For the past 31 years, the goofy laughs, smart alecky remarks and expert repair advice of Tom and Ray Magliozzi has dominated the weekend airwaves of public radio stations across the nation, and it's easy to see why. They are charismatic radio hosts, they have a formula down pat with each show sounding tighter than the one before it, and they have the affable spirits of people that you would want to have a cold beer with.

But, I'm starting to wonder if their celebrity status - or their clout from within the public broadcasting circles - has gone to their heads a bit, especially having sat through as many episodes as I could muster of the duo's new animated series Click & Clack's As The Wrench Turns. Ostensibly meant for grown ups, this hour long TV program tries to shoehorn the witty chemistry of these real life brothers and their smart, sensible car care advice into the uncomfortable strictures of the animated sitcom format. The results are woeful. 

Many of the sequences - particularly when they are on the air - sound like the producers of the show simply cut and pasted their best audio clips from their radio program and surrounded them with other goofy characters and visual gags that feel aimed at 12 year old boys rather than the primetime audiences they are hoping to pull in with this. What plots they do work into the show are hackneyed and trite and just plain easy. I imagine the creators of this show thought that this material would write itself, but a little effort couldn't have killed them. 

Crossover successes like this hardly ever make the cut - just take a look at Dave's World, the sitcom based loosely on the columns and personality of newspaper writer Dave Barry if you don't believe me (the first season of that show just came out recently on DVD), but this concept was dead on arrival. Stick to what you do best, gents. The worlds of radio and TV will be much better places for it.