The TUGS Iceberg Explained - Thomas's Sister Series

[Music] if you're watching this video you've most likely seen this or one of the many iceberg explanation projects across this website they explain various mysteries oddities and rumors specific to the topic or franchise that the video covers this video talks about the sister series to thomas the tank engine titled tugs this short-lived british children's program holds much more than what appears on the surface only running for 13 episodes this show's production was extremely chaotic and its fans have remained passionate about uncovering what never made it to the public eye if you want to learn more about this show i strongly suggest viewing it first this video won't make much sense if you haven't already the entire series is available free to watch on youtube hello for those who need a quick explanation of the show here it is the tub boat for its size is the most powerful craft afloat and captain star and his tugs are the power behind the docks and waterways that make up the big city [Music] this is talks [Music] tugs run time was changed several times throughout production originally the episodes were meant to be 30 minutes in length after it was decided that kids attention spans would not last that long the run time was shortened to 20 minutes this remained for quite some time during production but had to be yet again changed when the series came to air on television the episode's length were finally shaved down to a mere 15 minutes half the time of what was originally intended the series aired in 1989 with this 15 minute run time however due to financial constraints in the year prior four episodes had to be released early on vhs in order to provide extra revenue that was crucial at the time these episodes were sunshine pirate regatta and munitions they were released before the 15-minute cut time meaning these are the only episodes to have full 20-minute cuts released other episodes were filmed to 20 minutes and even perhaps edited but that's another topic on its own [Music] [Music] after production on tugs ended some of the assets were liquidated brit alcroft who at the time was producing thomas and friends purchased some of the models used on the show implementing them into the sets of thomas characters such as big mickey ss vienna izzy gomez and others had their models repurposed and character identity removed [Music] salty's lighthouse was an american cartoon series for young children first airing on television in 1997. it consisted of mainly animated characters the footage from tugs was used for the show being heavily edited and redubbed for a younger audience characters names were changed storylines were changed and footage was often reversed or mirrored to suit the needs of the story what did the mayonnaise say to the refrigerator i give up close the door i'm dressing salty's lighthouse is often shunned in the tugs community of fans in the show's credits they only credit one of tug's producers robert cardona [Music] while filming the first season of tugs creator david mitten found the large port set difficult to film in he said in an interview that season two was planned to be mainly focused around the upriver locations as those sets were more flexible and easier to film in tugs never continued past season one this was never expanded upon besides a few hints near the end of the first season [Music] tapping into the first article of this iceberg with the multiple cuts of each episode regatta is the main focus in this entry this episode features a scene where the naval submarine grampus is about to be blown up by a navy destroyer ship when the star tugs come to his rescue due to the vhs version of this episode being released early some parts were left unfinished in this version of the episode the naval destroyer does not speak however later on in the televised version of the episode the destroyer does speak as the episode had been finalized for airing [Music] if the modern navy is gonna be like him i'd be better off down with the fishes [Music] why are they parading out here they're going to be in the line of fire stay clear [Music] thank you very much [Music] fishes are they blinding out here they're gonna be in the line of fire stay clear [Music] thank you very much [Music] tugs story takes place over the course of one year the canonical order of the episodes was mostly lost when the 15-minute cuts were made it also didn't help that they were all aired out of order the episode munitions was aired fifth in the series and the episode high tide was aired seventh however in the 20-minute vhs version of munitions key plot points are revealed that actually show munitions comes much later in the series such as the repairing of a collapsed railway bridge and the mention of a steel contract well said 10 cents he's a pain enough the way he moves his head about i'd say he's a pain in the neck that's right go to the canal pick up mighty mo they finish the work on the bridge take him home all right good they made him more big mac thanks for winning us the steel contract that's okay you pick up the last girder box then back here the zed stacks were upriver the episode munitions is often considered the darkest episode of the series carelessness from several characters result in the naval yard's fiery destruction after dangerous loads of munitions and explosives are detonated the largest crane character in the series big mickey is caught in the middle of the fire and his dock collapses he rolls over and sinks and in the vhs version not much else is said about him i was too close for comfort it took real skin to make that move he saved us all for sure in the televised version however the narrator states and lying in shallow water saved big mickey from both power and explosion [Music] this leaves the implication that he survived most fans believed this as he appears in high tide alive and speaking however as discussed previously high tide doesn't actually come after munitions and given that much of the overarching story was lost in the 20-minute cuts others choose to believe that big mickey did die in munitions the topic is still frequently debated among fans today [Music] [Music] during the show's production in order to save money several models were modified to have multiple characters attached