Posted on 06/10/2012 5:38:26 AM PDT by Zakeet
It's the end of the road for "Car Talk." After 35 years on the air, Click and Clack have run out of gas, and will stop taping new shows this fall.
Tom and Ray Magliozzi have hosted NPR's most popular show for decades, but the brothers say it's "time to stop and smell the cappuccino."
The mechanic brothers started their auto advice show in Boston in 1977, and have been dishing out car tips and jokes every Saturday morning on NPR since 1987.
"We've managed to avoid getting thrown off NPR for 25 years, giving tens of thousands of wrong answers and had a hell of a time every week talking to callers," Ray said.
The Magliozzis created a niche for themselves on the radio that didn't exist before -- combining call-in comedy and cars -- and showed that public talk radio didn't have to be stuffy. It proved to be a working formula, and "Car Talk" is now on 660 stations across the country, with some 3.3 million listeners a week.
Ray, 63, and Tom, 74, answer questions from listeners about cars, and so much more, with their signature humor and Boston accents, cementing their status as unlikely comic icons.
[Snip]
A goodbye message on their website, titled "Time to Get Even Lazier," says despite a personal mantra of "Don't be afraid of work, make work afraid of you," they've decided they can't commit to the show any longer.
"My brother has always been 'work-averse,'" Ray said. "Now, apparently even the one hour a week is killing him."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I love this show!
For all those who haven’t heard them before, their website:
http://www.cartalk.com/
For all those who have listened to them (their website above:)
It would take a half hour for those guys to answer two simple questions about cars.
“Sounds ta me like ya ran outa gas! Nuttin’ wrong wit’ da cah!”
“Boy, speakin’ o’ gas! My bruddah! Hoo! An’ he nevah runs out!”
“...Or maybe somethin’ electrical. Nearly dead battery. Like my bruddah’s wife is always complainin’ about!”
Only on NPR would they last 35 years.
You're nuts
Now I know the real reason why I always got the window seat growing up. Damn!
Ah! The other shoe drops. "Hi! I have a '88 VW Fox and..." Folks will get a lot out of that.
You must be a youngster.
Back in the day, a good mechanic would place an oil company (Pennzoil, Quaker State, Valvoline) sticker on the driver side door jamb with the date and mileage of service. Go to a junkyard. you might see some on the older cars.
Man IM gettin old.
Even the Austin Chronicle dropped their snoozer column.
>I never miss the show. Must be a guy thing. <
Not necessarily. The stooges drive me bonkers, but I love Click & Clack. They’re the best comedy show on the airwaves, bar non.
“And our legal team, Dewey, Cheetum & Howe”. Corny, yet makes me smile every time I hear them.
These guys were great back in the days when you could actually work on most of the stuff on your car.
Only listenable thing on NPR.
No amount of torture in Hell however, is too much for Garrison Keillor and the sadists over at the Prairie Home Companion.
I wonder how many suicides they are responsible for?
I'll be honest, that's why I didn't care for the show. Their forte was cars and they spent the least amount of time talking about them. Lame jokes; cajoling the caller; tangents that went nowhere. For a car show with no commercials, that's a lot of wasted time, IMO. I couldn't hang!
My first guess
The Stooges used that old vaudeville joke a dozen times, at least. I wonder where it'll surface next (other than with Dennis Miller, who also dusts it off from time to time)?
Children need to be better trained in the arts - especially conservative children. So many of their parents have thrown in the towel with popular, low and high art! Only a lib could dislike Curley.
I haven’t listened to NPR for years, but back when I did, I listened to car talk. they are pretty funny dudes.
Way back then I also listened to a sports show with Norm Hitzges. Now he has a job with the Ticket in Dallas.
Now there are a lot of stations devoted to sports talk and there were none back then.
NPR should not receive government funds.
I enjoy the radio show, but their cartoon tv show was truly awful.
They almost made me crash my car from laughter once... a caller had replaced his fuel gauge and now it was running backwards. E when the tank was full and F when the tank was empty.
Their deadpan response?
“It’s working perfectly! E stands for Enough Gas, and F means Find Gas.”
Given their age.. I am going with the oil change sticker in the door jamb.
Uhh... That was not a parody..
The voices where the real deal ;)
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