# Why can't one find Harry's Law to watch online?



## Marc (Jun 26, 1999)

Due to some conflicts this weekend, I wasn't able to record Harry's Law. Not a big deal, I figured, as I'd be able to watch it online.

What? NBC doesn't stream Harry's Law? That's strange, but I'm sure I can find it somewhere else.

What? Hulu Plus doesn't have Harry's Law either? Neither does iTunes?

What's going on? Why would a current day TV show not be available to watch online (via legitimate means) after it's aired? That seems awfully strange.


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## debtoine (May 17, 2001)

The NBC app for iDevices has some episodes. I don't know how current they are since we stopped watching, and you have to use the search function to find them.

deb


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## Marc (Jun 26, 1999)

Thanks for the suggestion. I just took a look and it seems that the app has the same content as is on the web site. I couldn't find full, recent episodes for Harry's Law there either. 

Someone did comment on the latest episode that they had also missed part of it and they were going to watch it via iTunes. Boy, are they going to be disappointed!


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## Fahtrim (Apr 12, 2004)

because there is no demand for the terrible show?


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## efilippi (Jul 24, 2001)

And CBS has only clips of Good Wife, a show that they routinely start at 8;22 or something so that half of the show is skipped. I think one CAN buy that one on itunes but I am basically opposed to paying $3 to see a show that aired only a day ago and that Tivo clipped because CBS can't figure out how to schedule.

I can't imagine how all those folks I see who say they dumped cable and just do streaming can possibly handle it. I guess if you can be satisfied with watching old seasons on netflix it would do.


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

Fahtrim said:


> because there is no demand for the terrible show?


This. We axed the SP quite awhile ago...


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## DouglasPHill (Feb 10, 2005)

Actually, this season, I at first did not like the reboot. But this last ep was very good and quirky. I think the writers are hitting their strides.


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

My wife and I had a similar conversation about csi Miami. I would pay a license fee like they do in the uk to download the shows I want a la carte


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Marc said:


> What's going on? Why would a current day TV show not be available to watch online (via legitimate means) after it's aired? That seems awfully strange.


This doesn't help you, but the answer is presumably because the production company didn't agree to let NBC put it online. (If NBC is the production company AND the airing network in this case, then maybe it's a funny money type of disagreement between different parts of the same company.)

Yeah, I think it's annoying too, even though I rarely watch shows online.. (Though last week I accidentally unplugged my signal booster for a while so missed around 15 mins of a few shows.. One was the Revenge recap show I wouldn't care too much about, plus it is free on iTunes.. I don't remember what the other one is, but I'll try to find it when I catch up to that episode...)


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## marksman (Mar 4, 2002)

Fahtrim said:


> because there is no demand for the terrible show?


Actually it has a lot of demand but just all old.

It is probably a top twenty show in overall viewers.

The way most of the networks handle these reairings is horrible. I think NBC yanks poorly performing shows to focus the audience. They did it with Chelsea. They removed it from online and on demand.

I wish I liked any show on the cw. They actually put all their shows online and on the app like 7-8 hours after they air.

I still don't get why the networks don't understand that letting people catch up or fill in a missed episode makes them more likely to be a regular viewer.

The abc iPhone app came out just in time to keep me from abandoning revenge. I enjoy the show but after previously having frustrations finding a missed episode I had a dvr disaster that wiped out the last four episodes before I watched them. Abc did not have them all on their site and I was just going to give up. I am no longer going to commit crimes just so I can catch up on a tv show networks are begging me to watch.

Anyways the abc app came out (dont have an iPad) and I was able to catch up.

The problem is the networks have stupid contracts and do dumb things. Directv has both abc and NBC on demand and both are poorly maintained. There is zero good reason why I should not be able to watch the entire season of revenge or any episode of Harry's Law.

I remember a year or two trying to get a show for fox but they did not put them on the website until 7 days after airing.

I have officially given up on torrenting shows to fill in gaps or catch up. I have too many shows to watch as it is and I already pay a ridiculous amount of money for content. If they don't want to keep me as a viewer that is on them.

I did not get to see last seasons boardwalk empire but lo and behold all the episodes are available in high def on demand. There are reasons why cable shows can grow audiences from one season to the next and why network shows almost always only lose audience. They make it too difficult to keep up or catch up.

