Thomas & Friends (Seasons 1-11, 17-21)

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Thomas & Friends (Seasons 1-11, 17-21)

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"Little engines can do big things!" - Thomas the Tank Engine
Genre: Live-Action (Seasons 1-12)
CGI (Season 12-24)
Running Time: 4 minutes, 30 seconds (Seasons 1-7)
10 minutes (Seasons 8-12; Seasons 22-24)
11 minutes(Season 13-24)
Country: United Kingdom
Release Date: October 9th, 1984 – January 20th, 2021
Network(s): ITV/ITV1 (Seasons 1-3, 6-9)
Direct-to-Video and Cartoon Network (Seasons 4-5)
Nick Jr. (Seasons 6-11)
Channel 5 (Season 9-present)
Created by: Britt Allcroft
Distributed by: Various distributors
Starring: Ringo Starr (UK/US) (Seasons 1-2)
Michael Angelis (UK/US; "New Friends for Thomas" release only) (Season 3-16)
George Carlin (US/NZ) (Seasons 1-4)
Alec Baldwin (US) (Seasons 5-6)
Michael Brandon (US) (Seasons 7-16; redubbed six Season 6 episodes)
Mark Moraghan (UK/US) (Season 17-21)
John Hasler (UK) (Seasons 22-24)
Joseph May (US) (Seasons 22-24)
Pierce Brosnan ("The Great Discovery" only)
Seasons: 24
Episodes: 578


Thomas & Friends (formerly Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends and also referred to as Thomas the Tank Engine) is a British children's television series. It had its first broadcast on the ITV network in 1984. It is based on The Railway Series of books by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher Awdry. It 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 1984-2020 series produced overall is "Thomas and the Royal Engine", despite being released on May 1st, 2020 alongside the "Marvelous Machinery" two-part arc on Netflix in the US, and on May 2nd, 2020 a day later in the UK.

Plot

These books follow the adventures of a group of anthropomorphized locomotives and road vehicles who live on the fictional Island of Sodor. The books were based on stories Wilbert told to entertain his son, Christopher, during his recovery from measles in World War II. Many of the stories from the first four seasons are based on real life events from Awdry's personal experiences.

