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| Genre | Automotive repair/advice |
|---|---|
| Running time | 1 hour |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | WBUR |
| Syndicates | National Public Radio |
| Starring | Tom and Ray Magliozzi |
| Produced by | Doug "The Subway Fugitive", "Not a Slave to Fashion", "Bongo Boy", "Frogman" Berman |
| Original release | 1977 |
| Opening theme | "Dawggy Mountain Breakdown" by David Grisman |
| Website | http://www.cartalk.com |
Car Talk is a radio talk show broadcast weekly on National Public Radio stations throughout the United States and elsewhere. Its subjects are cars and car repair, and it often takes humorous turns.
As a call-in radio show, listeners call in with car-related questions. The majority of callers are seeking advice of a diagnostic nature. The hosts, Tom and Ray Magliozzi (aka Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers) listen to the caller describe the symptoms of his or her malfunctioning car, often asking them to replicate strange sounds, then attempt to identify the cause of the malfunction. While the hosts pepper their call-in sessions with jokes directed at both the caller and at themselves, their knowledge of automobiles is extensive and they are usually able to arrive at a diagnosis and give helpful advice.
Ray continually gives out the toll-free number (1-888-CAR-TALK, or 1-888-227-8255) encouraging listeners to call in with their car troubles, which gives the impression that questions are taken on the fly. The number in fact connects to a 24-hour voice mail system. The Car Talk staff reviews the approximately 2,000 messages it receives each week and selects a variety that includes callers from different parts of the country with different kinds of cars and kinds of problems. However, according to the Car Talk FAQ, Tom and Ray don't know the questions in advance: "That would entail researching the right answer, which is what? Work..." Callers to the show confirm this. The producers select and contact the callers a few days ahead of taping (usually on a Wednesday) to arrange the segment. The caller (who is actually the callee) briefly talks to a producer until they're connected with Tom and Ray, and is given little coaching, except to be prepared to talk and to "have fun." The segments are edited (mostly for time) before broadcast.
Car Talk was first broadcast on WBUR in Boston, Massachusetts in 1977. It was picked up nationally by NPR ten years later. For most of its national run, Car Talk has been the highest-rated and most financially successful program on public radio in the US. NPR reports that it is heard on more than 370 stations by an audience of more than 2 million people each week.
Car Talk's theme song is "Dawggy Mountain Breakdown" by David Grisman.
Hosts
Car Talk's hosts are brothers Ray and Tom Magliozzi (aka, "Click and Clack, The Tappet Brothers"), two long-time car mechanics. Ray Magliozzi has a degree in general science from MIT, while Tom has an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from MIT, an MBA, and a DBA from the Boston University Graduate School of Management.
The duo, usually led by Ray, are known for rants on the evils of the internal combustion engine, people who talk on cell phones while driving, Peugeots, women named Donna (who always seem to drive Camaros), the use (or misuse) of the English language, and just about anything else, including themselves. They have a laid-back humorous approach to cars, car repair, cup holders, pets, lawyers, car repair mechanics, SUVs, and most everything else. They often cast a critical insider's eye (jaundiced, mostly) toward the auto industry. Tom and Ray are committed to the values of defensive driving and environmentalism. In the late 1990s they pioneered an effort to rid the world of French pronunciations of words, intentionally pronouncing many words phonetically such as "Chev-ro-let" for Chevrolet.
Click and Clack operate the "Good News Garage" in Cambridge, Massachusetts just a few blocks north of the MIT campus. Their offices are located nearby at the corner of JFK St. and Brattle St. in Harvard Square, marked as "Dewey, Cheetham and Howe", the imaginary law firm they reference on-air.
The two were commencement speakers at MIT in 1999.
In 2006, Tom and Ray Magliozzi voiced Rusty and Dusty Rust-Eze (previous names were Clink and Clunk), a 1963 Dodge Dart V1.0 and a 1963 Dodge A100 van respectively, in the film Cars. (Tommy notoriously once owned a green Dodge Dart, known as the "Dartre".)
Features
A recurring feature is "Stump the Chumps", in which Tom and Ray revisit (or "dig up") a caller from a previous show and find out what effect, if any, their advice has had (assuming the caller followed it at all).
A similar feature was started in May 2001 and called "Where Are They Now, Tommy?" Like "Stump the Chumps", they revisited a previous caller; but the difference with "Where Are They Now...?" was best described by Tom as "an excuse to talk to some of the previous wack jobs we've had on the show." The feature was short-lived, lasting only a few months.
Celebrities have been callers as well. Examples include Geena Davis, Morley Safer, Ashley Judd, Gordon Elliott, and astronaut John Grunsfeld from the Space Shuttle. There have been numerous appearances from NPR personalities, including Bob Edwards, Susan Stamberg, Scott Simon, Ray Suarez, Will Shortz, Sylvia Poggioli, and commentator/author Daniel Pinkwater. On one occasion, the show featured an in-studio guest: Martha Stewart, whom Click and Clack called "Margaret" twice.
Humor and other quirks
For years (perhaps since the beginning), Tom and Ray would take a break at approximately the half-hour mark of the show. More recently, two breaks divide the show into approximately 20-minute segments referred to as the "three halves" of the show.
The show opens with a comedic monologue, followed by eight call-in sessions. During the winter shows, they run a contest called the "Puzzler", in which a puzzle (sometimes car-related, often not) is presented. The answer to the previous week's Puzzler is given during the second half of the show, and a new puzzler is given during the third half. Often the hosts tell listeners to write answers to the Puzzler (which is to be addressed to "Puzzler Tower") on non-existent or expensive objects, such as a 26-dollar bill or an advanced SLR digital camera. ("Write it on the back of a $20 bill" in past years.) In reality, they have received answers on objects as unlikely as a dead fish.
The humor of Car Talk also extends into the end credits. The show is produced under the Magliozzis' corporate banner, Dewey, Cheetham, and Howe, a common lawyer joke. After listing (and lampooning) the actual staff of Car Talk (including their producer, Doug "The Subway Fugitive", "Not a Slave to Fashion", "Bongo Boy", "Frogman" Berman), the brothers list a long series of unusual names. "Paul Murky of Murky Research", assisted by statistician "Marge Innovera" and their Russian chauffeur Picov Andropov are only a few of a long series of perennial "staffers" in the Car Talk credits.
At the end of almost every show, Ray warns the audience not to drive like his brother, who in turn warns them not to drive like his brother. There have been variations—such as "Don't drive like my sister"..."and don't drive like my sister." Click and Clack used this signature phrase in a cameo for the Pixar film Cars, in which Tom and Ray voiced anthropomorphized vehicles with personalities similar to their own on-air personae.
Dewey, Cheetham, and Howe
Main article: Dewey, Cheatem & Howe
Dewey, Cheetham, and Howe is another business name for "Tappet Brothers Associates," the corporation established to manage the business end of the Car Talk syndicated radio show. Initially a joke (the name is pronounced the same as "Do we cheat 'em? And how!"), the company soon took on reality as Car Talk expanded from a single station (WBUR in Boston) to an NPR-syndicated national show.
The DC&H corporate offices are located on a third-floor office, directly above the corner of Brattle and JFK Streets, in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The office is clearly visible from the square and, like the show, is a perennial source of amusement to the denizens of Cambridge.
External links
- Car Talk website
- The complete listing of all Car Talk gag credits
- Car Talk History
- Car Talk on Audible.com