Thomas & Friends (Classic era, Jack and the Pack and one HiT era season, Series 1-8)

'''This page is dedicated to Michael Angelis, George Carlin, David Mitton and Wilbert Awdry, who died on May 30th, 2020 (Angelis), June 22nd, 2008 (Carlin), May 16th, 2008 (Mitton) and March 21st, 1997 (Awdry). May they Rest In Peace.'''

Thomas & Friends (also known as Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends and Thomas the Tank Engine) is a British children's television series. It is based on The Railway Series of books by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher Awdry. It had it's first broadcast on the ITV network in 1984, and started airing in the United States through Shining Time Station on January 1989 until September 1st, 2020, when all of Season 24's regular length episodes were released in the US on Netflix. The series finished airing in airing order in the UK on January 20th, 2021. The last episode of the 1984-2021 series aired overall is Thomas' Animal Friends.

Note: This article will mainly be focusing on the classic era (Seasons 1-7 & Jack and the Pack) and the first season of the HiT model era (Season 8). For the Andrew Brenner era (Seasons 17-21), see this page.

Plot
The series follows the adventures of Thomas, an anthropomorphised train, on the fictional Island of Sodor with fellow engines Edward, Gordon, Henry, James, Percy and Toby, along with many other anthropomorphized engines and vehicles. Thomas usually gets into trouble by doing jobs best left to bigger and more sensible engines, but never gives up on being a "Really Useful Engine". Many of the stories from the first four seasons are based on real-life events from Wilbert Awdry's personal experiences.

