Wikia

TUGS

Genre	Children's
Running time	15 mins (9 episodes) 20 mins (4 episodes)
Creator(s)	Robert D. Cardona David Mitton
Starring	Patrick Allen Simon Nash Shaun Prendergast Sean Barrett Chris Tulloch Timothy Bateson John Baddeley
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original network/channel	ITV (UK) (1988-90) ABC (Australia) (1990)
Original run	September 1988- January 1989
No. of episodes	13
IMDb page

Tugs (stylized as TUGS) is a British children's television series of thirteen episodes first broadcast in 1988. It was created by two directors of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, Robert D. Cardona and David Mitton.

Tugs is about two anthropomorphised tug fleets, the Star Fleet and the Z-Stacks, who compete against each other in the fictional Bigg City Port during the 1920s. The Star Fleet are honourable and hard-working, while the Z-Stacks are underhanded and devious.

The series was noted for the high quality of its production, which used detailed live-action models (much like sister series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends).

TUGS Intro(01:01)
0 views
Added by TenCentstheTug

History

After two successful seasons of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, Robert D. Cardona and David Mitton decided to create a new television series - Tugs. The series was filmed at Shepperton Studios in 1988 using large scale models, much like its railway-based sister series. The boat models were mounted on an underwater trolley pulled with transparent strings. Remote control devices were used to power mechanisms within the models, such as the moving eyes.

Tugs first aired on Children's ITV in Britain, and then was later transmitted in several other contries including (but not necessarily limited to): New Zealand, Australia, Finland, Singapore, Brunel, France, and Japan. Afterwards, the rights to the series were sold, and have been scattered through out the years. Robert Cardona most likely owned all of the rights up until the late 90's, since he licensed the footage to be edited and re dubbed for Salty's Lighthouse.

The models and sets were sold to Britt Allcroft, whose new company used the models, (albeit heavily modified) for Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends from 1991 onwards. The switch from live-action models to CGI for the series ultimately ended the use of the models, but the crane Big Mickey continues to appear, even in CGI.

After TUGS, Robert Cardona emigrated to Canada to direct a similar series about tugboats called Theodore Tugboat. David Mitton continued to work on Thomas and Friends until he retired after the seventh series in 2003.

Episodes

Thirteen episodes of TUGS were made from 1987 through December 1988. They first aired on the British TV channel, The Children's ITV Network in 1988, and were later transmitted in several other countries.

See:List of episodes

*The TV versions of Sunshine, Pirate, Munitions, and Regatta differed from their VHS releases. On VHS, they had a duration of 20 minutes, while they were edited down to 15 minutes for their TV boradcats. This was most likely done because of timeslot issues. The other 9 episodes had identical TV/VHS versions (already being 15 minutes long, there was no need to shorten them for TV).

Major characters

The Star Fleet

See:Star Fleet

The Z-Stacks

See:Z-Stacks

The Major Locations in and Near Bigg City Port

For other minor locations see the articles Bigg City Port and Other Locations in TUGS

The Star Dock - the home of Captain Star's well-known and much-loved Star fleet. Appears in most episodes.
The Zero Dock - the home of Captain Zero's devious Z-Stack fleet. Appears in most episodes.
Lucky's Yard - this is where ships and tugs alike go to get repaired when they are damaged or in need of maintenance. Appears in most episodes.
Up River - former home of Sunshine, when he worked for the Salvage Fleet. Home to Billy Shoepack, Sea Rogue, his uncle and Boomer (as a houseboat). A logging industry is located along the river.
Dender Rocks - Large rocks near the estuary, home of Lillie Lightship, appears in many episodes.
Municipal Garbage Corporation - where Lord Stinker gets his garbage loads from, and the Jack the Grappler resides, appears in Regatta, Munitions, and Bigg freeze.
Liner dock: The tugs are often seen docking ocean liners in Bigg City's main dock. Both tug fleets are frequently competing for contracts from liners to bring them into port. The Princess Alice is frequently seen in the background of most scenes at the dock, although plenty of other liners pass through as well. In "Bigg Freeze", the main liner dock freezes up due to bad weather, and the dock is replaced with a temporary one further out at sea.

Cast

Unfortunately, the cast of Tugs was never credited. Some of their identities are still ambiguous. However, thanks to the diligent research of various members of online forums, several have been uncovered.

Patrick Allen as Captain Star (Narrator and Character)
Simon Nash as Ten Cents
Shaun Prendergast as Sunshine, Zak and Sea Rogue's Uncle
Chris Tulloch as Zorran
John Baddeley as Top Hat, Zip, Burke, Puffa, the Coast Guard's Messenger, the Quarry Master and the Shrimpers
Timothy Bateson as OJ, Big Mickey, Little Ditcher, Eddie, Lord Stinker and the Garbage Master
Nigel Anthony as Big Mac, Hercules, Zebedee, Sea Rogue, Frank and the Fire Tug
Sean Barrett as Warrior, Blair, Scuttlebutt Pete, Mighty Moe, Bluenose, Johnny Cuba, Jack the Grappler, the Green Eyed Pirates and Nantucket
Mike Mulloy as Captain Zero, Zug and Izzy Gomez
Lee Cornes as Grampus, Billy Shoepack, Boomer, the Coast Guard and the Fuel Depot
David Mitton as Old Rusty
Sue Glover as S.S. Vienna and Lillie Lightship

Hopefully, more will be discovered over time.

