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"Car Talk" Parks It After 25 Years
- Thread starter DToTheJ
- Start date
;Dlandtuna said:
I have three old Darts. Darts and Valiants are incredibly durable cars.
I never become a regular listener, WBEZ in Chicago was for most of those years, jazz on Saturday mornings
so I'm still not sure jsut when it ran here. Probably when I was alseep.
Seems like I heard the show most often when I was on the road somewhere else in the US rather than at home.
Tom Wells said:
WBEZ ran "Car Talk" on Saturday mornings for almost all of its run. They never ran jazz before noon on any day (and only carried jazz during the day on Sunday afternoons and reruns of the evening shows during the afternoon for a while in the early 80s after finally being freed from having to air instructional programming during the day (before they went all-talk during the day, one of the pubradio stations to do so).
Even if the calls themselves are repeats, they're still adding new material. This quote is not exact but you get the general idea:
"And even though Felix Baumgartner breaks another speed record jumping to turn off his radio whenever he hears us say it, this is NPR."
"And even though Felix Baumgartner breaks another speed record jumping to turn off his radio whenever he hears us say it, this is NPR."
I forgot to come here after I heard it, but have the brothers been referring to "National Public Radio"? Because Ray did last Saturday. I never noticed this was wrong, but NPR doesn't call it that any more.
One of the callers "outed" the brothers. She thanked them for calling, and Ray (I think) said, "Didn't she call us?" On a traditional call-in show that would be the way it was done, but they put together the show from calls they made TO the people who left messages.
And yet Tom says, "Doesn't anyone screen these calls?"
One of the callers "outed" the brothers. She thanked them for calling, and Ray (I think) said, "Didn't she call us?" On a traditional call-in show that would be the way it was done, but they put together the show from calls they made TO the people who left messages.
And yet Tom says, "Doesn't anyone screen these calls?"
There's some sort of contest going on right now. I assume it is really going on.
More proof! One of the brothers said he reads Dave Barry every week. Dave Barry hasn't written a weekly column in years.
Theater of the mind vchimp.
I did notice the last several months that all the cars in the calls seem to be from the mid-90s and even farther back.
And everyone was a grad student and/or going across country.
I did notice the last several months that all the cars in the calls seem to be from the mid-90s and even farther back.
And everyone was a grad student and/or going across country.
The puzzler was about lug nuts. I thought I had caught the guys when one of them said something about a puzzler being related to a headlight problem. But I was in and out of the room on Saturday. When the episode aired Sunday I heard all of the first part and the comment was made that they once had a puzzler about this. On the other hand, it was not the entire episode that was repeated. "Even though ... this is NPR" included something about the fiscal cliff as well as Hostess.
I don't know exactly how they're producing Car Talk these days, but they are "new" episodes in the sense that it's mostly stuff that has NOT been aired before.
During normal production (before October of this year) every week they would record about three hours' worth of material and edit it down to 59 minutes less breaks, so there's a lot of archived material that's never seen the light of day. Some of it never will, but some of it is decent enough stuff and that's what they're using.
They ARE updating some of the timely parts, like the "this is NPR" gag at the end, and the sponsor spots sound like a different recording session (compared to the main show bits) to my ear. So I would guess they're probably having Tom and Ray come in to DCH and record a bunch of material every few weeks and cover several shows at once. AFAIK, they're not doing anything at WBUR anymore but I should ask about that to be sure.
I don't know if anyone has a planned (loosely or firmly) end date for Car Talk. I would imagine they can keep up this "re air" concept for quite a while...at least two or three years. Heck, the BBC was still airing "My Word!" for YEARS after the host died. I suspect that after a year, you're gonna start to see stations start to drop it as new stuff comes down the pike. The tide will pick up after two years, and within four or five years Car Talk will be largely phased out. This is, of course, assuming that Tom and Ray stay in reasonably good health, which we all hope for but can't exactly count on. Tommy is 75, after all; he might live hale and hearty for another 20 years, or he might not, y'know? :-\
During normal production (before October of this year) every week they would record about three hours' worth of material and edit it down to 59 minutes less breaks, so there's a lot of archived material that's never seen the light of day. Some of it never will, but some of it is decent enough stuff and that's what they're using.
They ARE updating some of the timely parts, like the "this is NPR" gag at the end, and the sponsor spots sound like a different recording session (compared to the main show bits) to my ear. So I would guess they're probably having Tom and Ray come in to DCH and record a bunch of material every few weeks and cover several shows at once. AFAIK, they're not doing anything at WBUR anymore but I should ask about that to be sure.
