Part of my job involves reviewing IP licenses. We don't negotiate technical details like aspect ratios. (Some IP owners do, like Disney.)

The decision to mutilate Friends was made by a software engineer (working for the Licensee) who couldn't be bothered to add black bars or convert ratios because "reasons."

The original was filmed in 1.33:1 then cropped down to 4:3.

For the streaming platforms, they chose to crop it the other way:

https://i.imgur.io/sbdIoxd_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&f...

IMO they should just split the difference and stream the full original 1.33:1 with (smaller) black bars.

Showing the original film means showing things the director thought would be out of frame.

In the 90s, film directors would often consider both the cinema and TV ratios, but TV directors? I kind of doubt it; changing the framing might be interesting, but it's not a good way to show it, IHMO. Debates over overscan are fine, but if it wasn't part of the original broadcast, and wasn't part of the directors' intent to be shown, it shouldn't be part of any distribution.

> The original was filmed in 1.33:1 then cropped down to 4:3.

It was filmed at 1.37:1. 1.33:1 would be almost indistinguishable from 4:3 (its 3.99:3)

Ok interesting. Ye I guess much of these thing happen at random really.

The DVDs are probably 4:3, right? Just gotta go to enough thrift stores...

Maybe. I haven't looked too hard. Just got pissed off by scenes being so much harder to follow.