Thomas & Friends (originally known as Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends and later Thomas the Tank Engine and Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures!) is a British children's television series created by Reverend W. Awdry and Britt Allcroft that aired across 24 series between 1984 and 2021. Based on The Railway Series books by Awdry and later his son Christopher Awdry, it follows the adventures of Thomas, an anthropomorphised steam locomotive on the fictional North Western Railway on the Island of Sodor, and other engines including Edward, Henry, Gordon, and James. The series grew to include additional locomotives and other vehicles, all of which work for the Fat Controller who wants his trains to be "really useful engines". In the United States, it had its first broadcasting with the spin-off series Shining Time Station on PBS in 1989.
The series also had a short-lived sister series called Tugs in 1989.
The rights to the series are currently owned by HIT Entertainment (a subsidiary of Mattel), having acquired Gullane Entertainment in July 2002. Mattel has announced a 2D-animated reboot, Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go, which premiered on September 13, 2021 on Cartoon Network. Originally announced as new series of the original show,[5] it was later designated a new show altogether by Mattel.
