[5] While at first a direct adaptation of the radio show had been proposed,[1] the final product is an animated sitcom featuring a new cast of fictional characters alongside the radio-show hosting Click and Clack.

[10][15] Click and Clack's As the Wrench Turns received a largely negative response, with The New York Times commenting that "television seems to flatten and confine" Tom and Ray's spontaneity and that while the series is "indisputably adorable" it "lacks the magic of the Magliozzis unplugged.

The show is described as "silly like a bad Saturday morning cartoon" and that the Magliozzi brothers are portrayed as "low-grade scam artists instead of the cheery, charming guys we know they are.

The out-there stories themselves set up some big laughs, like when the boys' discover pasta as an alternative energy source for automobiles, [pissed] off the local Mafioso in the process.

Since the humor will whisk over children's heads, it's clear this show was created specifically for the older crowd, ones who are too slow to catch every gag in Family Guy.