PBS' New Show Click and Clack's as the Wrench Turns

Taking the step from radio to television, PBS is airing a new animated cartoon show called "Click & Clack's As the Wrench Turns", which premiered at 7 pm central time on July 9^th. If you are even remotely familiar with talk radio or National Public Radio (NPR) you have probably heard of Tom and Ray Magliozzi, a.k.a. the Tappet Brothers, a.k.a. Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers. They are the hosts of a talk radio show on NPR called "Car Talk". These two brothers are a hilarious pair who will have you laughing out loud, even if you know nothing about cars.

The television show "As the Wrench Turns" was very much like the radio show but animated on television with a plot behind the jokes. There were several other characters involved which helped round out the group. Beth is the radio producer who seems to be young, hip, and all about work. Fidel, Crusty, and Stash are the mechanics in the shop with personalities across the spectrum. Fidel is stylish and does not seem to like one to get dirt under his nails. Crusty's absent mindedness resulted in him rebuilding himself into the engine of the car he was working on during the second half of the premier. Stash is a foreigner from Coleslawvania, according to the PBS website, who says little. When he does talk he is not very understandable due to his heavy accent. Sal is the receptionist with too much makeup who seems to have been there too long. She seems to bark responses out as if she is the one in charge. Dave is the radio engineer who is uber efficient at his job. At first I thought he was wearing large headphones on his head but then realized it was a football helmet. The last character is Zuzu the garage dog. Every good show needs a dog I think. The best part of these characters is that none are the stereotypical pretty girl in a too small of a top or pretty boy with large muscles. They were all realistic personalities and appearances.

The part of Click and Clack's personalities that is laid back and able to laugh at themselves came out during their run for President. They had fun and did not take things too seriously as the run for office was not a serious one. Their producer, however, was taking it as serious as she took everything else. This created a nice but predictable contrast. When they decided to outsource themselves, in the second half of the "As the Wrench Turns" premier, another side to these characters was shown as Click and Clack were enjoying the time relaxing, but Beth was going stir crazy with nothing to do. In the end they decided to sacrifice their free time in order to keep Beth around.

Unless the viewer listens to the "Car Talk" radio show they may not have gotten some of the jokes or understood why certain things were being done. It seemed almost as if the story was written then the Tappet brothers were inserted. I am not really sure what major part in the story they played. Though the stories for both segments of the premier were creative, the plot itself was not that strong. As this was the premier show I was expecting something stronger and not just laughter after each sentence, whether there was a joke or not. As I am not sure who exactly they are targeting for their audience it could be they were just going for laughs rather than anything more developed.

I will be watching again, though, as this is a clean family friendly show and that is refreshing. If you missed tonight premier of "Click and Clack's As the Wrench Turns" you can check out bits of the episodes on PBS's website. There are also games and other activities to check out while you are there.