Shark Bytes

Shadi, The song "city of New Orleans" is sung by Arlo Guthrie of "Alice's Resteruant" fame.

The show jumped the shark when Stacy got the short hair-do in season 3. The stories also from that point on were not as good as before.

I was a George Carlin fan back in the day, and I never thought I would prefer Ringo in this role, but I did. His pleasant voice just went well with the role, plus he is British as were Thomas et al. Carlin just sounded like a run-of-the-mill narrator. Ruined it for me.

yeah, this show was cute, the Thomas Tank Engine stories were enjoyable, and Schemer was good comic relief. But I agreee that the Jukebox band was weird, the idea of little people in the radio/tv is funny.. but like how did they get there, and how did they survive with no food or anything?

"Charlton Heston hosted"? For one thing, there was no 'host', and Charlton Heston was never on this show.

Not to mention, there was NO episode between Starr and Carlin... they just moved from one to the other.

The only explanation of why Mr. Conductor is different is in a voiceover from one of the kids, which also explains why there's new kids around. I dunno what you're talking about...

i loved that show but i have a question...does anyone know who sings the song in the jingle jingle jingle episode? the song is city of new orleans.

i used to think this show was really cute and i love the irony that mr condutor was a former beatle and a foul mouthed comedian..i did not know who george carlin was at the time but i did recognize ringo..i thought it was a cute show and i still enjoy watching it with my nephew who loves thomas the tank engine.

l like all shining time station music

i like shining time station

I found episodes of this charming show on YouTube the other day and I've spent more hours than I should have just reliving happy childhood memories. I loved this show so much, and I still do! The show was endlessly interesting and never talked down to children, always introducing new ideas and concepts while teaching good life lessons along the way. It had everything; cute train stories, clever plots, occasional neat old-timey cartoons, hilarious puppets, and of course, a benevolent little magic man. I remember once when I was perhaps five years old, my mom tried to explain to me that Mr. Conductor was really Beatle Ringo, but of course at the time, I had no sense of what that meant. It wasn't until several years later that I made the connection. I just knew that I loved Ringo as Mr. Conductor. His gentle Liverpudlian voice was ideally suited to the role, I think, and I still prefer it when he does the narration. I continued to love the show even when George Carlin replaced Ringo, but honestly... I didn't like George Carlin. He did a good job narrating the Thomas stories because his character voices were amusing, but his Mr. Conductor always seemed too harsh, and not as laid-back and sweet as Ringo was. Then again, I may just be biased because of my innate Beatle-love, which was probably inspired by this show to begin with. I won't say the show jumped the shark... it just changed along the way.

Am I the only one who got disturbed wondering why the Jukebox band was never able to leave the Jukebox- and how they had to perform before the rolling coin reached its mark? Did unseen characters bring them food? Did they ever go to the bathroom or were there unseen chamber pots? Did Mr. Conductor know about them? Did Didi the singer (and only girl) get any kind of privacy? Why had they been imprisoned and why did none of them ever attempt to escape? All these questions churning in my mind made the whole show too disturbing for me to watch!

wish that shining time station was styill on tv

Personally, I liked the change to Carlin. Ringo Starr was too much of anobvious choice, and I could never really adjust to aBeatle growing up and doing this. Carlin, on the other hand, if frickin genius. I mean come on, Carlin working on a PBS kids show? Tell me that's not a delicious change, and for me at least, it worked very well

When Charlton Heston hosted. It was the show between Ringo and Carlin; President Moses came on and explained why Ringo was gone. I don't remember the words 'alcoholism', 'cocaine', or 'Beatles' coming up, but maybe something like, 'second', or 'amendment'. Then, the next show, Carlin was the host. Keep in mind, this didn't stop me from sleeping in and watching children's television. I wish everybody could write sitcoms and comic strips.

When Ringo Starr was replaced by George Carlin as Mr. Conductor. George Carlin? What were they thinking? Although he managed to keep it clean, he never managed to keep the patronizing and condescending tone out of his voice. Children get enough of being "talked down to" in real life. They don't need it from children's television.