Why It Rocks

  1. The earlier episodes are very faithful to the original Railway Series books and the original stories are also fun to watch (for example: "Thomas and Bertie" and "Henry's Forest").
  2. The idea of talking railway engines is a really cool idea, and feels realistic (as you can tell by The Railway Series).
  3. A large variety of engines such as Thomas (of course), Gordon, James, Percy, Daisy, Henry, Toby, Edward, Duck, Rosie, Emily, Nia, Rebecca, Spencer, Donald and Douglas, Oliver, Stanley, Ryan, Sonny and the list goes on.
  4. 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.
  5. The Really Useful Around the World videos are pretty interesting and fun to watch, maybe these videos would be more interesting if they were adapted to Railway Series stories.
  6. Four words: Jack and the Pack.
  7. Well-done narration. Not to mention, in the model series, the first narrator was none other than the former drummer of The Beatles, Ringo Starr!
  8. George Carlin, like Ringo, has the best narration in the Classic era out of every narrator. Even his voices for Bill, Ben, Gordon, James, Sir Topham Hatt, Donald, Douglas, Trevor, Duncan, Toad, Tom Tipper, Daisy, and Harold really show how talented and enthusiastic he is.
  9. Cute, Likable and relatable title character protagonist (except in Seasons 12-16. But still cute).
  10. Great voice acting for Season 13 onwards in both the UK and US dubs.
  11. All of the theme songs are catchy.
  12. The series is filled with great and enjoyable episodes, such as:
    • "Thomas Gets Tricked"/"Thomas & Gordon"
    • "A Big Day for Thomas"/"Thomas' Train"
    • "Percy's Promise"
    • "Jack Jumps In"
    • "Duck & the Slip Coaches"
    • "Percy's Chocolate Crunch"
    • "Emily's New Coaches"
    • "Jack Frost"
    • "Henry's Forest"
    • "Edward Helps Out"/"Edward & Gordon"
    • "James Gets a New Coat"
    • "Faulty Whistles"
    • "Pouty James"
    • "Love Me Tender"
    • "The Flying Kipper"
    • "Twin Trouble"
    • "Thomas' New Trucks"
    • "James the Second Best"
    • "Make Someone Happy"
    • "Old Iron"
    • "Edward's Exploit"
    • "Haunted Henry"
    • "Thomas and the Storyteller"
    • "Gordon Takes a Tumble"
    • "Hector the Horrid!"
    • "Wayward Winston"
    • "Duncan & the Grumpy Passenger"
    • "Thomas Comes to Breakfast"
    • "Useful Railway"
    • "Duncan Gets Spooked"
    • "James Goes Buzz, Buzz"/"Buzz, Buzz"
    • "Emily and the Garbage"/"Emily's Rubbish"
    • "Kevin's Cranky Friend"
    • "Rusty to the Rescue"
    • "Duncan and the Old Mine"
    • "Saved from Scrap"
    • "The Fastest Red Engine on Sodor"
    • "Trusty Rusty"
    • "Thomas Goes Fishing"
    • "Ryan & Daisy"
    • "Hooray for Thomas"/"Three Cheers for Thomas"
  13. Speaking of Shining Time Station, the US dub is actually pretty good (except in season six with Alec Baldwin's awful narration in that season).
  14. The Japanese dub is as great and superior as the UK and US dubs, in fact, it was the first Thomas dub/production to individually voice the characters. Predating Thomas and the Magic Railroad in 10 years.
  15. The show massively redeemed itself during S17-21 after its seasonal rot during S12-16.
  16. Great CGI animation for S17-21. Though the CGI for S13-16 looks decent, S17-21 has some of the best animation imaginable thanks to Arc Productions (and Jam Filled Entertainment in the episodes they animated in Season 21) However, the CGI in S22-24 has quite of bit of hiccups.
  17. The characters that are engines, rolling stock trains, and road vehicles are mostly based off actual British railway engines, rolling stock and vehicles, and most of the episodes were based on real life events.
    • "The Sad Story of Henry" is an example of this, it was inspired by a steam engine in America that couldn't get out of the tunnel.
    • "Break Van" is based off an accident with a railway engine crashing tender first into a signal box.
    • "A Better View for Gordon" is based off the famous 1895 train crash in Paris called the Gare Montparnasse.
    • "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.
    • "Percy's Promise" is based off an event where an engine is swimming through water with it's passenger train.
  18. The music and songs are well-done, such as:
    • "Thomas You're the Leader"
    • "James the Really Splendid Engine"
    • "Rules and Regulations"
    • "Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining"
    • "Percy's Seaside Trip"
    • "Come For the Ride"
    • "The Island Song"
    • "Night Train"
    • "Accidents Will Happen"
    • "The Snow Song"
    • "Winter Wonderland"
    • "Down by the Docks"
    • "The Red Balloon"
    • "Hear the Engines Coming"
    • "Monsters Everywhere"
    • the "Engine Roll Call"
    • "We Make a Team Together"
    • "That's What Friends Are For"
    • "Will You Won't You?"
    • "Set Friendship in Motion"
    • "Streamlining"
    • "You Can Only Be You"
    • "The Hottest Place in Town"
    • "Our Tale of the Brave"
    • "Never Overlook A Little Engine"
    • "Let's Be Brave"
    • "Somebody Has to Be the Favorite"
    • "Really Useful Engine"
    • "All The Girls Around the World"
    • "Thomas' Anthem"
    • "Free and Easy"
    • "We're Friends"
    • "The Most Important Thing Is Being Friends"
    • "I Want to Go Home"
    • "On a Journey Today"
    • "Roll Along"
    • "Go Go Thomas"
    • "Determination"
      • In fact, the Japanese dub even had its own exclusive song, "I'm Thomas The Tank Engine".
  19. The Thomas Creator Collective was pretty good.
  20. The crashes are absolutely epic and fun to watch.
  21. Jam Filled Entertainment did a good job on Thomas and Friends when season twenty-one first popped up, despite Arc animating eight episodes for said same season until their bankruptcy in 2016.
  22. It's not afraid to be mature and have dark themes. 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 and then got turned into a generator because the manager wanted to make him useful at last. Then, due to no one wanting him, Duke gets buried in a shed. It's really adult-felt and depressing. Haunted Henry was also a darker episode of the show because of the spooky atmosphere. There was even an episode that is darker out of all of them where Stepney is nearly scrapped by a huge grabber in the scrapyards until The Fat Controller saves him on time, that episode is "Stepney Gets Lost".
  23. Many good morals that kids can learn, such as:
    • "Be patient" ("Thomas' Train").
    • "Never trust toxic people" ("Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure", "Day of the Diesels", and "Big World! Big Adventures!").
    • "Don't judge others from their looks/appearances" ("Heart of Gold").
    • "Don't spread rumors" ("Thomas and the Rumors" and "Dirty Work").
    • Be careful what you wish for" ("Toad's Adventure").
    • "Brake vans are important for all trains" ("The Runaway Elephant").
    • "Work together" (various episodes).
    • "Trust others" ("Tale of the Brave").
    • "Be honest" ("Who's Geoffrey?").
    • "Be who you are" ("Dream On", "Being Percy", "Whiff's Wish", "The Great Race").
    • "Don't refuse to take help from others ("Heave Ho Thomas").
    • "Old friends are still your friends" ("Forever and Ever").
    • "Everyone makes mistakes" ("Confusion Without Delay").
    • "Obey orders" ("Down the Mine" and "Percy Takes the Plunge").
    • "You can't always get what you want" ("Pouty James" and "Buffer Bother").

