Thomas & Friends and Franchise cleanup

Yeah. If they have enough info for their own page, go ahead.

On Trivia.Thomas And Friends

• Executive Meddling:
  • Thomas and the Magic Railroad got butchered thanks to Sony Pictures executives being ignorant. Specifically, the film was not received well by test-screen audiences, stating that the plot and main villain were too dark, despite the film being complete at that point. The end result was a mess riddled with plot holes that resulted in HIT Entertainment taking control when the film failed. Later, when HIT was planning on bringing Thomas back to the television screens in America, they chose PBS, whose educational stance forced the show to be retooled extensively from a show that could be enjoyed by both kids and adults alike with a subtle moral, to a show aimed at preschoolers with a blatant Aesop and writing that treats the audience like they're idiots.
  • For the first two seasons, it was mandated that all episodes had to be adapted from story material from The Railway Series. To get around this, the Awdrys were asked to write more volumes and standalone stories to be published specifically so the TV show could utilize them. This caused pressure for them however, as the TV series' popularity pushed them to write more stories based on the title character.

First example is really complainy and should be on Trivia.Thomas And The Magic Railroad instead with a rewrite. Funnily enough, that original cut that was so revered by fans ended up also being a "mess riddled with plot holes" too. Second example is fine.

Also, why does this example forget about Thomas being on PBS before the HiT buyout with Shining Time Station? Episodes weren't being meddled with back then to be more "educational". In reality, they were likely just trying to get back the slot that the show once had on PBS, where it had a historical precedent.

Edited by PlasmaPower on Nov 30th 2023 at 1:18:27 AM

Er...yeah. Rewrite the first, big time. Reminds me of the 4Kids Entertainment jabs and the clean-up thread for the company that I run.

YMMV.Thomas And Friends

• Win Back the Crowd:
  • See Author's Saving Throw above.
  • After Season 22 got mixed reception (with more negative than positive), Season 23 appears to be winning back some fans. The special Digs & Discoveries had plenty of people excited due to the fact that the Pack traveled with Thomas to Italy this time, meaning that they finally got more focus. Also, the Steam Team's renders were updated with rivets and handrails to make them look more realistic. Some episodes of Season 23 were were acclaimed by the fandom. "Heart Of Gold" makes Toby more competent and awesome, "Free The Roads" gives Bulgy some well-deserved focus, and "Chucklesome Trucks" features CGI remakes of "Percy Takes The Plunge" and "Dirty Objects". To top it off, this season doesn't have any animal-focused episodes, to the delight of the fandom.

First example is the most blatant ZCE possible for telling the reader to scroll above to an entry that no longer exists due to Author's Saving Throw requiring author conformation now.

Second one comes off as a knee jerk reaction in hindsight, as one season later, the show was cancelled due to low viewership and sales. So it clearly didn’t win back its crowd.

I have to write a Win Back the Crowd entry for seasons 17-21 headed by Andrew Brenner at some point.

Edited by PlasmaPower on Dec 2nd 2023 at 6:21:01 AM

Yeah, go ahead and delete.