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13 Best Streaming Shows You Can’t Watch Anywhere Anymore – Looper

For the first 60 years or so of television’s existence, programming was a fleeting thing, with many things only ever airing one time. Eventually, reruns came into the picture, but while some shows continue to be aired for years after their finales, others aren’t so lucky. Things got a little better once TV shows started becoming available for purchase on physical media, but even then, not all shows received VHS or DVD releases. 

Streaming services and digital marketplaces seemed to promise a future where shows could be accessed indefinitely, and if a show left one streaming service, it would inevitably pop up on another. Once the streamers began producing their own original content, it was assumed that those shows in particular would never go away. While that has mostly been true, financial struggles and other issues have given way to the sad reality that even shows produced specifically for a certain streamer aren’t safe from total deletion.

While relatively few shows have disappeared completely yet — with most still at least being available for purchase digitally or on physical media even after their original services axed them — there has sadly been a growing list of programming that is no longer available to watch anywhere, in any form. Here’s our pick of the best shows that cannot be streamed or purchased. 

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies

Eduardo Araquel/Paramount+

It isn’t unusual for classic movies to be followed up with a TV show. However “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies” — which originally aired on Paramount+ — stands out not only for being a prequel to a classic film but a rare musical TV series with new original songs rather than being a jukebox musical reworking the songs we already know. 

While Paramount+ has hung its hat pretty heavily on being the place to go for all things “Star Trek” — as well as the streaming home for MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon content — “Rise of the Pink Ladies” stood nicely alongside shows like “1883,” “School Spirits,” and “Tulsa King” to demonstrate that the streamer was also committed to unique, high-quality original programming. However, in June 2023 the ladies in pink were not just canceled after only one season, but they were completely removed from Paramount+ without warning, alongside “Star Trek: Prodigy” and a few other shows. 

It seems “Rise of the Pink Ladies” drew the shortest straw, however, as “Star Trek: Prodigy” at least got a physical release for its first season, and its already-in-the-works second season is reportedly being allowed to remain in production, so it seems likely it’ll find another streaming home. It is tough to be as optimistic that there will be any way to watch “Rise of the Pink Ladies” in the future, though, with Paramount+ admitting it was nixed as part of a lucrative tax write-off for them. 

The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers

ABC/Liane Hentscher

“The Mighty Ducks” was so popular and so beloved that it spawned two film sequels as well as an animated series, a video game, and a theme park attraction — the fictional team at the center of it even became a real NHL squad. Of all the Disney properties, it seemed to be the one most perfectly suited for a Disney+ revival, and it got one in 2021 by way of “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers.”

While many original players from the first film make cameos of varying sizes in “Game Changers,” the show focuses primarily on a new squad of young players — some being the children of the now-adult original players. Having previously appeared in all three movies, Emilio Estevez reprises his role as Coach Gordon — though in a smaller capacity and bowing out for Season 2 to make way for Lauren Graham’s Alex Murrow to become the new coach. Despite a very positive reception, “Game Changers” not only didn’t get a third season but the first two seasons were removed from Disney+ as part of the streamer’s massive content purge in May 2023.

Hidden America with Jonah Ray

Cassie Wright/Getty Images

There was a time when the future of streaming seemed so bright and limitless that companies felt emboldened to launch smaller, more specialized apps. One such example was NBCUniversal’s Seeso, a subscription-based service launched in January 2016 that was built entirely around comedy shows and stand-up specials. While its initial batch of original programming had names like Dan Harmon and Amy Poehler behind it, and featured legacy shows like “Saturday Night Live” and “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” Seeso didn’t even last a full two years before the plug was pulled in November 2017.

Most of Seeso’s original shows found new homes on Hulu, Starz, and other services, with the exception of “Hidden America with Jonah Ray.” Starring the titular comedian — perhaps best known as the human host of the most recent iteration of “Mystery Science Theater 3000” – “Hidden America” was a scripted travel show parody. Notable guest stars included Randall Park, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Bobcat Goldthwait, Anthony Bourdain, and many more — some who played themselves and others who played characters. Ray’s offbeat brand of comedy isn’t for everyone, but it helped to separate “Hidden America” from the countless other mockumentary shows out there and the series definitely didn’t deserve to completely disappear when Seeso did.

Legendary

Barbara Nitke/HBO Max

It was inevitable that reality TV would find its way onto streaming services as well. While there is plenty of the lowest-common-denominator content available, there have been some great additions to the genre as well. One of the best of the last couple of years is “Legendary” on HBO Max, where celebrity judges like Jameela Jamil, Keke Palmer, and Megan Thee Stallion preside over a voguing competition between talented groups, or “houses.”