Why This Era Is Really Useful

 * 1) The earlier episodes are very faithful to the original Railway Series books and are also fun to watch (e.g., "Thomas and Bertie", "Whistles and Sneezes", "A Close Shave" and "Edward's Exploit").
 * 2) The idea of talking railway engines is a really cool idea, and feels realistic (as you can tell by The Railway Series).
 * 3) Many likable characters, such as:
 * 4) *Thomas the Tank Engine (in classic era (Seasons 1-7), HiT Model era (Seasons 8-11), Andrew Brenner era (Seasons 17-21), and Big World, Big Adventure era (Seasons 22-24))
 * 5) *Edward the Blue Engine (in classic era (Seasons 1-7), first 3 seasons of the HiT Model era (Seasons 8-10), Andrew Brenner era (Seasons 17-21), and Big World, Big Adventure era (Seasons 22-24))
 * 6) *Henry the Green Engine (in classic era (Seasons 1-7), HiT Model era (Seasons 8-11), Andrew Brenner era (Seasons 17-21), and Big World, Big Adventure era (Seasons 22-24))
 * 7) *Gordon the Big Engine (in classic era (Seasons 1-7), final 3 seasons of the Sharon Miller era (Seasons 14-16), Andrew Brenner era (Seasons 17-21) and Big World, Big Adventure era (Seasons 22-24)
 * 8) *James the Red Engine (most of the time, except in some episodes)
 * 9) *Percy the Small Engine (in classic era (Seasons 1-7), HiT Model era (Seasons 8-11), first 3 seasons of Sharon Miller era (Seasons 12-14), Andrew Brenner era (Seasons 17-21), and Big World, Big Adventure era (Seasons 22-24))
 * 10) *Toby the Tram Engine (in classic era (Seasons 1-7), first season of the HiT Model era (Season 8), Andrew Brenner era (Seasons 17-21), and Big World, Big Adventure era (Seasons 22-24))
 * 11) *Duck the Great Western Engine
 * 12) *Diesel the Devious Engine (depending on your view)
 * 13) *Donald and Douglas, the Twin Scottish Engines
 * 14) *Daisy the Diesel Railcar
 * 15) *BoCo the Diesel Engine
 * 16) *Oliver the Western Engine
 * 17) *Emily the Stirling Engine in classic era (Season 7), Andrew Brenner era (Seasons 17-21), and Big World, Big Adventure era (Seasons 22-24))
 * 18) *Spencer the Silver Engine
 * 19) *The Narrow-Gauge Engines (except for Skarloey and Rheneas in Seasons 9-12)
 * 20) *Sir Topham Hatt (in classic era (Seasons 1-7), HiT Model era (Seasons 8-11), Andrew Brenner era (Seasons 17-21), and Big World, Big Adventure era (Seasons 22-24))
 * 21) *Diesel 10 (despite very rarely appearing in the series)
 * 22) *Rosie the American Engine
 * 23) The model work in the live-action model series is very well-done, with lots of attention to detail. The same can be said with the CGI models of the humans, vehicles, rolling stock and even the engines.
 * 24) The Really Useful Around the World videos are pretty interesting and fun to watch.
 * 25) Well-done narration, especially from Ringo Starr, George Carlin, Michael Angelis, Alec Baldwin (only in Season 5) and Michael Brandon
 * Ringo Starr (yes, that Ringo Starr) did a superb job of narrating the first two series for both the UK and US.
 * 1) *The late George Carlin was great in Seasons 1-4. His voices for Thomas, Percy, Bill, Ben, Gordon, James, The Fat Controller/Sir Topham Hatt, Donald, Douglas, Trevor, Duncan, Toad, Tom Tipper, Oliver, Boco, Edward, Duck, Daisy and Harold really show how talented and enthusiastic he is.
 * Alec Baldwin did the best US narration as evident in "Season 5".
 * Michael Brandon did great in taking over.
 * 1) * The late Michael Angelis is also a legend of his name as he has a ton of great voices such as Thomas, Percy, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Donald, Douglas, Diesel, Duck, Duncan and many others show how enthusiastic he is.
 * 2) Speaking of Shining Time Station, the US dub is actually pretty good (except in Season 6 with Alec Baldwin's awful narration in that season).
 * 3) The Japanese dub is just as great as the UK and US dubs. In fact, it was the first Thomas dub to individually voice the characters, predating Thomas and the Magic Railroad by 10 years.
 * 4) The engines, rolling stock and road vehicles are based off of actual British railway engines, rolling stock and vehicles, and most of the episodes were based on real-life events.
 * 5) *"The Flying Kipper" was based off an accident at Abbots Ripton in Huntingdonshire in 1876.
 * 6) *"Down the Mine" was based off of the 1892 Lindal railway incident.
 * 7) *Donald's accident in "Break Van" is based off an accident where a railway engine crashed tender-first into a signal box.
 * 8) *"A Better View for Gordon" is based off the famous 1895 Gare Montparnasse train crash in Paris.
 * 9) *"Busy Going Backwards" is based off on a couple of "hair-raising" runaway trains in the Tondu Valleys that occurred during David Maidment's time as Area Manager in South Wales.
 * 10) *"Escape" is based off the time where British Railways started scrapping their steam engines in favor of diesels.
 * 11) *"Percy's Promise" is based off an event where an engine went through a flooded branch line with its passenger train.
 * 12) There are so many great episodes, such as:
 * 13) *Every episode from the first 5 seasons
 * 14) * "Salty's Secret"
 * 15) * "No Sleep For Cranky"
 * 16) *"A Bad Day for Harold the Helicopter" ("A Bad Day for Harold" in the US and only in Nick Jr. UK airings)
 * 17) * "The Fogman"
 * 18) *"Jack Jumps In"
 * 19) *"A Friend in Need"
