Car talk cartoon a ‘clunker’

By: WALT BELCHER
Media General News Service

Published: July 1, 2008

You would think that the playful personalities of National Public Radio stars Tom and Ray Magliozzi, aka Click and Clack, would translate to television.

They conquered radio long ago. Their weekly “Car Talk” is broadcast on more than 600 stations and averages 4.3 million listeners.

They have a successful Web site (http://www.cartalk.com), a strong merchandising and publishing operation, and a syndicated newspaper column.

But the Cambridge, Mass., brothers just haven’t found the right TV vehicle for their talents.

Sadly, their new PBS television series is a clunker in need of an overhaul. And we had such high hopes for “Click & Clack’s As the Wrench Turns.”

Unfortunately, turning the Magliozzi boys into cartoon characters just doesn’t cut it.

On radio, their engineering expertise, delivered with clever banter, self-deprecating humor and those Boston accents, takes the mystery out of automobile mechanics.

Every Saturday morning, people throughout the nation call in to “Car Talk” seeking answers about what is causing the squeaks, squeals, groans, clanks or rattles coming from their cars.

Tom and Ray, owners of the Good News Garage, grads of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and purveyors of bad puns, joke their way through each diagnosis.

All this has been lost on the PBS show. The animated versions of the guys make them look silly and much younger. In real life, Ray is 59 and Tom is 71.

As cartoon characters, they have been transformed into loopy garage owners with a struggling public radio show. They keep trying to find goofy ways to keep their series funded so they won’t have to actually run a garage.

In the premiere episode, they both ran for president on the platform “Because America Needs Repair.” Their scheme was to funnel unspent campaign funds back into their network.

It comes off just a little better than a kids show. PBS airs the show at 8 Saturday nights as its first animated prime-time comedy.

During the six-week run of the series, one episode features the brothers’ attempts to develop a fuel-efficient car that runs on pasta. Another is about a robotic car-repair device that inadvertently causes massive power failures.

In other episodes, they outsource their radio program to India and open a casino after erroneously believing that they have American Indian blood.

Each episode carries a well-meaning message, such as: Don’t use cell phones while driving. Or: Give up that gas guzzler to help the environment.

The brothers have joked that PBS was the only network that would take a chance on the show, which has been in development for more than seven years. “Click & Clack’s As the Wrench Turns” was turned down by Fox, the Cartoon Network, HBO, Showtime, Bravo, ABC and Lifetime (50 percent of the “Car Talk” audience is female).

For information, go to pbs.org.

WALT BELCHER is a staff writer for The Tampa Tribune