We’re living in the age of streaming right now, and that means there are a lot of television shows from the past that are now available at our finger tips for free. But not all of them. Yes, people who subscribe to services like Netflix and Hulu will never run out of things to watch, but it’s still kind of surprising how many popular shows are not only streaming absolutely nowhere, but also can’t be rented or purchased on Amazon Prime or YouTube. These shows are essentially stuck in a kind of limbo, despite many of them having multiple seasons and huge fan bases.

Of course these omissions are only really surprising if you’re someone who doesn’t know how broadcast licenses work, because yes, the common reason for why these shows are nowhere to be found usually has to do with rights issues. Whether that has to do with which company or individual owns the show, or the music rights to the various needle drops within the show, legal complications are often the culprit behind lack of availability. Although it is possible for these issues to be resolved. For a long time people complained about how the NBC police drama Homicide: Life on the Street (1993-99) was nowhere to be streamed, but now all seven seasons of that show are available on Peacock and Tubi, including the 2000 TV film Homicide: The Movie! So there is a chance that at least a few more of these lost shows will eventually appear online at some point in the future. Although even when you learn that rights issues can prevent a show from streaming, there are still some missing shows that are more mysterious and more baffling than others.

To give you an idea of what I mean, here’s a list I made of some of the streaming world’s most criminal omissions. In my opinion, these are the shows they need to work on making available as soon as possible, because their absence is the most noticeable.

(Side note: some of the shows I’m about to mention on this list can still be found on the web if you search hard enough, even in places like YouTube, but seeing as how those episodes are often uploaded by third parties and are much more likely to be yanked away and have an ephemeral online presence, I don’t count them as official.)

Fawlty Towers (1975-79)

This 12-episode British farce co-created by and starring John Cleese and Connie Booth is such a highly regarded classic in the world of British sitcoms that it was ranked first in the British Film Institute’s list of the Top 100 Greatest British Television Programmes. Why BBC’s other popular series Monty Python’s Flying Circus is streaming all over the place and yet BBC’s Fawlty Towers is nowhere to be found, I don’t know.

SCTV (1976-84)

No version of the Canadian sketch comedy satire Second City Television, including the Toronto-based original from the 1970s, the NBC/CBC version of the early 1980s and the Cinemax/Superchannel version which aired from 1983 to 1984, is available to stream anywhere. Which is a shame because it would give viewers a chance to see where many of Canada’s biggest comedy stars got their start, including John Candy, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O’Hara and Martin Short. Alas, compiling every full episode of this show would probably be too difficult a task.

Police Squad! (1982)

If this parody of police procedurals (which only lasted a single 6-episode season on ABC) was the only entry in the Police Squad! series ever made, I might chalk up this show’s lack of availability to obscurity. But given how it spawned the 1988 film The Naked Gun, a comedy classic so popular that it was followed by two sequels and a 2025 reboot, I’m surprised Police Squad! hasn’t been dug out of the television graveyard for Paramount to capitalize on that fan base yet. And it really is worth watching because it was way ahead of its time and by far one of the funniest TV shows of the eighties.

Alvin and the Chipmunks (1983-90)

I can understand why The Alvin Show is stuck in limbo because that has a much shorter run and a much older fan base, but the highly popular 8-season Alvin and the Chipmunks from the eighties? Okay to be fair, this one’s absence is not exactly a shock, given how many popular song covers there were in this show. That might be why the Bagdasarian estate is so tight-gripped with this series (to my eternal frustration) although even if they sold the rights to the Chipmunks to some bigger company like Universal, the show’s streaming chances would still be slim. And I know that because Universal owns Saturday Night Live and if you watch that show’s back catalog on Peacock, you might have noticed the musical guests have been cut out of many of those episodes. Fortunately Alvin and the Chipmunks have never been musical guests on SNL so they were not so unlucky in that regard.

Muppet Babies (1984-91)

This is another popular animated series from the eighties that lasted 8 seasons. And Disney really needs to put this one on Disney+ already. They managed to get the final two seasons of The Muppet Show on Disney+ (minus two missing episodes but it’s better than nothing) so how about making this your next project, Disney? You clearly still see value in the brand since you rebooted the show on Disney Junior. I’m not holding my breath on this one though because Disney has been notoriously reluctant to prioritize the Muppets in past years, but maybe if that Miss Piggy movie they’re working on is popular enough they will give their various Muppet properties a more serious look?

It’s Garry Shandling’s Show (1986-90)

Everyone thinks of The Larry Sanders Show (which is currently available on HBO Max and very funny) when they hear the name of comedian Garry Shandling, but his earlier series from the eighties which ran on Showtime as a fourth-wall breaking satire of the sitcom format was just as well-written and hilarious. The fact that Paramount+ doesn’t have this show yet enrages me to no end because it was truly one of a kind and not enough people are even aware it exists.