 * 20) *"It's Only Snow" (Despite being the first episode to use the term "Winter Holidays")
 * 21) *"Twin Trouble"
 * 22) *"The World's Strongest Engine"
 * 23) *"Scaredy Engines" (depending on your view)
 * 24) *"James and the Red Balloon"
 * 25) *"Jack Frost"
 * 26) *"Gordon Takes a Tumble"
 * 27) * "Percy's Chocolate Crunch"
 * 28) * "Toby Had a Little Lamb"
 * 29) * "Thomas the Jet Engine" ("Thomas and the Jet Engine" in the US)
 * 30) *"Edward the Very Useful Engine" ("Edward the Really Useful Engine" in the US and only in Nick Jr. UK airings)
 * 31) *"Dunkin Duncan"
 * 32) *"Faulty Whistles"
 * 33) *"Emily's New Coaches"
 * 34) *"Percy Gets It Right"
 * 35) *"Bill, Ben and Fergus"
 * 36) *"Edward's Brass Band"
 * 37) *"James and the Queen of Sodor"
 * 38) *"The Refreshment Lady's Tea Shop" ("The Refreshment Lady's Stand" in the US)
 * 39) *"The Spotless Record"
 * 40) * "Toby's Windmill" ("Toby and the Windmill" in the US)
 * 41) *"Bad Day at Castle Loch"
 * 42) *"Salty's Stormy Tale"
 * 43) *"Snow Engine" ("Oliver the Snow Engine" in the US)
 * 44) *"Something Fishy"
 * 45) *"The Runaway Elephant"
 * 46) *"Peace And Quiet"
 * 47) *"Bulgy Rides Again"
 * 48) *"Harold and the Flying Horse"
 * 49) *"Best Dressed Engine"
 * 50) *"Gordon and Spencer"
 * 51) * "Not So Hasty Puddings" ("Not So Hasty Cakes" or "Thomas and the Avalanche" in the US)
 * 52) *"Three Cheers for Thomas" ("Hooray for Thomas" in the US, which also ended the classic series on a high note)
 * 53) *"A Visit From Thomas" (Originally titled "Oliversaurus")
 * 54) *"Jack Owns Up"
 * 55) *"On Site with Thomas" (Originally titled "Who's the Boss")
 * 56) *"Percy's Scary Tale" (Originally titled "Scaredy, Scaredy")
 * 57) *"Kelly's Windy Day" (Originally titled "Five Easy Pieces")
 * 58) *"A Happy Day for Percy" (Originally titled "Byron Saves the Day")
 * 59) *"A Tale for Thomas" (Originally titled "The Lightning Tree")
 * 60) *"Thomas and the Moles" (Originally titled "Buster 1, Moles 0")
 * 61) *"Percy Helps Out" (Originally titled "Nelson Gets Carried Away")
 * 62) *"The Tortoise and the Hare"
 * 63) *"Thomas' Trusty Friends" (Originally titled "Another Fine Mess")
 * 64) *"Alfie Has Kittens"
 * 65) *"Mud Glorious Mud"
 * 66) *"Thomas to the Rescue"
 * 67) *"James Gets a New Coat"
 * 68) *"Thomas Saves the Day" (Not to be confused with the US title of the Season 1 episode)
 * 69) *"Don't Tell Thomas"
 * 70) *"Emily's New Route"
 * 71) *"Thomas and the Firework Display"
 * 72) *"Gordon Takes Charge"
 * 73) *"Spic and Span"
 * 74) *"Edward the Great"
 * 75) *"Squeak, Rattle and Roll"
 * 76) *"Halloween"
 * 77) *"You Can Do It, Toby!" (depending on your view; although to some it started Toby's flanderization)
 * 78) *"James Goes Too Far"
 * 79) "The Great Discovery" was a great special that ended the full model series on a high note.
 * 80) The music and songs are well-done, such as:
 * 81) *"Thomas' Anthem"
 * 82) *"Let's Have a Race"
 * 83) *"Gone Fishing"
 * 84) *"Toby"
 * 85) *"Don't Judge a Book by its Cover"
 * 86) *"The Island Song"
 * 87) *"Really Useful Engine"
 * 88) * "Rules and Regulations"
 * 89) *"That's What Friends are For"
 * 90) *"Night Train"
 * 91) *"Accidents Will Happen"
 * 92) *"Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining"
 * 93) *"It's Great to be an Engine"
 * 94) *"The Snow Song"
 * 95) *"Donald's Duck"
 * 96) *"Come for the Ride"
 * 97) *"Harold the Helicopter"
 * 98) *"Percy's Seaside Trip"
 * 99) *"James the Really Splendid Engine"
 * 100) *"Little Engines"
 * 101) * "Down by the Docks"
 * 102) *"Winter Wonderland"
 * 103) *"Never, Never, Never Give Up"
 * 104) *"The Red Balloon"
 * 105) *"There Once Was an Engine Who Ran Away"
 * 106) * "Troublesome Trucks"
 * 107) *"Salty"
 * 108) *"The Whistle Song"
 * 109) *"Sounds"
 * 110) * "Surprises"
 * 111) *"Determination"
 * 112) * "Ode to Gordon"
 * 113) *"A World Around You"
 * 114) *"Engine Roll Call"
 * 115) **In fact, the Japanese dub even had its own exclusive song, "I'm Thomas the Tank Engine!".
 * 116) The crashes are absolutely epic and fun to watch (despite some being unrealistic).
 * 117) It's not afraid to be mature and have dark themes, (Especially in Seasons 4 & 5).
 * 118) *One example of a dark episode is "Granpuff", where Duke tells the story of an engine named Smudger who misbehaved and often rolled off the rails before he got turned into a stationary generator because the manager wanted to make him "useful at last". If that's not bad enough, Duke then gets abandoned and buried alive in his shed by a landslide.
 * 119) *"Haunted Henry" was also a dark episode of the show because of the spooky atmosphere.
 * 120) *"Stepney Gets Lost" sees Stepney nearly get melted down until the Fat Controller saves him just in time.
 * 121) Many good morals that kids can learn, such as:
 * 122) *"Be patient" ("Thomas' Train", though the episode was bad, "The Runaway Elephant" and other episodes that have to do with patience)
 * 123) *"Don't spread lies about other people" ("Dirty Work"; series 2)
 * 124) *"Work together" (various episodes)
 * 125) *"How PTSD can affect us" ("The Old Bridge", though this episode was also bad.)
 * 126) *"Stay true to promises, no matter what" ("Percy's Promise")
 * 127) *"Always obey orders" ("Down the Mine" and "Percy Takes the Plunge")