to them one of those models was bluenose being switched to c rogue the model was swapped between the two characters so many times that the crew changed the name on the stern of the model to schizoid a nod to schizophrenia and wrote which tug am i on the forward deck in the episode jinxed the character 10 cents experiences troubles with his whistle causing things to go wrong a scene in the episode features him blowing his whistle with his friend's sunshine trying to prove a point it is believed that in the original version of this scene a close-up shot of 10 census whistle would be used only two images of this large-scale prop exist footage of it was confirmed to exist after a promotional vhs tape was shown to a limited audience at a fan event in the uk the prop was never used in any other part of the series yeah see it boomer i think we might have solved the problem and we want to try something go on 10 cents do it bloor twice [Music] yeah well that was a stupid exercise sunshine no it wasn't 10 cents [Music] in the episode up river a warehouse was seen blown up near the end of the run time upriver was aired as the 12th episode on television however in big freeze aired 13th and last this warehouse can be seen in the water's reflection as the same smoldering husk it was in the previous episode [Music] seen throughout the background of the series at lucky's yard was a new tugboat being built this was meant to be the diesel tug seemingly starting out as a wooden frame in sunshine and pirate then as a red oxide hull with various combinations of tarps over the top and eventually the bear hull without tarps possibly denoting that the main deck was finished and no longer needed protecting in regatta a large petrol engine can be seen as one of the barge loads at lucky's almost certainly being intended for the next stage in the new tugs construction diesel's overarching story was scrapped however but it leaves an interesting remnant regatta was originally supposed to be much earlier in the series chronology and zorin is the one coordinating operations at lucky's when the engine is delivered after the first few episodes his character softens considerably from the outright mafia menace he is in sunshine so it could be that seeing his own obsolescence being delivered in front of him could have taken some of his edge off putting him in the same boat as the stars if you will [Music] seen in the episode jinxed is a green buoy floating in the middle of the harbor with the word wreck painted on it it is meant to signify that there is a wrecked vessel obstruction resting beneath the surface at that very spot however as a joke among the crew the buoy was given a drunken hungover look in order to signify a different meaning of the word wreck [Music] referring to the re-shooting of the first episode sunshine the color of the namesake character's handrails actually helped identify the production order of some episodes in the series the simplified timeline goes as follows the original white sunshine in the first shooting is weathered with brass handrails the repainted yellow sunshine for jinxed has white handrails the final white sunshine in the shooting is cleaned with white handrails the final yellow sunshine has yellow [Music] [Applause] handrails the tugs publicity packet was created as a pitch document to help sell the show to possible investors inside the packet contained behind the scenes photographs character bios and a brief description of the series it also contained images of deleted scenes and promotional art otherwise seen nowhere else [Music] a character that saw very little screen time throughout the show was sally seaplane one of the few female characters she only had one speaking role in the 20-minute vhs version of sunshine she is seen in regatta and also mentioned in the episode high winds however in the picture book version of that episode she is seen being towed in by the tug warrior given that the book was based on the original 20-minute cut of the episode it is very likely that she would have appeared and spoken in the original version as well [Music] it implies that tugs had all 13 episodes shot some edited to 20 minutes with the four 15-minute cuts of the vhs episodes being exclusive to the broadcast on television it is important to note that these 15-minute cuts never saw a home video release in english [Music] after the unfortunate passing of the show's creator david minton in 2008 an associate of his was given 96 scripts for future planned episodes of tugs that never saw the light of day roughly seven seasons worth of content it is unknown as to what any of these scripts contain as the owner has chosen not to publicly share the contents [Music] in the first episode of the series the tugboat sunshine is introduced as a newcomer to the starfleet his smokestack features a unique logo in the shape of a sun with an s standing for sun vans have conjured up theories that the s may stand for salvage thinking that he had been sold from the salvage fleet up river this however is not true and only remains a theory although it should be noted that sunshine is referred to an orphan tug in the 1989 tugs annual due to his singularity this weekend on children's itv right now here is magic movie magic [Music] hello you lot my name is gaz top and this is lee international studios at shefferton come with me and i'll tell you a little bit about it [Music] for the television program titled movie magic the network itv time tease produced a behind-the-scenes segment on tugs they showcased the set for upriver at shepparton studios how the models were produced the camera system and interviewed many personalities who worked on the show such as david mitten robert cardona and chris talak this footage was thought to have also been lost at time however it was uploaded on youtube at the end of 2018 by the star switcher one point of interest in this program was the first official release of the instrumental version of the show's main theme [Music] like the case with sea rogue and bluenose several other models were reused and repurposed throughout the show the pirates from the episode pirate had their models remade into the scrap dealer's birkin blair for the episode's quarantine and ghosts [Music] [Music] the old docks as a location appeared more than once