular Frank, “Frank’s Place” was a fish-out-of-water sitcom about a Brown University professor (Reid’s Frank) who inherits a restaurant in New Orleans. Despite plans to sell the restaurant, a voodoo curse ruins his life in Rhode Island and forces him to return to New Orleans to run the restaurant. It sounds cheesy, but the series was ahead of its time: Not only was it the rare single-camera sitcom of its era (with no laugh track), it discussed race and class issues.
In any other instance, a low-rated, one-season series not being available to stream wouldn’t be all that strange. But consider the legacy the show has and the subsequent success of its cast and crew, it’s absolutely bonkers that “Freaks & Geeks” is currently unavailable to stream. It WAS on Netflix, but now it’s just gone.
While you can at least pay to watch the Harrison Ford movie adaptation of “The Fugitive” on Amazon Prime Video and others, the original series doesn’t even have that same luxury.
Ah yes, the misadventures of the bumbling secret agent Max Smart (Don Adams) and his more competent partner, Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon). All five seasons of “Get Smart” — which was created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry— are available to purchase on Amazon Prime Video, Itunes, YouTube, Google Play, and Vudu.
Available to purchase on YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, iTunes, and Vudu, it just seems wrong that “Gilligan’s Island” — of all shows — isn’t readily available to stream. Not even for a three-hour tour. (Get it?)
A spin-off of “The Andy Griffith Show” — which is readily available to stream on multiple services — “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.” ran for 150 episodes over the course of five seasons. In its time, the series was always in the top 10 in Nielsen ratings, and it ended its entire run as the second-highest-rated series in the United States.
The six-season, 225-episode Western “Have Gun — Will Travel” followed Richard Boone’s investigator/gunslinger character called “Paladin” as he traveled around the Old West, for hire. Over a year after the series premiered, a successful radio version of the series (with John Dehner as the voice of Paladin) was created, lasting 106 episodes.
It’s hard to imagine such a show existing today — but surprisingly, not impossible — but there was once a sitcom set in a German POW camp during World War II. And it lasted for six seasons (168 episodes).
Arguably the best cop show of all time, but that distinction becomes harder and harder to discuss with every passing year that “Homicide: Life on the Street” is not available to stream.
While it’s available to buy on Amazon and iTunes $1.99 an episode — and maybe you should just buy it — it’s the principle of the thing. “The Larry Sanders Show” is streaming, but you don’t get a clear view of Garry Shandling’s comedy if you only watch that. Watching “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” actually opens up your comedic third eye.
This “Growing Pains” — which is readily available to stream on Amazon Prime Video — spin-off followed Mike Seaver’s gym teacher Coach Graham Lubbock (Bill Kirchenbauer) after he moved to California with his family for his new job. A Catholic family with eight children.
From the Canadian sketch comedy troupe of the same name, “The Kids in the Hall” lasted for five seasons and 102 episodes. It’s available for purchase on Amazon Prime Video, in case you were wondering where to get your fix of Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, and Scott Thompson.
“Who loves ya, baby?” Well, the answer to that question is: not streaming. In order to watch “Kojack” — the series about the lollipop-sucking New York detective — on Hulu, you have to do so with the Live TV add-on. Otherwise, you can buy it on iTunes, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, and Google Play.
Co-created by Steven Bochco, “L.A. Law” was an ensemble legal drama set in — you guessed it — Los Angeles. It won 15 Emmy Awards throughout its eight-season run — four for Outstanding Drama Series — and gave David E. Kelley his breakout television gig.
A spin-off of “Happy Days” — readily available to stream on CBS All Access — “Laverne & Shirley” starred Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams as the titular best friend/roommate characters.
The portrait of the most wholesome middle-class family in America, “Leave it to Beaver” ran for six seasons, totaling 234 episodes. The series ended while still popular as it had reached its natural conclusion, with Beaver’s older brother Wally heading to college, changing the dynamic that was the heart of the show. Seasons three through six of “Leave it to Beaver” are available for purchase on Amazon Prime Video.
With six seasons of “The Love Boat” are available on-demand on DirecTV, that’s about as close as the nine-season (plus give specials) series set aboard the S.S. Pacific Princess is right now.
As far as the original version of the sketch comedy series go, your best bet for finding the series online legally is the five seasons (8, 9, 10, 13, and 14) of 14 that are available for purchase on Amazon Prime VIdeo.
Set in a blue-collar Midwestern suburb, “Mama’s Family” was born from both “The Carol Burnett Show” (available to stream on Amazon Prime Video) and “Carol Burnett & Company’s” recurring “The Family” sketches and the TV Movie “Eunice.” DirecTV has the first two (of six) seasons on-demand, but you can also purchase the series on YouTube, Google Play, and Vudu.
While limited episodes are available to watch on-demand with DirecTV and buy on Amazon Prime Video, the Andy Griffith-led legal mystery drama with its nearly 200-episode run is not available to readily stream.
The first season of Bea Arthur’s “Maude” — created by Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin — is available for purchase on Amazon Prime Video. But there are still five other seasons out outspoken, politically liberal Maude Findlay currently unaccounted for online.
