Classic Shows That Should Be Streaming: 5 for Shout! TV

Despite its checkered update history on Roku and its massive commercial load, Shout! Factory TV is one of my favorite streaming video on demand services. If it added some more user-friendly functions like watchlists, it would be an A-level service. It already has some of the most fantastic content out there. Here are 5 suggestions for classic TV series to add to its library. I focus on shows that are more under the radar than something like, say, Seinfeld. These series are the kinds that came out on DVD from someone like Anchor Bay instead of Warner Brothers...or maybe by Shout! Factory itself!

1) It's Garry Shandling's Show:  Much of the content on Shout! TV has been on DVD for years thanks to the folks at Shout! Factory, but not all of it is still in print. Case in point: This classic, somehow underappreciated 1980s sitcom. Just look at the prices from third-party sellers on this nearly-10-year-old complete series collection.

I thought/hoped that Judd Apatow's epic HBO doc on Shandling's life would spur renewed interest in the show, but maybe the bigger takeaway was the caustic relationship between the star and ex-manager Brad Gray and Shandling's ultimate ambivalence about the whole thing. It's a shame that now, even after Shandling's death, the show is not in reruns, nor easily available on DVD, nor on streaming. It's a perfect fit for Shout! TV.

2) Get a Life: An even cultier sitcom than the previous entry, this Chris Elliott show is one of those rare efforts for which the word "madcap" really, really works. I mean, I think a quarter of the episodes ended with the main character dead, maimed, or otherwise incapacitated in a major way. Fortunately, this got a great DVD release (though without Elliott's participation, which saddens me), but this short-lived but brilliant series would be a great fit with Shout's assortment of cult TV. The show was too weird for mainstream America, but it might find an appreciative audience on an appropriate streaming platfofm.

3) Moonlighting: At least Lions Gate put the whole series out on DVD, but I don't think it's been syndicated in years, and now the discs are out of print. Someone should pick this up, and it would be great on a streaming platform, where you can skip the later seasons and the non-David-and-Maddie episodes if you feel like it.

The series burned itself out way too early, but what a show it was at its peak. In some ways, the show is still big enough that it would seem like a great one for Hulu to pick up. I certainly wouldn't complain if Shout! found a way to acquire it.

4) Ed: Shout! often celebrates quirky, and if you like quirky, boy, do I have a show for you. This 2000-2004 hourlong NBC dramedy from David Letterman's Worldwide Pants often straddled the line and teetered on the precipice of cloying, but I always found it charming. Ed has never even sniffed a DVD release, and I'm sure music rights are an issue, but it did have rerun stints on TBS and Up.

5) Buffalo Bill: This 1980s NBC comedy is constantly hailed as "ahead of its time" and fondly remembered by so many people who should know yet largely invisible. It did get DVD release from--you guessed it--Anchor Bay--albeit with music edits. However, it deserves better than just hit and miss on YouTube or Dailymotion. While we're at it, how about the less hailed and less fondly remembered but still Dabney-esque Slap Maxwell Story?