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For New York residents in the early '80s, the only TV commercials more ubiquitous than the tourism campaign that would inspire the hearting of a great number of things were those of Crazy Eddie's—groundbreaking ads that entertained locals, while sensitizing them to the challenges faced by the mentally ill in accurately pricing stereo equipment. A recent confrontation on CNBC between the original "Crazy Eddie" Antar and the cousin who put him away for tax fraud inspired premium Limoncello maker Danny DeVito to bring his life to the screen:

DeVito and several other producers are hot for Antar's story after recently seeing him on CNBC being confronted by his cousin, Sam Antar, whose testimony sent Eddie to federal prison for 7½ years. [...]

The success story went sour when Eddie took the company public in 1987 and the feds charged him with conspiracy and racketeering in an $80 million stock fraud. [...]

The movie would cover the four years Eddie spent on the lam, his first marriage, which produced five daughters, and his second, which produced a son.

Whichever producer wins the rights to make the Crazy Eddie story, we hope they spare no expense in casting the pivotal role of announcer Jerry Carroll, the star of the commercials. His memorable performances hinted at an unhinged improvisational comic genius, and he could only be done justice by a similar talent, on the level of a Jim Carrey—who, now that we mention it, will probably be available once he's done motion-capturing Scrooge talking to the Ghost of Christmas Future out of his ass.