Series 4



The fourth season of Thomas & Friends first aired on television in March 1996 in the UK. It aired between 1995 and 1996 on Shining Time Station and Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales in the US. All twenty-six episodes were narrated by Michael Angelis in the UK and George Carlin in the US.

Production
The fourth series saw the introduction of the smaller narrow gauge engines. For ease of filming, Season 5 would introduce larger-scale versions of the characters, and from seasons 6-12, these larger models were used almost exclusively.

Half of the third season consisted of stories written by the show's staff, but only one original story, Rusty to the Rescue was written by Allcroft and Mitton 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 the fifth season onward, all stories would be staff-written, without using the Awdrys' books as a source until the twentieth season which would later finally introduce the Arlesdale Railway. The characters would then be led by their television personas and no longer by their storybook roots.

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 fictionalised Bluebell Railway or as a visitor helping out on the Fat Controller's railway.

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Edward
 * Henry
 * Gordon
 * James
 * Percy
 * Toby
 * Duck
 * Donald and Douglas
 * Oliver
 * Bill and Ben
 * Daisy
 * BoCo
 * Mavis
 * Annie and Clarabel
 * Toad
 * Harold
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * The Little Boys
 * Jeremiah Jobling
 * Jem Cole
 * Farmer Trotter
 * Diesel
 * Bertie
 * Henrietta
 * Terence
 * Trevor
 * Bulgy
 * Big Mickey
 * Stephen Hatt
 * Mrs. Kyndley
 * The Vicar of Wellsworth
 * Farmer Finney
 * Harold's Pilots ​
 * One Member of the Railway Society
 * The Ffarquhar Stationmaster's Wife
 * Bridget Hatt
 * The Stone-dropping Boys
 * The Storyteller
 * Coast Guard
 * Izzy Gomez ​

Characters Introduced

 * Stepney
 * Skarloey
 * Rheneas
 * Sir Handel
 * Peter Sam
 * Duncan
 * Duke
 * Smudger
 * Rusty
 * S.C. Ruffey
 * George
 * Caroline
 * Bulstrode
 * Refreshment Lady
 * Nancy
 * Tom Tipper
 * The Inspector with the Bowler Hat
 * The Portly Man
 * The Crovan's Gate Policeman
 * The Dryaw Policeman
 * The Important Passenger
 * The Elsbridge Cricket Club
 * The Painter
 * The Tailor
 * The Railway Board
 * Class 40
 * The Queen
 * The Elephant Keeper
 * Other Mid Sodor Railway Engines
 * The Dukes of Sodor

Trivia

 * This was the first season of several things:
 * The first season to feature the Skarloey and Mid Sodor Railways.
 * The first season to feature Callan and The Misty Valley Branch Line.
 * The first season not to end with a Christmas-themed episode and the first not to feature a Christmas-themed episode.
 * The first season to add the Proteus 1 to compose the music.
 * The first season to have episodes released on more than one VHS before airing on TV.
 * The first season where Bertie doesn't speak in any of his appearances.
 * The first season to feature a television series-exclusive engine, with that being Smudger.
 * The first season to premiere on Cartoon Network in the UK.
 * The first season where Bill and Ben, Diesel, Harold, Terence, Trevor and Farmer Finney all appear in only one episode each.
 * The first season dubbed by Mike Erander.
 * The first season not to feature Bridget Hatt.
 * This was also the final season of a few things:
 * The last production to feature stories based on The Railway Series until The Adventure Begins, and therefore the last to have Wilbert Awdry as a technical consultant.
 * The last season up until the twentieth season to feature episodes based on the stories from the Railway Series.
 * George Carlin's last season as narrator. Alec Baldwin would assume the role from the fifth - sixth seasons.
 * The last production to introduce Railway Series-exclusive characters into the television series until King of the Railway, and the last to introduce a non-standard gauge railway (and engines thereof) from the Railway Series until Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure.
 * The last season shown on Shining Time Station.
 * The last season released completely on VHS in New Zealand.
 * The last season dubbed in Ukrainian until the seventeenth season.
 * The last season dubbed in Finnish until the eighth season.
 * The last season to feature Daisy in an episode until the nineteenth season.
 * With a number of 24 out of 26 episodes, Season 4 holds the most episodes released directly to home video before TV, with the exceptions of Rusty to the Rescue and Thomas and Stepney as they aired on TV in the US on January 7th, 1995 on the Shining Time Station special Once Upon a Time before released on VHS. Although all the UK narrations were released on VHS before airing on TV.
 * The first eleven episodes of this season, from Granpuff to Special Funnel have Michael Angelis' narration recorded in dobey.
 * The last fifteen episodes of this season, from Steam Roller to Mind that Bike have Michael Angelis' narration recorded back to normal.
 * This season contained the 100th episode of the television series, which was Thomas and the Special Letter.
 * This is the only season dubbed by The Family Channel Studios.
 * To date, this season introduced the most new characters out of any other season to date.
 * Thomas appears in 23 episodes in this season, more than any other season in the Classic Series, but still less than most of the seasons outside the Classic Series.
 * Oddly, a significant amount of sound effects and music are missing in the US versions of most fourth season episodes, a notable example being Rusty Helps Peter Sam, which misses almost all the music in the first half of the episode. The episode also excludes most of Peter Sam's whistles, and adds an unusual high pitched whistle when he cries for help after his accident.
 * This season is unique as the first fifteen episodes focused primarily on the Skarloey Railway engines.
 * All Chinese narrations from this season credit George Carlin as the narrator and all Norwegian/Hindi narrations credit Michael Angelis, even though the episodes were redubbed.
 * In the Ukrainian narration, Michael Angelis' voice can still be heard in the background.

Staffel 4 Temporada 4 העונה הרביעית 第4シーズン Seria 4 第4季