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The first series of Thomas & Friends started airing on 9th October 1984 in the UK. Ringo Starr narrated all twenty-six episodes in the UK and twenty-five in the US, with George Carlin later re-narrating the entire series for the US on Shining Time Station.
Production
Every episode in Series 1 was based on a story by the Rev. W. Awdry, including a one-off commissioned by the staff, Thomas' Christmas Party. The stories were adapted for television by Britt Allcroft and David Mitton. The seven engines introduced in this series became the core of the cast in later series. The Pilot for the series was an adaptation of Down the Mine, which was remade entirely when the rest of the episodes were shot.
The Pilot
| Screenshot | Title | Original UK release date | Episode number # |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Down the Mine (Unaired Pilot) | Unaired (Test Screened Mid-1983) | #00 |
| The original 1983 pilot episode of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. The pilot was based on the Railway Series story Down the Mine and differed from the final aired version. The pilot was never broadcasted, instead it was re-filmed after the series was green-lighted by ITV. Only one scene from the pilot can be seen from the final version of episode. | |||
Episodes
(Note: * means that an episode was not narrated by Ringo Starr in the US and was only narrated by George Carlin in the US.)
| Screenshot | UK title (top) US title (bottom) |
Original UK release date | Episode number # |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Thomas and Gordon Thomas Gets Tricked |
9th October 1984 | #01 |
| Thomas enjoys teasing Gordon. But when his teasing goes too far, Gordon decides to teach him a lesson. | |||
 |
Edward and Gordon Edward Helps Out |
9th October 1984 | #02 |
| Edward's crew feel sorry for him and take him out one day. Then he helps Gordon when he gets stuck on a hill. | |||
 |
The Sad Story of Henry Come Out, Henry! |
16th October 1984 | #03 |
| Henry believes the rain will spoil his paintwork and he runs into a tunnel, in which he is eventually bricked up. | |||
 |
Edward, Gordon and Henry Henry to the Rescue |
16th October 1984 | #04 |
| Gordon goes too fast and bursts a safety valve right in front of the tunnel. Henry is let out to help Edward pull the train. | |||
 |
Thomas' Train A Big Day for Thomas |
23rd October 1984 | #05 |
| Thomas wishes he could pull a train. When Henry is ill, his chance comes with disastrous results. | |||
 |
Thomas and the Trucks Trouble for Thomas |
23rd October 1984 | #06 |
| Thomas and Edward agree to swap jobs. However, Edward's train consists of trucks/freight cars, which love to play tricks. | |||
 |
Thomas and the Breakdown Train Thomas Saves the Day |
30th October 1984 | #07 |
| When James comes off the rails, Thomas quickly comes to the rescue with the Breakdown Train. He is given a branch line and two coaches as a reward. | |||
 |
James and the Coaches James Learns a Lesson |
30th October 1984 | #08 |
| James wets the Fat Controller/Sir Topham Hatt's new top hat with steam and then bumps his coaches so hard that one of their brakes fail. | |||
 |
Troublesome Trucks Foolish Freight Cars |
6th November 1984 | #09 |
| James has been confined to the shed but is released to pull trucks/freight cars. The trucks/freight cars misbehave, but James does not give up. | |||
 |
James and the Express A Proud Day for James |
6th November 1984 | #10 |
| When Gordon is switched the wrong way and gets lost, James is given the Express. | |||
 |
Thomas and the Guard Thomas and the Conductor |
13th November 1984 | #11 |
| Thomas' impatience leads to him forgetting his guard/conductor. | |||
 |
Thomas Goes Fishing | 13th November 1984 | #12 |
| Thomas wants to go fishing but learns the hard way when he takes on river water. | |||
 |
Thomas, Terence and the Snow Terence the Tractor |
20th November 1984 | #13 |
| Thomas meets Terence the Tractor and says his wheels are ugly. However, Thomas is shown just how useful they are when he crashes into a snowdrift. | |||
 |
Thomas and Bertie Thomas and Bertie's Great Race |
20th November 1984 | #14 |
| Thomas meets Bertie the Bus who challenges him to a race. | |||
 |
Tenders and Turntables | 27th November 1984 | #15 |
| Gordon and James have trouble on the turntable. | |||
 |
Trouble in the Shed | 27th November 1984 | #16 |
| The big engines go on strike so the Fat Controller/Sir Topham Hatt buys a new engine called Percy to help. | |||
 |
Percy Runs Away | 4th December 1984 | #17 |
| Percy forgets Edward's warning about going on the main line and is so startled by Gordon that he runs away. | |||
 |
Coal Henry's Special Coal |
4th December 1984 | #18 |
| Henry is not feeling well. The Fat Controller/Sir Topham Hatt comes to a conclusion that Henry needs Welsh coal to preform well. | |||