Bad Qualities

  1. Because Thomas is the titular character, he often takes up too much screen-time (most notably during S13-16 and Season 12 to some extent). Fans either blame him, the writers or outright both of them for this. Here's a video that pointed this out. Thankfully, this was toned down in later seasons and has been less of an issue, however it started up again in S22-24. It got even worse when the All Engines Go! reboot was announced, which will be a total continuity reboot due to Mattel and Nelvana taking away so much story potential away for 2021.
  2. Gordon is arguably the least tolerable engine as he acts arrogant and is a show-off.
  3. The series' quality has been pretty fluctuant in more recent years since 2004.
    • While S8-11 aren't too bad, the series gradually went downhill during these seasons and then experienced a major seasonal rot during S12-16. Similar to S6-8 of SpongeBob SquarePants, S12-16 are loaded with bad episodes, such as:
      • "Wonky Whistle" (the worst episode of the series)
      • "Fiery Flynn"
      • "Happy Hiro"
      • "Bust My Buffers!"
      • "Saved You!"
      • "Pingy Pongy Pick Up"
      • "Don't Go Back"
      • "Splish Splash Splosh"
      • "Big Belle"
      • "Ho Ho Snowman"
      • "The Early Bird"
      • "Up, Up and Away"
      • "Let It Snow"
      • "Sodor Surprise Day"
      • "Rosie's Carnival Special"/"Rosie's Funfair Special"
      • "The Lion of Sodor"
      • "Flash Bang Wallop!"
      • "James to the Rescue"
      • "Percy and the Monster of Brendam"
      • "Buzzy Bees"
      • "Henry Gets It Wrong"
      • All of the Skarloey Railway episodes in Season 12
      • "Steamy Sodor"
      • "Race to the Rescue"
      • "Percy's New Friends"
      • "Henry's Magic Box"
    • It temporarily improved during S17-21 before going downhill again a little bit during S22-24 (also known as "Big World! Big Adventures!"). However, S22-24 aren't the worst nor are they anywhere nearly as terrible by any means and are still far better than S12-16. However, these seasons are more of a mixed bag, similarly to S8-11.
    • The upcoming 2D animated reboot, Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go!, slated for October 2021, is expected to take the quality of the Thomas franchise to new levels of low, way worse than S8-11 and S22-24, as it will be considered non-canon to the original series. From relying too much on cartoon physics (which is jarring and out of place since the original series focused on realism most of the time), forcing Thomas to be the main character of every episode, engines now having fun than doing work, kicking out the British aspect and feel from the original, to taking Sir Topham Hatt's role as railway director away just to treat him more of a joke than in Seasons 19-24, to Thomas acting more childlike than in the original, to Gordon becoming a father figure of Thomas, to pushing humans to background characters! In fact, said reboot makes S12-16 look like a masterpiece in comparison.
  4. There are even a handful of bad episodes before and after S12-16, such as:
    • "Middle Engine" (first bad episode in series)
    • "Edward Strikes Out" (The Worst Episode of Before Season 12.)
    • "Thomas' Frosty Friend"
    • "Which Way Now?"
    • "Thomas and the New Engine"
    • "What's the Matter with Henry?"
    • "Panicky Percy"
    • "Wharf and Peace"
    • "Follow that Flour"
    • "Too Loud, Thomas!" (depending on your view)
    • "The Old Bridge"
    • "Thomas and the Big Bang"
    • "The Other Side of the Mountain"
    • "Who's Geoffrey?" (depending on your view)
    • "Rheneas and the Roller Coaster"
    • "Three Steam Engines Gruff"
    • "Emily Knows Best"
    • "Topped Off Thomas"
    • "Edward and the Mail"
    • "Don't Be Silly, Billy"
    • "Thomas Makes a Mistake" (depending on your view)
    • "Skarloey the Brave"
    • "Toby Feels Left Out"
    • "Henry and the Wishing Tree"
    • "Aces' Brace Jump" (depending on your view)
    • "Apology Impossible" (depending on your view)
    • "The Magic Lamp"
    • "The Way She Does It"
  5. Season 12 uses a mix of CGI and models. Unfortunately, using both never works because they unrealistically clash with each other and to makes matters worse, it constantly switches between models and CGI in many shots, resulting in inconsistency. Worst of all, characters from the classic era that were absent during S8-11 like Duck, Oliver, Stepney and Toad are pandered to the audience to keep the viewers happy for a few seconds, which is just insulting to the classic era fans. Even characters that appeared during Seasons 8-11 like Donald, Douglas, Murdoch, Neville, and Bill and Ben are also examples of this.