 * 128) *"Some people can do things that others can't" ("Thomas, Terence and the Snow")
 * 129) *"Snow isn't as innocent as you think" ("Thomas, Terence and the Snow")
 * 130) *"Water is important for you" ("Gordon and Spencer")
 * 131) * "Brake vans are important for all trains" ("The Runaway Elephant")
 * 132) *"Help everyone in need" (various episodes)
 * 133) * "Size doesn't matter" ("Alfie Has Kittens")
 * 134) *"Boastfulness can bite you back" ("Thomas, Percy and the Coal")
 * 135) * "Don't let others take the blame for your mistakes" ("Jack Owns Up")
 * 136) *"It's good to share" (various episode)
 * 137) These seasons had a handful of funny and comfortable episodes such as "Pop Goes the Diesel", "Donald's Duck" (not to be confused with Donald Duck from Disney), "Rock 'N' Roll", "Gallant Old Engine", "Cranky Bugs", "Something in the Air" and "One Good Turn" (depending on your view).
 * 138) The dawn in "The Flying Kipper" is one of the series' best visuals.
 * 139) The series has a very relaxing and calm slice-of-life feel to it but doesn't make the show feel boring to watch, and when combined with the realistic tone and setting, it makes the show feel almost like being in the early 20th century for the viewer, which is very nice and makes the show rewatchable for all audiences.
 * 140) All of the characters are likable and have a certain charm to him that makes them easy relate with, such as including The Fat Controller/Sir Topham Hatt who is a very good railway director and does a great job at looking after the engines, and Thomas who is a likable main character and has great character development (if a bit too much though). Other good characters also include the train drivers, Percy and many of the other engines.
 * 141) The goofs in the early seasons can be unintentionally fun to point at.
 * 142) The episodes "Percy Runs Away", "Old Iron" and "The Runaway" gives us a look at the human factor, meaning that Engines can't be operated without a driver and running without one is very dangerous and illegal.
 * 143) The episode "Old Iron" contains some pretty impressive camera work, including a 9 second scene where the camera follows Edward and a runaway crewless James from the front and elevates in order to clear a bridge.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Because Thomas is the titular character, he often takes up too much screen-time. Fans either blame him, the writers or even both of them for this. Here's a video that pointed this out. Thankfully, this was toned down during series 17-21 and has been less of an issue.
 * 2) *The main reason why fans complained about this is due to Thomas being a bit too unlikable in some of the episodes he is in when compared to other characters like Percy or Gordon, as he can act pretty rude at times and tends to get rather annoying at times in the show too, and it doesn't help that The Railway Series focused on different characters other than Thomas, which can make the show falling behind on the book series in general. Thankfully, this was toned down in the Brenner era by making Thomas more likable and give the other characters more focus than him, which is a bit of an improvement but still.
 * 3) Like most long-running shows, the series wasn't safe from experiencing seasonal rot.
 * 4) * It first began to go downhill during Season 8, but it didn't get too bad until Season 9 when the series was hit with a massive decline in quality. It wasn’t until Season 17 when the series massively redeemed itself after years of complaints from fans and critics.
 * 5) *Of course, it went through another decline in quality in Season 22 with the "Big World! Big Adventures!" rebrand and hasn't been the same ever since. Season 24 is a slight improvement, but because of the original series ending after this season with a reboot, any hope of redemption for the series is pretty much gone (unless you're counting the Marc Forster Thomas movie, which has potentional).
 * 6) *Speaking of the reboot, that's something interesting to talk about. The series' reboot has been critically panned by fans and has taken the quality of the Thomas franchise to new levels of low, WAY worse than Seasons 9-16 and 22-24. The following reasons and more makes the aforementioned seasons look like masterpieces in comparison.
 * 7) **It relies way too much on cartoonish physics (which is jarring and out-of-place considering the realistic tone of the original series, with some exceptions though).
 * 8) **The writers and directors have little to no understanding about the Thomas franchise (the latter are Nelvana, mind you).
 * 9) **Thomas is now the main character of every episode, leaving no room for the other characters to get the spotlight.
 * 10) **The engines are now having more fun rather than doing work.
 * 11) **It completely abandons the British aspect and feel from the original.
 * 12) **The Fat Controller/Sir Topham Hatt's role as railway director has been taken away and he's now treated as an utter joke.
 * 13) **Thomas acts far more childlike than in the original.
 * 14) **Gordon is now a father figure to Thomas, which makes no sense logic-wise.
 * 15) **The substance the original show and the Railway Series books had is completely nonexistent.
 * 16) **Even the humans are demoted to background characters.