 |
The Flying Kipper | 11th December 1984 | #19 |
| Henry is chosen to pull the "Flying Kipper". However, ice jams the points and snow forces down a signal, leading Henry to crash. | |||
 |
Whistles and Sneezes* | 11th December 1984 | #20 |
| Gordon's whistle jams and he cannot stop whistling while Henry sneezes at some troublemaking boys. | |||
 |
Toby and the Stout Gentleman Toby the Tram Engine |
18th December 1984 | #21 |
| Toby the Tram Engine and his coach, Henrietta, meet the Fat Controller/Sir Topham Hatt and his family on their holiday, but Toby's line slowly closes down. | |||
 |
Thomas in Trouble Thomas Breaks the Rules |
18th December 1984 | #22 |
| Thomas gets in trouble with a policeman. When the Fat Controller/Sir Topham Hatt hears about it, he buys Toby and Henrietta. | |||
 |
Dirty Objects James in a Mess |
25th December 1984 | #23 |
| Toby and Henrietta often get teased by James about their old-fashioned appearance. However, James crashes into some tar tanker wagons. | |||
 |
Off the Rails Gordon Takes a Dip |
8th January 1985 | #24 |
| Gordon decides to jam the turntable to prove a point, but his attempt makes him slide into a ditch. | |||
 |
Down the Mine | 8th January 1985 | #25 |
| Thomas goes to a lead mine to collect some trucks/cars but foolishly passes a danger board and falls down a mine. | |||
 |
Thomas' Christmas Party | 25th December 1984 | #26 |
| Thomas wants to hold a special Christmas party for Mrs. Kyndley. Unfortunately, Mrs. Kyndley's house is snowed in. | |||
Characters
Characters Introduced
- Thomas
- Edward
- Henry
- Gordon
- James
- Percy
- Toby
- Annie and Clarabel
- Henrietta
- Terence
- Bertie
- Sir Topham Hatt
- Mrs. Kyndley
- Stephen Hatt
- Bridget Hatt
- Engine Inspector
- The Little Boys
- The Ffarquhar Policeman
- The Butler
- The Stone-dropping Boys
- Jeremiah Jobling (not named)
- The Storyteller (not named)
- Lady Hatt (not named; does not speak)
- Percy's Workshop Friends (wheels and buffers only; does not speak)
- Märklin Engine (cameo)
- Farmer Finney (cameo)
- The Ffarquhar Stationmaster (cameo)
- Earnest (portrait cameo)
- The Green Bus (indirectly mentioned)
Trivia
- When the series was first broadcast on ITV in the United Kingdom, two episodes would be compiled into one ten minute block with a name board sequence featured in between. For subsequent broadcasts, the stories were shown individually.
- This series took roughly nine months to film.
- According to Ringo Starr, his narration for this series took eight days to record, including retakes for four episodes due to the tone of his voice.
- The Norwegian, Finnish, Slovenian and early Swedish narrations credit Ringo Starr as the narrator, even though they were re-dubbed in their respective languages.
- Most of the series' scripts were partially edited for the US versions.
- In the Ukrainian version, Ringo Starr's voice can be heard in the background.
- This was the only series for several things:
- The only series to have its UK recordings released in the US.
- The only series where lead was used to create the human characters. From the second to eleventh series, all human characters were made from resin, so they could move around more easily.
- The only series where the trucks have their faces embedded into their bodies. From the second to eleventh series, the trucks have molded faces, although some first series style trucks appeared in some of these episodes.
- The only model series not filmed at Shepperton Studios. Instead, it was filmed at Clapham Junction in Battersea.
- The only series to date dubbed in Slovak.
- The only series in the Finnish dub that Thomas was known as Thomas the Tank Engine.
- The first seven episodes of this series were all later remade in 2015 for the 45-minute special The Adventure Begins.
- When first broadcast on ITV, Dirty Objects was paired with Thomas' Christmas Party and Off the Rails with Down the Mine. On VHS however, Dirty Objects was paired with Off the Rails and Down the Mine with Thomas' Christmas Party.
- On CITV, this series was broadcasted again between 18th November-24th December 1985 as separate episodes.
Series 1 |
| #01 Thomas and Gordon | #10 James and the Express | #19 The Flying Kipper |
| #02 Edward and Gordon | #11 Thomas and the Guard | #20 Whistles and Sneezes |
| #03 The Sad Story of Henry | #12 Thomas Goes Fishing | #21 Toby and the Stout Gentleman |
| #04 Edward, Gordon and Henry | #13 Thomas, Terence and the Snow | #22 Thomas in Trouble |
| #05 Thomas' Train | #14 Thomas and Bertie | #23 Dirty Objects |
| #06 Thomas and the Trucks | #15 Tenders and Turntables | #24 Off the Rails |
| #07 Thomas and the Breakdown Train | #16 Trouble in the Shed | #25 Down the Mine |
| #08 James and the Coaches | #17 Percy Runs Away | #26 Thomas' Christmas Party |
| #09 Troublesome Trucks | #18 Coal | |