The topic of this page has a wikia of it's own: TUGS wikia.
TUGS was a British children's television series broadcast in 1989. It was created by Robert D. Cardona and David Mitton, the producers of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.
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.
The series was set in the Roaring Twenties and produced by Tugs Ltd. for TVS and Clearwater Features. The music was composed by Junior Campbell and Mike O'Donnell, who also wrote the music for Thomas.
The Tyne Tees documentary Movie Magic followed Gaz Top at Shepperton Studios with a behind-the-scenes look at the episode "Up River" as well as feature films High Spirits and Erik the Viking.
Due to the bankruptcy of TVS, the series did not continue production past 13 episodes, and Clearwater Features was shut down on New Year's Eve 1990.
After TUGS was cancelled, various props were used in series 3 onwards of Thomas the Tank Engine. Some of props such as Big Mickey, some of the cranes, and SS.Vienna still appears in the CGI series.
In 2013 most of the original models, which were presumed to have been destroyed, were found and purchased by a group of fans. The only characters missing are Top Hat, Grampus and the Coast Guard. Their whereabouts are currently unknown. The models are on display in at the Midland Railway heritage railway in Butterley.