9 Fan-Favorite TV Shows Not Streaming Anywhere (PHOTOS)
Alias
The ABC spy drama—featuring Jennifer Garner as master of disguises Sydney Bristow and Victor Garber as her “spy daddy”—was previously available on Netflix with an alternate soundtrack.
All in the Family
The seminal, socially progressive CBS family sitcom—starring Carroll O’Connor as the irascible Archie Bunker—is streaming on Crackle, but users can only watch the fifth and sixth seasons.
Castle
Before Nathan Fillion was The Rookie, he solved crimes as the eponymous mystery novelist of this ABC procedural. And Reddit users find it “disappointing” that they can’t find a place to stream it.
Chicago Hope
“I see you ER, but when are we getting Chicago Hope streaming?!” one fan tweeted in 2018, referring to this CBS medical drama starring Mandy Patinkin, Hector Elizondo, and Christine Lahti.
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
“The day they put Fresh Prince of Bel-Air on Netflix will be the best day of my life,” one fan tweeted in 2014. Five years later, the NBC comedy that made Will Smith a household name still isn’t streaming anywhere.
Homicide: Life on the Street
Adweek calls this NBC procedural—the first show to feature Richard Belzer’s Law & Order: SVU character, John Munch—a “capital-G Great TV Series” that’s “perfect for streaming.”
Moonlighting
The Guardian calls Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis the “Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant of their time” for their work as a private eye team in this ABC dramedy. “It is ripe for a streaming rerun,” the newspaper adds.
Northern Exposure
“It pisses me off Northern Exposure isn’t available for streaming,” laments one Reddit user, a fan of this Emmy-winning CBS drama about the oddball residents of a fictional Alaskan town.
With countless streaming platforms available to TV viewers and even more on the way, there’s nothing you can’t watch over the web, right? Well, not quite. Many beloved shows are nowhere to be found Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and all the rest.
As Vulture reports, the streaming platforms are much more likely to spend money on original programming than on licensing fees for preexisting titles.
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Plus, older TV shows often feature music that was only licensed for broadcast and maybe physical home video—and sorting out music rights for streaming can be a time-intensive and costly process. Chicago Hope, the site notes, didn’t boast a memorable soundtrack, but Mandy Patinkin’s character “had a habit of busting out into show tunes,” and Broadway songs “are particularly expensive to use.” As a result of these licensing headaches, some older TV shows have made it to streaming platforms with different music that fans find jarring.
While the streaming wars heat up, all we can do is hope that the fan-favorite TV shows in the gallery above — Castle, Alias, Moonlighting, and more — will find a new home. Flip through the slides to see those digital castaways.