With praise from GLAAD for its representation and positive depiction of the LGBTQ+ community and Black culture, “Legendary” is the kind of show that there isn’t nearly enough of on television. It’s also just a wonderful example of the reality TV genre done right, as it is more about celebrating people rather than tearing them down, laughing at them, or objectifying them. Despite this, “Legendary” only got three seasons before HBO pulled the plug on its continuation and the show as a whole. It was removed from their service entirely in December 2022, a move that GLAAD called out the company for. 

“Legendary,” along with various other originals that were pulled from HBO Max, were set to head to Roku Channel or Tubi in Spring 2023. However, those plans have yet to materialize, and “Legendary” remains unavailable at the time of writing.

From Cradle to Stage

Tara Ziemba/Getty Images

Paramount+ made a big deal about one of its brands being MTV — something that not only manifested in a number of legacy shows but also saw revivals of the likes of “Beavis and Butt-head,” “The Real World,” and “Yo! MTV Raps.” The streamer also kept the spirit of its MTV and VH1 lineage alive with several series that wouldn’t have been out of place on the networks back in their more musically-minded days.

Among the best was “From Cradle to Stage,” based on the book of the same name by the mother of rocker Dave Grohl. Dave and his mother, Virginia, spend each episode chatting with another famous musician and their mother — including Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds and his mother Christene, Pharrell and his mother Carolyn Williams, Miranda Lambert and her mother Bev, and Rush’s Geddy Lee and his mother Mary Weinrib. Buoyed by Grohl’s natural charisma and easy rapport with his subjects, the show was a wonderfully entertaining look at the creation of music and the women who raised some of the most celebrated rock and pop stars.

Sadly, only six episodes were released between May and June of 2021, and those episodes were pulled from Paramount+ two years later in June 2023 with no signs of them reappearing elsewhere at the moment.

Diary of a Future President

Disney+

In terms of its original content, Disney+ has focused its marketing primarily on shows that are either part of existing Disney franchises, or that come under the Marvel and Star Wars umbrellas. As such, new intellectual properties have often gotten short shrift on the streamer — even though there are some real gems in the library if you are willing to do the work to find them.

One of the streaming service’s best original, non-documentary shows is “Diary of a Future President,” an inventive dramedy about a 13-year-old girl named Elena (Tess Romero) who is destined to become president one day. We see Elena as president both in flash-forwards and in scenes where the teenager imagines she is talking to her future adult self (played by Gina Rodriguez). With a 100% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and an equally impressive audience score, it seems almost everyone who actually saw “Diary of a Future President” fell in love with it. Unfortunately, that love wasn’t loud enough for Disney to give it more than two seasons, nor to keep it from being removed from Disney+ entirely in May 2023. 

Prop Culture

Disney+

“Prop Culture” is a unique Disney documentary series that takes viewers behind the scenes through Disney movie history, following prop collector and historian Dan Lanigan as he travels around in search of iconic pieces of memorabilia from Disney films and television shows. It is evident that Lanigan loves what he does, and it doesn’t seem the slightest bit phony or forced when he gets giddy with excitement over the new things he finds. Along the way, he brings in some of the people who wore the costumes, built the props, or were otherwise connected to the items in some way. This includes the likes of Rick Moranis, Christopher Lloyd, Danny Elfman, and Bruce Boxleitner. 

For fans of movie-making, collecting, and all things nerdy, “Prop Culture” was a delight, and it was devastating that we only got a single eight-episode season of this magical show. Not only that but it was pulled from Disney+ in May 2023 when they purged a number of their shows. Given that Rick Moranis has all but left Hollywood – and has rarely been on camera over the last 25 years — it is sad to think that one of those appearances has now been erased. For a company that typically loves to celebrate itself, it is baffling that Disney scrubbed one of the most wholesome — and least corporate — examples of that in recent memory.

I Promise

Quibi

While streaming service Quibi was a short-lived venture, it is hard to fault them for thinking that their unique selling point was a great idea. Focusing on short-form content, Quibi hoped to capitalize on audience’s reduced attention spans and offer original programming in a bite-sized format. Unfortunately, Quibi barely seemed to last any longer than the episodes of the show on its platform.

That being said, there was some surprisingly solid stuff on there, from thrillers like “50 States of Fright” and “When the Streetlights Go On” to documentaries like “Run this City” and “I Promise.” That last one — starring LeBron James and featuring the titular school for at-risk youth that his foundation helps to run — was one of the best things on Quibi, yet it remains one of the few that hasn’t found a home elsewhere. All Quibi programming was acquired by Roku in 2021 and much of it can now be found on the Roku Channel. However, “I Promise” has yet to make the jump which is a real shame as this incredible docu-series deserves to be seen by a wider audience.