Amc is a commercial based cable network and shows like walking dead and mad men set series high ratings with new seasons. While a few comedies have improved this year on networks almost all dramas spiral down. I actually tried hard to keep up but there are so many shows on now and my backlog do massive I have found it easier to just cut shows loose who don't even want to do the smallest amount of work to help me watch their show.


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## Snappa77 (Feb 14, 2004)

I always wondered why CBS does not have Amazing Race offered for OnDemand on Comcast. That show gets pushed back ALOT due to whatever Sunday sports they have running long. And it is a very popular family show. 

We gave up recording 'The Good Wife' on Sundays and just watch it the next day via OnDemand. With NFL, golf, tennis etc etc sometimes the runover is almost 40+ mins. 

And because of conflicts it is very hard to pad.


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## JYoung (Jan 16, 2002)

marksman said:


> Actually it has a lot of demand but just all old.
> 
> It is probably a top twenty show in overall viewers.


I'm going to disagree with that.
I don't see it in the top 20 overall viewers.

And it's been doing horrible in 18-49, averaging about 1.1.


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## efilippi (Jul 24, 2001)

Snappa77 said:


> We gave up recording 'The Good Wife' on Sundays and just watch it the next day via OnDemand.


What's that? I have comcast but the only ondemand I can find is their exfinity pc app, which I can't seem to get to show up on my TV, and which only has a couple episodes of Good Wife anyway. Almost all are clips.


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## laria (Sep 7, 2000)

Marc said:


> What? NBC doesn't stream Harry's Law? That's strange, but I'm sure I can find it somewhere else.
> 
> What? Hulu Plus doesn't have Harry's Law either? Neither does iTunes?
> 
> What's going on? Why would a current day TV show not be available to watch online (via legitimate means) after it's aired? That seems awfully strange.



http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones


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## WhiskeyTango (Sep 20, 2006)

marksman said:


> I still don't get why the networks don't understand that letting people catch up or fill in a missed episode makes them more likely to be a regular viewer.





Snappa77 said:


> We gave up recording 'The Good Wife' on Sundays and just watch it the next day via OnDemand.


^ That's why. People have become too comfortable skipping the initial airing and watching OnDemand, online, streaming, etc. The more available the show is elsewhere, the less likely viewers will stick around when it counts.


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## Marc (Jun 26, 1999)

marksman said:


> The abc iPhone app came out just in time to keep me from abandoning revenge.


I had excellent use of the ABC Player app myself with Missing. I have a "PILOT" wishlist on my TiVo that caught the premiere episode of that show. I finally got to watching it last week. I really loved it, and wanted to see the rest of the episodes I had missed.

I was able to use the ABC Player app on my iPad, mirrored to my Apple TV, so that I could watch the episodes on my TV. It wasn't a completely perfect setup, but it was otherwise quite reasonable and allowed me to get the episodes I had missed and now I'm caught up with the show, ready to watch the next episode when it airs.


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## Snappa77 (Feb 14, 2004)

WhiskeyTango said:


> ^ That's why. People have become too comfortable skipping the initial airing and watching OnDemand, online, streaming, etc. The more available the show is elsewhere, the less likely viewers will stick around when it counts.


But in this case the CBS Sunday lineup is almost always delayed because of afternoon sports. This upcoming Sunday they have golf which ALWAYS runs late. Unless you are recording all 3 hours of their Sunday lineup it is hard to pad the recordings because of conflicts. I would love to watch it the day it airs if they didn't push back their Sunday line up so much and so often.



efilippi said:


> What's that? I have comcast but the only ondemand I can find is their exfinity pc app, which I can't seem to get to show up on my TV, and which only has a couple episodes of Good Wife anyway. Almost all are clips.


 Not sure if the services they offer here in Boston is different than in Illinois but I access OnDemand thru my cable box. They have full eps of GoodWife there.

CBS.com has the last 3 episodes available also.


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## WhiskeyTango (Sep 20, 2006)

Snappa77 said:


> But in this case the CBS Sunday lineup is almost always delayed because of afternoon sports. This upcoming Sunday they have golf which ALWAYS runs late. Unless you are recording all 3 hours of their Sunday lineup it is hard to pad the recordings because of conflicts. I would love to watch it the day it airs if they didn't push back their Sunday line up so much and so often.


I was just using your case as a general example of people having other means of access to the content.


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## marksman (Mar 4, 2002)

When it counts is simply because they don't properly run their business. They should be able to distribute and monetize multiple streams equally.