 * 17) Quite possibly the absolute worst offender of them all was the infamous first attempt at making a TV adaptation of the books from 1953, which only adapted "The Sad Story of Henry". The one and only episode ever made was done live; as a result, it featured multiple problems throughout. The problems went from superimposed rain being put in very poorly, live narration from a script that wasn't adapted as faithfully as the '80s cartoon, and the Hornby 00 models moving very jerkishly throughout the railway. At one point, the operator had forgotten to set some of the points needed for the model to cross, thus leading to Henry derailing and a human hand putting it back on the rails on-camera, while the Mariott family and the Reverend W. Awdry were watching at home. As a result of that, and the disaster making front-page news over the murder trial of notorious serial killer John Christie, BBC cancelled the program after that episode.
 * 18) There are some occasional mediocre or bad episodes, such as:
 * 19) * "Percy and the Haunted Mine"
 * 20) * "Middle Engine"
 * 21) *"Buffer Bother"
 * 22) *"Thomas, Percy and the Squeak" (depending on your view)
 * 23) * "Rusty Saves the Day"
 * 24) *"The Old Bridge" ("The Old Iron Bridge" in the US, and only in Nick Jr. UK airings)
 * 25) *"What's the Matter with Henry?" (depending on your view)
 * 26) *"Rheneas and the Roller Coaster"
 * 27) *"Thomas and the Tuba" (which started Season 8 and the HiT Model Era on a sour note and is also the start of the series' minor downfall)
 * 28) * "Percy's New Whistle"
 * 29) *"Henry and the Wishing Tree" (depending on your view)
 * 30) *"Thomas, Emily and the Snowplough"
 * 31) *"Thomas and the Circus" (depending on your view)
 * 32) *"Thomas Gets it Right"
 * 33) *"As Good as Gordon" (depending on your view)
 * 34) *"Emily's Adventure"
 * 35) *"Chickens To School"
 * 36) *"Too Hot for Thomas" (mediocre episode)
 * 37) *"Percy and the Magic Carpet" (Which ended this era on a mediocre note)
 * 38) Alec Baldwin's narration takes a huge nosedive in quality starting in series 6. It becomes a lot more bland, boring and unenthusiastic. He also stopped doing his character voices from series 5, like Henry, Duncan, Gordon, and especially Bill and Ben, and not even attempting a Scottish accent for Donald, Douglas and Duncan respectively. He still makes some good voices here and there, like Elizabeth, Byron and Salty, (and the foreman in Middle Engine of all episodes) but that's about it. The only Season 6 episodes that Alec does a good job narrating are "Elizabeth the Vintage Quarry Truck" (depending on your view), "Jack Jumps In" and "A Friend in Need", while the only voice that he kept consistent from series 5 is Sir Topham Hatt.
 * 39) *With Duncan's case, he no longer has a Scottish accent given by Baldwin in that season.
 * 40) *What's really sad to see and hear that happen is that the reason why he was sounding like this is probably because of his divorce with Kim Basinger, which that event happened the exact same year series 6 was released in the UK.
 * 41) Unfortunately, Thomas garnered controversy in 2003 when moral guardians said that the crashes could scare kids.
 * 42) Some characters can be unlikable like Arry and Bert (though to be fair, they're created to be steam engine-disliking antagonists) and Emily was quickly flanderized in Seasons 8-10 where she would become a nagging selfish bossy bot.
 * 43) The good seasons aren't always perfect and have their share of hiccups, even some of the ones in the classic era.
 * 44) *The early seasons have tons of noticeable goofs and filming trouble in some of the shots.
 * 45) *In the UK dub of Season 3B, the second half of Season 3 had some strange off-sounding audio from when Michael Angelis was recording the last ten episodes of Season 3, with "James Goes Buzz Buzz" being an exception to this. It clearly sounded like the narration was recorded through a tunnel or a hallway and it's very noticeable. No one was bothered enough to ask Michael Angelis to rerecord his narrations on that second half compared to the first half of Season 3.
 * 46) *Though not a particularly bad thing all the time, Season 5 has a bit of a darker and edgier tone compared to the first four seasons and has some episodes that can be really scary for younger viewers that are the easily disturbed, like "Haunted Henry", "Duncan Gets Spooked" and "Toby's Discovery".
 * 47) *Season 6 suffers from awful, downgraded narration from Alec Baldwin for the US dub of the series (as mentioned in BQ#5), a washed-out camera font and overall weaker visuals in comparison to other seasons of the model era. In contrast to the first six episodes, most of the shots filmed in 4:3 are pointlessly cropped to 16:9 because most shows from the UK began using widescreen in the late 1990's. Worst yet, the 4:3 cuts of the first six episodes of Season 6 were not maintained in the UK Complete Series 6 DVD nor was there an option to watch them in either full screen or widescreen.
 * 48) **The only way the first six episodes of Season 6 could be watched is on either YouTube (if you're lucky enough) or by getting the Australian Season 6 DVD.