    • The CGI in Season 12, (while impressive for the engine character's faces to make them move and give them more expressions), looks pretty bad, particularly for the human characters, as they some of them look either uncanny or ugly.
  6. Alec Baldwin's narration takes a huge nosedive in Season 6. It becomes a lot more bland, boring and unenthusiastic. Also, he stops doing his character voices from Season 5, like Henry and especially Bill and Ben, and not even attempting an accent for Donald, Douglas and Duncan. However, he still does some good voices, like Elizabeth, Byron and Salty, but that's about it. The only Season 6 episodes that Alec does a good job narrating are "Elizabeth the Vintage Quarry Truck", "Jack Jumps In" and "A Friend in Need", while the only voice that he kept from Season 5 is Sir Topham Hatt.
  7. Some characters (those who never appeared in the Railway Series, the show's book origin series) have received a lot of negative feedback, such as Billy, Charlie, Bash, Dash, Ferdinand, Ace, and Vinnie as examples of either being incredibly annoying or having unlikable or almost no personality.
    • Though, the Logging Locos are much worse than the latter.
  8. Gained controversy in 2003 from the BBC that crashes in Thomas the Tank Engine can scare kids.
  9. These seasons aren't always perfect and have their share of hiccups, mostly the "New HiT Model Series" (S8-11) .
    • Though not a particularly bad thing all the time, Season 5 has a bit of a darker and edgier tone than the first 4 seasons and has some episodes that can prove to be really scary for younger viewers that are the easily disturbed, like "Haunted Henry", "Duncan Gets Spooked", "Toby & the Flood", "Stepney Gets Lost" and "Rusty and the Boulder".
    • Season 6's narration by Alec Baldwin for the US dub was terribly downgraded (as mentioned in Reason #4).
    • Season 8 is decent and has a handful of good episodes. But it does have some inconsistencies and plot holes, like the infamous plot hole regarding Henry being bad at pulling the express.
    • Season 9, while not terrible, is arguably considered the weakest season in the model era. The episodes in this season are a mixed bag, ranging from good, to average, to bad.
    • Season 10 has a rocky start with the episode "Follow that Flour", but picks itself up later on. Even so, it has its fair share of bad episodes, like the very infamous "Edward Strikes Out".
    • Season 11, while an improvement over Seasons 9-10, can get a little predictable and repetitive at times and has some bad episodes, not to mention the very yellowy lighting. But that season was nowhere near as bad as Season 12.
    • While S22-24 had some good potential, such as by having Thomas going around the world, which is an interesting concept that hasn't been done before and showing kids cultural material, they have a handful of issues like in S8-11.
      • The mix of realistic laws of physics with some cartoony physics doesn't work well in a show that was meant to follow how railways work. Though to be fair, Season 5 had some ridiculously unrealistic visuals for model standards, like a runaway boulder.
      • The removal of Edward and Henry from the main character cast upset a lot of fans and the addition of Nia and Rebecca also divided the fanbase. Although not the same when Edward and Henry were pushed to secondary roles, at least it's great that they maintained to appear in S22-24 after all, instead of forgetting about them entirely. But just because Edward and Henry had respective, but understandable reasons to leave Tidmouth Sheds to their respective sheds doesn't mean they would become secondary characters, and that also doesn't mean they are gone from the original run either.
      • The animation is pretty flawed, such as by having overly bright colors, inconsistent lighting and lower quality textures. Though it improved some in Season 24. The puffing effect has made a real step up since Season 23.
      • The 7 minute time limit is jarring compared to the more laid back pace of previous seasons due to the fast pacing.
      • Most of the imagination sequences. while creative sometimes, are distracting, cartoony, and only serve as small filler. However, this got toned down in Season 24.
  10. Has made numerous continuity errors just like Pokémon:
    • An example is that whether or not the engines can actually control themselves without their driver or firemen is very inconsistent. In episodes like "Daisy", they seem to be able to move without them, but other episodes, such as "Wayward Winston", "Thomas Comes to Breakfast" and "Old Iron", make it clear that engines do need drivers.