As I mentioned cable does not have this problem and they will run multiple first night and first week airings as well as catch up marathons and the rest. The result of this is you often see cable dramas grow their audience from one season to the next. This nearly never happens on the networks.

The networks have run the same business model for fifty plus years with very little changes. I don't want to get into a Nielsen accuracy debate but I will say with the number of choices now it seems the accuracy could be off. When radio went from diaries to ppm it drastically changed radio and revealed that arbitron ratings were often not close. I realize Nielsen uses technical solutions as well but with 200 some options for every time slot I don't know how things are bring accurately measured.

Back to ratings how many cable dramas air repeats of an episode at least one time that same night. They are able to monetize it. I realize the reality of networks don't allow for that. My point though is if you have alternate means you can grow your audience. If you lose some revenue short term so be it. That is the problem with networks though. They run very short term thinking models.

I recorded the first two seasons of good wife on my dvr before watching it. However I missed a few episodes. I ended up torrenting them to fill in the gaps. Now I watch the show Sunday nights when it airs. I won't bother torrenting missing episodes any more because they think I am stealing from them. Instead I will just not watch the show at all.

I realize I endlessly harp on this but the logic failure bugs me. They spend lots of resources to get people to watch a show but they have no problem blowing up that relationship when they could easily foster it and grow it. I don't feel like I am talking hypothetically either as I think pay cable and basic cable provide evidence that making shows more accessible grows the audience.

Ironically the network who probably does the least in this regard , CBS, will probably be the first of the big four networks to get it right. They are using the CW as a test bed for these things to see if they can reach a model that makes money. Cw's ratings suck but they have the easiest access to shows of any network. So CBS is using the cw to collect data and test for their future


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## WhiskeyTango (Sep 20, 2006)

Cable and the networks are very different business models because of the costs involved.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

marksman said:


> I still don't get why the networks don't understand that letting people catch up or fill in a missed episode makes them more likely to be a regular viewer.


Viewers who watch every episode of a show are the exception, not the rule. I've read in various places that network research shows that the average viewer only watches one out of every 3-4 episodes. So networks aren't really all that interested in letting viewers "catch up," since they don't really expect people to watch every episode, anyway. This is why networks love procedural dramas that start and end in the same hour, and why they hate serials where the story continues from episode to episode.


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## efilippi (Jul 24, 2001)

Snappa77 said:


> Not sure if the services they offer here in Boston is different than in Illinois but I access OnDemand thru my cable box. They have full eps of GoodWife there.
> 
> CBS.com has the last 3 episodes available also.


Ah, I don't have a cable box so maybe I should get one. I just use Tivo with a cable card and that doesn't have any ondemand. Thanks.

As for CBS.com having the last thee eps, that is currently true but it is not a normal thing. I have often looked there and found only one full ep, an older one, and a dozen clips. If they are getting better, I applaud.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

DevdogAZ said:


> Viewers who watch every episode of a show are the exception, not the rule. I've read in various places that network research shows that the average viewer only watches one out of every 3-4 episodes. So networks aren't really all that interested in letting viewers "catch up," since they don't really expect people to watch every episode, anyway. This is why networks love procedural dramas that start and end in the same hour, and why they hate serials where the story continues from episode to episode.


The funny thing is, I mostly want to watch things in order, even for sitcoms that have virtually no continuing thread! (I lost a bunch of "Rules of Engagement" episodes, and am grudgingly watching the new ones anyway.. though in this case, there was some plot development, since one character got married at least at one point.)

Also, I think the network's complaints are actually valid, especially regarding reruns. "Having" to watch a new hourlong show every day to keep up would be a bit much for most people. (Yeah, I don't watch hacked up reruns either, but of course the business model depends on it.)


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## sieglinde (Aug 11, 2002)

After obtaining the magical Tivo device. I want to watch them in order and all of them. Right now I have a Mark and Molly I am waiting to show up again because I missed it and that show doesn't really have an arc. Neither does Harry's Law.


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## Marc (Jun 26, 1999)

Harry's Law doesn't have a full season arc, but there are story lines that cross multiple episodes. Having continuity makes subsequent episodes easier to follow.


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## Jesda (Feb 12, 2005)

Harry's Law has quickly become "Boston Legal: Cincinnati"


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## lew (Mar 12, 2002)

efilippi said:


> And CBS has only clips of Good Wife, a show that they routinely start at 8;22 or something so that half of the show is skipped. I think one CAN buy that one on itunes but I am basically opposed to paying $3 to see a show that aired only a day ago and that Tivo clipped because CBS can't figure out how to schedule.
> 
> I can't imagine how all those folks I see who say they dumped cable and just do streaming can possibly handle it. I guess if you can be satisfied with watching old seasons on netflix it would do.


