NPR’s Car Talk becomes PBS’s As the Wrench Turns
Though not the most obvious of translations, PBS has nevertheless transformed NPR’s hit radio series Car Talk into an animated series. The show, dubbed Click and Clack’s As The Wrench Turns, premieres July 9th at 8 p.m. ET and is set to run in two-episode blocks for five weeks thereafter. Click and Clack, the on-air alter egos of Tom and Ray Tappet, are as self-deprecating off-air about the series as they are on air. “I hope that people look at it mercifully,” said Ray, “It’s lame enough that people will laugh at some of the lame stuff.”
The brothers are the heart and soul of the radio show, which has become a huge hit for NPR, but the TV show is looking to spotlight a more expanded roster of characters. And while the two will be playing animated versions of themselves, and those versions will also host an auto talk show, the similarities really end there. You really have a more family-oriented animated show the creators say is more akin to Family Guy or The Simpsons than the radio show.
So while it looks to be a different monster from its source material, that formula’s certainly worked to great success already for the likes of Jerry Seinfeld (Seinfeld), Roseanne Barr (Roseanne) and Tim Allen (Home Improvement), though those were comedians bringing their schtick to life. If they’d gone for a more true translation we’d just have what we did when Howard Stern and Don Imus broadcast their shows. Or another Free Radio, if they go for a more comedic approach.
Death a Joking Matter for George and Jerry
Jerry Seinfeld is going multimedia to honor his favorite monster, George Carlin.
In a New York Times editorial today and an appearance on last night’s Larry King Live, Seinfeld recalled his final conversation with Carlin, which devolved into a riff on mortality.
“The honest truth is, for a comedian, even death is just a premise to make jokes about,” Seinfeld writes in the Times. “I know this because I was on the phone with George Carlin nine days ago and we were making some death jokes.
“We were talking about Tim Russert and Bo Diddley and George said: ’I feel safe for a while. There will probably be a break before they come after the next one. I always like to fly on an airline right after they’ve had a crash. It improves your odds.’ “
Carlin died of heart failure Sunday at age 71.
Speaking to King, Seinfeld called the conversation with Carlin “very bizarre,” adding, “When I got the news [of Carlin’s death], it really, really threw me.”
And like all the other showbiz luminaries who paid their respects to Carlin’s unique talents, Seinfeld had only the most reverent things to say about the late comic’s place in the pantheon.
“He was the total package of what a comedian’s skills should be,” Seinfeld told King. “He literally could train his eye on something very kind of mundane and regularhe could talk about couch pillows or he could take on, you know, abortion or politics or religion. So there was no subject that his mind was not able to dissect and make fun…
“And, you know, he was funny with his face and his body was funny. Everything about him was funny…I don’t think we’ll ever see someone who, in their lifetime, creates as much comedy as this man did. He’s absolutely one of the untouchable giants of stand-up comedy.”
Then, in another nod to just how stunned everyone who knew Carlin was upon news of his demise, Seinfeld admitted that he knew his friend suffered from heart problems.
But still, he asked, “Who dies at 70 anymore? It’s so old-fashioned.”
Seinfeld, who had Carlin appear in his 1998 HBO special I’m Telling You for the Last Time, writes in the Times that Carlin “was a monster” of comedy.
“You could certainly say that George downright invented modern American stand-up comedy in many ways.
“Every comedian does a little George. I couldn’t even count the number of times I’ve been standing around with some comedians and someone talks about some idea for a joke and another comedian would say, ’Carlin does it.’ I’ve heard it my whole career: ’Carlin does it,’ ’Carlin already did it,’ ’Carlin did it eight years ago.’ “
Indeed, a week before his death, Carlin was tapped for the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, honoring his contributions to the art.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has announced that after conferring with and getting approval from Carlin’s family, it will still hold a ceremony in honor of the late comic, making him the first posthumous recipient of the Twain Prize. The ceremony will rely on tributes from colleagues and friends, and we’re guessing Seinfeld is on the invite list.
“I know George didn’t believe in heaven or hell,” he writes at the end of his Times piece. “Like death, they were just more comedy premises. And it just makes me even sadder to think that when I reach my own end, whatever tumbling cataclysmic vortex of existence I’m spinning through, in that moment I will still have to think, ’Carlin already did it.’ “
Seinfeld: Suit Doesn’t Have a Leg to Stand-Up On
Jerry Seinfeld is wondering how a show about nothing has turned him into an “actor.”
Lawyers for the former sitcom star have asked that a defamation lawsuit brought against him by a steamed cookbook author be tossed out on First Amendment grounds, arguing that any statements she perceived to be derogatory were made while he was in comedian mode.
Missy Chase Lapine, author of The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals, has accused Jessica Seinfeld of swiping her methods for getting kids to eat vegetables and her funny hubby of slandering her during an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman in October.
Noting that the plaintiff was accusing his wife of committing “vegetable plagiarism” in her book Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food, Seinfeld told Letterman that Lapine being a “three-name woman” worried him.
“If you read history, many of the three-name people do become assassins. Mark David Chapman and, you know, James Earl Ray. So, that’s my concern.”
None of which Lapine took lightly when she added a defamation charge to the copyright-and-trademark-infringement lawsuit she filed against the Seinfelds in January (after Jerry had made those comments).
But while she referred to Seinfeld as a comedian in her original complaint, in a revised suit filed several weeks Lapine stated: “Jerry Seinfeld is an enormously wealthy and well-known actor.”
Seinfeld’s lawyers beg to differ, considering he was expected to be funny when he was a guest on the Late Show.
“No reasonable viewer could have thought that Seinfeld really meant that Lapine…might become an ’assassin’ simply because she has three names,” state court documents filed Tuesday in response to Lapine’s suit.
Forbes picks the 100 most powerful celebrities
Like most red-blooded Americans, I love lists. We do a lot of them here at TV and you’ll see them at many sites every single day of the week. But I think that sometimes the lists go too far. I mean, what’s the point of listing the top 50 or top 100 of something? Isn’t that a little bit too many spots? Instead of getting down to the nitty-gritty (say, a top 10 or top 25), you ended up not only listing the best, worst, most, least (or whatever the list’s topic is), you’re just listing all of them.
Case in point, this Forbes list of the 100 most powerful celebrities.
I can understand why the list has to be more than to 10 or 20, but beyond that it still seems like a mishmash of people you’d expect to be on such a list, and #49 really isn’t any different from, say, #66. Not in any way that matters to us, anyway. And I’m rather confused by why the amount of money a celeb makes makes a difference in their “power.” Yes, Oprah (#1) is powerful and uses her money to change things, but David Letterman is #15? What makes him “powerful,” beyond the amount of money he makes? (The celebs are also judged on web rank, press rank, and TV rank).
And The Police? I went to their show in Boston late last year and it was fantastic. But #8?
Besides Oprah and Letterman, there are many TV people on the list, including Jerry Seinfeld (#25), Dr. Phil (#30), Jay Leno (#32), and Tyra Banks (#68). But how does Katherine Heigl (#73) rank higher than Regis Philbin (#74)? Jennifer Aniston (#17 is more powerful right now than Miley Cyrus (#35) and Madonna (#21)? And how in God’s name is Lauren Conrad from The Hills (#97) more powerful than Tina Fey (#99)?! If money is the overwhelming factor in how this list is decided, they should change the name of it.
And on a non-TV side note, The Spice Girls are #50?