“Retire? Why would we retire? We only work two hours a week as it is.” Ray, or is Tom?
Click and Clack the Tappit Brothers have been on Public Radio pretty much forever. These are a couple of Boston auto mechanics who answer questions about cars, car repair, and pretty much whatever they feel like talking about. The show is hilarious the first time you hear it-it’s all about the brothers quick wits and snappy come backs and the way they insult each other. It’s a fun show.
But there is something about the voices of these two yuks that make the show is funny-their books are stupid and boring. Like many great comedians, Tom and Ray have found that it is easy to be witty, but pretty damned hard to be funny. Tom and Ray are masters of snappy repartee-and they have to have a live one to be really funny. Some of the calls are from people with real car troubles and there is nothing at all funny about Tom and Ray telling them what is wrong and how it will cost them five hundred dollars-and that’s just for the part.
Car Talk is one of a handful of PBS shows that are Great Shows-Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Prairie Home Companion, and The Infinite Mind are a few others. Too many PBS stations play nothing but classical music all day and it is baffling that they manage to stay on the air at all. So there has been this trend of late to try and capitalize on the popularity of the handful of shows that are popular. This American Life was made into an oddly depressing Showtime series. Listening to these odd tales is fascinating, watching them is next to impossible.
Which brings me to Click and Clack As The Wrench Turns.
Just watching the little preview tell you this is not going to be pretty. The animation is the kind of stuff that you get from a Chinese workshop for pennies on the dollar. In short, it sucks. Ok, so I don’t exactly expect Click and Clack-As The Wrench Turns to look like Shreik or Finding Nemo, but it could at least look as good as most Saturaday Morning Cartoons. This is supposed to be a Prime Time Cartoon show for adults-think of The Simpsons and Family Guy and The Flintstones. Maybe they were trying to bring back that feeling of the horrid cartoon shows we grew up watching in 1970s. The animation on the I’m Only a Bill looked better than Click and Clack.
Well, it could be worst, they could have made a movie out of Click and Clack as they did with Prarie Home Compaion. Maybe next year.
