Akiva Schaffer’s reboot of The Naked Gun had a solid opening weekend at the box office, with critics and audiences embracing Liam Neeson’s turn towards the absurd. This has inevitably led to a renewed interest in the original, Leslie Nielsen-starring film trilogy, and thankfully, anyone with access to a Paramount+ subscription can binge them without hesitation.
But even fans of the movies might not realize that before The Naked Gun, there was Police Squad!, the very short-lived series that ran on ABC for just four episodes in 1982, with another two burned off over the summer. While the series is just as adored by die-hard comedy nerds as the movies, those who might want to stream it are sadly out of luck. Police Squad! is, like many other series of its era, not available on any streaming service, at least as of now. The reasons for this have to do with the murky economics of streaming and the complex cost/benefit analysis that every streamer has to do.
Why ‘Police Squad!’ (and Other Old Series) Aren’t on Streaming
Police Squad! certainly isn’t the only classic series you can’t stream anywhere, and there are plenty of other older shows that had a far bigger cultural impact that are similarly unavailable. Shows like All in the Family, Tales from the Crypt, and Miami Vice were all beloved hits in their day, but so far, no streamer has ponied up for them. And if popular, long-running shows like these are stuck in streaming limbo, a cultishly beloved flop like Police Squad! probably has very little chance, even with its Naked Gun association.
So why are so many older shows unavailable on streaming? There are a few reasons. Sometimes, it’s a complicated rights issue, with various properties changing hands as companies close and merge, and split off from each other. In the case of Police Squad!, the series was produced by Paramount but aired on the ABC network, so there may be some difficulty there. For some, even if they’re not on a streaming service, they can still be rented or purchased on demand, but sadly, even this isn’t an option for Police Squad!
Another big reason has to do with music clearances. In a pre-streaming era, shows would license a particular song for use in a single episode at the time of airing, with syndication being a separate issue. If a show used a lot of pop music, licensing all the songs from their various rights holders can be a very long and expensive process, which may or may not be worth it to a streamer. This probably isn’t so much a concern with Police Squad!, but it’s the reason a lot of older shows still can’t be streamed.
The third, and probably biggest, reason why so many older shows are left out of streaming comes down to basic demand. If a streamer doesn’t see a sufficient demand for a title, they’re not likely to go through all the complicated legal and financial steps to get ahold of it. For shows that aired in the ’70s and ’80s, the demographic most interested in them is likely to skew older, and it may not be one that most streamers are interested in pursuing.
More recent older series like Friends and Seinfeld have been big hits on streaming, fueled by a largely millennial fanbase that has a nostalgic attachment to them. Police Squad! certainly has its fans, but it’s a very small subset that even knows it exists, and a streamer likely wouldn’t see a big influx of subscriptions for acquiring it. If the new Naked Gun continues to do well, a streamer may see the value in making Pollice Squad! available, but only time will tell.
So, Where Can You Watch ‘Police Squad!’?
Any Naked Gun fans who want to go back to the source to see where it all began will have to do something nearly unthinkable in 2025: pick up a physical release. Police Squad! was released on DVD in the early 2000s, and just five years ago, Paramount put out a new Blu-ray edition, which can still be easily found online. While it’s too bad that no streamer has picked up the series yet, it’s a relief that it hasn’t been entirely lost to time. For anyone who might be hesitant to drop some hard-earned money on a show they’ve never seen, rest assured that if you love The Naked Gun, it’s well worth it.
It remains to be seen whether Police Squad! will ever escape its physical shackles and join the ranks of the streaming masses, but hopefully someday it will. In a way, its limited availability only adds to its cult status, beloved by those who’ve seen it and almost mythic to those who haven’t. It seems that Paramount still owns the rights, having released the Blu-ray and produced the reboot, so if it shows up anywhere, it’s most likely to be Paramount+. If anyone from that particular streaming service is reading this, please take pity on us poor comedy nerds and make Police Squad! available on streaming.
‘Police Squad!’ is available on Blu-ray and DVD.
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