Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Friday, December 8th, 2023

Why aren't more of Norman Lear's shows available for streaming?

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Friday, December 8th, 2023. 

WHY AREN'T MORE OF NORMAN LEAR'S SHOWS AVAILABLE FOR STREAMING?
Following the death of Norman Lear this week, there has been some discussion about why more of Lear's best-known shows aren't available for streaming on an SOVD platform. 

A piece in Deadline asks this very question, although in the end it doesn't provide much of an answer:

Amid the celebration of and reflection on his towering legacy, a present-day realization has dawned about Lear’s singular catalog, which includes shows like All in the Family, The Jeffersons and Maude. With the exception of Sanford & Son and Good Times on Peacock and 227 on Hulu, no Lear-created show can be accessed on a subscription streaming outlet. Instead, some shows can be purchased for download and many stream on free, ad-supported services like Pluto, Freevee and Tubi.

I have long argued that there should be a television series equivalent of TCM. A streaming service which focuses on classic and obscure television shows, providing a mix of better-known classic shows as well as more obscure shows that are worth knowing.

It is certainly possible to assemble a wide-ranging selection of lesser-known TV shows on a streaming service. Before budget cutbacks at parent company Chicken Soup For The Soul decimated its catalog, AVOD Crackle boasted a lineup of lesser-known shows that for the most part had previously never been available for streaming. 

But that lineup was an exception for a streaming service and the reason for it - not surprisingly - comes down to money.

Rightly or wrongly, there is a perception in the SVOD business that with the exception of a few very high-profile titles, older TV shows don't have a great deal of value when it comes to subscriber retention. Sure, some subscribers might tune in randomly to watch old episodes of The Rockford Files or Murder She Wrote. But not enough to matter and certainly not enough to make it worthwhile paying much of a licensing fee.

That's where Sony Entertainment comes into the picture. The company controls the rights to the bulk of Norman Lear's catalog, particularly the best-known shows. And they are very upfront about the fact that they consider themselves to be content arms brokers. Their approach is to maximize revenue and they don't have strong convictions about how that should happen.

So while SVOD services are lukewarm towards classic TV shows, those diginets that have been rolled out in recent years are a different story. A number of them are focused on older TV shows and Sony has been very successful licensing Lear's titles to those networks on a non-exclusive basis. 

One key aspect of those deals is that for the most part, the diginets are allowed to stream their shows when the networks are included in various virtual cable lineups. In fact, in many cases, Sony is obtaining a higher licensing from the diginets by including streaming rights.

And while SVODs might not be willing to pay what they consider to be a premium price for Lear's shows, Sony can monetize the shows by adding them to AVODs, primarily as part of on-demand services. The licensing fee is lower than Sony would get from an SVOD (assuming they were willing to pay it), but the upside from advertising revenue more than makes up for it.

The story of why Lear's less-successful TV shows aren't available for streaming or broadcast anywhere is a different story. 

Between 1971-1975, Lear premiered a staggering string of successful new TV series: All In The Family, Maude, Sanford And Son, Good Times, The Jeffersons and One Day At A Time. And for the most part, those shows are available somewhere on a diginet and/or an AVOD.

But beginning in 1976, Lear's luck began to change, as he produced a number of back-to-back failures: Hot L Baltimore, All's Fair, The Nancy Walker Show, A Year At The Top, All That Glitters, Sanford Arms, Apple Pie, In The Beginning, The Baxters, Hanging In, Palmerstown and AKA Pablo. In that period between 1976 and 1982, the only shows that gained any sort of traction were Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and Fernwood Tonight. And those two shows were more critical successes than commercial ones.

None of those shows have surfaced on even an AVOD and my understanding is that the reasons depend on the show. There isn't enough of an interest from anyone to justify spending the money necessary to get the shows into shape for digital distribution. That includes transferring and cleaning up the tapes for digitization, clearing music rights issues and all of the other things that come with the process of preparing a series for licensing. Given all of that, it's doubtful that any of those shows will soon be available for streaming.

I wish that wasn't the case. In 2023, if a show isn't available for streaming, it doesn't exist for a vast majority of viewers. And some of these shows deserve a better fate than simply being forgotten.

ODDS AND SODS
* ABC has announced that this will be the final season for the Grey's Anatomy spin-off Station 19 after seven seasons. The final. 10-episode season will premiere in March 2024.

* Freeform has reportedly canceled its last two scripted series Good Trouble and Cruel Summer. It's not clear whether the network will remain in the original scripted business. Although there's an argument to be made that producing those YA shows for Hulu and then "premiering" them on linear via Freeform might make a lot of financial sense.

* AMC has canceled the Bob Odenkirk-led drama Lucky Hank after one season. 

WHAT'S NEW TODAY AND TOMORROW:

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8TH:
* A Very Demi Holiday Special (The Roku Channel)
* Baby Shark's Big Movie (Nickelodeon)
* Backyards Gone Wild (HGTV)
* Blood Vessel (Netflix)
* Culprits (Hulu)
* Dating Santa (Santa mi amor) (Prime Video)
* Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Christmas Cabin Fever (Disney+)
* Leave The World Behind (Netflix)
* Magic In Mistletoe (Hallmark)
* Merry Little Batman (Prime Video)
* Mr. Monk's Last Case: A Monk Movie (Peacock)
* Norman Lear: A Life On Television (CBS)
* OWN Celebrates The Color Purple (OWN)
* Silver And The Book Of Dreams (Prime Video)
* The Great British Baking Show: Holidays (Netflix)
* The Sacrifice Game (Shudder)
* Women On The Edge (Netflix)
* World's First Christmas (O Primeiro Natal do Mundo) (Prime Video)
* Your Christmas Or Mine 2 (Prime Video)

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9TH:
* A Christmas Of Yes (OWN)
* A Cowboy Christmas Romance (Lifetime)
* Byron Allen Presents A Merry Soulful Christmas (CBS)
* Christmas On Cherry Lane (Hallmark)
* Dr. Who: Giggle (Disney+)
* Maestra Series Premiere (Hulu)
* Meet Me Under The Mistletoe (Great American Family/Hulu)
* 30 For 30: The Great Heisman Race Of 1997 (ESPN)

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10TH, 2023:
* A Grammy Salute To 50 Years Of Hip Hop (CBS)
* Christmas At The Amish Bakery (UPtv)
* Dark Gathering [dubbed version] (Hidive)
* MasterChef Junior: Home For The Holidays (Fox)
* Peppermints & Postcards (Great American Family)
* Round And Round (Hallmark)
* Science Fair: The Series (NatGeo)
* White House Christmas 2023 (HGTV)
* Yes, Chef! Christmas (Lifetime)

MONDAY, DECEMBER 11TH, 2023:
* A Very Barry Christmas (NBC)
* Big Brother Reindeer Games (CBS)
* Candice Renoir (Acorn TV)
* The Billion Dollar Goal (Paramount+)

Click Here to see the list of all of the upcoming premiere dates for the next few months.

SEE YOU MONDAY!

If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.