throughout the show in the canonical order high winds came first they were used by johnny cuba in order to hide himself from the authorities later on in the episode warrior these same docks are seen demolished in order to make way for new ones however in munitions characters consistently refer to a location known as the old dock this is in fact separate from the plural old docks seen in other episodes most fans thought that the character c rogue's only appearance was in the episode pirate this however is not technically true on the back of a finnish vhs tape this image can be seen it is used alongside their description of the episode pirate the image however is not from pirate it is instead from big freeze the overall tone matches the ambience of big freeze more than it does pirate and the upriver setting can also be seen in the background additionally it is the only publicly known still to feature sea rogue in the altered liver he wears today with the larger nameplate and white handrails it is likely that sea rogue's role would have been informing the fire chief of two other characters zip and zug's actions part of this interaction can be seen in the final 15 minute cut that's our property what do you think you were up to i'm just trying to clear it for you yes yes that's not what i heard you're coming with me [Music] this entry refers to not the character but the model of big mickey itself appearing consistently from series three to five of thomas and friends after series six big mickey suddenly sported numerous modifications altered cabin proportions a square platform instead of a circular one the list goes on after closer examination of the prop when it was purchased by the tugs exhibition in 2018 it transpired that it was actually an entirely different model to the original seemingly completely scratch built with no original tugs parts used to the point where the unused faces intended for him no longer fit at all this entry refers to the portion of the big city port set where the ocean liners are usually docked at only briefly seen in the background of some shots there are numbers attached to each of the three liner terminals seen in the first episode of the series the star tugs have the contract to dock the ocean liner duchess this is the only episode that the duchess was featured however in the original 20 or 30 minute cut of the episode jinx which is canonically the second episode of the series the contract is continued and they are seen docking the ship once more only one known photograph exists of this scene [Music] in the very early stages of production the episodes were originally planned to be 30 minutes in length only one episode was confirmed to be filmed to this length the second jinxed however it was apparently edited before the decision to cut down to 20 was made which implies that the episode being filmed concurrently sunshine was still being done to 30 at that point although likely was not completed there are rumors of others existing but they are nothing more than just that rumors [Music] the naval tug blue nose is constantly seen throughout the series with a gray hull to match the rest of his paintwork there exists one behind the scenes photo of several tugs sitting on a workbench during production in this photo blue nose has a black hull [Music] this entry is derived from a line that was included in the original version of regatta or alternatively titled 4th july in a photograph taken of the script it can be seen on the first page that lily lightship refers to hercules as delicious hercules it is unknown what other changes this original script features as the owners have not come forth to show the script in its entirety [Music] this entry refers to the fact that the ocean liner duchess was actually docked three times production-wise it was docked once in the episode sunshine again in jinxed and for a third time when re-shooting some scenes of sunshine [Music] in the episode high tide the tugboat zach is confirmed to be having serious problems with his engine as hinted at prior in the series his associate zebedee warns him that his problems may cause him trouble but zach does not listen zebedee then inexplicably loses control without any reason given and then crashes his barge into the railway bridge it is thought that zack was originally meant to be the one to lose control but the crew members on set simply forgot and made zebedee the one to hit the bridge by mistake [Music] during production of the film thomas and the magic railroad several models from the series that had been purchased by brit alcroft were shipped to toronto ontario for a shooting of the model scenes unfortunately due to poor handling and mistreatment many of them arrived completely destroyed per various sources they had been shipped in cardboard boxes known casualties of this were the coast guard fulton fairy izzy gomez and big mickey which explains his complete reconstruction in season six of thomas [Music] this entry originates from the 1987 staff christmas party that was held by production members quoting a member of the sodor island form site several joke face props were made to attach to some models for a laugh the star tugs 10 cents in sunshine wore faces that resembled the likenesses of creator david mitten and robert cardona the zed stack tug zorin wore a face which resembled the united states president ronald reagan the star tugs exhibition owns photographs of these faces but these have never surfaced online the model of 10 cents has had its name plates swapped multiple times throughout the production of the series the font of specific letters in his name changed initially being slightly wonky during pre-production and the first episode filmed jinxed note the ends in particular in the second episode film sunshine the nameplate gained more consistent and blockier lettering however during regatta it was stained by the fire tug's colored dye spray it kept the stained nameplate throughout the series to the episode ghosts then being replaced by the third plate which it kept to the end of the series during post-production this was replaced with the fourth and final nameplate which featured some errors in the font [Music] famous british actor brian blest had allegedly recorded a dub of the tugs episode trapped the episode was shortened to have