Coming soon to a TV near you: Click and Clack
Tom and Ray Magliozzi might be the first to admit that most people on the radio have faces that suit the medium, to put it delicately. There's no place to hide when you make the jump to television, but the Tappet brothers have avoided that with their new animated sitcom PBS will be rolling out next summer. The show is not yet named; a contest soliciting names from fans of the pair's radio show will be announced soon. Plots will center around the oft-discussed hijinks that the brothers snort and chortle over between calls. The fictional Car Talk Plaza, located in Cambridge Massachusetts' Harvard Square, will be coming to life, and the cast is fleshed out with a variety of supporting characters, most of which seem to be based on real individuals, or composites of several people.
For all their self-deprecating humor, Car Talk is one of the most popular shows on NPR, and their producer, Doug Berman, is on board for the TV series as well. The Magliozzi's animated series will be the first primetime animated show aimed at a general audience for PBS. There's a talented team behind the show, and it may even bring new eyeballs to sometimes fusty PBS. In addition to the show, there's a partnership with the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators in which the animated stars deliver safe driving messages to drivers while they suffer in line at DMVs, as well as on educational materials and on the web. We wonder if that effort will be called "Don't Drive Like My Brother."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
l.i.dave 9:49AM (7/12/2007)
i love their radio show
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adamsonar 11:18AM (7/12/2007)
Dear god no.
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Richard 10:19AM (7/12/2007)
Indeed, there is a second floor office in Harvard Square - where Mass Ave and JFK Street split. The window facing the square says - in gold leaf - "Dewey Cheatham & Howe"
We'll see if the characters in Harvard Square - and there are some truly odd ones - listen/ watch, then take legal action to make some $ off of the whole thing.
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Jim in Tampa 10:57AM (7/12/2007)
They are funny! Their mother was hysterical as well when she was on their show before she passed away!
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CoffeeJones 11:16AM (7/12/2007)
I don't know about this...
It'll either be very very good, or very very bad.
Still, they've got the following. They're among the top syndicated shows on NPR. And the podcast of their radio show is always in the top 5, and this is compared to all the rest of the major news podcasts and NPR itself.
Best of luck, guys.
(Tom and Ray never actually call each other Click and Clack, do they?)
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Mal Fuller 12:51PM (7/12/2007)
"..... and the cast is fleshed out with a variety of supporting characters, most of which seem to be...."
That should read - most of whom, not most of which. Characters are human, not inanimate objects.
Try pressing one for English.
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tcc3 12:56PM (7/12/2007)
or press 2 for pedant
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Mal Fuller 1:28PM (7/12/2007)
Great response to my comment tcc3. I will even admit to the fact that I had to look up pedant in my dictionary before I was able to appreciate your clever choice of words. However, the general dumbing down of that which we read is not a good sign I am afraid.