This sentiment is ultimately the biggest problem with the apparent trend of streaming services purging their original content. As /Film’s Valerie Ettenhofer said in a recent editorial, the majority of removed content hasn’t resurfaced on other platforms or forms of distribution, making them lost in a legal sense. It doesn’t matter whether these programs are good or bad in quality, hundreds of people worked on them, and that alone means they deserve to be readily accessible to anyone who wants to watch them as they have been for years now. Them being removed from these platforms with no hint as to where you can find them next is a nightmarish scenario for the future of television. So much hard work just goes away after years of being so easy to find. It’s terrifying to think about!
That being said, there is still a chance that “Arrested Development” could be saved, but that would involve some quick business deals. There’s a possibility that 20th Century Television could buy back the rights to the show, and they would be in the right to do that since its predecessor had created the show in the first place. That’s what recently happened with the Netflix original “Lilyhammer.” Variety reports that some negotiations between producing partners behind the scenes prevented it from being removed from the platform. However, there’s currently no word if this will actually happen.
In the meantime, run, don’t walk, to “Arrested Development” on Netflix before it’s too late. The show will leave the platform on March 14, 2023.