 * 49) *During Season 7, in the US and especially in the later UK dubs, HiT Entertainment completely changed the music from Mike and Junior in place of famously, Robert Hartshorne and the theme song was also changed from the Classic intro to the Season 8 intro, which angered and disappointed fans, and that problem has not been fixed ever since. To make matters worse, HiT did not even bother changing the new music, opening and closing sequences back to the old music and opening and closing sequences when all of the first seven seasons were released on Amazon Prime in 2016 for the US, which is really lazy of them since they didn't do anything about the criticism they received from fans back then.
 * 50) * While Season 8 is the best and only good season of the HiT model era, it's the weakest of the good seasons and is the start of the series' downfall. It also has some inconsistencies and continuity errors, like the infamous plot hole regarding Henry being bad at pulling the express in "Henry and the Wishing Tree". Plus, there are some bad episodes. Other problems include the fact that Emily has been flanderized only one season after her introduction and numerous side characters from previous seasons such as Duck, BoCo, Oliver, Bill, Ben, Donald and Douglas are either nowhere to be seen or only make small cameo appearances.
 * 51) Sometimes, the continuity contradicts itself kind of like SpongeBob in a way, either accidentally or on purpose. "Rusty Saves the Day" and "Henry and the Wishing Tree" are the worst offenders for different and obvious reasons.
 * 52) *The most inconsistent piece of continuity of them all is the debate on who is the oldest engine to arrive on Sodor. In the books, it was shown that the boxed-tank engines and Skarloey were the first engines to arrive on Sodor. But here in the TV series, it's debated on who is the oldest engine, making the continuity messier than the Railway Series continuity. Sometimes, it's Edward, in "Hero of the Rails" it is Hiro, sometimes it is Skarloey, then in the later model-era seasons, it is Sir Handel, and then Glynn came around, making this very confusing as it gets retconned somewhat easily.
 * 53) There are visual errors here and there, too:
 * 54) * An example is that whether or not the engines can actually control themselves without their driver or firemen is very inconsistent. Many people have thought that since the trains were alive, they could move on their own. In episodes like "Daisy", they seem to be able to move without them, but other episodes such as "Thomas Comes to Breakfast" and "Old Iron" make it clear that engines do need drivers.
 * 55) **This inconsistency worsens starting from series 8 onwards, as the engine crews are seen less often in the cabs, and "The Great Discovery" has several instances where Thomas goes into areas that a driver would not have allowed him to, and has at least one accident the driver and fireman would have been injured in. However, throughout series 9-16, the engine drivers and firemen are seen more regularly in the engines' cabs, but are strangely silent, and are doing little more than making the engines move and other actions for the engines without question.
 * 56) ***In the 2021 reboot, as announced from the SiF blog post, the engines will now move without their crews to run them.
 * 57) *Geographic inaccuracy error: In some episodes of the US version of the series, the term "railroad" is used to refer the North Western Railway as a railroad, despite Sodor's railways being geographically British. This happened one time in the UK dub of "Elizabeth the Vintage Lorry", with The Fat Controller saying Elizabeth is the "grandest lorry in the whole railroad", which is again geographically inaccurate because a railroad is an American term for a railway. This is thankfully fixed in Baldwin's narration, when Sir Topham Hatt calls Elizabeth "the grandest truck in the whole railway".
 * 58) Though unintentionally most of the time, some episodes in the good seasons can teach kids bad morals, such as: "It's okay if bullies pick on people other than you" ("Middle Engine") and "Be clumsy and you might get what you want" ("Buffer Bother").
 * 59) Depending on your view, Sir Topham Hatt can be unlikable in some episodes. ("Percy's Predicament" (at least with Percy), "Break Van", "Thomas Comes To Breakfast", "Percy, James And The Fruitful Day", "Cranky Bugs" (at first), "Something In The Air", "Duncan Get's Spooked", "Middle Engine", "Percy Gets It Right", etc.) Mainly due to the fact that he gets cross with his engines for accidents that were not their own fault.
 * 60) Due to having to coincide with the Shining Time Station episode "Billy's Party" "Thomas and Percy's Christmas Adventure" was changed to "Thomas and Percy's Mountain Adventure" and was rewritten to revolve around Thanksgiving instead of Christmas despite the fact that Thanksgiving is an American Holiday and not a British Holiday and the original episode was meant to revolve around Christmas because of the snow and presents and due to a scene where Thomas and Percy talk about Santa Claus they had to trim that scene out making the audio go out of sync, some versions of the episode even kept in the original UK footage making it look even worse with George Carlin narrating over scenes that weren't even being presented on screen which is a real bummer for US viewers since it was originally a good episode.

