We love Bruce Willis, so why can't we watch Moonlighting?

[TMC]

https://ew.com/tv/bruce-willis-why-c...-moonlighting/

Somehow this incredibly influential TV show is glaringly absent from streaming platforms, and home video options aren't much better. Lionsgate released all five seasons on DVD between 2005 and 2007, but they've since gone out of print and fetch well over $100 per season on the resale market.

Series creator Glenn Gordon Caron tells EW that it's largely the issue of music licensing that has prevented any streamer from picking up the rights. "When we made Moonlighting, television shows didn't typically use pop music," he says. "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."

ABC confirmed to EW that it still holds the rights to Moonlighting but didn't respond to request for comment on whether there have been any internal conversations about releasing the series on streaming in the time since Willis' retirement was announced.

Caron says the network hasn't reached out to him about anything of that nature, but he's optimistic that the recent flurry of interest in Willis' career might be a catalyst for making Moonlighting available at last. "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," he muses. "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."

Caron has been so desperate to get Moonlighting back in front of audiences that he's contemplated reaching out to the Criterion Collection about releasing it on Blu-ray, though he hasn't yet worked up the courage yet.

[Mr. Television]

I haven't seen it since it went off the air. I miss it.

[rusty spike]

So this show will remain on the shelves in the vault until $$$ is paid out for 20 second music clips.