The Cybill Shepherd-Bruce Willis two-hander is still often mentioned today when it comes to television will-they-won’t-they relationships, which is evidence of its great power. Unfortunately, that great power hasn’t been harnessed through a streaming platform (or even digital purchase).
Another “Happy Days” spin-off — “Happy Days” sure got around — unavailable to stream. Only this Garry Marshall joint starred Robin Williams, which makes its streaming absence stick out even more.
Think “The Addams Family” but for a bargain. That’s “The Munsters.” And both seasons are available to buy on iTunes and Amazon Prime Video.
You can stream seasons three and four of “The Nanny” on The Roku Channel, but that’s not exactly a full or true streaming experience, now is it?
You would think a Julia Louis-Dreyfus show — a successful one, not “Watching Ellie” — would be readily available to stream, but “Old Christine” proves that theory wrong.
“Northern Exposure” is one of those series that always gets brought up when it comes to classic television shows that aren’t available to stream, as it was a critical darling in its time — 39 Emmy nominations and seven wins, for example — created by Joshua Brand and John Falsey, who also created “St. Elsewhere.” And the answer always seems to, once again, come down to music rights.
Another David E. Kelley joint, this time completely outside of the legal drama genre and before “Ally McBeal” and “The Practice.” For four seasons, “Picket Fences” followed the lives of residents of the small town of Rome, Wisconsin, where the strangest things constantly kept occurring. The first season is available for digital purchase on Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, and Vudu.
The series that spawned “The Naked Gun” film franchise, “Police Squad!” was the very definition of ahead of its time, canceled too soon television.
Fun fact for millennials: The streaming platform VRV has a revolving door of classic Nickelodeon shows (under the NickSplat banner) available for their viewing pleasure. But the kicker is, it’s not exactly the most reliable science when it comes to a certain show in the full rotation actually being available to stream. For example, summer camp comedy “Salute Your Shorts” (which was surprisingly only one season long) is in the rotation but not currently streaming. But the good news is that you at least can’t be traumatized by Zeke the Plumber once again. Unless you want to purchase it on Amazon Prime Video.
Six seasons of John Candy, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Martin Short, and more comedy legends — all unavailable to stream.
For the love of Larisa Oleynik, the lack of Alex Mack, all of her hats, and CGI that looks like Capri-Sun commercials in the streaming world is just wrong. Nickelodeon knows just how big ‘90s nostalgia is for them — and nostalgia, in general, as Nick at Nite has always proven — so one would think they’d have fondly-remembered shows like this readily available to stream. Instead, only two seasons of “Alex Mack” — of four seasons — are available to purchase on Amazon Prime Video and iTunes.
One of the forgotten sitcoms of NBC’s Must See TV, Jonathan Silverman starred in “The Single Guy” as struggling writer Jonathan Eliot, alongside Joey Slotnick, Ming-Na Wen, and Ernest Borgnine.
Tia and Tamera Mowry starred as newly-reunited twins that were separated at birth in this family sitcom. While it had moments where it existed on ABC’s TGIF block and even helped bolster the early era of The WB, as well as became a staple for millennials watching reruns on the Disney Channel, “Sister, Sister” has not made its way to streaming.
All five seasons of the Jerry O’Connell-led sci-fi series (that was somewhat ahead of its time) are available for digital purchase on Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, and Vudu. It was previously streaming on Netflix.
A parody of daytime soap operas, like its spin-off “Benson,” “Soap” was quite the controversial series in its time. It spawned protests — before it even aired — and issues with network Standards and Practices, as well as 17 Emmy nominations (with four wins) during its four-season run.
Starring Karl Malden and Michael Douglas, “The Streets of San Francisco” told the story of two homicide inspectors in San Francisco. Douglas left the series in its fifth season due to his burgeoning film career, and the subsequent ratings drop led to the series eventual cancelation that same season. In 2017, the complete series was released on DVD.
In her first series regular role, Brooke Shields played Susan Keane, a magazine writer who has to learn how to truly be independent for the first time in her life. Nestor Carbonell, Kathy Griffin, and Judd Nelson.
Honestly, the “OK boomer” bubble would possibly burst if “Thirtysomething” were available to stream.
Four of the eight seasons of the John Ritter sitcom are available on-demand on DirecTV, but that’s the closest it is to actually streaming. Not exactly the wacky mishap that you’d expect from “Three’s Company.”
Created by “Friends” creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman, “Veronica’s Closet” starred Kirstie Alley as Veronica “Ronnie” Chase, head of her own lingerie company (called Veronica’s Closet) in New York. It lasted three seasons and spent time on Must See TV alongside its contemporary “Suddenly Susan.”
Four seasons, John Travolta, and no streaming option. It is available for digital purchase on YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, and Google Play though.
The first season (of four) of “WKRP in Cincinnati” is available for digital purchase on Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, and Vudu, but if you’re looking to get your full fix of Loni Anderson on streaming, that’s less of an option.
This beloved canceled too soon series was co-created by Bryan Fuller, which you can probably tell from its cast starring Caroline Dhavernas (who worked again with Fuller as a series regular on “Hannibal”) and Lee Pace (who worked again with Fuller as the lead of “Pushing Daisies”).