Classic Bruce Willis TV Series Unavailable for Streaming for the Lamest Reason

Last month, Bruce Willis announced that he was retiring from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia. The actor’s peers have joined movie fans around the world in offering their support, well wishes, and fond memories of Willis online. Folks have also been spending a lot of time watching Willis’ movies in the wake of the news. Unfortunately, one of the actors best and most important roles can’t be found anywhere online.

Moonlighting, the acclaimed ABC crime dramedy, aired for five seasons from 1985 to 1989 and was the project that launched Willis into superstardom. Now, in the modern streaming era, Moonlighting is almost impossible to watch. The series exists on DVDs that are becoming more and more difficult to track down, and it can’t be found to purchase or rent anywhere online. According to series creator Glenn Gordon Caron, the rights to certain songs used in Moonlighting are keeping it from being available to stream.

“When we made Moonlighting, television shows didn’t typically use pop music,” Caron told EW in a recent interview. “It was really just us and Miami Vice at that time. So when deals were made for the music, no one anticipated streaming. In order to exhibit the show [on streaming], the owner of the shows, which is the Walt Disney Company, has to go back and make deals for all that music – and they’ve resisted doing that for six or seven years now.”

Unlike Moonlighting, Miami Vice is available online (all five seasons are streaming on Peacock). ABC confirmed to EW that it does still own the rights to Moonlighting, but didn’t respond to a request for comment about the future of the series in regards to streaming.

“With all the attention that Bruce has been getting, hopefully one good thing that might come out of it is we can reinitiate the conversation with Disney about releasing the streaming rights,” Caron said. “It’s hard for me to understand why we can’t find a way to make it work. Peacock is now streaming Miami Vice, so clearly somebody has figured it out.”

Are you a fan of Moonlighting? Would you like to see it made available to stream sometime in the near future? Let us know in the comments!