Thomas the Tank Engine
Thomas's on-screen appearances in the TV series were developed by Britt Allcroft. The first series of 26 stories premiered in October 1984 on the ITV Network in the UK, with former Beatles drummer/vocalist Ringo Starr as storyteller. The stories were featured as segments as part of Shining Time Station in the US beginning in 1989 with Starr as the show's Mr. Conductor character. From 1991 to 1993, George Carlin replaced Starr as both the storyteller and as Mr. Conductor for Shining Time Station. Carlin also told the Thomas stories for Shining Time Station in 1995.
Towser
The series was later spawned into an animated television series narrated by Roy Kinnear and made by British animation studios King Rollo Films (best known for making well known animated works for children such as "King Rollo", "Mr Benn", "Spot" and "Horrid Henry") running for one season and 26 episodes. It was made in 1982 and aired on ITV as part of Children's ITV on 11 September 1984 and ending on 16 October on the same year (The episode Towser and the Flight also aired on 9 October 1984 on the same day when the first season of the original series of the British long running children's series "Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends" debuted). The series was also repeated on ITV in 1988 for a short while and aired one last time in August of that year as part of the summer morning programming on Children's ITV. Towser later aired on Channel 4 in 1990 and was later shown as part of their block of classic children's television series "Take 5" in 1994 along with other children's programmes that had previously aired on other networks such as "Paddington", "Mio Mao", "The Magic Roundabout", "Willo the Wisp", "Tales of the Riverbank", "Mr Men", "Fred Basset", "Ivor the Engine" and "Roobarb". It has also been broadcast on cable television on The Children's Channel and was shown there numerous of times since 1985 and kept airing until 1996.