Car Talk
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Image:Car Talk.gif 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.
Car Talk was first broadcast in Boston in 1977. It was picked up nationally by NPR ten years later.
Car Talk's theme song is "Dawggy Mountain Breakdown" by David Grisman.
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Features
A recurring feature is "Stump the Chumps", in which Tom and Ray revisit 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 entitled "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. Some hold that this was because they had run out of callers from Alaska to harass. Template:Fact
Celebrities have been callers as well. Examples include Morley Safer, Ashley Judd, Gordon Elliott, and at least one space shuttle astronaut. There have been numerous appearances from NPR personalities, including Bob Edwards, Susan Stamberg, Scott Simon, Ray Suarez, Will Shortz, and commentator/author Daniel Pinkwater. On one occasion, the show featured an in-studio guest: Martha Stewart, whom Click and Clack called "Margaret" twice.
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 Ph.D. in management from Boston University.
The duo, usually led by Tom, 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) towards 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-lette."
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 ersatz law firm they reference on-air.
The two were commencement speakers at MIT in 1999.
Humor and other quirks
The show is divided into "three halves." The show opens with a comedic monologue, followed by eight call-in sessions. During the winter shows, a contest called the "Puzzler" takes place, 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.
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" Berman), the brothers list a long series of unusual names. "Paul Murky of Murky Research", assisted by statistician "Marge Innovera" (margin of error), and their Russian chauffeur Pikop Andropov (pick up and drop off) are only a few of a long series of perennial "staffers" in the Car Talk credits.
A more recent gag is when they seem to be stumped they will have a noise maker make a door knocking noise and say "Hello Chinese Food!"