Thomas & Friends (originally known as Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends until series 7, and later Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures! from series 22 onwards) is a British children's television series that airs 24 series and 584 episodes from October 9, 1984 to January 20, 2021. Based on The Railway Series books by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son Christopher, the series is developed for television for Britt Allcroft. The series follows the adventures of Thomas, an anthropomorphised blue steam locomotive on the fictional North Western Railway on the Island of Sodor with his friends, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy and others who work for Sir Topham Hatt (aka The Fat Controller).
In the United States, it is first broadcast along with the spin-off series, Shining Time Station on PBS' PTV Park block in 1989. The rights to the series are currently owned by HiT Entertainment (a subsidiary of Mattel), which acquires Gullane Entertainment in July 2002.
A new 2D-animated series, Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go, premieres on September 13, 2021 on Cartoon Network.
All the DVDs are released in 2006 to 2008 from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
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