So… what do you think? Will As the Wrench Turns be the next Masterpiece Theater? Or will Tom and Ray’s animated foray into television drag PBS down to levels of programming mediocrity experienced only by NPR, for one lousy hour each Saturday morning?
Share your thoughts right here. And brace yourself for debut, coming to a PBS station near you before you know it.
When I heard you two were doing a TV show, I got excited. When I heard it was an animated sit-com, it robbed me of my will to live.
I hope the air time won’t conflict with my favs: my guiding wrench or one life to wrench. Otherwise I’ll toon in.
Grease, The Smell Comes Home. We all need a laugh now and then. There’s nothing like a good joke, and that was nothing like a good joke.
I went to the preview yesterday with much fear and trepidation not knowing how a TV car talk could do better than what Tom and Ray already do in a talk show format. I left the preview with much fear and trepidation.
8:25pm, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Your terrific sense of humor will help you put this misguided animated adventure behind you 
Still your radio fan, Jiffy Dude
My husband and I watched your show this evening. We’re not really cartoon watchers, and it occured to me that the show will probably appeal more to the 20-30 something croud, or to fans of other cartoons like Family Man. It’s cute, but don’t quit your day job. We are huge fans Car Talk!
“As the Wrench Turns”? More like “As the Stomach Turns”. I absolutely (!!!) hated this cartoon. It was just awful…excruciating…worse that I could have ever imagined. Don’t get me wrong. I love Car Talk. Ditch the cartoon and stick with what works. Pleeeaaaasssseeeee!!!
I watched both episodes of this show tonight and I’m left baffled. As someone in marketing I cannot fathom the demographic for this show. It will certainly not appeal to the older Cartalk demographic in any shape or form. So we must assume they’re trying to expand the brand to capture the under-30 crowd? Good luck.
I don’t know who wrote it, but I would guess they have not worked with animation before given how far the timing was off with deliveries and joke set-ups (Guys no awkward pauses in animation!) I beg the writers to sit down and watch some older episodes of the Simpsons for reference on timing and what jokes work in animation. I know this is PBS, but the humor is either archaic or badly delivered.The ideas are there…sort of I guess. You don’t have to be trashy to be hip- “Are you being served” is 30 years old and far more edgy. Well actually any show released in the last decade takes more comic chances than this one…I dunno guys…Like I said, I don’t know who this show is aimed at all.
Click and clack really need a live-action show with real folks letting them do what they do best-interact and joke. The animated format is just wrong for them unless the jokes and topics get far more edgy-and even then it’s not ideal.
i love car talk, terrific show, i waste a perfectly good hour every Saturday listening to you guys prove that two brains is truly not better than one, but “as the wrench turns” was just no good- a true waste of a perfectly good hour. This show should be in 11 minute segments, not half hour segments, and the animation needs to be significantly better, this animation is some of the worst i have ever seen in the history of primetime animated television. poorly designed backgrounds, uninspired character design and terrible expressions and movements round out a huge list of issues with the animation, and i should also point out that the comedy timing was off. Listen, i wanted this show to be great, and i was excited, and nothing will stop me from tuning into car talk every week, but this was just plain bad, the plot moved slow, the jokes were poorly timed and scarce at best- im sure that the next few episodes of car talk on the radio will have us hear you laugh and mention some of the comments from this very site about how bad this new show is, and thats why we love you.
My initial observation was that Cheap Animation is better than No Animation. But by the end of the show I was no longer so sure. Perhaps some corpse could lend an expert opinion…
Meanwhile, there were two egregious lapses in the production:
(1) What was that flag in the last scene? It seemed to have 15 stripes and an indeterminate number of stars, but in a pattern that could not be the current flag of the USofA. Have any of the animators actually seen the flag in the last half century?
(2) I thought it was a big secret which brother is Click and which is Clack. But no longer – review the scene when the mock baby is thrown out of the bus window.
By the way, I believe I overlapped with “Clack” while serving our sentences at East Campus. But we didn’t know each other then, and still don’t.
I’m so, so sorry. I have been known to listen to four episodes (same episode) of Car Talk in a weekend, but not one more half-hour of “Car-toon”. You guys will overcome this. Thanks for all your work. Fire someone.
Stick to the radio. PBS show was a dud!
When I read the bad reviews in my local paper yesterday, I made a mental note to avoid the show unless I read some really positive things about it on this forum. Now I am really glad that I didn’t waste my time.
It sounds like this animated production won’t be renewed.
Good grief! Save yourselves.
OK, so no more piling on (well, maybe a little more piling on). The show was just awful. I had it on in the bedroom and my wife demanded that I turn it off since it was so incredibly annoying. The only other time she’s done that is when Rush Limbaugh comes on the radio. 'Nuff said. What I’m really curious about is how you two could have ever let this go to air. Did you not watch a preview? Was the ball rolling and you couldn’t stop it? Please stick to your radio show. In fact, as pennace for you loyal fans, how about doing two shows a week for the next year and maybe we’ll forgive you. I haven’t been this disappointed since my 3rd birthday when I was expecting a new bike and all I got was socks and underwear.
We love you guys, but this thing is d.o.a. A 1960’s cartoon with live sitcom timing? Come on! Animation is supposed to be quick - like your banter. This show is the root canal of comedy - painful and slow joke extraction! Each scene could be cut a third without losing anything except dead air. I can’t imagine why anyone who isn’t a (radio) fan would watch more than a minute or two, and the existing radio fans probably wouldn’t last much longer.
Since you have remaining episodes ‘in the can’ and almost no chance of making any more of them, perhaps you could rent a good animation editor who could scissor two-into-one without having to produce anything extra. The major device of the first two shows; tension between you and your producer, while possibly appealing to the producer who wrote this crapola, is just not interesting. We don’t tune in for that. What we like most is your relationship to your callers, and of course, their relationships to cars. And as for the TD with Citroen chevrons on it, screeching around- just disgusting.
Love, love, LOVE Car Talk.
Enh, enh, enh the Wrench.
I will say that it exceeded my (low) expectations and I plan to toon in for the next ones, but not with any special eagerness.
I watched both episodes last night on WNIN and found myself chuckling at times and cringing at others. I realize the show is in its experimental stages, but with a bit of refining, it could become a great asset in drawing new viewers to public broadcasting. Don’t let the negative feedback get to you. Tweak it just little and it can be a success. Great for the 20-30 year old demographic. At least it’s something new!
Love you guys but…OOOOOFA!
I searched an Italian slang dictionary and found what I believe is the appropriate non vulgar saying:
Puzzare da fare schifo
Still a fan though.