The way we watch TV is changing in a shift that will probably be bigger than the rise of cable. The old-fashioned ritual of huddling around the box at a pre-set time to catch the latest episode of your favorite show has been blown out of the water by the rise of streaming services that encourage mass binging at whatever Godforsaken hour you want.
It will probably be a while before Netflix and Hulu are legitimate competitors to existing TV networks on the original programming front, but it's obvious that's where things are headed. Streaming services are making big investments in new shows and seeing big results. In 2013, Netflix's House of Cards took home three Emmy awards, and earlier this year, Kevin Spacey and Jeffrey Tambor won Golden Globes for their work on House of Cards and Amazon's Transparent, respectively, showing that the industry needs to take them seriously.
With this great power comes great responsibility, and all of the major streaming services have made plays for fans of existing franchises by rescuing their favorite shows from cancellation. TV watchers are fiercely loyal, and one of the best ways to sell subscriptions is by giving them something they already love. In this feature, we'll share 12 shows that died on the traditional airwaves, only to be brought back to life by Netflix and other streaming services.
We're sure this list is going to grow in the future—some shows that have been bandied around include post-apocalyptic drama Jericho, which went off the air in 2008, and Hannibal, which NBC just cancelled. Let us know in the comments which shows you want revived.
1. Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Netflix)
For five seasons, Cartoon Network aired what might be the best Star Wars media in several decades. The Clone Wars series was a gorgeously animated CGI series set in the prequel universe that won a tremendous amount of awards during its five-season run. When Cartoon Network stepped away from the show, Lucasfilm still had plans for three more seasons. Thankfully, Netflix gave them the opportunity to at least produce one of them, which many fans believe was the best thing they ever did. The sixth season of The Clone Wars, which dropped in 2014 at the same time Netflix added the previous five to its service, moved in a more adult direction that explored the creation of the clone army in between the second and third films.
2. The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix)
It seemed like a lock that the Tina Fey-produced Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, starring The Office alum Ellie Kemper, would land at NBC. The peacock network was solidly behind the show, putting in a 13-episode order for a debut season in 2013 before the pilot was even filmed. Radio silence for almost a year ensued, at which point Netflix came in and announced that it would become an exclusive on its platform. What happened at NBC to sour them on the show? It's impossible to say, but it did great business in streaming and got picked up for a second season within days of its premiere. It just snagged several Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Comedy Series and acting nods for Tituss Burgess and Jane Krakowski.
3. Degrassi (Netflix)
When you talk about Canadian cult exports, people of a certain generation will always bring up Degrassi. The long-running teen drama that gave Drake his first crack at fame first aired in 1979 and has been running north of the border pretty much continuously. You don't survive for almost 40 years by sucking, and the show is notable for tackling hot-button issues in reasonable and responsible ways. The most recent series, Degrassi: Next Generation, had been airing on a variety of networks including MuchMusic, MTV Canada, and TeenNick. But after its 14th season it was without a home. Netflix swept in, realizing it had an opportunity to get a well-loved franchise with relatively low production costs; the 15th season debuts in 2016.
4. Longmire (Netflix)
Based on a popular series of mystery novels about a sheriff's department in rural Wyoming, A&E's Longmire received critical praise and debuted as the network's top-rated series of all time. Unfortunately, it couldn't keep up the ratings momentum and by the end of the third season, A&E cut it loose to focus on other properties. A few other networks sniffed around the show, but it was Netflix that eventually won the day and ordered a 10-episode fourth. Past seasons had done reliably well on the streaming service, leading the company to believe that the show had a future—or at least deserved to resolve the third season's cliffhanger.
5. The Killing (Netflix)
AMC's The Killing built up a lot of goodwill during its whip-smart first season and then pissed it all away by not resolving the show's core mystery—the murder of Rosie Larsen. They managed to wrap it up in the second season, but by then the bloom was off the rose and the network canceled it due to low ratings. Production company Fox shopped it to other places, and Netflix offered to pay for some of the cost in partnership with AMC for the third season, which did well enough that the streaming service bought sole rights to an abbreviated fourth and final season. The Killing is a great example of a show that thrives with a small, dedicated fan base but just couldn't hack it in the big leagues, so it was nice that it got a chance to wrap things up on its own terms.