I don't know if anyone has a planned (loosely or firmly) end date for Car Talk. I would imagine they can keep up this "re air" concept for quite a while...at least two or three years. Heck, the BBC was still airing "My Word!" for YEARS after the host died. I suspect that after a year, you're gonna start to see stations start to drop it as new stuff comes down the pike. The tide will pick up after two years, and within four or five years Car Talk will be largely phased out. This is, of course, assuming that Tom and Ray stay in reasonably good health, which we all hope for but can't exactly count on. Tommy is 75, after all; he might live hale and hearty for another 20 years, or he might not, y'know? :-\
I just have to wonder when some of the car advice will be outdated.
They could get in trouble!
But they have all those producers including Frau Blucher
NEEEIGH!
They could get in trouble!
But they have all those producers including Frau Blucher
NEEEIGH!
Did anyone hear the last "And even though ... this is NPR"? I was out getting groeceries out of the car while they listed the personnel and when I came back the local man was talking. I must have gone out twice. I won't do THAT again. I didn't even think to go out to the car at the start of the church service the next day.
I know one of last week's referred to the Mayans wanting the apocalpyse to come already.
I know one of last week's referred to the Mayans wanting the apocalpyse to come already.
On the subject of how they're putting "new" episodes together, I still hear callers who know what a previous caller said or what Click and Clack were talking about before their call.
So this idea that they're putting together shows from individual calls has to be updated. Obviously, when they put shows together when they really were new, somehow callers had to know these things.
So this idea that they're putting together shows from individual calls has to be updated. Obviously, when they put shows together when they really were new, somehow callers had to know these things.
I still hear callers who know what a previous caller said or what Click and Clack were talking about before their call.
That's because when they were actively recording shows, they'd record three hours' worth of callers in a session, and then whittle that down to 59 minutes. That means every week there were undoubtedly several callers who never made the final cut at all, much less made the cut but were edited for time. Those "didn't make the cut" callers were never heard by anyone outside of Dewey, Cheatum & Howe (Car Talk's parent production company), but they still existed on DCH's internal archives.
Now that they're not actively recording, the DCH crew is going back to those never-heard-before callers, and they're using that material to make "new" shows. I would assume there are times when two callers back-to-back were cut from the original airing, but are being used now for the "quasi-new" shows...hence why you can sometimes hear a caller comment about a previous caller's question.
That's because when they were actively recording shows, they'd record three hours' worth of callers in a session, and then whittle that down to 59 minutes. That means every week there were undoubtedly several callers who never made the final cut at all, much less made the cut but were edited for time. Those "didn't make the cut" callers were never heard by anyone outside of Dewey, Cheatum & Howe (Car Talk's parent production company), but they still existed on DCH's internal archives.
Now that they're not actively recording, the DCH crew is going back to those never-heard-before callers, and they're using that material to make "new" shows. I would assume there are times when two callers back-to-back were cut from the original airing, but are being used now for the "quasi-new" shows...hence why you can sometimes hear a caller comment about a previous caller's question.
Not just questions but also nonsense from the guys.aaronread said:
Well, they've been using old, tired nonsense from Click & Clack for at least 20 years...why change that now?!?!? ;D
But yes, the so-called "answers" to the car questions are always paired with the questions, so if a question has been recycled from an earlier show, the answers are, too.
I do wonder by what system they're using to decide what content from older recording sessions gets used for the "new" shows. Is it just completely random...with each "new" week being a mishmosh from several different sessions? Are they "starting over" from a particular date in the past and just moving forward one week in the archives for each week of "new" shows? I imagine they've got a system and it must be pretty intricate to handle the potential for "new" show production running for several years, maybe even decades, before things finally end.
But yes, the so-called "answers" to the car questions are always paired with the questions, so if a question has been recycled from an earlier show, the answers are, too.
I do wonder by what system they're using to decide what content from older recording sessions gets used for the "new" shows. Is it just completely random...with each "new" week being a mishmosh from several different sessions? Are they "starting over" from a particular date in the past and just moving forward one week in the archives for each week of "new" shows? I imagine they've got a system and it must be pretty intricate to handle the potential for "new" show production running for several years, maybe even decades, before things finally end.
By "nonsense", I mean callers have somehow heard the brothers talk about stuff that has no relationship to an actual caller's question.aaronread said:
The time of year always seems to match.aaronread said:
Just to clarify, when I refer to a question, I mean the caller giving his or her name and location and stating a problem, or anything betwen identifying himself or herself and actually stating the problem if the brothers find something interesting even before a question, and all the back-and-forth discussion of the actual problem and other related or unrelated stuff, andthe brothers' attempts at an answer, ending with "Thanks for calling" and giving their phone number again. It's not like JUST the question would ever be separate from anything else.
One caller was supposedly on several weeks ago but I just don't remember. That's what they're counting on. The puzzlers are starting to sound familiar.
One caller was supposedly on several weeks ago but I just don't remember. That's what they're counting on. The puzzlers are starting to sound familiar.
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