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About Thomas
and Friends episodes-
Each episode consists of a five-minute (seasons
1-7) or seven-minute (season 8 onwards) story,
told by a narrator.
The series is made using live-action models,
seen at the time of first production as the most
effective way of realising the stories without the
cost and expense of conventional animation. The
locomotives and other vehicles move, but people
and animals are generally static.Stop-motion is
generally used for instances in which a human or
animal character is seen to move. In recent
seasons computer graphics have been used between
episodes.
The use of a narrator removes the need to make
characters' mouths move when they speak. However,
their eyes do move by use of remote controlled
mechanisms. The characters' faces are sculpted
from foam rubber. Each character has several
different faces to convey different emotions.
The models were initially built to a scale of
10 millimetres to the foot. They ran on 37mm track
unlike Normal G Gauge 43 mm Gauge 1 locos. They
used chassis made by Marlin with specially made
bodies. As well as the eye mechanisms, these
bodies also include smoke generators. Coaches and
trucks were made using Tenmille kits. Models were
later constructed entirely from scratch.
From Season 5 onwards, some larger scale models
were used for the narrow gauge characters
(bluebell railway), in order to make it easier to
fit the complex mechanisms into them while
retaining a sufficient level of detail. In Season
6, the characters known as "the Pack"
(construction machines) were also constructed to a
large scale, and large models of Thomas and Percy
were made to interact with them.
Season
listings
The series was first broadcast in 1984 on ITV
in the United Kingdom. It was shown throughout the
late eighties and into the early 90s when it was
taken off the terrestrial UK network following
broadcast of the third series. Between 1994 and
2003, Thomas was never shown on terrestrial UK
networks, although did make a comeback on
satellite through Cartoon Network in the mid 1990s
and lasted until 2001, which was 5 seasons, and
then Nick Jr in 2001/2002, where it has remained
since and become a popular fixture, even
stretching to their involvement with Gullane and
HIT Entertainment on recent series of the popular
children's series.
Thomas also made a comeback on ITV in January
2003 with its sixth series of five minute stories.
The sixth and seventh series were shown in their
entirety in 2003/4. The eighth series was
broadcast in 2005, but only 13 episodes were
aired, possibly on account of the new format for
the programme; it wasn't until July 2006 that the
remaining 13 episodes were broadcast. Due to a new
agreement between ITV and the Programming
Authority which allowed them to cut their
children's TV output in mid 2005, Channel 5 bought
the rights to the series, with the ninth series
broadcasting on the channel from 10 October, 2006
Thomas & Friends was debuted in the
United States on Shining Time Station in 1989. In
1989, Thomas and Friends was shown in North
America, in a television series called Shining
Time Station which was broadcast on PBS.
Storytime with Thomas is another American
spinoff that aired in 1999 on the Fox Family
Channel. Today, Thomas and Friends is
broadcast in more than twenty languages around the
world. In 2000 Thomas moved to the big screen,
with the release of Thomas and the Magic
Railroad. However, the film was not a success.
The Thomas and Friends stories were five
minutes long. The first two series showed two
episodes at a time, with a show of the characters
in the middle. It changed to one at a time in
series three. In each series until series eight,
the number of trains on the railway increases as
the railway expands.
In 2004, the series began using computer
animated special effects and the story length
changed from five to seven minutes. A half-hour
show format was also adopted, showing three
episodes plus puzzles, songs, and mini stories. |
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