      • This inconsistency worsens starting from season 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 in which the driver and fireman would have been injured in. But throughout seasons 12-16, 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. But in the 2021 reboot as announced from the SiF blog post, the engines will now move without their crews to run them starting with the 2D animated series.
    • 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 of course 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".
  11. Though unintentionally most of the time, some episodes can teach kids bad morals, such as:
    • It's okay to play with fireworks ("Sodor Surprise Day").
    • It's okay to disobey orders ("Don't Be Silly, Billy").
    • Old people are no help at all ("Toby Feels Left Out").
    • It's okay to spread rumors, slandering the innocent is okay and that you will not get punished for it ("Thomas and the New Engine").
    • Or even the worst moral, it's okay for bullies to pick on you ("Middle Engine").
    • Take a dislike to those you never met before you get to meet them ("Edward Strikes Out").
    • It's fine to always refuse help from others, and treat it as a normal thing ("Push Me, Pull You").
  12. Some moments can be scary for younger viewers, most notably Alicia Botti screaming in "Thomas, Percy and The Squeak" because of the realistic woman screaming sound effect that was used.
  13. The two 2020's miniseries shorts from Thomas' Magical Birthday Wishes and Learn with Thomas feel downgraded, overly kid friendly, and underwhelming compared to previous miniseries content such as Jack and the Pack, Great Race Friends Near and Far, and Really Useful Around the World. Worst yet, Mattel didn't even bother doing American dubs for both miniseries, let alone them being a real disappointment to the 75th anniversary of the Railway Series.
    • Thomas' Magical Birthday Wishes is the most downgraded out of all of the mini-series content. Mainly due to the overly cartoony visuals, unnecessary lack of down to earth logic (worst offender; the engines' crews don't even appear in Thomas' Magical Birthday Wishes as if Sir Topham Hatt is the only human who lives on Sodor), lack of continuity, the bouncing looking way over the top than in the S21-24, Rob Rackstraw's awful performance as Percy, overly simplified stories, limited amount of voice actors to play the characters, and lack of backgrounds other than railway tracks, railway stations, and other buildings.
    • Learn with Thomas isn't any better. Instead of learning how railways work like signals, points, or anything on what to do and not do on a railway, instead whenever Thomas or Percy learn something really that simply, either it's a message topic involving something they already learned, or is a moral that is, or learn about something they already know, and not even the bouncing helped either. Much like last series, Percy's voice given by Rackstraw still sounds nothing like how Nigel Pilkington voiced as him like usual, the plots have been more simplified, and the topics of each episode where both Thomas and Percy learn a thing or two. While none of the lessons are necessarily bad, they're usually stuff like learning how to count to 20, how colors work, or what opposites are, making it feel like a generic preschool show than a family show.
    • In general, unlike Season 24's "Thomas and the Royal Engine", neither one of the two are a good end to the CGI series and the 1984-2020 series overall.
  14. While not necessarily a bad thing or a good thing either, some old characters of the show have been shown to never appear again, with characters being Lady, Molly, Arthur or BoCo being prime examples. (Though those characters are bound to appear again soon).
    • Some of the newer characters had missed opportunities of being given an episode of their own as the main role such as Noor Jehan, Isla, Ashima, Stanley, Norman, etc. Which is a shame because some of these characters are either interesting or really needed some major development.
  15. Michael Brandon's narration (and the late Michael Angelis in seasons 8-16), while not as terrible as Alec Baldwin in season 6 were kind of annoying. At the very least, Angelis and Brandon gave the characters emotions. But later on, while Brandon isn't as good as George Carlin or Michael Angelis, he did improve later on. Angelis later started getting redundant in Seasons 13-16, despite having the energy to narrate.