Reception
The classic era (Seasons 1-7 [1984-2003 [UK], 1989-2004 [US]]) were met with critical acclaim and are often to be the best of the series by critics and fans of the Railway Series, who praised the series for its writing, humor, characters and early episodes' connection to the Railway Series books and the original stories. Specifically, series 2, 4 and 5 were highly acclaimed by fans. Despite that, several episodes such as "Middle Engine", "Rusty Saves the Day" and "What's the Matter with Henry" were negatively received by fans.

The Jack and the Construction Crew miniseries (2006) (which was filmed alongside series 7) was praised for its 13-episode run, and the chances for Mrs. Jenny's construction crew to get a chance to shine.

The first season of the HiT model era (Season 8 [2004]) received mixed reception with criticism primarily with HiT Entertainment's decision to dumb down the series for very young audiences and others including inconsistencies, minor flanderization of some characters (though nowhere near as bad as the final 4 seasons of the HiT model era (Seasons 9-12) and the Sharon Miller era (Seasons 12-16) and mostly depends on the episode), inaccuracies and some bad episodes. There were still solid fan favorites such as "Thomas to the Rescue", "James Gets a New Coat", "Halloween", "Edward the Great", "Squeak, Rattle, and Roll", "Don't Tell Thomas", "Emily's New Route", "You Can Do It, Toby", and "Thomas and the Fireworks Display", but there were a couple stinkers such as "Emily's Adventure" and "Thomas Gets it Right" as examples.