a seven minute run time there exists a few extra lines of dialogue between the tug's sunshine and billy shoe pack but not much else is known about this dub other than that is owned by the preservation group tugs the exhibition [Music] the startups exhibition owns another version of the episode trapped featuring temporary sound effects and narration this version of the episode features an extra line of dialogue spoken by the tug big mac not used in the final home video and televised releases tugs was primarily only seen in the united kingdom however there exists a test dub of one episode for american audiences the first episode sunshine it has been shown to limited audiences at fan events the us dub never got off the ground in terms of success and testimonies mentioned that the tug warrior had a voice similar to that of goofy owned by walt disney the vhs tape containing the only known copy of the dub is also in possession of tugs the exhibition as far as we know they have no plans to show it additionally there were two to three other episodes dubbed for testing however sunshine's dub is the only one that is known to have a surviving copy [Music] known for many years as the goods engine by fans there was a steam locomotive that appeared in the episode high tide it did not speak but its identity was unknown for decades in 2020 it was revealed that the engine's real name is little owl this was discovered in a shooting index that tugs the exhibition owns [Music] tugs only had one ocean liner model they could use three different liners were needed in the series the prop was modified and redecorated to suit the look of each individual liner the third and final liner that appears in the series ss vienna was supposedly painted and modified early the only episode she officially appears in is the final episode big freeze however she can be spotted in the opening theme and the episode sunshine and high tide the shots she appeared in were miscellaneous b-roll filmed that could be used in any episode to quote fill the gaps in run time as described earlier sunshine and jinxed were the only episodes to be filmed to the original 30 minute length it is theorized that pirate was partially filmed for 30 minutes but cut down to 20 halfway through production the main clue being that the entire first scene of the episode actually recycles footage from later implying that the episode had a different introduction to begin with supported by zip and zuck appearing deliberately and unusually weathered without explanation there is a model which looks similar to sally seaplane known as phoenix it was actually originally intended as set dressing for the seaplane hanger before sally existed as a character it is privately owned and went on display at the tug's 25th anniversary event in 2014 after phoenix's wheel strut was damaged by a member of the exhibition the private owner retired it from touring wanting to fill the exhibition's sudden seaplane-shaped hull the group started a fundraiser to pay for a commissioned replica of sally made by the original model maker the campaign was successful and the model was built criticism from fans rolled in fairly quickly however as the replica's facial features look nothing like that of the one seen on screen the reasoning for this was because the model maker had been provided no reference material in order to make it [Music] this is another step deeper in the runtime saga all of tugs's episodes were originally going to be 30 minutes long not just the pilot the publicity pack model boats magazine and even a passing mentioned in the 1994 mipcom catalog states that the series consists of half hour episodes and in the latter is classed as 13 by 30. presumably all of the first scripts were written with this length in mind according to the copyright on the publicity pack this was the plan as far back as 1985. additionally the 1985 mythcom catalog corrects this to 13 by 20 but lists the series as new and broadcast only this is in fact the pitch for the us dub imagine getting all of the 20 minute cuts but at the cost of warrior literally being goofy [Music] knowing that several future seasons were planned well in advance some face masks for the characters had been altered or repainted for the series the most prominent example of this is grampus's clenched face in season one it can be seen showing clenched teeth however when the faces were discovered for sale on ebay in 2012 it was apparent that his face mask had been repainted to feature an open mouth [Music] when fans inquired to tugs the exhibition about behind the scenes material members of the organization claimed that they couldn't talk about anything to do with the tugs publicly due to non-disclosure agreements that they had signed however these agreements didn't have anything to do with the actual tugs crew members they were made by a member of the organization themselves additionally the nda was broken every time an event was held as event tickets were sold publicly making the materials public viewing so it became void from the start assuming it was even legally notarized to begin with [Music] the big city port website was one of the first tugs online hubs created where fans of the show could discuss theories and memories of the series the site featured lists of the episodes merchandise photo books and buzz books only four buzz books were ever released however the website had a fifth story listed simply titled sunk no copies of sunk have ever been located and its authenticity cannot be confirmed [Music] the episode jinxed had its run time cut in half and therefore a good deal of content was lost one scene it featured the tugboat boomer ramming into the steamer izzy gomez sending the tramper careening into a warehouse causing it to explode while tug's tencents and sunshine watch in horror this scene was used in the promotional sizzle reel owned by the star tugs exhibition but it has never been shown publicly [Music] in the story regatta the navy submarine grampus is purchased by captain star and becomes a part of the starfleet despite this he is never seen with other members of the starfleet during briefings or other meetings this led many to wonder if he was actually a member of the starfleet it wasn't until a fan with a very keen eye spotted the flag that grampus flies during the