Thomas & Friends (series 3)


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 third series of the show, which was first broadcast in the United States in 1991 as part of Shining Time Station, and followed a year later in the United Kingdom. This series was narrated by Michael Angelis for the UK audiences, while George Carlin narrated the episodes for the US audiences.
Some episodes in this series have 1 title: the original from the American titles are shown underneath.
In the US, this season was aired from 18 November 1991 to 20 August 1993 on the PBS television network.
On episodes 1–16, the UK narration uses a different take on the TV broadcast compared to the VHS releases.

Production

Filming

Series 3 was produced in 1991 and 1992 by The Britt Allcroft Company in association with Japanese television station Fuji Television. It was divided into 2 parts, one part having 16 episodes and the other having 10. 16 episodes aired in the United States in 1991 as part of Shining Time Station, and the last 10 episodes aired on the same program in 1992. It was made at a cost of £1,300,000.
Before production of series 3, Clearwater Features closed down, with The Britt Allcroft Company becoming the sole producer. Producer Robert D. Cardona left before series 3, and Britt Allcroft took his place as co-producer alongside David Mitton.

Stories

The series was a combination of episodes derived from The Railway Series, stories in the Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends magazine, and a couple of original stories by Allcroft and Mitton. One of the primary reasons for diverging from the original books was that many of the stories not yet used featured large numbers of new characters, which would be expensive to produce. Another was that the producers wanted more stories about Thomas, the nominal main character. Awdry complained that the new stories would be unrealistic.

Episodes

Characters