6. Community (Yahoo)
Netflix isn't the only Web company getting into the TV game. Endlessly beleaguered Yahoo, the former search giant which has been struggling to find an identity in the Web 2.0 era, made big waves in 2014 by announcing that it would fund the fifth season of Community, Dan Harmon's sitcom that never seemed to hit a ratings threshold that would satisfy NBC. The deal, signed on the day all of the main cast's contracts would expire, saw 13 new episodes to stream exclusively on Yahoo! Screen, the site's nascent video service. The fifth season has been universally praised, especially after the Harmon-less season 4 stripped away much of what fans loved about the show.
7. Trailer Park Boys (Netflix)
We don't know how Netflix has its finger on the pulse of Canada so well, but it managed to snap up one of the country's most popular cult comedies with Trailer Park Boys. The long-running series follows the misadventures of a gang of layabouts in a rural Nova Scotia mobile home park, and it's got a foul-mouthed sense of humor that's unlike anything else on TV. The series first premiered on Showcase, a Canadian cable channel known for mature programming. After it picked up steam down here, Netflix made a deal with the three principals to show season 8 exclusively first, and have since re-upped for three more seasons. It's a great cash cow for the service, with low-budget production values and a rabid fanbase.
8. The Mindy Project (Hulu)
Hulu has been a little slow to jump on the original content bandwagon, but it's ramping up efforts to compete with Netflix. Most of its titles are original to the platform, but it recently got some press by announcing that the fourth season of The Mindy Project, Mindy Kaling's Fox sitcom that got off to a rough start but built a devoted fanbase, would air exclusively on Hulu. Considering Fox was one of the networks that initially funded the platform, this is an interesting shift. Several other sitcoms have seen their seasons finished on the service, including social media comedy Selfie, but this is the first new episode order Hulu has made for an existing show.
9. Ripper Street (Amazon)
Amazon is always the elephant in the room when it comes to e-commerce, and it has made a play for the streaming video market in a big way. In addition to its original programming, Amazon also bailed out BBC show Ripper Street with funding when the British network didn't want to continue it. The show, which takes place in London after the Jack the Ripper murders, was gory and grim but garnered a fair amount of critical praise. That didn't translate to solid ratings, so the second season was marked as its last. Amazon's U.K. division, however, had seen enough traction streaming the show that it figured it would be a solid investment to produce more. In an interesting reversal, the third season debuted streaming first and the BBC aired it later.
10. Arrested Development (Netflix)
Fox's quirky single-camera sitcom Arrested Development was way too smart for this idiotic world, and after three seasons and a truly magnificent finale became one of those cult classics that people talk about incessantly. When Netflix first started to dip its toes into original content, it approached creator Mitchell Hurwitz about bringing it back for a fourth. This was a brilliant move—it automatically lent the initiative legitimacy and had people buzzing about the service. When the episodes dropped—15 in a single day—people around the country organized viewing parties. According to Netflix and the show's stars, season 5 is in the works.
11. Full House (Netflix)
This late 80s sitcom isn't being saved as much as it is being revived by Netflix, which announced in April that the Tanners will return in Fuller House. Much of the original cast has signed on, save for the Olsen twins (how rude!) and filming has already started.
12. Breaking Bad
This is a bit of a strange one, because—as we all well know—Breaking Bad aired every episode of its five-season run on AMC and was a critical and commercial hit. But the show didn't really build momentum in popular culture until after the first season went live on Netflix's streaming service. Creator Vince Gilligan has publicly stated that once the show started streaming in 2010, it kindled interest in the show's last three seasons, especially in Europe, where it was cancelled after season 3. Networks are now being made to think about the value of shows after their first viewing, which can only make for better TV in the future.
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