Thomas & 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 eighth series of the show, which was first broadcast in 2004. This series was narrated by Michael Angelis for the U.K. audiences, while Michael Brandon narrated the episodes for the U.S. audiences.
Production
Starting with this series, Thomas & Friends broadcast in the United Statesfor the first time as a whole television program. It had first appeared as sequences from the American television showShining Time Station from 1989 to 1995. For the eighth series, Steve Asquith, after 20 years as a crew member, took over as director from David Mitton, who had directed the show since its first series, and Simon Spencer became the producer. In addition, Robert Hartshorne and Ed Welch and Peter Lurye took over as composers and songwriters after Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell departed. Paul Larson and Abi Grant were the script editors for this series. This was the first series to introduce a new opening and closing credits, plus a brief description of the Island of Sodor before each episode began. Also starting with this series, the length of the episodes were increased to seven minutes from the original four-and-a-half minutes. The series was produced using digital video cameras, which created a somewhat different look for the show. There was also a subtle shift towards the use of CGI elements, provided by HiT Entertainment's subsidiary HOT Animation, although filming remained at Shepperton Studios. For the U.S. broadcasts, other changes include the additions of CGI sequences in mini-segments between episodes, transition effects, and a book opening intro section. This series was also the first series that saw the use of The Steam Team, the centralised cast of eight characters including Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy, Toby and Emily.
30-minute episode version
This is an episode format that includes 2 episodes of Season 8 and a short episode from Season 7 in the middle of the airing. In addition, it also includes educational segments and additional songs.
