TV Worth Blogging
by David Thiel, Program Director for WILL-TV
An insider's view of public television programming and the issues that help determine what and how you watch
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Click & Clack?
When it was announced that the long-gestating television version of National Public Radio's popular auto care series Car Talk would take the form of an animated sitcom, I'll admit that my first reaction was "Wha...?" It certainly wasn't an obvious choice. Yet, while I thought that it sounded like a crazy idea, such off-the-wall thinking does result in unexpected success from time to time. Take the McGriddle sandwich for instance. (No, please, take it.) And no one wants to be the one who said "I'm sorry, Mr. Lucas, but no one will want to see your movie about robots...Star Wars, you call it?"
As it turned out, Click & Clack's As the Wrench Turns, which debuted on WILL-TV last Wednesday, may not rise to the level of The Empire Strikes Back or even the McGriddle. And it presented a small challenge to program directors such as myself: what to do with it?
Unlike a commercial television network affiliate, we enjoy a fair amount of latitude when it comes to programming decisions. We don't have to run PBS national programs in prime-time, or even at all. (That's why so many articles about PBS offerings include the phrase "check your local listings.")
Still, many programs achieve some level of nationwide promotion, and it can lead to confusion and irritation when someone reads a review in the New York Times, then calls their local station to find out that the show in question isn't airing. If we stray too widely from our viewers' expectations, we do so at our own peril.
How does all that relate to Click & Clack? Let's say that mainstream TV critics have been less than complimentary. Robert Lloyd from the L.A. Times wrote that it’s “as mild as weak tea and as tepid as weak tea that has been forgotten on the kitchen counter.” (He does give it some faint praise: “there is an occasional line that was worth the saying, and you could view the show as some kind of brave leap in the dark.”) However, if only to demonstrate that no TV show goes unloved, Russ Evenhuis at the somewhat less-prestigious Blogcritics.org “liked it and thought it showed great promise.”
For my own part, I think that it doesn't play to the strength of the radio show: the goofy interplay between hosts Tom and Ray Magliozzi as they attempt to steer troubled motorists to safety. A fully scripted series doesn't allow them to cut loose and have fun. And if anything, I think it could be even more off-the-wall. While an animated sitcom is unconventional for PBS, the first couple of episodes of Click & Clack struck me as a rather conventional animated sitcom.
So, what's it doing Wednesdays in prime-time? Well, here a few reasons. First, if there's one thing I've learned in my two decades at WILL-TV, it's that my tastes are not necessarily shared by others. Already I've heard from a couple of coworkers who enjoyed the first episode. And hey, that guy at Blogcritics.org liked it!
Also, I appreciate it when PBS thinks out-of-the-box. If local program directors balk--as some have at Click & Clack--and bury it at some odd hour of the day, I believe that it could send an unintended message to national producers. It could say that we only want shows that are safe and same-old, same-old.
Then there's the matter of the national promotion for the series targeting Wednesday night, Plus, Tom and Ray are plugging the TV show during their weekly Car Talk radio show on our own sister AM station.
In the end, I left it alone. It's a short-run series airing in the dead of summer, when viewing levels are down. It's a good time to try things that are a little experimental or off-kilter. And if there's one thing we know about Click & Clack, it's that they're a little off-kilter.
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