The Andrew Brenner era (Seasons 17-21) received positive reception, due to having the same charm as the first seven seasons of the show (and to some extent, Season 8), redeeming the characters who used to be flanderized and the better writing, along with improved animation and great voice acting in the UK and US.

Really Useful Around the World (2015-2016; a short lived YouTube miniseries spin-off) was met with positive feedback for the idea of Thomas traveling around the world, learning different cultures, and going to different non-Sudrian places. This concept carried onto the Big World! Big Adventures! era from 2018-2020.

Great Race Friends Near and Far (2016-2017; another short lived YouTube miniseries spin-off) was met with good reception for giving the engines introduced in "The Great Race" to shine, including Etinee, Ashima, Rajiv, and Frieda.

Trivia

 * It first aired in the US on PBS as a segment on Shining Time Station. It then premiered on PBS in 2004 as a standalone program, airing on the channel until 2017. The show then aired on Nickelodeon (and later Nick Jr.) until 2020.
 * The Three Railway Engines, the first book of the Railway Series was published on George Carlin's eighth birthday in 1945.
 * George Carlin was the preferred choice for the narrator of the US dub by Kenn Viselman, the head of marketing for the franchise.
 * According to Britt Allcroft, she chose Ringo Starr as the narrator of the UK dub after hearing his voice on television and thought children would relate to him. At first, Allcroft denied that he was chosen because of his Beatles fame, since she was not a fan of the band at the time.
 * Ringo accepted the job of narrator after reading all of the Railway Series books released at that time. He also recorded narration for the Ladybird audio books.
 * Ringo Starr recorded the narration for the first season in eight days. That includes re-doing four episodes due to the tone of his voice.
 * After Ringo left the show in 1989/1990 (both British and American versions) to continue and focus more on his music career, he stated in an interview that Thomas will always have a special place in his heart and he is proud to be a part of Thomas' world.
 * On the BBC game show Pointless, when asked who took over narrating the UK version of the series from Starr in 1991, four out of the one-hundred people remembered that it was Michael Angelis.
 * The show is extremely popular in Japan due to trains being one of the most common ways to travel in the aforementioned country and many of the show's merchandise is exclusive to the Japanese market. In fact, Fuji TV, a popular Japanese TV network which aired the program, helped co-produce the show's third season and it even got three crossovers with a Japanese children's program named Ponkickies.
 * Alec Baldwin is the last narrator to play Mr. Conductor.
 * Alec Baldwin is also the first narrator to not narrate any Railway Series story adaptations.
 * While Carlin usually insulted most of the shows he worked on, he usually spoke very fondly of both Shining Time Station and Thomas and Friends, even in some of his stand-up comedy routines. In an interview on "TV Legends" conducted shortly before his death in 2008, he explained that he signed on to both shows so that people could see a gentler side of him.
 * In technicality, George Carlin was the first official American Thomas narrator after Ringo Starr's narrations were done.
 * Due to different societal norms in the United States, the Fat Controller is always referred to by his real name, Sir Topham Hatt.
 * In 2020, a second full worldwide theatrical Thomas & Friends movie release was announced and would be directed by Marc Forster, who also did Christopher Robin in 2018. The release date is not known to be confirmed yet, and neither is the plot for the second fully wide theatrical release.

Videos
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