"Henry's Good Deeds" was the very last Thomas episode to air on Sprout. The sixth and seventh series continued to introduce action-packed storylines and new characters, and saw the introduction of a writing staff. Sam Barlow became the story executive, while Abi Grant and Paul Larson served as script editors. The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! The books were based on stories Wilbert told to entertain his son, Christopher, during his recovery from measles. The first episode, based on "The Sad Story of Henry", was broadcast live on the evening of Sunday 14 June 1953 from Lime Grove Studios. The latter book was unusual, as it was written specifically by Christopher Awdry to be adapted by the show. While featuring characters from Thomas and the Magic Railroad, it was not a direct sequel. Since the series was introduced to television viewers in the 1980s, Thomas & Friends has seen a healthy fan base sprout worldwide.[45]. [4][7], In 1979, British television producer Britt Allcroft was producing a documentary on the Bluebell Railway,[4][5] a heritage railway in Sussex which actually featured in the Railway Series book Stepney the Bluebell Engine. Thomas & Friends would cease airing on sprout in late 2015, as PBS lost ownership of the channel, and it was rebranded. At the show's conception in 1984, live action model animation would not deliver lip sync, but show co-creator Britt Allcroft and model director David Mitton did not see this as an inhibition. The models were built to the 1:32 scale, known in model railway circles as "Gauge 1". The following series (the show's 13th) saw a transition to full CGI animation. is a British children's television series. [37], On October 12, 2020, it was announced by Mattel that the series would be rebooted beginning with the show's 25th season, and that Nelvana would co-produce and animate the series.
Contents . Awdry himself branded the episode as "unprofessional", and the point-switching debacle as an "elementary mistake". Later models were constructed entirely from scratch. [14] Robert D. Cardona left as producer, while Britt Allcroft joined David Mitton as co-producer. PBS Kids Sprout TV Wiki is a FANDOM TV Community. Trivia . In 2016 the Hartshornes left the series and Chris Renshaw and Oliver Davis took their places. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thomas_%26_Friends&oldid=985479084, 1980s British children's television series, 1990s British children's television series, 2000s British children's television series, 2010s British children's television series, British animated television shows featuring anthropomorphic characters, British children's animated adventure television series, British children's animated comedy television series, British children's animated fantasy television series, British computer-animated television series, Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming, Channel 5 (British TV channel) original programming, Family Channel (Canadian TV network) original programming, British preschool education television series, British television shows based on children's books, Television series created by Britt Allcroft, British television series revived after cancellation, Wikipedia articles needing factual verification from July 2019, Pages using infobox television with editor parameter, Wikipedia articles needing factual verification from April 2016, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2017, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2015, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2018, Articles needing additional references from April 2017, All articles needing additional references, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, The series in China is known as 托马斯和朋友 and 湯瑪士小火車 in Taiwan, and is dubbed in Mandarin Chinese with Simplified and Traditional Chinese subtitles. Another reason was that the producers wanted more stories about Thomas, the nominal main character. [14][verification needed] The series was a combination of episodes derived from The Railway Series, stories in the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends magazine (written by Andrew Brenner, who would later become the show's head writer starting in Series 16), and a couple of original stories by Allcroft and Mitton.[14]. On airings of "Rusty Helps Peter Sam", this episode is called the UK title, "Trucks!". [24], A straight-to-video film, Calling All Engines!, was released shortly before Series 9 in 2005. W. Awdry, Thomas's Christmas Party. On airings of "Thomas And Stepney", this episode uses the unrestored opening credits. The narrow gauge engines were introduced, and were the focus of a number of episodes. [35], Thomas & Friends has since been renewed for a 23rd series which debuted in 2019.[36]. 2015 saw The Adventure Begins, a special coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the franchise, and Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure; Series 19 began airing that same year. Eventually, in 2006, thirteen episodes were released straight to DVD in two collections: On Site with Thomas and Thomas' Trusty Friends. The Great Discovery aired on June 5 and 6, 2010. The CGI animation for the series was provided by Nitrogen Studios of Vancouver. [4] The first was in 1953, when the editor of the Railway Series books, Eric Marriott, was approached by the BBC, who wished to use live-action model trains to re-create two stories from Awdry's first book, The Three Railway Engines. The Britt Allcroft Company (which changed its name to Gullane Entertainment in 2000) was purchased by HiT Entertainment in September 2002,[20][21] a company specialising in children's entertainment. Only one original story ("Rusty to the Rescue", written by Allcroft and Mitton) was used, but this took certain elements of plot and dialogue from Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine. One new aspect was the introduction of live-action host segments to Thomas' home video releases. In 2020, the streaming rights were sold to Netflix, with traditional television rights (if any) left unresolved.