What's new in old shows on streaming in January 2023?

We're not off to a blazing start for 2023, but still there are a few nice surprises greeting us with the new year as we peruse the various streaming video sites! Perhaps good things are on the way this year.

Maybe the best surprise, albeit months too late for my taste, is that Peacock finally added the original Kolchak the Night Stalker and The Six Million Dollar Man! I believe both are on the Premium tier, but they are available after being only on the NBC app. Both shows were missing on the official list of Peacock adds for the month. Are these saved as surprises, or are they left off on purpose?

In another surprise, Paramount Plus bolstered its Gunsmoke collection by adding a bunch more seasons, taking the series right up into our BOTNS era. For some reason the earliest seasons are still not on streaming.

It's really hard to keep up with Roku Channel, which doesn't seem to like letting people know what is new, but it now has all 4 seasons of The Rookies, continuing its relationship with Sony, and it looks like it added some old MGM shows like Bat Masterson and Sea Hunt.

Speaking of Sony, its odd deal with Crackle manifests itself yet again, as a bunch of catalog shows are gone (but to return?), while the site lists as "news" series that have been there before, like Charlie's Angels and Starsky and Hutch (both still on Prime in their entirety and without ad breaks).

Hey, that's right, Prime Video is adding Sony shows, too, now! The latest is a nice surprise: Benson with the great Robert Gillaume is now available. Tubi added a few things available eslewhere, like a few seasons of Hart to Hart and 227. 

Now, stepping outside the timeframe, there are two programs announced for January that have not as yet appeared. Pluto is adding Rawhide, and Prime Video is adding Twelve O'Clock High. The latter is of particular interest--another relatively deep dive into the Fox TV vaults for Amazon--and it's nice to see Pluto getting more and more from the CBS library. Plex has all of the original Fugitive now. It's funny that CBS is stingy with Pluto, giving it only two seasons, while Plex gets the whole show. I am not sure when Paramount Plus added The Andy Griffith Show, but it's there now as it should be.

So what are the big takeaways here? I see two. One: Catalog shows like the ones we like are often left off of the press releases touting the material coming to the streaming services. It is annoying but does lead to some nice surprises once the month actually arrives. Two: Kudos to Prime Video for maintaining a commitment to library shows. The shifting of so many programs to FreeVee rankled (still does, really), but at least we know now that Amazon will keep acquiring older programs and will keep spreading the wealth, giving some of it to paid customers rather than dumping all on FreeVee.