Trivia

  • It first aired on PBS as a segment on Shining Time Station. Then it premiered on PBS in 2004 as a standalone program. It aired on PBS until 2017. The show aired on Nickelodeon (later moved to Nick Jr.) until 2020.
  • George Carlin was born on the same day The Railway Series was first published. More specifically, The Three Railway Engines was published on his eighth birthday in 1945.
  • George Carlin was the choice for being the narrator of the series by Kenn Viselman, the head marketing for the franchise of Thomas & Friends, Tots TV, and Teletubbies.
  • According to Britt Allcroft, she chose Ringo as the narrator after hearing his voice on television and thought children would relate to him. At first, Allcroft declined the fact he was chosen because of his Beatles fame, since she was not a fan of the band at the time.
  • After Ringo Starr left the show in 1989/1990 (both British and American versions) to continue and focus more on his music career, Ringo stated in an interview following his departure that Thomas would always have a special place in his heart, and that he admits he is proud to be apart of Thomas' world.
  • Ringo Starr originally declined narrating the series since he did not read any of the Railway Series books at that time. However, after reading the books, he decided to narrate the series. He also recorded narration for the Ladybird audio books.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • It's 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-producing the show's 3rd season and it even got 3 crossovers with a Japanese children's program named Ponkickies.
  • Alec Baldwin is the last narrator to play as Mr. Conductor.
  • Alec Baldwin is 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 this, even in some of his stand-up comedy routines. In an interview on "TV Legends" conducted shortly before his death, he explained that he signed on to both shows so that people could see a different side of him (meaning a good side where he isn't using vulgar language all the time).
    • In technicality, George Carlin is 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".
  • Season 23 is the last season of the original 1984-2020 series to air in the US due to Mattel and Nickelodeon's broadcasting deal ending on December 31st, 2020, in favor to stream the episodes on Netflix, which started on March 15th, 2020. Season 24 remained to be the only season to stream all of its episodes for the franchise's future in the United States.

Comments


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Trashanimal

10 months ago
Score 14
This is why I've always loved rail transportation all my life.
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Spindash101

9 months ago
Score 0
Same here.
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Eli Boy

9 months ago
Score 0
Me as well.
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Rockman138

2 months ago
Score 1
Railway transport is fun.
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Nitesh Surya Vanapalli

8 months ago
Score 2
Little engines can do big things!
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Mickey Mouse

7 months ago
Score 3
Unpopular opinion, Season 12 was not that bad, in fact, I own it entirely on DVD.
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Rockman138

4 months ago
Score 0
It maybe to me and some fans, but I understand.
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Mickey Mouse

6 months ago
Score 2

They're two, they're four. they're six, they're eight!

Shunting trucks and hauling freight

Red and green and brown and blue

They're the Really Useful Crew!

All with different roles to play round Tidmouth Sheds and far away

Down the hills and round the bends

Thomas and his friends!

Thomas, he's the cheeky one

James, is vain but lots of fun

Percy, pulls the mail on time

Gordon, thunders down the line

Emily, really knows her stuff

Henry, toots and huffs and puffs

Edward, wants to help and share

Toby, well let's say, he's square!

They're two, they're four. they're six, they're eight!

