Salty's Lighthouse

Salty's Lighthouse was a series for young children, produced by Sunbow Entertainment and TLC in 1997 to 1998 in association with the Bank Street College of Education in New York. 40 episodes were produced in the series, running from October 3, 1997 to June 26, 1998 on TLC

The show centered on a young boy named Salty, as he played and learned with his friends in a magical lighthouse. As well as the animated adventures of Salty and his friends, the series used live-action footage from the British children's television series TUGS for various segments.

Background
TUGS was a British children's television series first broadcast in 1989, created by Thomas & Friends producers Robert D. Cardona and David Mitton, and produced by Tugs Ltd., for Television South (TVS) and Clearwater Features Ltd. Set in the Roaring Twenties, the series deals with the adventures of two anthropomorphized tugboat fleets, the Star Fleet and the Z-Stacks, who compete against each other in the fictional Bigg City Port. Due to the bankruptcy of Television South, the series did not continue production past 13 episodes, never airing in the United States.

Sunbow saw fit to use the series' animation as a part of Salty's Lighthouse, licensing the use of the footage from Robert Cardona: however, they repurposed the footage drastically to suit the needs of Salty's Lighthouse - a programme intended for the preschool American market. Instead, the existing footage was re-edited and dubbed into newly-written stories, relating to the moral lesson of the episode it featured in.

Along with the newly created stories, various changes were made to the characters featured in them. The characters of Sunshine, Captain Star, and Little Ditcher were made female, presumably to appeal to a wider audience of children. The American accents of the new voice-over replaced a range of British accents from the original characters. Some character names were also changed, usually to avoid confusion with others of the same name. The characters who are renamed have their original name (which is painted on the side of their bow) censored in black. Of the main characters: Big Mac became 'Big Stack', O.J. became 'Otis', and Zebedee became 'Zeebee' (this was likely a mispronunciation due to his nameplate not being censored). Bigg City Port also became 'Snugboat Harbor'.

Cast (TUGS Segments)
Additional Voices
 * Paul Dobson - Sea Rogue, Billy Shoepack, Mr. Socko, Mr. Boffo, Cappy, Old Rusty, Scoop, The Train
 * Ian James Corlett - Lord Stinker, Frank, Eddie
 * Scott McNeil - Boomer, Fultan Ferry
 * French Tickner - Steamer, Scuttlebutt Pete
 * Lenore Zann - Little Ditcher, Sally Seaplane