Thirtysomething (1987-91)

The ABC drama about a group of baby boomers who went from 1970s counterculture to 1980s family life remains an entertaining and smartly written series. I know that because I watched it on DVD, but if you can’t find one of those, you’re out of luck. It’s not exactly the kind of show that younger audiences would gravitate towards, especially in this day and age, but it’s still a classic and deserves to be seen and appreciated.

China Beach (1988-91)

This Vietnam War-set medical drama was always critically acclaimed during its 4-season run on ABC, but boy did it struggle in the ratings. It deserves a second life in the age of streaming just so that the viewers of today and the viewers who ignored it back then can see what they were missing. The show’s cast not only won Emmys for their acting but the series won the Golden Globe for Best Television Series – Drama and even more impressive, a Peabody!

Murphy Brown (1988-98)

This one’s absence is the most notorious due to its huge popularity and cultural impact (Vice President Dan Quayle famously opposed the fictional character’s decision to raise her child as a single parent because it went against his view of traditional family values). Even when CBS rebooted the show in 2018, they still couldn’t manage to get the rights to stream it, which would have been a no-brainer way to promote the reboot. And that more than anything makes me think this one will probably never see the light of day. Although I hope I’m wrong.

In Living Color (1990-94)

This landmark sketch comedy series with a majority Black cast (a first for its time) is another popular classic that is missing despite how popular and classic it is. Which especially rubs me the wrong way considering how unfairly FOX treated this show even back when it was on the air. Keenen Ivory Wayans’ comedic brilliance and the show’s satirical take on Black culture remain one-of-a-kind in the television industry, and that alone makes it worth watching, but it was also, just like SCTV, a proving ground for some of today’s best comedians before they went on to become famous.

Aladdin: The Series (1994-95)

Disney’s refusal to put this on Disney+ is maddening. They have practically every other show from the Disney Afternoon lineup (even Quack Pack for crying out loud), they have the two straight-to-video Aladdin films that bookend the series, and they even have Hercules: The Animated Series, a show which famously features an Aladdin crossover. And yet despite all that!!! This show is missing??? Seriously what is the holdup on this one? The best part of this show, just like the best part of the movies, was always the hilarious Genie antics, and the fact that you are depriving viewers of that alone deserves my wrath.

Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist (1995-2002)

This is one of the funniest shows of the nineties, and it features the talents of many people who would go on to make Bob’s Burgers. Although for some reason that pedigree is not enough for the powers that be to unearth this gem. Maybe it has something to do with how many celebrities make voice cameos as Dr. Katz’s patients or something. In any case, the show deserves to be seen. Although many of the episodes are currently available for free on YouTube and they’ve been there for over a decade without Paramount or Comedy Central taking them down, so it’s not exactly the El Dorado of lost shows or anything.

Mickey Mouse Works (1999-2000)

Yes, the 1995 Mickey Mouse short Runaway Brain is criminally ignored and I’ve seen a lot of people talk about Disney’s bad relationship with that film, but the company’s inaction regarding the series Mickey Mouse Works (as well as its follow-up series House of Mouse) is even worse, because there were many original cartoons in this show that featured characters like Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, Daisy and Goofy at their comedic best. And the show’s absence can’t be because it interferes with the more squeaky clean image of the characters in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, because they also have Paul Rudish’s Mickey Mouse on Disney+ and that show is way more bold in its portrayal of the characters. Which makes the lack of Mickey Mouse Works all the more strange.

Boston Public (2000-04)

David E. Kelley’s high school drama Boston Public is not only nowhere to be streamed, but it has also never even been released on DVD before! The Emmy, Peabody and NAACP Image Award-winning series was creative, well-acted and lasted four seasons (it might have lasted longer had the boneheaded executives at FOX not mettled with its prime time slot) but it remains one of the most allusive popular shows of all time and that really seems like a crime worthy of detention.

Wonderfalls (2004)

Todd Holland and Bryan Fuller’s fantasy comedy Wonderfalls lasted four episodes on the air before it got cancelled by FOX (those idiots at FOX again). This move was criticized by many as way too abrupt, even making TV Guide’s “Cancelled Too Soon” list. But thankfully all 13 episodes were later released on DVD. The reviews were kind too. I checked out the show on DVD years ago and found the premise entertaining and the characters pretty interesting (although I only decided to watch it because Bryan Fuller later went on to create Pushing Daisies and Hannibal and my love for those shows led me to discover this), but I do think this one’s chance of streaming is unlikely because a show with a short lifespan like this doesn’t exactly scream top-priority no matter how underrated it may be.