series it is actually the maritime flag for the number eight this would make sense as he was the newest member of the starfleet following the tug sunshine that was being numbered 7. strangely this flag can be seen in the first episode before he had been purchased when the first episode sunshine was cut down from 30 minutes to 20 some extra scenes and content was lost a single shot of one of these scenes was repurposed in the cut down version of the episode while 10th cents is looking for sunshine this shot appears the shot is mostly obstructed by fog and not much can be made out however it can be made out that 10 cents is towing a barge attached to his starboard side as a tow line can clearly be seen this shot only lasts for a few seconds in the episode and only one other scene is known to exist from this deleted subplot it is this one appearing in the opening credits of the first two vhs releases and briefly in the episode as well despite appearing it is only used as stock footage the shot is said to appear in the promotional sizzle reel and goes on uninterrupted for a full two minutes with 10 cents appearing from the left with a barge the original script for the episode has never been shown publicly either so it is unconfirmed what the subplot may have contained however it can speculatively be pieced together based on some of the other hanging plot threads sunshine's dismissal happens without 10 cents present to defend him as sunshine is under the mistaken impression that 10 cents will never forgive him implying the two hadn't crossed paths since the incident very likely 10 cents was absent whilst making this late night delivery additionally lilly's scene with hercules was a late addition done during reshoots with hercules originally returning to port alongside the duchess and top hat in a near identical setup to the shot mentioned before except when 10 cents pulls up he no longer has his barge this is likely when he finds out about the dismissal from top hat not to mention hercules finding out about both that and the duchess incident itself [Music] the episode jinx had its run time cut in half being originally filmed to 30 minutes remember that photo of black hole bluenose after some extensive dinging and hypothesizing it was determined that bluno sported this livery in the episode jinxed and jinxed only he had to be converted into c rogue for the filming of pirate and then back into bluno's for regatta and munitions where his hull was inexplicably changed to a grey color it is believed that this appearance of bluenose was meant to serve as a proper introduction for him as his other appearances are written assuming that the viewer already has prior knowledge of him [Music] in relation to the last entry the first episode sunshine also had a considerable amount of content removed when cut down from a 30 minute run time in the original version of the story the tugs zorin and zip were supposed to run the tug big mac aground on the mud banks this was later changed to zip and zuck in the final cut the other star tugs eventually get concerned as to where big mac had gone and 10 cents asked sally seaplane to go and search for him the majority of this plot remains intact in the final cut except for the search with sally some of the footage is repurposed and the dialogue is changed to suit the needs of the rewritten story this is easy to spot as 10 cents has worried looks on his face when speaking to sally originally meant to convey concern as he informs her of big mac's disappearance the dialogue in place of this has a completely different tone in which the facial expressions don't match [Music] hello ten cents who's your new friend sunshine meet sally she's our seaflame hello sally thanks for the fuel fellas yeah we can't wait around though sally this afternoon the duchess is coming in if we finish early we can watch okay bye fellas see you then one clip of sally's search from the original version was reused for the opening theme the flyby she does over the docking [Music] episode 2 was an extremely early draft script created when the show was still in its writing stages it was replaced very early on as there are several subplots which don't string together very well while the script has never been shown publicly the plot is known the episode would introduce a new character in a new location neither of which appeared nor are mentioned at any point in the final series if you want to read the plot of this episode it's available on the tugs wiki i'll provide a link in the description [Music] the theme song for the series was discovered to have a full and extended variant after a content leak took place in mid-2020 the full version goes on for around five minutes and has only been found in the promotional sizzle reel vhs tape which is owned by the star tugs exhibition recreations of it can be found on soundcloud though the clear original audio has never been uploaded [Music] a story named railhead that revolves around the tugboat's top hat and hercules was cancelled for unknown reasons not much is known about its contents or many of the characters feature however the main rail head prop itself was used as set dressing throughout the series most notably seen here in the town of mittsville after tugs was cancelled the prop continued to be used on thomas and friends and even survived much later as it was spotted at the drayton manor theme park's thomas exhibition the prop has not been seen since the layout was first being constructed and it is presumably in storage the episode high winds was completely rewritten and had its plot changed entirely during production it was originally meant to focus on the character hercules where he was supposed to toe in three damaged ocean liners at once during rough weather not much is known about this episode as the crews deemed it too difficult to film so [Music] when the episodes of the series were cut down to 15 minutes they were edited so that they could be viewed in almost any order the original 20-minute versions featured a solid continuity giving the episodes a designated viewing order but the contradictory revisions and retcons between the two versions means that they cannot co-exist in the same continuity for instance did big mickey die or not and if not what's the deal with that crane and ghosts [Music] though