From the E-Mailbag…

Charlie Bassett just wrote me and asked…

While watching It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World on PBS, I noticed that they cropped Joe DeRita out of the shot of the Three Stooges. Do you know why?

Well, I can think of three possible reasons…

  1. Bad panning-and scanning to convert super-widescreen movie to TV format
  2. Republican-backed cutbacks on funding forced elimination of one Stooge
  3. Folks in public television are notorious fans of Shemp

Take your pick. Me, I'm leaning towards the last of these.