I always forget that fact (that very important fact, as it turns out!) When I grumbled about the "new" way the shorts were aired (with the expansion to a half hour), I specifically remember grumbling about C3. Even though there was something in the back of my mind that said that they had nothing to do with it, I still grumbled.
I'm assuming that C3 had little, if anything, to do with the TV stuff. I'm sure our more knowledgable knuckleheads could offer more information.
Columbia produced that 130-short broadcast syndication package in 1998. C3 got involved as a syndicating agent, and received "Executive Producers" credit. C3 was also involved in arranging the AMC deal, and the subsequent restriction of AMC to the same 130 titles that the broadcast stations had (aka "the missing 60").
How involved C3 was in TV syndication became confusing due to an effective stream of contradictory double-talk, and non-denial denials...
- When the syndication package and AMC deals were announced, C3 senior management was all over their website's (now-defunct) forum, claiming credit as the brains behind it all.
- When fans began complaining about the broadcast syndication format, C3 senior management replied on their forum that it was all Columbia's idea.
- When fans begain complaining about AMC's "missing 60," C3 senior management replied on their forum that all complaints should be addressed to AMC for answers.
The C3 website 'corporate information' page makes this statement,
http://www.c3entertainment.com/corporate_info/index.asp"
All the classic Three Stooges television short features are broadcast all over the world on cable and syndicated television networks. C3 has a television syndication agreement with Sony Pictures Television [Columbia]
for worldwide television distribution of the Three Stooges shorts."
It's my understanding that C3 was largely involved as a TV distribution agent for several years after 1998. But, I believe their involvement is now either diminished, or concluded.
