In 1999, telecom company Qwest, now part of Lumen Technologies, ran a commercial showing a future where a remote motel was able to offer customers “every movie ever made in any language, anytime, day or night.”
The advertisement proved a harbinger for the streaming video industry. (See articles by Identika and More About Advertising as well as a compilation of George Parker ads for Qwest on YouTube.)
However, business and legal realities have kept the promise of that ad from fully coming true.
The hardest movies to find on streaming services are older films, especially black-and-white movies. Studios don’t see a business incentive to digitize and remaster many lesser-known films. Other movies aren’t available for streaming because of copyright and licensing disputes. Foreign films also can be difficult to find.
Meanwhile, the proliferation of online video services has made finding specific movies or TV series a chore. Reelgood is one service that is trying to organize the chaos. It’s trying to be the directory for all movies and TV series online no matter the service.
My list of “want-to-see movies” on Reelgood now includes about 100 titles. Of those, 20 titles that are at least five years old are not available on any services, according to Reelgood.
Those missing movies are:
- Killer Shark (1950)
- Fuego (1969)
- Let It Be (1970)
- Sleuth (1972)
- The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
- The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975)
- Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)
- Memoirs of Survivor (1981)
- Electric Dreams (1984)
- Dark Age (1987)
- Buried Alive (1990)
- Neon City (1991)
- Furia (1999)
- Baise-moi (2000)
- The Shark Is Still Working (2007)
- End of the Road: How Money Became Worthless (2012)
- Samurai Cat (2014)
- Neko Samurai 2: A Tropical Adventure (2015)
- I Am a Hero (2015)
- Prey (2016)
An additional 18 movies from 2020 or earlier are listed for rental or purchase only.
The rest are spread out over 15-plus streaming services. They include Amazon Prime Video, Britbox, Epix, Fandor, HBO Max, Hoopla, Hulu, IMDb TV, Kanopy, Netflix, Peacock, Philo, Showtime, Shudder, The Criterion Channel and Tubi.
It’s the same story with TV series that I’m interested in watching. My list of want-to-see TV series on Reelgood includes 14 that currently are not available on any services.
Those missing TV series are:
- Harry O (1974-76)
- The Quest (1976)
- Herman’s Head (1991-94)
- Brimstone (1998-99)
- Cupid (1998-99)
- Robbery Homicide Division (2002-03)
- Miss Match (2003)
- Karen Sisco (2003)
- Ashes to Ashes (2008-10)
- New Amsterdam (2008)
- The Lottery (2014)
- Other Space (2015)
- Wellington Paranormal (2018)
- Curfew (2019)
Other shows on my watchlist are scattered across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Paramount+, Peacock, Starz and more.
While consumers have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to video entertainment, they don’t have access to “every movie ever made.”
