WEIRD & WILD: 'Car Talk' cartoon?

How much do we love NPR's Car Talk? We wish that public radio's weekly advice/amusement hour had its own channel, 24/7, so we could listen to Tom and Ray Magliozzi chortle whenever we need a laugh, too.

So this week's premiere of public TV's animated half-hour series Click and Clack's As the Wrench Turns (Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on most PBS stations; check local listings) should be occasion for congratulation. But we're not so sure.

There's a reason these guys titled one of their VHS tapes Faces Made for Radio, number one. Not that they're unpleasing to gaze upon, but it's more fun to imagine the visages of Tom and Ray in your own head, giving each other grief and crafting aural images of their sister, mother, kids and random adventures. It's not like we never see these guys -- they recently hosted PBS' NOVA hour Car of the Future, for instance -- but on a regular basis, we'd rather just hear them, thanks.

And number two, As the Wrench Turns isn't Car Talk-on-TV. It's an animated "sitcom," which means it needs a running situation, which forces it to make concrete the imaginary Car Talk Plaza from which the brothers facetiously broadcast each week. The cartoon thus introduces co-worker characters, as the pair's antics "broaden out." Oh, how we've learned to flee from this term, often used to describe, say, movies (badly) adapted from stage plays. Do we really want to see Tom and Ray campaigning for president? Turns out we enjoy the practical auto information of Car Talk as much as we do the guffaws.

So while we'll give Click and Clack a chance on the tube, we're not persuaded our affection for the Magliozzis' real-life voices will transfer to fictionalized cartoons.

See for yourself in preview clips here.