CBS has figured out how to schedule. Air Sundays' schedule, in it's entirety, after sports ends. Pad an hour and you're, almost always, good to go. Years ago CBS would run an abbreviated 60 minutes. They'd go with one or two segments so the rest of the night would run ontime. The current approach works better for CBS.

DVR customers, who fast forward through most commercials, aren't really an audience networks should want to cater to.

People who drop cable generally watch TV programs OTA, not streaming.


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## omnibus (Sep 25, 2001)

Jesda said:


> Harry's Law has quickly become "Boston Legal: Cincinnati"


 Is that a bad thing? Especially with the new blond Penelope (Justine L.) hot as a firecracker.


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## BradJW (Jun 9, 2008)

I was just about to post "that's not a bad thing". Harry's law got off to a very rough start in season 2 but the last few days I watched 8-10 episodes to get caught up. It's been quirky, funny and really good. I at first hated th robot and hated Tommy Jefferson but now I like pretty much everything about it. I hope it returns next year.


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## Jesda (Feb 12, 2005)

omnibus said:


> Is that a bad thing? Especially with the new blond Penelope (Justine L.) hot as a firecracker.


As long as it doesn't get _too_ preachy and sticks to being funny and effervescent, I'll continue to enjoy it.

BL got bogged down in David E Kelly's politics and they turned Shatner's character into a buffoon. I hope they don't do that with Harry or Tommy Jefferson.

The cinematography and even the transition music is all BL-style. They just need a snazzy theme song and a closing balcony scene.


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## BradJW (Jun 9, 2008)

Jesda said:


> As long as it doesn't get _too_ preachy and sticks to being funny and effervescent, I'll continue to enjoy it.
> 
> BL got bogged down in David E Kelly's politics and they turned Shatner's character into a buffoon. I hope they don't do that with Harry or Tommy Jefferson.
> 
> The cinematography and even the transition music is all BL-style. They just need a snazzy theme song and a closing balcony scene.


Tommy Jefferson started out as a giant buffoon. They've toned him down quite a bit - he's actually likable now.


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## Jesda (Feb 12, 2005)

BradJW said:


> Tommy Jefferson started out as a giant buffoon. They've toned him down quite a bit - he's actually likable now.


That's true, though he also started out as an antagonist.


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## Michael S (Jan 12, 2004)

No surprise here it looks like Harry's Law is done for.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/05/11/harrys-law-canceled-by-nbc/133517/


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## Marc (Jun 26, 1999)

This wouldn't have happened if they'd have let me watch it online!


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## BradJW (Jun 9, 2008)




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## Beryl (Feb 22, 2009)

BradJW said:


>


Yeah. I'd catch up on recorded episodes every month or so.

I have a feeling the same thing will happen to L&O SVU.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

..and argh, I actually missed the VERY beginning of last night's episode. I was manually rescheduling shows (decided to record first hour of Survivor in analog due to conflicts), and had forgotten to schedule Harry's Law.. (Tivos don't add new shows in when you cancel shows for a while... except the times I don't want it to, like adding some HD show found via ARWL that nukes tons of my shows!) Manually started it recording when it was in the first minute.. when they got hit by the car.. Hopefully I didn't miss much useful, when I get around to watching this episode. I'm several back..


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## omnibus (Sep 25, 2001)

IMHO, one of the best eps. Two parallel stories. The victim of that car crash at the start is in grave need of a transfusion of blood. His brother is prevented from donating blood because he's gay.

The second arc involves the brother and father of a rape/murder who take a courtroom hostage with handguns protesting the not-guilty verdict for the perpetrator.


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## randyb359 (Jan 3, 2009)

mattack said:


> ..and argh, I actually missed the VERY beginning of last night's episode. I was manually rescheduling shows (decided to record first hour of Survivor in analog due to conflicts), and had forgotten to schedule Harry's Law.. (Tivos don't add new shows in when you cancel shows for a while... except the times I don't want it to, like adding some HD show found via ARWL that nukes tons of my shows!) Manually started it recording when it was in the first minute.. when they got hit by the car.. Hopefully I didn't miss much useful, when I get around to watching this episode. I'm several back..


All that happened before that was them talking in the car.


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