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Season 7 of Thomas & Friends is the last season of what fans refer to as the "Classic Era" of the TV series as it was the last season to feature many of the original crew such as producer Britt Allcroft, series director David Mitton, and composers Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell. The next season features a new crew including producer Simon Spencer, director Stephen Asquith, and composer Robert Hartshorne, and would be produced by HiT Entertainment who acquired the brand shortly after Season 7 finished production. Season 7 episodes are narrated by Michael Angelis in the UK dub and Michael Brandon in the US dub, with Brandon replacing Alec Baldwin, the narrator of Seasons 5 and 6.
Beginning in 2004, a half-hour format of the show aired on PBS Kids in the US, Treehouse TV in Canada, and Nick Jr. in the UK and Ireland. For this format in Season 8, one Season 7 episode is shown between two Season 8 episodes. For Season 9, one Season 7 (Season 6 for six of these airings) episode is shown between two Season 9 episodes. For these releases of Season 6 and 7 episodes, the original music composed by O'Donnell and Campbell is replaced with music composed by Robert Hartshorne. The episodes are also re-narrated by Angelis in the UK and Brandon in the US.
Availability[]
The "New Friends for Thomas and Other Adventures" DVD/VHS released in the US in early 2004 contains two Season 6 episodes and four Season 7 episodes narrated by Angelis. They also retain the original music composed by O'Donnell and Campbell. The "Thomas and the Jet Engine and Other Adventures" DVD/VHS released later in the same country and year contains three Season 7 episodes narrated by Brandon, but with the original music composed by O'Donnell and Campbell.
Trivia[]
- Season 7 was the first season after season 2 of Thomas & Friends to originally have the same narrator in both British and American English dubs before Michael Brandon started narrating the US dub of season 8 and re-dubbing season 7 shortly after the first DVD release.
- The rest of this dub for season 7 most probably only aired on Canadian TV stations and never got home releases.
- Michael Angelis only re-dubbed 2 season 6 episodes related to characters fans call "The Pack" in the US to keep the narration consistent for the first VHS/DVD release of season 7. It is possible he narrated the original US dub of "Jack and the Sodor Construction Company" in the "Classic" format as well as the UK dub.