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)[]

Character	Voice (TUGS)	Voice (SL)
Ten Cents	Simon Nash	Ian James Corlett
Big Stack (Big Mac)	Sean Barrett	Paul Dobson
Otis (O.J.)	Timothy Bateson	Ian James Corlett
Top Hat	John Baddeley	French Tickner
Warrior	Mike O'Malley	French Tickner
Hercules	Sean Barrett	Paul Dobson
Sunshine	Shaun Prendergast	Lenore Zann
Captain Star	Patrick Allen	Lenore Zann
Zorran	Chris Tulloch	Scott McNeil
Zebee	Sean Barrett	Ian James Corlett
Zak	Shaun Prendergast	Scott McNeil
Zug	Nigel Anthony	Scott McNeil
Zip	John Baddeley	Ian James Corlett
Captain Zero	Sean Barrett	Paul Dobson
Izzy Gomez	Sean Barrett	Paul Dobson
Grampus	Lee Cornes	French Tickner
Lillie Lightship	JoAnne Good	Lenore Zann
Bluenose	Mike O'Malley	Scott McNeil

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

Notes[]

Robert Cardona had gone overseas in March 1990 to set up a deal with American distributors to sell the rights to TUGS for broadcast in the U.S., which would've resulted in the original series being given a redub with American accented voice actors. A test dub was done for the first episode of the series, but due to the bankruptcy of TVS and lack of American interest in the series, no further episodes were dubbed. A U-Matic tape of the test dub is currently in the possession of the Star Tugs Trust, and has been shown on occasion under non-binding NDA to payers. More info can be seen here.
Many supporting and incidental characters were also repurposed, to fit particular Salty's Lighthouse stories:
- Izzy Gomez was given an American accent instead of a Mexican one (despite still having a few Mexican features).
- Sea Rogue was used as a villain who stole cargo, in contrast to the original where he was forced to steal them by criminal tugs.
- The scrap dealers, Burke and Blair, became movie producers named 'Mr. Boffo and Mr. Socko'.
- Two different characters, Coast Guard and the Coast Guard's Messenger, were merged into a single character named 'Cappy'.
- Johnny Cuba, a smuggler, was written as a friendly character named 'Steamer'.
- Nantucket went under the name 'Tramper', and also became a friendly character. Sometimes he appeared in speaking parts, and sometimes only communicated through a foghorn.
- Jack the Grappler became 'Scoop'.
- The Fultan Ferry was given a voice (despite not having a visible face or megaphone), and was confirmed as a male character. He also went under the name 'Fultan' by Grampus.
- The Quarry Master gained the name 'Stoney'.
- Puffa was mostly referred to as "The Train". In one episode, however, he was briefly referred as 'Chooch'.