I turned on Car Talk this morning and received the news that the show was on it’s last year of production. It will be ending on or about September 2017. They left it up in the air if the show would return as re-runs. I thought all the shows were in a re-run format already.
Maybe this was a rerun of the announcement done way back when?!
From NPR: Best of Car Talk Ending
Thanks Bugmenot. I looked for something online to go along with the announcement but couldn’t find anything.
Sounds like it’ll finally be over. Those reruns couldn’t last forever.
It’s a shame they’re not even going to try passing the baton on to new hosts. I can see how it might fail, but to not even try… I think it’s a shame.
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It will fail. The show was the brothers. Did people try replacing Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis when they retired. Yes the shows THEME was cars but the show was the brothers.
I’ve learned not to argue with your dogged pessimism, so usually I don’t, but in this case, that issue could be overcome if Ray were to continue to host the show and break-in a new co-host, perhaps one of Tom’s or Ray’s sons. Then, when Ray is ready to retire, his experienced co-host could break in a new co-host, perhaps another member of the Magliozzi clan.
Every problem is a potential opportunity, and this one is no exception.
…and to answer your question, yes, people followed in Martin and Lewis’ footsteps. Martin and Lewis weren’t exactly the last comedy team to use the kind of personality dynamic they were known for.
S[quote=“Whitey, post:8, topic:95928”]
…and to answer your question, yes, people followed in Martin and Lewis’ footsteps. Martin and Lewis weren’t exactly the last comedy team to use the kind of personality dynamic they were known for.
[/quote]
True…but they weren’t replaced. A new team came along to watch. Not the same.
Will another type of show work? Maybe. But the same show with different people? I don’t think so.
You really seem to have a hard time when people don’t agree with you.
I thought I disagreed with you with reasonable respect. I didn’t refer to your pessimism because of this one post, or even this one discussion, but because I’ve seen a pattern of behavior over the years, and that’s why I normally try to steer clear of arguing with you.
Your response, “It will fail” fits this pattern I mentioned. You have no way of knowing if it would be successful or not, yet you seem completely sure of yourself that it would fail. You didn’t say, “I think it would fail,” or “I believe it would fail,” or “I think the odds are it would fail,” you just said, “it would fail.” Even you have to admit that’s pretty pessimistic.
We’ve had our fair share of arguments, and I steer clear of them more often than you think, even when we disagree.
Here, I’ll take the high road and give you the last word. I promise this will be my last response to you in this thread.
I suspect Ray is ready to retire. It’s not like he needs the money, and they had so much fun during the show’s run that I can’t imagine it would be much fun to do it solo while wishing your brother was still there.
The secret of Car Talk is that they managed to get people who couldn’t care less about cars, to listen to a show about cars. That’s pretty tough to do. Kinda like getting a bunch of us to listen to a show about the intricacies of cross-stitch.
I think they’d have a very tough time finding two people who could do that while simultaneously having the real knowledge that Tom and Ray brought to the show – They could do a Top Gear type of show, but I don’t think NPR would be all that happy running a show that pretends to educate about cars while faking things left and right.
Sometimes you get a combination of factors that’s very unique and special, and isn’t going to be repeated again. I think Car Talk was one of those shows.
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I had similar thoughts, that it might not be any fun for Ray to do the show without Tom. I admit my reasons for thinking it is a shame are selfish. In my opinion, it wouldn’t have to be the same, only similar in order to be successful.
I agree with everything you said, and still I think it is a shame they aren’t going to try. I think it would be a risk worth taking.
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To me, the only practical option for NPR would have been to search around for some other existing local radio car show (there are dozens of them) to replace C&C with. Either they did, and found nothing they wanted, or didn’t.
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Your right Whitey I don’t know if it will work or not. It’s just my opinion. But thanks for proving my point. You get extreme upset when people disagree with you. I don’t care if you agree with me or not. if you don’t like it that I don’t agree with you then move on.
I’m surprised that they have continued to have reruns this long. With public radio donations not being what they used to be I don’t see stations spending money on a replacement for CarTalk because of how unique it was. They would more inclined to have a local mechanic or repair place have a show.
Maybe it’s time to retire the Mike and Whitey show. 
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Wondering if the show goes, so goes the board. So hard to find a nice place to hang out.
The article in @Bugmenot’s post answers that question. They have no plans to take down the website.
It would be nice to replace it with a similar show, but then it is difficult at multiple levels. The show was as good as a car show as it was as a comedy. My brother who doesn’t know anything about cars would always get a good laugh out of it. Thinking about it, not even show how the show ended up being on NPR (not that I am complaining).
One year, for my birthday, my kids got me a cartalk calendar. It is one of those that you have the tear a page for each day and each page has a comment/part from the show. I guess I will hold on to that.
Sorrry I do not believe the website will live on.