Streaming site playlists seems like such an obvious missed opportunity...

Submitted by Partyboy317 t3_y927jw in television

I've been thinking about this for a while now and was curious if others agreed. After the Chip and Dale movie came out on Disney+ I, like so many others I'm sure, immediately decided to go back and watch the old cartoon and I realized something that is especially true for old cartoons. Some shows aren't meant to be binged. It's not that they are bad shows but they really should only be taken in small doses at a time in order to maintain their enjoyment value. Rescue Rangers is a prime example of this; it's an amazing show, but you watch more than maybe two episodes and you start to feel it quickly.

Then I thought about it and remembered what made the Disney Afternoon and Saturday morning cartoons great was the variety, the randomness and even the limited nature of them. You got your daily variety and then you waited for the next episode. So what if services like Disney+ and Hulu and stuff had daily playlists of an episode (maybe two as was sometimes the case with tv) of a few different shows that you could turn on and it play through the shows without all of the hassle of manually switching between everything.

Imagine if they had special premade ones, like (to use the example again) the Disney Afternoon playlist. To up the ante, they could even start the playlist with the old Disney Afternoon intro (make it optional in case some people want to cut to the chase). Another obvious option would be to allow custom playlists. You choose what shows you want and maybe if you want them to play in order or randomly (both in order of what show is up and what episode it plays).

I used cartoons as examples but there's no shortage of shows in any genre or age range that it would work for. Fan of superhero shows but don't want to just binge Spiderman? Boom! Spiderman, then X-Men then Fantastic 4 etc...(Obviously they'd have to be ones on the specific service obviously). You like cooking shows but don't just want the Great British Baking Show? Well you can have your cake and eat it too.

What sort of playlists would you make? What custom features would you add to them if you could?

28

Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

dj_narwhal t1_it3m31p wrote

I can't believe they never added a holiday button. Hulu you know what I watch, if you put a button that let me watch the 30 rock, Bobs Burgers and Always Sunny halloween episodes at random you know I would press that button.

10

qtx t1_it45rkf wrote

That's what I've been doing for years. Downloaded all the Christmas episodes from different shows (mostly sitcoms but regulary shows as well) going back to the black & white days and just put them all in a Christmas folder and play them on my TV during the holidays.

A different show each half an hour feels incredibly nostalgic and comforting. Especially when you randomize the list so you have no idea what will come next.

7

HandLion t1_it4fpdw wrote

Disney+ has something similar, they have a "Halloween collection" consisting of Halloween episodes of various shows

5

Terj_Sankian t1_it5le2i wrote

In Canada (at least), they seem to have it for every holiday. At least, they have it for Thanksgiving and Halloween, plus Christmas of course. I remember Valentine's Day as well

2

Maninhartsford t1_it3abbf wrote

There's a fun YouTube channel called Rinse Repeat that does this, puts together nostalgic kids show blocks with original commercials too. Of course it's limited by what shows won't get pulled from YouTube, but that sort of ads to the fun as it's like the b sides. But yeah, if disney+ launched a one Saturday morning section or HBO max started in with cartoon cartoons, that would be awesome.

9

johnppd t1_it3adbx wrote

HBO Max has some collections.

4

pootie820 t1_it3z8i5 wrote

Peacock for all of it's many many faults has something similar to this, with their live channels, the problem is almost all of them are just a single show, playing in order. And the few that aren't have like season long marathons before switching to the next show.

3

Cr8z13 t1_it3hf0q wrote

I always figured they resisted playlists to reduce bandwidth and prevent people from gaming the view counts. I assume that's why the "are you still watching" prompt pops up after a few hours.

2

LiveFromNewYork95 t1_it3hm5f wrote

That's why I like live TV and keep cable. TV lineups (both syndicated andfirst run) is a far more enjoyable watch than the binge model or the single episode of a signle show released that day.

1

froop t1_it5f6uc wrote

Disney+ has a few categories for Halloween specials right now, which is sweet. There's an adult cartoon Halloween special category, with Family Guy, American Dad, Futurama, etc. If you play an episode from that category though, like Family Guy, it'll autoplay more regular family guy when the episode finishes instead of playing more Halloween episodes from that category.

1