Doomsday didn’t seem far off for fans of the wildly popular show Friends at the end of 2018 when the show’s supporters caught wind that they soon wouldn’t be able to watch their favorite quick-witted crew sip coffee, spit sarcasm and sing “Smelly Cat” at the Central Perk on Netflix for much longer. And so, as all rational humans would do, fans took to Twitter to publicly express their disdain over this decision. Friends followers created such an uproar over the sitcom’s removal that Netflix resultantly pivoted its removal date from the beginning to the end of 2019, giving Friends fans 12 more months to binge the show… probably multiple times. While I’m proud of the fanbase’s resilience, there are many other shows Netflix has dropped over the years that deserved the same level of defense. Here are ten shows that we all wish were back on Netflix.
- 30 Rock
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While many fans of humorous TV shows often resort to The Office or Parks and Recreation, let’s not forget the blissful times when we had the wonderful, witty workings of Tina Fey at our disposal. Based on Fey’s career as a writer at Saturday Night Live at Rockefeller Plaza, this show is the perfect balance of outlandish and heartwarming with a star-studded cast, including Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krokowski, Jack McBrayer and the comical icon herself, Tina Fey. All-in-all, this show and its never-ending stream of one-liners deserve a spot on Netflix.
- Friday Night Lights
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By a general rule-of-thumb, everything is bigger in Texas and the drama, romance and football featured in Friday Night Lights is no exception. In the fictional small town of Dillon, Texas, Coach Taylor must find his feet as the new head football coach at the run-down East Dillon High School after being fired from the more successful and affluent Dillon High School. The show details the lives of Coach Taylor, his family and the lives of his players. Although chanting “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose” was applicable to the East Dillon Panthers mid-game, we unfortunately did lose this show, no matter how clear our eyes or full our hearts.
- Lost
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Another show lost from Netflix too soon The storyline for Lost is centered around a plane crash on an uninhabited tropical island and how its passengers fight for survival, revealing many, multifaceted mysteries along the way. The complexity of both the characters and the lush, tropical environment they’ve found themselves in keeps you on the edge of your seat as the flashback structure, while initially confusing, feeds your knowledge of the characters little by little.
- 90210
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Before there were teen dramas like Riverdale and 13 Reasons, there was 90210. Following the lives of affluent West Beverly Hills High School attendees, 90210 is where Gossip Girl meets The O.C. With the classic, yet reliable, country-girl-moves-to-the-city storyline, Annie Wilson and her family ditch their Midwestern roots for a mansion in the hills. The Wilsons realize they’re not in Wichita, Kansas anymore as they’re forced to adapt to the cut-throat and competitive lifestyles of these Californians. 90210 covers a spectrum of drama and even features cameos from now-Duchess of Sussex, Megan Markle, as well as Kim and Khloe Kardashian.
- Bob’s Burgers
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This animated sitcom centers around the Belcher family, comprised of Bob, Linda and their three children: Tina, Gene and Louise, and their family-owned burger joint. While simple in concept, each character is funny in a different way, appealing to any viewer’s sense of humor. The clever writing and comically chaotic situations have kept the show running since 2011, but not even that was enough to save it from the Netflix chopping block.
- Hannah Montana
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“Sweet niblets!” that’s right. Along with its Disney counterparts, such as Camp Rock, the High School Musical trilogy and Phineas and Ferb, Hannah Montana was once at our Netflix binging disposal. As we all (should) know, the show features Miley Stewart, played by all-around icon Miley Cyrus, who also happens to be a teen pop sensation, Hannah Montana, as she attempts to balance the “Best of Both Worlds.” With childhood anthems, such as “Nobody’s Perfect” and “He Could Be the One,” we all wish we could still binge this show without having to pay for a “Disney+” streaming account in the future.
- Freaks and Geeks
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This show had a generally rough go anyway, but its removal from Netflix was just the cherry on top. While this show has only a mere 12 episodes, it deserved so much better. As gifted high schooler Lindsey Weir finds herself hanging out with a batch of burnouts, her younger, freshman brother, Sam, befriends a bunch of brainiacs. Centered around the siblings’ high school experiences, this comedy features many young faces of present Hollywood royalty, including Seth Rogan, Linda Cardellini, James Franco, Busy Phillips and Jason Segel.
- How I Met Your Mother
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I think I speak for everyone when I say this New York crew deserved a Friends-level response over its removal as this show was “legen-WAIT-FOR-IT-dary!” To put this complex sitcom simply, this show follows five 20-somethings navigating their love lives in The Big Apple. The whole show is one big story of the “good old days” Ted is telling his children in the future, retracing how he met their mother. From the red cowboy boots to the “pineapple incident,” we most definitely took the days where we could watch Ted, Lily, Marshall, Barney and Robin sit in their booth at MacLaurens for granted and the fact it was removed from Netflix is a major upset.
Major Upset *salutes*
- Teen Wolf
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Before you critique me for adding yet another high school drama to this list, this show isn’t just another high school drama as some of these Beacon Hills teens, as stated by the title, are werewolves. The teens, whether howling at the moon or not, find themselves in all sorts of supernatural situations as they attempt to mask the town’s paranormal reality while also balancing their high school lives. Not convinced? Tune in for an episode featuring the extremely genetically-blessed cast, including Tyler Posey, Dylan O’Brien and Colton Haynes, and you might find yourself formulating a tweet pleading for this drama’s return to Netflix.
- One Tree Hill
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Cue the Gavin Degraw because One Tree Hill is more than deserving of their former slot on Netflix. This show follows the lives of the swoon-worthy half-brothers, Lucas and Nathan Scott as they compete on the basketball court, over romantic interests and sometimes both at the same time. Over the show’s nine-season run, the characters mature from high school to adulthood. Drama follows the Tree Hill Ravens throughout their lives as seen in the form of various championships, pregnancies and medical emergencies. Why should this show still be readily available to binge on Netflix? Because, after all, “there’s only one Tree Hill.”
So next time you log onto Netflix for your inevitable daily binge, don’t forget about the fallen shows of the past and appreciate the ones still available. You never know, you might be watching a show one day and fighting for it’s Netflix slot via social media the next.