STREAMING SEPT. 21, 2023 A Bunch of Classic TV Is Leaving Hulu

Bad news for retro-TV fans: Hulu is getting ready to part ways with roughly a dozen classic and cult titles over the next two weeks, including Arrested Development, The Bob Newhart Show, Beverly Hills 90210, Hill Street Blues, and Ally McBeal. The Disney-owned platform began posting expiration notices on the shows earlier this week, but sometimes those get applied in error. (Indeed, Hulu briefly put one on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and St. Elsewhere, but those turned out to be false alarms.) But Buffering checked in with Hulu PR, which confirmed that indeed all of the aforementioned shows will be signing off the service at the end of September. Also saying adios: The Practice, Don’t Trust the B— in Apt. 23, Better Off Ted, 7th Heaven, Speechless, and Touch. And while it’s not exactly “classic” TV, two big reality franchises — MTV’s The Hills — will also be leaving within the next few days.

What’s interesting about this batch of programs is that most — though not all — come from 20th Century Fox TV, one of Hulu’s Disney siblings since 2018. But Hulu insiders say these shows aren’t leaving because of some corporate mandate to cut costs or gain some quick tax write-down money, something that did happen at Hulu and other streamers earlier this year as part of the overall streaming correction. Instead, these shows simply reached the end of their licensing agreements, and Hulu programmers opted not to continue investing the money needed to keep them on the service. Streamers, including Netflix, regularly weigh how many viewers shows attract on average versus how much they cost to license, something they call “content efficiency.” If shows don’t perform well enough over time, they can sometimes get the boot — even when they’re part of the same corporate family (like the 20th shows).

If there’s an upside here, it’s that many of the booted titles — especially ones from 20th such as Arrested, The Bob Newhart Show, Ally, and 90210 — are streaming on Prime Video or other services. (Indeed, Netflix’s deal to continue carrying the original Fox seasons of Arrested included a clause giving it complete exclusivity to all seasons of the show once Hulu’s deal was up this month.) So most of these titles are not disappearing from streaming altogether, though viewers who enjoyed watching on Hulu are now out of luck. Still, a few others, including Speechless, Dollhouse, and Better Off Ted, do not appear to have other streaming homes, at least at the moment. It wouldn’t be surprising, however, if those series quickly find life on either another subscription streamer or a free streamer such as Tubi.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the MTM produced shows like Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart shows move over to Prime or Freevee. I believe Amazon now owns the rights to those shows when they acquired MGM.

Remington Steele, another MTM show, started streaming on Prime and it’s the first time I’ve seen it streamed anywhere in recent years.

I have noticed over the years that there is a rather small universe of movies and TV programs that circulate among the various streaming services. It is sort of like the same movies and reruns showing over and over on cable channels.

If/when they leave one service, they usually either get renewed by that service after a few weeks or show up on a competing streaming service.

I do like watching some of the 80s/90s TV series I missed during my work years. Several of them have been remastered in high def and widescreen. That makes them very watchable once one overlooks the hair and clothing styles and vehicles.

Some services (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu) are having more and more movies/TV programs from foreign sources. Many of those are dubbed in several major languages. Once one gets used to the lips not matching the language, the movie/TV program can be very watchable — and usually has less politics. However, they do seem to have as much wokeness.

Check out the FREE Pluto tv https://pluto.tv
If you do not see in the tv guide listing a show then do a search.
They do not have Mary Tyler Moore but do have Dick Van Dyke show or The Bob Newhart Show but do have The Abbott and Costello Show.

They have several hundred tv shows with thousands of episode along with movies.
Also look at the FREE Tubi tv https://tubitv.com
I use a Roku Ultra box. Check https://www.roku.com/products/players
Then go to What to watch to Channel Store https://channelstore.roku.com/browse
Add channel that you want then in the Roku box software displayed on your tv you go to Settings> System> Software update.
Press the Home button and you will see the new apps.
Highlight one of the apps then on the Roku remote press the * and on the menu you choose Move channel and then the arrow keys to move the channels in the order you want.

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