Classic TV predictions for 2026

Here are some predictions I make regarding retro television in the year ahead. I have no insider information supporting any of these; they are guesses made for fun and should not be used as the basis for wagering!

*The long-ago-announced SCTV reunion special will not appear on Netflix. The show's 50th anniversary is this year, but I think we can give up on this one.

*Two other series celebrating that milestone anniversary will make their streaming returns/debuts this year. It's time for Quincy, M.E. to show up, and Alice is long overdue to come back after a brief stint on Prime Video years ago. I'll go with Peacock for Q and Plex for Alice Hiatt.

*Mary Tyler Moore Enterprises will return to streaming: Hulu gave up on classic TV. Disney gave up on Hulu. Somehow in recent years, we went from having the big MTM shows available to having just about none of them after The Bob Newhart Show left Prime Video at the end of the year,

I know it's fashionable to dismiss anything owned by Disney as lost forever, but there is so much iconic material here that I feel it's worth the company's time to make some kind of deal. Look for Tubi to make some kind of licensing deal to bring MTM shows, including Lou Grant and White Shadow, to its service with a rollout over the next year or so. And, heck, why not throw in non-MTM (but formerly Fox-owned) MASH, too?

*Three's Company will return in better form: The series is available on Peacock and Pluto but in severely edited form. For some reason, nearly intact versions showed up on Roku Channel a while back but quickly disappeared. Look for these to return somewhere in 2026. It would be too easy for them to just replace the Peacock edits, so I don't expect that to happen! Maybe the show will return to Roku.

*Search returns to streaming: After a run on the late and lamented Warner Archive Instant years ago, Search has been neglected. With Warner licensing deep cuts like The New Dick Van Dyke Show, I think we might see this cool genre show (and Season 1 favorite!) come to somewhere like Plex, and then appear on various other platforms for on-demand streaming.

*Ellery Queen (1976) comes to Blu-Ray: With Universal willing to release older shows on BD and also to license them, I think this one might have a shot. It has not been on much in reruns nor on streaming lately, but the name has cachet with mystery fans, and it's a relatively brief run of episodes that makes it a manageable property for someone like Kino to put out on disc.