Gang of four.(the editor's spin)(developments in optical storage and video compression...

Hal Roach's Our Gang series of comic shorts debuted in American theaters in 1922 as two-reel silents and managed to last well into the talking-picture era, with new episodes produced until 1944. The series then enjoyed a lengthy new tenure with the arrival of television, canonized as TV's Little Rascals.

Like any long-running comedy series, Our Gang relied on a variety of recurring gags. One involved the peculiar singing abilities of Alfalfa, a character best known for his exaggerated cowlick (aka his "personality"). A squeaky, cracking, atonal whine, Alfalfa's singing