[it opens to the interior of an old abandoned cartoon lighthouse as Dustin & Blake entered as the dust blows around them]

Dustin: well here's the place Blake lucky i got this for a dirt cheap price :D

Blake: Dirt cheap is right; everything is so coated with dust.

[her tail hits the chest to move the dust off and some got in her nose]

Blake: Hah~ he-haaa~ heaaa~ Heyaaaaaa~ Kushu!!

Dustin: yeah the owner gave it to me because it's actually the same lighthouse from one of my favorite childhood shows as a kid Salty's Lighthouse :D

Blake: THE Salty's Lighthouse... lighthouse? Huh; age really can change a place, can't it?

Dustin: yeah the show stopped making new episodes since 1998 and stopped airing altogether in 2003 when TLC... changed it's image forever... [shakes in fear over the millions of crappy reality sitcoms]

Blake: I take it you bought the place because of the nostalgic bliss that Salty's Lighthouse gave you when you were young

Dustin: yeah even though most people don't like it for some reason i always find it a guilty pleasure for me to enjoy even after i've aged :)

Blake: While I never really grew up with Salty's Lighthouse, I was able to check out a few episodes. Some worked better for me than others, I'll admit ^//^

Dustin: yeah i mostly enjoyed those interesting Tugboat segments they got this weird Thomas feel to them and they're a little different from Theodore Tugboat too because those heads always moved

Blake: Well, there's a reason for the Thomas feel; you know that, right? :)

Dustin: hmm?

Blake: Well, before Salty's Lighthouse was, well, Salty's Lighthouse, the footage for the tugboat characters comes from a series called Tugs, co-created by Robert D Cardona, creator of Theodore Tugboat, and David Mitton, the director of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends

Dustin: wow really? i never knew that! hmm hey how's about we do a special duo Woodfox Talks & Rants episode about TUGS and Salty's Lighthouse together? :D

Blake: I'd like that :) Considering that I'm more familiar with Tugs, how about I talk about more of the aspects of that, while you discuss more of the aspects Salty's Lighthouse, which is more familiar to you

Dustin: very well let's begin :)

Dustin: our story begins after season 2 of Thomas aired back in 1986 there weren't any plans for a third season as of yet for Britt Allcroft and the Thomas crew at the time so around 1986 after she got a call from a man called Rick Siggelkow about bringing Thomas to America Britt went to the United States to help out with the show that would be Shining Time Station but the Thomas crew people such of David Mitton and Robert D. Cardona were left behind with nothing to do with no third Thomas season in the works yet what could they do?

Blake: They figured, why not try something else in the meantime? So, they started coming up with an idea for a series involving a different crew of sub-anthropomorphic machinery. That's when they came up with the idea to make characters out of Tugboats. So, Tugs was born

Dustin: the show took place in the 1920's in America about two rival fleets the Star Fleet and the Z Stacks or as it's normally called "Zed" Stacks and featured a variety of interesting characters from a submarine squirting water to a light ship with a Betty Boop esque face

Blake: To talk about the characters would take a while, considering that there are a lot of characters. But, here's how I would best sum up each of the Star Fleet. There are the switchers, a blue hatted Cockney accented cheeky yet loyal Ten Cents, and the smaller red capped and cheery Sunshine

Dustin: there's also a difference between Tugs & Thomas too for Thomas it was basically 4 and a half minutes long for every episode at the time for TUGS each episode can go from 15 to 20 minutes almost like an actual television episode as opposed to short ones there's also the tone while Thomas is mostly cheery and happy in TUGS there's a small bit of a dark tone to it like explosions, fires, evil gangs, something usually not fit for a kids show but it pulled it off impressively

Blake: Indeed. Also, what separated Thomas and Friends from Tugs was the fact that Tugs started out with a cast that had multiple voice actors as opposed to one voice providing narration and all the character voices.

Dustin: indeed and each of the voices do a very nice job too they're very impressive for their time though while this show was interesting the show unfortunately lasted only one season with 13 episodes there were plans for a second season as well as 96 episodes but they were scrapped shortly after the studio went bankrupt

Blake: True. Still, Tugs to me is a great series, and it continues to inspire me to this day :)

Dustin: yup afterwards the show became sort of a cult hit over the years however in 1997 Tugs was brought to America but unlike Thomas it was something of a different animal and that was Salty's Lighthouse created by Nina I. Hahn and produced by Sunbow Entertainment which the same studio also did the animated series The Tick the show was made as kind of a little Shining Time Station knock off in a way only with TUGS instead of Thomas but there are MAJOR differences between this and Shining Time Station i'll tell you that much

Blake: Yeah; for one thing, certain characters are portrayed as female rather than male; examples being Captain Star and Sunshine

Dustin: and certain names were changed around too such as Big Mac to Big Stack and O.J. to Otis a major part of the show is also mostly in animation instead of Live Action like Shining Time Station it's interesting to say the least but it works :)

Blake: For the most part. There are a few episodes of Salty's Lighthouse, especially the Tugs segments, that I enjoy. Most notably, because my favorite Tugs episode is High Tide, two episodes I enjoy are "It's Magic," and "Eight is Too Much." I'll admit, Ian James Corlett is an alright Lord Stinker, though I always respect the original Timothy Bateson voice for the grand garbage barge :)

Dustin: yup speaking of the voices they also go a few interesting choices for voice actors in the TUGS segments too some of which are anime dubs like Ranma 1/2 and other American projects

Blake: Indeed. Even the late great Long John Baldry, most notable for voicing Dr. Ivo Robotnik from the original Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon, voices as the character Top Hat

Dustin: anyways while i do enjoy this show as my own guilty pleasure other people are not big fans of Salty's Lighthouse mostly due to the fact that it's basically an over-edited TUGS in a way the TUGS segments are shortened to 5 minutes per 11 minute regular episode but sometimes the edits can be weird like there can be a daytime scene in a scene that's at night or a reversed scene can be noticable when smoke retreats back into a stack and one episode had Ten Cents pulling a big ferry back up to the surface using a small tow rope or if you wanna get "fourth wally" they sometimes make jokes using special effects like a reverse thing for an episode called "Backwards Day" yeah i can understand where people come from with this but the show has some good humor and i like it at times

Blake: I can respect that. While I am more of a Tugs fan, I can tolerate Salty's Lighthouse sometimes ^///^

Dustin: yeah overall TUGS is an interesting series while not my major favorite it does have it's fans and Salty's Lighthouse was always a guilty pleasure of mine so for TUGS i give it a solid 8 out of 10 and Salty's Lighthouse a nice 7.5

Blake: Indeed. For me, Tugs scores a 9 out of 10, while Salty's Lighthouse is at 6.5 to me.

Dustin: whew that was pretty good :) so how's about we get this lighthouse up-- [accidentally kicks a lantern onto a pile of hay causing it to burst into flames] and running?... O_O

Blake: Running is right; let's get out of here!

Dustin: good idea!

[they both make a run for it and they're seen watching the lighthouse go into flames]

Dustin: at least i still got the deposit maybe i'll use it to fund the Shining Time Station DVD's

Blake: Yeah. I think I have an appointment at Big City Port

Dustin: yeah see you next time guys

~skullz & Fuwa out