PBS. How about the animated characters Crusty, Fidel and Stash who work in Click and Clack's garage? Are they based on people from your real lives?

TOM: No, they're amalgams of lots of people we've known, along with some made-up stuff.

RAY: We don't actually have a grumpy mechanic from Coleslawvania... or a guy who insists on wearing his Armani suit while working on cars. But we've had plenty of eccentrics work with us over the years.

TOM: The 60s and 70s were the heyday of those wackos, especially in Cambridge, Massachusetts. And we did have our share of nut-jobs and crazies come through the place.

RAY: And we cherished every moment with them.

TOM: Yeah. They made us feel normal... like we belonged!

PBS: The animated series covers a lot of topical and potentially hot-button topics in a light-hearted manner. Some issues include outsourcing and alternative energy. These are topics that other PBS series might take a more serious look at. What made you decide to tackle these particular issues?

RAY: Those are serious issues?

TOM: We didn't know that. Nothing's a serious issue to us. Well, vacation is serious.

RAY: And death is serious. But everything else is pretty much fair game. PBS takes all of these things very seriously. Which is why we probably won't last the season there. Although NPR has tolerated us for 20 years.

TOM: Actually, even death can be funny. For instance, if the guy's last words were, "Hey, guys, watch this!"

RAY: You see? Have we been canceled yet?

PBS: Why have you made distracted driving a priority as a "wake-up call" for American drivers?

RAY: I'm sorry, what was that? I was busy texting in an order of General Gao's chicken, while my brother was busy stabilizing his hair.

TOM: Actually, NHTSA (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) tells us that distracted driving is one of the leading causes of accidents. The fact is, you're as likely to kill someone when you're on a cell phone as you are when you're legally drunk. We don't tolerate drunk drivers; why should we tolerate morons driving while on their cell phone?

RAY: There go PBS' cell phone company sponsors! Adios, Verizon!

TOM: Hey, not our problem!

RAY: Now have we been canceled?

PBS: What's the craziest example of distracted driving you've seen or heard about?

RAY: Our NPR listeners — and we've got 4.5 million of them every week — write to us all the time with stories. The most recent one was about a woman who was flossing, gargling and brushing her teeth while driving down the highway. All while opening the window every time she needed to spit.

TOM: And then she ate her breakfast. We spent a long time trying to figure out why she didn't eat breakfast first and then brush her teeth. These are the kinds of things that bother us.

PBS: Do you have a special message for teens about distracted driving?

TOM: Boy, it's tough. Teens don't think any danger applies to them. You can tell them to slow down and pay attention so they won't die, but they think they're invulnerable.

RAY: So we've found that the only thing that really works with teen age boys is the threat of imminent bodily harm. As a parent, you have to threaten to kill them — if they live through the accident, of course.

TOM: What also works are punishments that disrupt their social lives. I found, with my son, that writing "LOSER" on his forehead in permanent marker whenever I caught him using his phone in the car was somewhat effective.

RAY: Of course, he was already Tom's son, so he effectively had that on his forehead anyway!

TOM: I guess you just have to keep trying. It really is life and death. You explain to the kid that you're piloting 3,000 pounds of steel at speeds up to 65 miles an hour. You take your eye off the road for two seconds, and while you're reading a text message from Buffy, you've barreled almost 200 feet! With no one watching the road!

RAY: So turn the phone off while driving. There's a wonderful new invention. It's called voicemail.

TOM: Right. Let me text it to you this way: TMOT GTG TTFN. [Trust me on this, got to go, ta ta for now.]

RAY: For once, my brother doesn't have his HUB [head up butt].

CLICK & CLACK'S AS THE WRENCH TURNS premieres Wednesdays, July 9 - August 13, 2008, 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET on PBS.