I thought September 29th was supposed to be the final live broadcast of Car Talk. But the show mentioned nothing about it…did I miss something?
It seems there will just be a day when the show is 100% old stuff and we are not going to be told when (maybe that day has already happened, who knows).
I for one am very hurt that we are apparantly not going to be granted a closing episode …
I guess we will know when they roll up the tent when they quit giving the call-in phone number and quit telling us how to respond to the puzzler.
I agree with the previous poster to the degree that I would really appreciate a closing episode. Do I need it? No, but it would be a nice closing for what was a 24 year run for me. Perhaps the producers, programmers or whomever decided that listeners are like lobsters; we don’t respond much to a gradual change and will largely continue to listen; whereas, a closing episode would be the signal for listeners to say goodbye and move on. If that is the case, then they probably took the safe route, and it is our loss.
The way they’re doing it also leaves them more flexibility. If the guys feel up to it and get bored, they can come back in a month and do a call or two, or some other new material, and get it seamlessly spliced into the vast archives of old used + apparently never-before-aired old material. They can participate as much or as little as they want, and not have to announce the fact. Heck, that’d be more fun for me… i’m thinking it may be more fun for them.
For these reasons and because it is such a key part of the show repeated over and over, i doubt they’ll drop the phone number anytime soon. If historically they’d only said it once a show, it would be different. But before every call?—that’s rather integral to the performance. They can always have some recording at the number letting people know that they’ve reached a dead end.
I can see why they avoided a final show. Too much work! They want to retire, not work more.