Guys from 'Car Talk' reluctantly tackle TV

By Kinney Littlefield
For the Associated Press
Published: Tuesday, July 8, 2008 12:07 a.m. MDT
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BOSTON — Tom and Ray Magliozzi, aka Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, of NPR's "Car Talk" fame, are just two low-ego lugs. That's why — familiar self-deprecating shtick aside — the boys' ambivalence about their new public television series rings seriously true.

"I hope that people look at it mercifully," says the younger, stockier, talkier Ray (Clack) about "As the Wrench Turns," a half-hour series that wraps social and environmental messages inside an animated sitcom.

Premiering tonight on PBS, the show follows Click and Clack's exploits co-hosting a nationally syndicated radio show and running a car repair shop that mirrors their real-life Good News Garage in Cambridge, Mass. The show will air in two-episode blocks for five weeks.

(It debuts at 7 and 7:30 p.m. on KUED's digital channel 7.2; it airs Saturday at 9 and 9:30 p.m. on Ch. 7.)

But will the humor of "As the Wrench Turns" compare to what we've come to expect from Tom and Ray's hugely popular radio franchise — the most listened-to entertainment program on NPR?

"It's lame enough that people will laugh at some of the lame stuff," Rays says in between bites of lunch on the patio of radio station WBUR-FM in Boston, where the Magliozzis tape "Car Talk." "There will be some chuckles and wry smiles," he says as brother Tom (Click) looks on, cigar-smoking and chortling gently.

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Tom and Ray voice their animated selves in the TV series, executive-produced by Howard Grossman. But "As the Wrench Turns" deviates from "Car Talk's" successful format. No phone calls from distressed car owners, no long bouts of brotherly banter, no silly signature "Puzzler" or "Stump the Chump" jokes. Instead, the show plays out like a family-friendly "Family Guy" or "The Simpsons."

Story lines include Click and Clack's loony fundraising efforts for their bankrupt radio network — which involves their joint run for the White House — plus outsourcing their radio show to India and creating the first-ever pasta-fueled motor vehicle.

And unlike their NPR series, which is definitely a two-personality affair, "Wrench" turns on an expanded cast of characters, including oddball auto mechanics Crusty, Fidel and Stash; perky young radio producer Beth; and the brothers' chunky female garage receptionist and bookie, Sal.

"It's cute," says "Car Talk" executive producer Doug Berman, who runs "Car Talk's" parent company called (for real) Dewey, Cheetham & Howe, and has worked with the Magliozzis for more than 20 years. His thoughts mesh so thoroughly with the Magliozzis' that he seems like a third brother.

And he knows his "Wrench," since he wrote nine of the show's 10 episodes.

So how did the Magliozzis get into this prime-time pickle?

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"Car Talk" hosts/brothers Ray and Tom Magliozzi pose along with their cartoon likenesses. (Charles Krupa, Associated Press)
Charles Krupa, Associated Press
"Car Talk" hosts/brothers Ray and Tom Magliozzi pose along with their cartoon likenesses.