Shunting trucks and hauling freight

Red and green and brown and blue

They're the Really Useful Crew!

All with different roles to play round Tidmouth Sheds and far away

Down the hills and round the bends

Thomas and his friends

They're two, they're four. they're six, they're eight!

Shunting trucks and hauling freight

Red and green and brown and blue

They're the Really Useful Crew!

All with different roles to play round Tidmouth Sheds and far away

Down the hills and round the bends

Thomas and his friends!
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avatar

NeptunePerson2018

6 months ago
Score 0
I like Mountain Marvel, The Old Bridge, Rheneas and the Rollercoaster, Henry and the Wishing Tree, and The Magic Lamp.
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GrilledCheese800

5 months ago
Score 0
Same.
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Yoshi and Tails Fanboy 130

4 months ago
Score 1
This used to be one of, if not my favorite shows of all time growing up, I moved on from it in 2013-Early 2017 but I got back into it sometime in 2017, I lost interest in the show in late 2017 and the entirety of 2018, but I got back into it sometime in 2019. IDC if I’m too old to watch this show, it’s one of my fav shows ever.
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Rockman138

one month ago
Score 0
It doesn't matter what age you are. Watching a show made for a young demographic at an older age does not make you inferior.
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Zekeman1991

3 months ago
Score 0
Seasons 22-24 are terrible they clearly are hated by fans and it's considered the second worst era due to it's fantasy sequences that ground the plot to a hault Rosie is Red and Forver And Ever shouldn't be in the good episodes catagory. Watch Unlucky Tug's review of the series you'll get a better idea if you watch it.
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P51Mustangfan42

3 months ago
Score 0
should seasons 12-16 be on Terrible TV shows wiki
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Funny

3 months ago
Score 3
Unfortunately not, it's a niche show.
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Rockman138

3 months ago
Score 0
Regardless of how bad those seasons are. It's unlikely due to the fact preschool shows are not allowed on that wiki (all except for The Magic School Bus Rides Again, everything else is a big fat no).
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Trevor807

3 months ago
Score 10
The Magic School Bus Rides Again is NOT for preschoolers. It's for elementary schoolers.
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Zekeman1991

3 months ago
Score 0
They really should. As well as Seasons 22-current. If Spongebob Seasons 5-8 and Simpsons Seasons 11-current are on it why not Thomas?
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Master Chief

3 months ago
Score 0
We should make a page for Jack and the Sodor Construction Company.
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Gametoon

2 months ago
Score 5
The niche audience rule is stupid. The bad seasons of this show should be on TTSW.
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Master Chief

2 months ago
Score 3
I sort of agree that it's a silly rule, though I do understand the reason behind the rule, I might make an Abysmal Preschool Shows Wiki someday.
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Arctic01

2 months ago
Score 6
@Master Chief there is no need for a wiki like that as Trevor recently abolished the rule on TTSW and the pages related to them are being restored.
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Stephenfisher2001

2 months ago
Score 4
Voltuse is right, you don't have to make a "Bad" Niche Shows Wiki anymore, this time for TTVSW a couple of days ago, that the no "niche" shows allowed on Terrible TV Shows Wiki, is no longer in effect.
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Master Chief

2 months ago
Score 3
So I found out, I never really expected this to really happen, I'm glad that it has happened, since now we can add Bob the Builder 2015, Fireman Sam CGI and Thomas and Friends season 12-16.
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Master Chief

17 days ago
Score 1
well, the niche audience has returned once again, I guess it's time for that abysmal preschool shows wiki.
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Trevor807

17 days ago
Score 2
Which will be short-lived and not make any significant impact. Seriously, I don't get why people keep insisting on making such wikis.
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Gametoon

13 days ago
Score -1
@Trevoe807 It feels like you're giving favoritism to preschool shows, which makes the ""It's made for kids"" article on TTSW look hypocritical.
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Gametoon

12 days ago
Score -1
@Trevor807 Dude, you didn't say you WEREN'T hypocritical, instead you said, "no matter the hypocrisy". I'm sure this proves my point even more. Even if you said you weren't, there's no good reason otherwise. You better not block me or delete this comment. If you do that, I'm gonna think you can't take criticism. Let's be civil here.
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Trevor807