never seen in the episode it is presumed that a star tug briefing would have taken place in an uncut version of the episode trapped the briefing is hinted at in the storybook adaption of the episode where the tugboat top hat claims that he warned captain starr of trouble taking place later on in that day as two rival fleets working together could only lead to mishaps [Music] the series finale episode big freeze originally took place in the port itself and not upriver giving it the title of big city freeze the storybook adaption of this episode maintains this original name this entry will be touched on later in the iceberg despite being referred to as tug's day this event took place over the single weekend of june 22nd to 23rd of 1990. visitors who attended were allowed to ride along in tugboats around the docks of gloucester england including the show's director's own personal tugboat named kenneth which had been painted into the starfleet colors on display were several models of the tugs from the show including 10 cents big mac top hat sunshine and zorin near the end of the event the tugs wore their surprised face masks to represent being afraid of going back into storage this explains why some of the tug models were discovered with their shocked faces in 2012 this was also reportedly the last time the tophat model was seen [Music] in the tugs publicity packet there were brief descriptions of the tugs listed each usually with a defining character tree big mac is said to be highly superstitious this is most prominently featured in the episode ghosts when he is terrified at the sight of the white fleet of tugs it appears that this trait could have also featured much more in an uncut version of the episode jinxed in which the tug boomer consistently faces bad luck big mac witnesses several of boomer's incidents only having one thing to say in regards to him in the final cut anything's possible with boomer he really is jinxed [Music] ever since the gomez incident became known about fans wondered if there was any trace of it left in the series harking back to the other burnt out warehouse in the series the remains of the munitions factory blown up in upriver and glimpsed in the background of big freeze eagle-eyed fans set out to look for anything similar the hollowed-out warehouse seen in pirate is believed to be a match sporting a very similar burnt out look only one mystery remains what did it look like before sugar ray is a cut character from the canceled episode only known as episode 2 which was mentioned earlier sugar ray was supposed to be a rainbow-colored barge who worked at the sugar beet factory it is said that he would have had a friendly personality but not much else is known about him as he never made it past the writing stages like the rest of the episode [Music] [Music] i quote from the tugs wiki snatcher was a mysterious manifestation that occurred in the original uncut version of the episode ghosts while the tugboat oj was steaming through the inlet he sees a crane with a ghostly and horrific looking face called snatcher then within a blink o.j finds that the face has disappeared it would have used big mickey's quote corpse as his remains were moved to the crane inlet after his fateful act in the episode munitions oj sees the ghost of big mickey possibly due to the guilt that he possesses from being partially to blame for the accident in munitions in the original 20-minute version of the episode he isn't seen committing any wrongdoing however the original cuts ending narration places equal blame on bluno's 10 cents and oj it is unknown how he would have contributed to this after literally just sitting there it's likely something to do with the marker buoys that he was heavily foreshadowed twice to be laying in the area this part of the story was cut out for the shorter run time [Music] continuing from the episode ghosts the tugs continue to experience various supernatural events that take place these vary from a ghostly white fleet of tugs to a frozen galleon that's accompanied by the face of the roman god neptune the smartest tug of the group hercules is able to debunk every rumor and solve every mystery that the group had every mystery except for the face of neptune a crew member had confirmed in an interview on the solo island form site that neptune was supposed to return at some point in season 2. [Music] the episode quarantine probably suffered the most when being cut down to a minute run time it was originally two entirely different scripts oj's bad day and quarantine then later being combined into one episode this was actually the very first episode cut down to 15 minutes directly from a finish 20 less being hit harder by the cuts than the others the main clue being several jarring edits and voice lines out of place as unlike the other revisions no new material was recorded to smooth the cuts the cranes had already got their grapples onto her 10 cents tried to explain what had happened to the fire chief however this isn't the only episode to be combined from two scripts regatta's other half was 4th of july the former about grandpas in the navy with an extended subplot about warrior of which the garbage day scene is actually the climax not the start and the latter about lily it's known that the same is true for high tide and railhead munitions and naval maneuvers and high winds and its original three-liner draft quote hercules um [Music] this is the deepest level of the runtime running gag on here the first 10 episodes of the series are original stories from the first season that take place in the big city port taking place within one year as per the original marketing material the remaining three trapped up river and big freeze were not originally written for the first series trap notably begins with peculiar emphasis on and this year it was especially important that we work together they were meant to tie into the second series that was supposed to have a much larger focus on the upriver locations additionally whilst all episodes are known to have been filmed to at least 20 minutes with the first 10 episodes being edited to that length the date on trapped's 15-minute work print coincides with barely a week's gap to when big freeze was finished being filmed this means that it was likely the first episode to not