By Kevin McCauley
Comedian car mechanics Tom and Ray Magliozzi -- aka Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers -- are retiring from their weekly NPR “Car Talk” program in the fall.
Though they will longer do new material, NPR will air 25 year of materials from the archives of the show.
Tom, 74, and Ray, 63, began the program 35 years ago on WBUR in Boston. “We’ve managed to avoid getting thrown off NPR for 25 years, given tens of thousands of wrong answers and had a hell of a time every week talking to callers,” wrote Ray in the Car Talk blog. “The stuff in our archives still makes us laugh. So we figured, why keep slaving over a hot microphone?”
In October, NPR will produce new shows built form the more than 1,200 shows in the Car Talk library. The brothers will continue to write the twice weekly “Dear Tom and Ray” column.
“Tom and Ray have become icons to millions of fans, including me, over the last 25 years,” said a statement from NPR President & CEO Gary Knell. “I’m thrilled that they will continue to entertain and engage today’s fans and future fans for many years to come.”
Eric Nuzum, VP-programming at NPR, said the Car Talk body of work “ranks up there with some combination of the Marx Brothers, Mark Twain, and Mr. Goodwrench. The work they did five and 10 years ago is just as funny now as it was then.”
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