NoTV: Click and Clack Close Up the Garage

[Mark Jeffries]

At least in terms of first-run episodes of "Car Talk"--Tom and Ray Magliozzi will end first-run production of their weekly NPR talk show in October after 25 years nationally, but repackaged episodes will continue, so still don't drive like either of them:

 

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-car-talks-click-and-clack-ends-20120608,0,6435664.story

[Kevin M.]

This was never a premise I warmed to on the radio. Top Gear works
because cars are inherently a visual thing -- how to drive them, how
to repair them, etc. And as Top Gear is not just about cars, I know
Car Talk is also not just about cars, but without the visuals it
always felt it was lacking a vital component.

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[David Bruggeman]

The television effort for Car Talk didn't work.  But to shoehorn it into a sitcom format seemed to be asking for trouble.

Now, if Top Gear would show how to fix cars, that would be interesting, but that would also mean that Jeremy Clarkson would do manual labor, so it won't happen.

David

---

From: Kevin M. <drunkba...@gmail.com>

Subject: Re: [TV orNotTV] NoTV: Click and Clack Close Up the Garage

[Diner]

On Friday, June 8, 2012 2:30:59 PM UTC-4, Kevin M. (RPCV) wrote:

This was never a premise I warmed to on the radio. Top Gear works
because cars are inherently a visual thing -- how to drive them, how
to repair them, etc. And as Top Gear is not just about cars, I know
Car Talk is also not just about cars, but without the visuals it
always felt it was lacking a vital component.

 

See, I love Car Talk, but I've never been interested in watching Top Gear. For me, the appeal of Car Talk has always been in the fascination of hearing two MIT grads solving what are essentially logic problems in an entertaining way, as well as in the banter/camaraderie between the hosts and the callers.

 

-Tim

[PGage]

Same here. I have tried three times now (mostly based on how popular it seems to be here) to get into Top Gear, and each time have walked away shaking my head and just not getting it. OTOH, I just love Car Talk, and will probably keep listening to it in reruns.

[Joe Hass]

On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 5:21 PM, PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Same here. I have tried three times now (mostly based on how popular it
> seems to be here) to get into Top Gear, and each time have walked away
> shaking my head and just not getting it. OTOH, I just love Car Talk, and
> will probably keep listening to it in reruns.

The key difference is tipped in the fact that Car Talk (theoretically)
has a future in permanent repeats. Car Talk is about Ray and Tom
talking, and the fact they talked about cars was simply the method
they used to launch into their conversations. Top Gear is about the
cars. While the hosts/presenters are important, if Mr Clarkston spun
an episode into a different non-car world, I doubt anyone would watch.

As an aside: I hope every station drops the permanent repeats. It's
for the same reason I get pissed when I see "Classic Peanuts" or "For
Better Or For Worse v2.0" in the comic section: there's someone doing
something new out their, and leaving a perennial in the limited space
just makes a hard job even harder.

[Jim Ellwanger]

On Jun 9, 2012, at 3:20 AM, Joe Hass wrote:

> The key difference is tipped in the fact that Car Talk (theoretically)
> has a future in permanent repeats.

As it is, it seems like every other episode is already a repeat -- or, at least, consists of repeat calls and a new Puzzler. Unless there are a lot of people out there with only 50,000 miles on their 1994 car...

--
Jim Ellwanger <trai...@ellwanger.tv>
<http://www.ellwanger.tv/>

[Mark Jeffries]

Most likely, they won't--public radio programmers are some of the most risk-averse people around, perpetually scared of the "If you take off (long-running show), I'll never give you money again" crowd.  Back in 1987, when Garrison Kellior went off to Norway with his girl friend for their ill-fated marriage, Minnesota Public Radio made the mistake of continuing to offer repeats of "Prairie Home Companion" along with "Good Evening," the replacement show for "PHC."  More stations took the repeats than the new show and "Good Evening" disappeared after one year--at which point Kellior returned to the U.S., took a grant from the American Booksellers Association and reopened "PHC" as "The American Radio Company" in New York, attempting to dump all of the Lake Woebegon folksiness for New Yorker-before-Tina Brown-style sophistication.  Turned out the audiences didn't want him to be sophisticated and the drive time NPR news shows became the main pledge drive attractions, so Kellior was doing the Lake Woebegon monologue again after one year and when the American Booksellers Association grant ran out, moved the show back to St. Paul, brought back the "PHC" title and acted as if 1987 to 1993 never happened.

 

And even though Marian McPartland officially retired from "Piano Jazz" last year, her replacement Jon Weber is not really her replacement--he's hosting a show called "Piano Jazz Rising Stars" while NPR continues to feed reruns of the McPartland shows and will probably will continue to do so long after she dies.

Mark Jeffries
Saints Spotlight Editor
spotl...@gmail.com

[Bob in Jersey]

Joe Hass, to PGage, in part:

As an aside: I hope every station drops the permanent repeats.

When the contributors get sick of them, they will. I don't know if recycled comic strips are the best comparison; closest might be commercial radio, where some stations still recycle Wolfman Jack or Casey Kasem, f'rinstance, and they still bring lots of positive response.



--
BOB

[Terry Knab]

There’s a big difference between Casey Kasem and Click and Clack.  Cars change.  People expect Kasem’s material to be reruns..  However, a rerun of a talk show has a shelf life.  Not a long one at that.

 

From: tvor...@googlegroups.com [mailto:tvor...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Bob in Jersey
Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2012 8:03 PM
To: tvor...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [TV orNotTV] NoTV: Click and Clack Close Up the Garage

 

--

[Mark Jeffries]

The difference is that a lot of people didn't listen to "Car Talk" for the car advice--they listened for the banter between the Magliozzis and the callers.  In some cases, it was people who didn't own cars, although I suspect that the most active non-car users of the public radio audience (as in radical activist groups) hated "Car Talk" and would've preferred a local DJ playing folk music or "Alternative Radio" presenting a Noam Chomsky lecture instead.  But they also want "Democracy Now!" instead of "Morning Edition"--and no other national programming except for perhaps "Free Speech Network News."

Mark Jeffries
Saints Spotlight Editor
spotl...@gmail.com

[Bob in Jersey]

Terry K, to moi:

There’s a big difference between Casey Kasem and Click and Clack.  Cars change.  People expect Kasem’s material to be reruns..  However, a rerun of a talk show has a shelf life.  Not a long one at that.

I came up with the similarity after supposedly seeing that people other than the Magliozzis are contributing new material to keep the programs at least moderately fresh, just as Seacrest's people under Premiere offer optional segments as part of the Kasem shows, sometimes 'extras' by Casey cut from the original shows, but mostly additional songs, usually future hits spotted in the lower 60 of that week's chart. The idea stemmed from ClearChannel's less-commercials concept.



--
BOB