have a 20 minute edit in any form with neither upriver nor big freeze being edited to 20 either this means that not only can those three be classed as their own series but the coincidental shift in production means they also officially have different run times season two obviously never came to be in its entirety but you could say we did technically see the beginning of it brit alcroft creator of thomas and friends which was tugs sister series had tried to sue david mitten and his associates brit was furious at the idea of tugs alone and based her lawsuit upon the tug's eye mechanism design david minton however was the one who had created this unique design in the first place brit was unsuccessful her patent only covered vehicles with grey faces and the tugs were flesh toned [Music] old jimbo is a paddle steamer tug that was only seen in concept drawings some fans have speculated that he may have served as inspiration for oj though the two look somewhat different the initials for their names are the same as oj's name stands for old jones [Music] once tugs saw a commercial release in japan video stores offered rental vhs tapes of the series with four episodes on each tape instead of just one these tapes were often placed in the windows at the front of the store being harshly bleached by sunlight it has since been excruciatingly hard to find any non-faded japanese vhs tapes available for sale even when they are otherwise in good condition [Music] in the episode regatta lily the light ship is struck by a rogue steamer on her port side this causes a massive gash to appear before she sinks the naval submarine grampus voluntarily blocks any more water from getting into her hull before she is later rescued in previous episodes we never see lily from her port side and only the starboard it is presumed that the gash was on the prop itself up until when she was repaired in regatta [Applause] [Music] the black stacks is the original name for the rival tug fleet zero marine as revealed in the episode two script as a pun on black hat mafia gangs originally they were to have smoke stacks painted with several white lightning bolts up the sides their nickname of zed stacks referred not to zero but the literal zigzags on their stacks the name and livery were changed due to both the potentially racist implications and the extreme unfitting 80sness of the go faster stripes respectively [Music] only seen in a few behind-the-scenes images there existed a model of a white steam yacht it was never seen in any episodes nor storybook adaptions it is unknown if it would ever serve a specific purpose in the series and the location of the model is also unknown [Music] in the episode jinxed boomer never actually featured a whistle sound unlike most of the other tugboats however in the promotional sizzle reel tape people have speculated that his whistle was actually used in part of the video this could be a temporary sound effect as the sizzle reel was created very early in production in order to draw in investors it is also stated in the storybook adaption of the episode that boomer sounds off his whistle [Music] in munitions the starfleet is working the munitions contract captain star reminds his tugs to use the official entry when delivering their barge loads it is never clarified where the official entry is and it isn't even mentioned again after it's very likely that it had more of a focus in the original 30-minute full version of the episode [Music] first seen in the background of the episode jinxed the tugboat zug appears in the distance of several shots with the barge lord stinker continuity was usually one of tug's strongest features in the early drafts of the episodes it's been speculated that these two characters could have had a connection and possible falling out in early versions of the stories with the barge then being passed on and assigned to other tugs such as warrior and top hat if this duo only appeared in one shot this entry would most likely be not on the list however due to the fact that they appear together more than once it has led fans to believe that there's more than what meets the eye here [Music] [Music] tugs had a considerable amount of merchandise released including two annuals one in 1989 and another in 1990. the first annual contained pen portraits of characters and several short stories as well as activities the second annual consisted mostly of short stories and activities with less photographs from the actual show this entry is particularly focused on the 1990 annual two of the short stories featured are quarantine and naval maneuvers both of these stories feature passages that are either very close or identical to dialogue heard in the episodes it has also been theorized that other short stories told in these annuals were actually adaptations of unused scripts that would have been used later in the television series however this is only speculation and has never been confirmed the tugboat top hat is many fans favorite character and for good reason he has a humorous posh attitude and is always very correct in the way he operates however top hat has an underlying character arc that was not fully revealed in the television series in the canonical order of the show where high tide comes before munitions there seems to be a progression of tension between tophat and the other star tugs as they continuously grow more fed up with him and his attitude take sunshine's responses to him as an example you know to be fair to him he does work as hard as we do really we know it's just his attitude gets too much sometimes we've just about enough of top hats insults he's more troubled and he's worse hi and you said that wasn't very much didn't get 10 cents the episode that follows munitions in this order is quarantine which as mentioned before was two scripts combined into one as it turns out the original oj's bad day script was adapted into a storybook in this storybook several original plot points are shown that cannot be found in the televised cut-up version of the story when the scrap merchants burke and blair initially come to see captain star about wanting him to sell o.j for scrap top hat can be seen in every illustration with his mouth open in protest though he is never seen here in the final episode it can be assumed that this is where