Here’s the Question I Want Answered About Paramount +

CBS All Access will rebrand itself as Paramount + on March 4. There’s one classic television show in particular I’m wondering about.

Paramount + makes its debut on March 4, replacing the former CBS All Access streaming service.

As far as we know so far, the pricing for the service is expected to remain the same. Mashable says the service will give you access to content from CBS, BET, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, MTV and Smithsonian Channel. It also promises hundreds of movies from Paramount Pictures.

You’ll also be able to tune into live stations, including CBS, CBSN, CBS Sports HQ, and ET LIVE. I’m a CBS All Access subscriber, and I’m pretty sure you’ve been able to get all of that under the CBS All Access banner.

There are a handful of movies I see that might be of interest. Aside from current CBS series, there are a few classics like Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Twilight Zone, The Brady Bunch and I Love Lucy, and a handful of other big names.

There are plenty of shows like Cheers, Medium, Melrose Place, Taxi, and Twin Peaks and earlier ones I mentioned that never aired on CBS. But they’re included because CBS, which merged with Viacom, owns the distribution rights to those programs.

That question of rights may play a big role in what new shows we might see.

I can’t find any official list yet. But when I look at the list of ViacomCBS programs that could be available, I see some interesting possibilities.

For example, Viacom had the rights to Norman Lear’s All in the Family. I don’t think that program sits on a streaming service at the moment. It has long been a favorite of mine, and for a show that debuted 50 years ago, it’s amazing how well it stands the test of time.

But what about Andy? Last summer, Netflix suddenly lost the rights to The Andy Griffith Show. I’ve seen every episode multiple times.

It’s TV comfort food at its finest. You can find reruns on multiple cable channels, but syndicators chopped them down to make more room for commercials.

My all-time favorite episode of the series, “Man in a Hurry,” is a story about a Type-A personality businessman whose car breaks down just outside of town on a Sunday. He finds everything closed because it’s Sunday. He quickly loses patience with the slow-paced Mayberrians.

When you watch an edited rerun, you see him decide to stay overnight because he’s just begun to realize that Mayberry is a nice place to be.

But in the original episode, there’s one additional scene that you no longer see. In that epilogue, we see that he not only made the realization, he’s become one of them. I won’t spoil the scene in case you haven’t seen it. But trust me: the moment will almost bring a tear to your eyes because it’s just such a beautifully-written episode.

Paramount owns the distribution rights to The Andy Griffith Show. So it’s entirely possible that Andy and friends will end up on Paramount +. At least, I’m hoping it will.

I guess we’ll find out for sure on March 4.

Fingers crossed!