PRESS RELEASE:

The first animated primetime series on PBS introduces to the fictional world of Click & Clack from NPR's Car Talk. Click & Clack's As the Wrench Turns will air on KUED-Channel 7 Saturdays at 9 p.m., beginning July 12, and revolves around the brothers' garage as they fend off disgruntled customers and continue on their never-ending quest to do less work. They have help (if you can call it that) from their band of misfit mechanics, while their radio show producer fights an ongoing battle to get them to shape up and be more professional. It's animated...it's offbeat...it's character-driven...and it's ideal for summer.

Click and Clack are two Boston-bred brothers who own a small neighborhood car garage and co-host a nationally syndicated talk radio show. At times, Click and Clack are almost like two halves of one brain. Motivated by the desire to escape their daily grind, they continually become distracted, following their curiosity and ideas down various pathways that usually get them into some sort of trouble. But it's always interesting trouble.

Besides Click and Clack, viewers will also be introduced to Beth Totenbag, Fidel, Crusty, Stash, Sal, Dave and Zuzu. Fresh and imbued with enough energy to power a small city, Beth is the producer of Click and Clack's radio show. Hyper-anxious to please her superiors and climb the corporate ladder, Beth is tasked with keeping both brothers on time and on message for their on-air commitments.

One of Click and Clack's mechanics, Fidel thinks of himself as more of an automotive consultant and prefers never to stain the spotless Armani suits that he wears to work at the garage everyday. Click and Clack are well aware of Fidel's peculiarities, but also know that he's a genius at diagnosing car trouble. How much of a genius? Fidel can tell what's wrong with a car by just listening and smelling - almost the way a dog smells fear. Fidel also has an eye for the ladies, although the favor is not returned; women are only too aware of Fidel's inability to pass a chrome bumper without checking his reflection.

Continually covered in axle grease, filth and yesterday's lunch, Crusty is the absent-minded intellectual whose mechanical curiosity allows him to labor as the grunt mechanic of the shop, fixing what Fidel has diagnosed and installing what Stash has built. Pedantic, long-winded and oblivious to his putrid condition, he has a habit of getting customers dirty by accident. In a previous life, Crusty was a professor at Harvard. Now, Crusty considers his mechanic career as a very long sabbatical and patiently waits for the university call that will never come.

Originally hailing from Coleslawvania, Stash is gruff, burly and monosyllabic. He can construct car parts from rocks and trees, if necessary, using custom instruments collected from a lifetime of tinkering. In fact, Click and Clack never order car parts - they simply ask Stash to make them, which he does in his chaos-strewn corner of the garage. Stash is equally adept at creating non-car solutions with unique props. Stash rarely says anything that anyone else understands and speaks in a heavily accented eastern-European grumble.

Sal is the heavy-set Bostonian lady who works as the garage receptionist. Although she is officially an employee of Click and Clack, she fears nothing and no one, giving out gruff orders to all through an old microphone coupled with tinny sounding speakers. Everyone obeys her - even Click and Clack, who marvel at the command she has over them by simply using her voice.

Dave, the studio's radio engineer, is a master at keeping things running by multi-tasking at warp speed and writing post-it notes that fly around the studio like confetti. He wears a football helmet to protect himself from falling tape reels, random electrical emissions and Beth, who can send out some sonic booms of her own. Dave is very focused, and, as such, is indispensable. No one has ever seen Dave away from his workstation. Ever.

Zuzu is everyone's favorite dog and the mascot of the garage. No one knows whether the garage adopted Zuzu or if Zuzu adopted the garage. Either way, the garage wouldn't be the same without her. She is all canine, happiest gnawing on a bone or sleeping on a pile of car covers. Zuzu has a knack for telling friend from foe - and good ideas from particularly bad ones.

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