Music

Music was composed by Mike O' Donnell and Junior Campbell who also composed the music for Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. Pete Zorn played the saxophone in the theme. The outro of the episode, Bigg Freeze, features vocals by Sue Glover. There was some talk of releasing a full-length 3 minute single of the theme music which also would have been sung by Glover, although these plans weren't acted on due to Clearwater Features's bankruptcy.

Behind the Scenes

The Tugs set was built out of a large water tank, measuring 45ft. by 25ft. and with a depth of 14 inches. The complexity of building this tank is the reason why Tugs did not have a test pilot, unlike Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, in which one of the episodes, Down the Mine, was originally filmed as a test pilot before being reshot.

The water was 30 cm deep and was filled with blue/green dye to give it a more harbour-like appearance. David Mitton reportedly kept goldfish in the water and fed them every day until the toxicity of the tank killed them.

The models were built by DBP models. Originally, they were built to run on a motor, but these turned out to be too heavy for the models to move, so the models were built on a mounted chassis that was pulled by string.

The same set was used for most of the episodes: the scenery was changed to represent a different location.

To manouver the boats, change faces, work on the set, etc., crew members wore galoshes and bent down. According to model-maker Jeremy King, the constant bending down gave the crew cramps once production had ended!

The models were still onsite at Shepperton Studios until around the time David Mitton died. A liquidation company came in and removed them. According to Chris Lloyd, the crew-members were offered some of the models, but they had been in a container for a long time and were damaged. Eighteen original models of the show are now owned by the Star Tugs Trust.

According to a private interview in December 2012, the seller company of the face masks said, that after the production offices were cleared out, every single item came to them. They had several items about the 2nd season , but now all of them have been sold. They have gone to sellers to the UK,the USA and Australia.

Merchandise

Tugs merchandise was rather common in the early 1990s. Some of that merchandise includes:

ERTL Die-cast Models - Ten Cents and Sunshine are the only known models (although Ertl were to release all of the Star Tugs).
10 Photo Books - Different titles for the TV series such as Ghost Fleet (Ghosts), Warrior's Longest Day (Warrior) and Bigg City Freeze (Bigg Freeze). Quarantine, Munitions, and 4th of July never got photo book adaptations (none have been discovered).
1989 Annual
1990 Annual
A TUGS Board Game
TUGS Bed Sheets
Jigsaw Puzzles
Thimbles
Card Game
Buzz Books - "Kidnapped, Run Aground, Nothing to Declare and Treasure Hunt"
Publicity Pack
Activity Books
Bath books
TUGS Poster Magazine
Ten Cents bath toy (Japan-only)
Play kit (Japan-only)
Play set with Ten Cents and Sunshine (Japan-only)
Sunshine plush toy (Japan-only)
VHS Videos by Castle Vision and PolyGram Video (UK)

Sunshine/Pirate

Trapped/Ghosts/High Winds

Jinxed/Quarantine/Up River

Bigg Freeze/Warrior/High Tide

Munitions/4th of July

Trapped/Ghosts/High Winds/4th of July

Note on the Videos: The VHS versions of Sunshine, Pirate, Munitions, and 4th of July were 20 minutes long. They were edited to 15 minutes for the TV broadcasts, most likely for timeslot scheduling.

Read more about Tugs merchandise

Trivia

Captain Star (as the narrator), Ten Cents, Sunshine and Top Hat were the only characters who appear in every episode.
"Up River" is the only episode not to feature the Z-Stacks.
"4th of July" is the only episode to have an alternate title: "Regatta."
A second series was talked about, but (as of yet) nothing has been done.
Ghosts is the only episode to use cartoon animation.
On the Sunshine/Pirate and Munitions/4th of July video descriptions, Captain Star is incorrectly called 'Captain Starr' with two Rs (as in Ringo Starr).
The episodes; "Sunshine," "Pirate," "Munitions" and "4th of July" had 2 versions. The video versions were 20 minutes long and the TV versions were 15 minutes long.
The engines (such as Puffa) and the Tugs are of the same gauge as the Thomas the Tank Engine models
"Jinxed" and High Tide are the only episodes to use stock footage
Hercules is absent in "Trapped," "Jinxed," "Quarantine," "Up River," "High Tide" and "Warrior" - more than any other main character.
Big Mickey and S.S.Vienna are the only TUGS characters to appear in the CGI Thomas and Friends series.
S.S.Vienna was re-named the S.S.Roxstar in the Thomas and Friends episode 'Seeing the Sights.'
The whole Star Fleet were featured in "Sunshine," "Ghosts," "High Winds," "Bigg Freeze," "Munitions," and "Regatta,"
There is an American spin-off of TUGS called Salty's Lighthouse, in which characters had different voices, some had different names, and some male characters were changed to female. Most scenes were re-edited to create new plots.
A Campaign is underway at Sodor Island Forums to get TUGS onto DVD.
In an interview in April 2008, David Mitton revealed that a second series had been planned well in advance of the shooting/filming of the first series. Already, over 96 scripts had been written by Mitton himself and other writers with a regular 13 episodes to be produced. Most of the series would have been set 'up river' instead of the Bigg City Port setting, which Mitton considered restrictive and difficult to film in. As well as the same regular main cast, some new tugs would have been introduced. TVS going bankrupt ultimately halted the second series from being produced.