he would be redeemed and the payoff to that building ark would take place it is possible that his scene with warrior and pirate would have come somewhere in the middle of this serving as more than just a moment of comic relief but actually as a more humanizing moment for his character note how despite his front of frustration he can't suppress a playful granite warrior in the episode munitions captain starr very clearly states that the star tugs jobs for that day are to deliver barge loads of munitions to the naval yard for loading onto the tramper krakatoa however immediately after he assigns the tugs different and unrelated jobs the only one implied to be available is big mac presumably to pick up the munitions however he never actually appears at the naval yard or indeed for the rest of the episode at all the only star there is oj who is apparently just laying the buoys we never see munitions being delivered later on only the explosives delivered by the zed stacks though not being seen in every episode it has been theorized by fans that captain zero was meant to have a much larger role in the series he had three briefings in the episode sunshine and one in pirate he was definitely meant to have more in jinxed he appears without speaking was mentioned multiple times in regatta trapped and according to the photo books he appears at the start and end of high winds and is mentioned in warrior does this larger role reveal itself more in the original scripts it's common knowledge in the tugs fandom that the tug zak had the least amount of character development in the show out of all of the zed stacked tugs however this isn't saying that the show's creators didn't have plans for him in promotional material he is described wanting to take over the fleet from zorin if given half the chance this aspect of his limited character only ever comes into play once mockingly calling zorin sir in munitions no silly games okay you don't have to be that brave okay sharon sir and watch out for the naval twerp blue nose the fact that this tidbit was important enough to be featured in his bio suggests that they were planning on actually making much more use of it in the future the munitions factory scene in munitions begins with unrelated stock footage from high tide and then a shot of zorin inexplicably in a completely different position to the rest of the scene something was hurriedly patched out for time there and there's a surprisingly obvious clue as to what that is the model of bluenose went through many changes throughout production as previously stated it was changed between the characters of bluenose and sea rogue in order to suit the needs of each episode munitions required the model to represent bluno's and it was seen in that form throughout the episode however specific scenes were shot at different times notably the zed stacks explosives delivery and it's possible that the model of bluno's was actually in the form of c-rogue when these certain scenes were filmed c-rogue features a specific logo on his smokestack one that recurs throughout the series most notably featured on the munitions factory itself considering that at the end of pirate it's stated he lives upriver and that the factory is also specifically stated to be upriver interestingly the first canonical appearance of that location in the series as if they needed it specifically it is certain that he worked there at some point presumably his eye patch is a result of an unfortunate mishap in his line of work the original version of big freeze named big city freeze was the original episode 11 of the show big freeze is clearly the finale of the series but it originally had much more to it footage from big city freeze was used in the opening theme of the series and several episodes as well only a select few shots are known to have been filmed and the crews obviously didn't want their hard work gone to waste as the shots appear quite frequently there also exists several photos which don't fit in with any of the other winter episodes in the series it could have been argued that these were shot for b-roll however b-roll shots were rarely used for publicity it's rumored that these photos were connected to the original plot of the two-parter finale for the series [Music] the diesel tug was a character meant to be introduced at the end of the first season he can be seen being built in lucky's yard throughout the course of the show he was meant to pose as the main threat to all of the steam-powered tugs meant to replace them just as the steam tugs had replaced the sailing boats the series took place over the course of a year possibly leading up to a plot proving that the diesel tugs were unreliable when faced with the cold winter weather as a season finale thus giving the steam tugs a chance once more [Music] oh and just one more thing daiso's actual bases it's the hc jefferson built in 1937. now you might think that's an accidental anachronism except that the white yachts basis is also from the 1930s in fact so are some of the automobiles parked on the docksides have you ever wondered why for a series supposedly in a boom time there are so many derelict buildings old docks and abandoned warehouses and quote haven't been used for years why in treasure hunt is there so little business that the stars are having to literally beg the zeros for the smallest contracts they're not in the boom they're in the depression there's more why is the vienna in the mauritania's hospital ship livery to the point of getting her accurate post-war livery and thomas why does the navy have such an active presence anyway when were bluenose's new ships built why did they need a full-scale destroyer why is a u-boat spy trying to enter the port what are all the munitions for [Music] and that is it thank you very much for watching this video has been in production for months now um definitely the biggest task that i've ever taken on for youtube i hope you learned a couple things maybe you learned a lot maybe you were an expert and you didn't learn anything but either way i hope you enjoyed the video and have a great day everyone [Music] you

Channel: EN2

Views: 216,977

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Id: 3qZrrJHfDYg

Length: 70min 53sec (4253 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 27 2021