Thomas & Friends (series 4)
| Thomas & Friends (season 4) | |
|---|---|
DVD cover art
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| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Release | |
| Original network | Cartoon Network |
| Original release | 10 September 1994 – 30 May 1995 |
| Season chronology | |
Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends is a children's television series about the engines and other characters working on the railways of the Island of Sodor, and is based on The Railway Series books written by the Rev. W. Awdry.
This article lists and details episodes from the fourth series of the show, which was broadcast in 1994 and 1995. This series was narrated by Michael Angelis for the U.K. audiences, with George Carlin narrating the episodes for the U.S. audiences on Shining Time Station, which was also his last series. This was also the final season where Thomas only appeared in the U.S. as a segment on Shining Time Station, after that it became a program on Mister Moose's Fun Time and Storytime With Thomas.
Some episodes in this series have two titles: the original ones from the U.K. broadcasts are shown on top, while the American-adapted titles are shown underneath. It was produced by Britt Allcroft (Thomas) Limited.
The 4th series saw the introduction of the smaller narrow gauge engines. For ease of filming, series 5 would introduce larger-scale versions of the characters, and from series 6-7, these larger models were used almost exclusively.
Half of the third series consisted of stories written by the show's staff, but only one original story, "Rusty to the Rescue" (written by Allcroft and Mitton), was written for the fourth series. The episodes which used The Railway Series did take some liberties with the source material, in order to fill the runtime and make the stories more accessible. From series 5 onward, all stories would be staff-written, without using the Awdrys' books as a source.
Stepney, a character based on a real-life engine and used to highlight the preservation movement in the books, was given an entirely different background when he was introduced. This decision carried on into later series, in which he was seen on either a fictionalized Bluebell Railway or as a member of The Fat Controller's railway.
The show had come under fire for having too few female characters, and a conscious decision was made to rewrite Rusty, who was always a male character in the books, as gender-neutral.Thomas' new owners, initially defended the decision, citing Rusty's gender neutrality since Series 4, later releases of the same episode substituted male pronouns in reference to Rusty.
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