Generation Hustle

HBO Max

Among the worst side effects of the internet is how easy it makes it to scam people. This is what the HBO Max docu-series “Generation Hustle” is built around, with each episode looking at a different person who scammed others with varying degrees of severity. What they have in common, however, is that all of the subjects were able to commit their crimes through various shady internet endeavors.

A few episodes cover people who have already had entire movies or TV shows devoted to their crimes, including socialite faker Anna Delvey/Sorokin. Luckily, the new interviews and the slick animated reenactments offer a fresh take. Still, the ones that cover lesser-known scammers — like the teenager who pretended to be a party promoter and finagled $500,000 from friends and family — are much more interesting and justify the need for a series like “Generation Hustle.” It would’ve been great to see the show tackle more subjects in its unique style and approach, but it never got to cover more than ten cases across as many episodes before it was erased from HBO Max during the streamer’s huge content scrub in August 2022.

The World According to Jeff Goldblum

Disney+

In the promotion leading up to the launch of Disney+, the company wanted to make sure that each of the individual brands on the service had at least one noteworthy original to help sell people on. For the National Geographic section of the service, the marquee original that was marketed most heavily was “The World According to Jeff Goldblum,” a show that followed the actor as he tapped into his natural curiosity and explored the world, learning about a specific place or theme in each episode. 

The show seemed to do well, as it was among the first Disney+ originals to have a second season announced. While that second season was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it did eventually release in November 2021. But the entire series would be completely removed from the service less than two years later as part of the Disney+ and Hulu content deletion activities in May 2023. While there is no shortage of shows that follow its basic premise, having the endearingly quirky and infectiously joyous Goldblum as host and tour guide put “The World According to Jeff Goldblum” in a league all its own — and here’s hoping the unceremonious removal of the show doesn’t sour him on doing more projects like it in the future.

Gordita Chronicles

HBO Max

One genre that none of the streaming services seem especially keen to tackle is original, non-animated comedies. It feels like most of them are content with buying up and fighting over legacy sitcoms like “Friends,” “Seinfeld,” “The Office,” and “The Big Bang Theory” and letting those shows fill the comedy quota of their streaming libraries. To be fair, comedy isn’t an easy thing to get right, and it’s something that even traditional television has long struggled with. 

But there have been some exceptional examples of comedies on streaming services, and one that was canceled and erased before it even had the chance to find the audience it deserved was “Gordita Chronicles” on HBO Max. It follows a Dominican girl nicknamed Cucu (Olivia Goncalves) and her family as they try to make a life for themselves in Miami in the ’80s, narrated by her older self (played by Dascha Polanco). The mostly unknown cast is great together and the show tells a story that is equal parts hilarious and heartfelt. However, it only had one season before being canceled in July 2022 and removed completely just five months after that.

Encore!

Disney+

Disney and musicals have long gone hand in hand, but that typically applies to the company’s own original efforts. However, in the short-lived series “Encore!” Kristen Bell — with her own history in Disney musicals as the voice of Anna in “Frozen” — explores not only Disney but other classic musicals in a fun and novel way. Bell finds groups of adults who had previously done high school drama together and has them reunite for one more performance of one of the musicals they performed as teenagers.

As well as showcasing popular modern Disney musicals like “High School Musical,” “Encore!” also features productions like “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Annie,” and “Godspell,” which might not be as familiar to the audience. Bell clearly loves musical theater, and she’s often just as excited as the people are — sometimes even more so — to see these productions brought back to life. It was a really neat idea, and one that maybe wouldn’t have necessarily worked over multiple seasons, but that doesn’t mean that the one and only season needed to be pulled from Disney+ entirely. But alas, it was, and the show took its final bow in May 2023.

Willow

Disney+

Decades after the release of the beloved cult favorite fantasy film “Willow,” a follow-up series of the same name launched on Disney+ in November 2022 — with the title role reprised by original star Warwick Davis. Val Kilmer was in talks to return to once again play Madmartigan, but the COVID-19 pandemic prevented his appearance. According to showrunner Jonathan Kasdan, Kilmer remained excited about and supportive of the show carrying on without him (via News Week).

“Willow” earned strong reviews, but Disney was quick to squash any notions of its continuation when it announced in March 2023 that the show would not have a second season. Kasdan insisted at the time that the show hadn’t been canceled but was instead simply on hiatus, further explaining that Season 2 had actually been written already. But even if Disney gave him that impression at the time, the company made its position on the future of the series clear when it removed Season 1 from Disney+ in May 2023 — a mere six months after it debuted. 

“Willow” wasn’t the only thing to be cut from Disney+ at that point, but it was definitely among the most recent additions to the service to be part of the purge — going from being heavily hyped and promoted to being deleted entirely in the span of only a few months.