12 days ago
Score 2
Okay, I apologize if I came off as hypocritical. We don’t want any niche shows on TTVSW, but that doesn’t mean we should praise them even if they’re terrible. I mean, Masson didn’t want them because of one thing: quality control.
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Trevor807

12 days ago
Score 2
And I apologize for my wording of the post as well. All it did was make me look bad.
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Trevor807

12 days ago
Score 2
I also said “quote-unquote” as in “supposed”, meaning I didn’t inadvertently say we were deliberately harboring a double standard.
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Trevor807

12 days ago
Score 2
Finally, to anyone who downvotes me, please show yourself and explain in a civil manner why you disagree with me instead of downvoting. It’s turning these comment sections into another Reddit.
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Trevor807

12 days ago
Score 2
Finally, if you have any problems with the rule, just appeal to DarkMatterMan4500 why you think there should be niche shows on TTVSW.
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DarkMatterMan4500

12 days ago
Score 1
Let's be honest here, this argument has gotten nowhere, and yes, @Trevor807 is right. There should be a solution to this problem that we can all be on the same page.
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Gametoon

12 days ago
Score 1
Yes, let's discuss possible solutions. Should it be through message requests or how should we do it?
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Gametoon

10 days ago
Score -1
@Trevor807 What part of this rule exactly made Masson Thief leave?
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Trevor807

10 days ago
Score 0
The rule itself.
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SuperStreetKombat

10 days ago
Score 0
Which rule, the one against making pages for niche audience shows or the one against downvoting?
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Gametoon

10 days ago
Score 0
@Trevor807 So HE was the one giving favoritism to preschool shows(or as you call them "niche audience shows"), not you. Why are the preschool shows still up here? If they're not TTSW, they shouldn't be here either.
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Trevor807

3 days ago
Score 2

@SuperStreetKombat Sorry I didn't reply earlier. It was the niche audience show rule. And it was part of the reason (the main one being due to his health issues). Because I removed it, I contributed a great deal to him leaving. And I don't want his wishes disrespected.

@Gametoon It was Unnamedgoon (an ex-user from São Paulo, Brazil who had Tommy Vercetti as his profile picture) who created the rule, as I told you on a separate comment. Masson simply added it.
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Gametoon

one day 18 hours 32 minutes ago
Score -1
Stop trying to weasel your way out of this. I'm starting to further think you actually ARE giving favoritism. If "niche" shows are allowed on here but not TTSW, then it's hypocritical. End of story.
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Trevor807

one day 18 hours 22 minutes ago
Score 4

"Stop trying to weasel your way out of this."

How? By trying to blame ME for blaming another user who actually did create it?

"I'm starting to further think you actually ARE giving favoritism."

Didn't you say you thought Masson did that? Plus, it was Unnamedgoon who created it, as I said before.

"If "niche" shows are allowed on here but not TTSW, then it's hypocritical. End of story."

I get that, and personally, I don't get why either. But you see, Masson and Goon's influence is still crucial to the wikis' existence. It's their word that's still important, even though they're no longer here. Therefore, it has to be followed regardless.
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Gametoon

one day 15 hours 26 minutes ago
Score -1
Well, that wiki is completely ruined, then.
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Stephenfisher2001

one day 6 hours 7 minutes ago
Score 2
Also, it would ruin their childhoods if we add it here.
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Gametoon

20 hours 27 minutes ago
Score 0
"it would ruin their childhoods", wah. WHO EVEN CARES? The only people who would make that reason are nostalgiatards.
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Trevor807

15 hours 33 minutes ago
Score 2
He was calmly giving his reason. While I remain neutral over this response, you should've given a calm response in the first place.
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DarkMatterMan4500

6 hours 48 minutes ago
Score 0
Insulting other users just for stating their own reasons doesn't help matters. Trust me on this one. I'm mostly inclined to intervene if this continues.
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Mr. Dready

2 months ago
Score 2
I still enjoy the original theme song even to this day.
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ThePCGamer

one month ago
Score 0
I love this show! I watched it when I was little!
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DearMaster6

16 days ago
Score 0

I like the show, I watched this on Sprout.

And for I said, the stock footages are used, and in some CGI episodes until season 24 for the stock footages used, this sometimes it was dubbed over it, probably to be added on the bad qualities?
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