Best Episode of a Bad Era - Respect for Gordon
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
- *THIS VIDEO IS A RE-UPLOAD OF THE ORIGINAL posted on March 26, 2021.
In a rather unspecial era of Thomas & Friends, one episode manages to make use of the new run time and craft a pretty great story.
MUSIC:
/0:07 ♫ Engine Roll Call Instrumental - Robert Hartshorne & Ed Welch
/1:12, /9:15 ♫ Gordon's Theme Season 8 - Robert Hartshorne
/2:12 ♫ Pyxis - Home
/4:58 ♫ Come Back Down - Home
![[Vinesauce] Joel - Windows Vista Destruction](/img/1.gif)
I grew up watching the HIT Era episode blocks on PBS Kids. And while I liked those episodes back then, I could still tell there were major differences between them and the old episodes on my _Thomas_ vhs's and usually prefered them. I now realize how bad most of the HIT Era episodes were, and while I never saw this one until recently, it definitely stands out above them.
From what I remember, seasons 8-10 never aired on Sprout, but some people say they remember seeing them, so I guess there isn't a definitive answer
@@vincentbello3162 Maybe it was PBS Kids. I'll change it.
You missed out on my Era of Shining Time Station
Same here too, though I watched DVDs of the Classic Era.
The Hit era was so bad
There are a few other episodes that use that extra runtime at a mere perfect timing instead of padding it out like James the Second Best, Last Train for Christmas, Love Me Tender, Duck & the Slip Coaches, etc.
And also, it's no secret that Gordon, James and Duncan are handled well and have the best highlight episodes of the HiT era. Gordon's crash in RFG is fun to watch and the moral of respect is handled very well as it's one of the few times in Modern Thomas that's never played down to kids, because respect is something that indeed has to be earned. This should've been included on The Greatest Stories DVD instead of Birthday Picnic or Knows Best.
Respect for Gordon is hands down my favorite HIT era episode. Gordon is also one of the only few characters in this era to not be written as an idiotic child like Skarloey or Thomas, or written as just dumb like Edward, or Percy
Duncan and James were also good imo
@Aidnic low bar ofc looking back it's a godsend Duke didn't appear considering hit era really loved to mess up the old characters so no doubt would he have been butchered
@@LegendaryCaptain if you think that would be bad, just imagine how hit would've written the arlesdale trio if they appeared in the hit era.
@@LegendaryCaptain I feel like they had a better handling of those guys because they were already the most outwardly flawed characters. Though props for not making them as dumb as Percy and Skarloey.
Yeah, Skarloey had the biggest character assassination of anyone in the HiT era.
I grew up around the HiT era, but always gravitated towards the older episodes. I recently had a conversation with my mother about TTTE and she distinctly remembers the drop in quality, it really put her off the show, as a parent anyway
It’s a good thing an adult noticed, unlike my parents. All they could see was that everything from the classic series to the HiT model series was all the same, which was certainly not the case.
@@jordenfilmz I think part of her noticing is that she is a primary school teacher (5 year olds) but even as I kid I only seem to remember the golden years. The HiT era episodes never really stuck in my memory, despite probably watching them more often
@@jordanpeterson2001 that’s understandable and yeah, unlike the classic seasons, the hit era is full of repetitive stories that are just bland and really forgettable, I’m looking at the ones with Thomas’ name in the title.
My favorite line in this episode came from Gordon when he was being repaired: “Thank goodness for Emily and Henry. I’m sure they’re doing a very good job.” It just always stuck in my head hearing Gordon, who was always proud of pulling the express, acknowledging that Henry and Emily probably had as much pride in pulling it as he did.
Side note: On one of my previous rewatches of this video I noticed that you highlighted “Mighty Mac” as a hidden gem, and it made me love this video even more.
Mighty Mac and Respect For Gordon are some of my favorite episodes overall, and it’s nice to see others acknowledge that Mighty Mac was a good episode.
Yeah
Gordon doesn't just hold pride for himself for doing the job. He holds much pride for the honor of doing the job. It's something that's nicely consistent in all eras - he talks about how important the Express is way more than he brags about himself being important for pulling the Express.
Also Thomas And The Statue too. A rare case of bragging Thomas bothering the others
@@Thomasmemoryscentral did you know that some of the hit era episodes were on the sprout channel
Who ever came up with the idea of Respect for Gordon was a genius!
@@Thomasmemoryscentral "Oh please stop talking about the STATUE!" Snapped Percy. "No one wants to hear about it anymore! No one wants to talk to YOU any more! And neither, do I!' With that, Percy stormed off
So glad you brought it back. I respect your opinion on the HIT Era. I love the HIT models series because of the clean, shiny, bright models, the music, most of the episodes, etc.
You had me at 🎶Shiny!🎶
I mean they’re shiny, on,y when they’re polished. Take Spic And Span for example. When Gordon, James, and Emily became polished, they looked extremely clean after their wash down. But after they were covered in coal dust, they didn’t look clean and shiny anymore.
I’m glad the bulk of my Thomas memories consist of the classics. The reminder being the seasons 8-12, and Hiro of the Rails. Even when I was still a kid before outgrowing the show, I always preferred the classics over the hot era everyday. I still take the classics over every other era of the show
I’m surprised the hot era was considered a bad era, I guess that’s what happens when you grow up knowing the franchise more and learning about it’s source material, which is a very good thing obviously. By the way Nick, you are one of the many RUclipsrs here that helps keep Thomas to my heart. I might not like the franchise anymore, but all of the characters, morals, rolling stock, series 1-4, and the Brenner era I still love. Thank you Nick. I need to praise you sometime.
“Thomas and the Insert Object Name Here”, my favorite episode from Season “Who Gives a Crap They’re All The Same”
I’m honestly, surprisingly glad that Respect for Gordon didn’t end at the 4 minute 30 seconds minute mark. I say this because I felt that the message would’ve been rather poor.
Gordon was getting teased for something that was out of his control, he retorted by wanting a toot of respect, and then crashes but not without the engines coming in to make fun of him again.
Respect to supposed to be earned and not just given but considering the fact that Gordon was getting teased constantly, and just wanted to retort, it would’ve seemed to a young audience to not defend yourself against those who pick on you because karma will get you if you retort.
Gordon got true justice in the hit era
He's the God in this era as Edward was treated old and pathetic
They sacrificed a lot of jam but it was worth it for this awesome episode
You just changed my whole opinion on Respect for Gordon. I loved it, but now I LOVE IT EVEN MORE! Thanks a lot.
Respect for Gordon is definitely one of the better episodes from the HiT ERA.
Respect For Gordon is hands down my favorite season 9 episode. I remember being introduced to the episode in the nostalgic DVD and my favorite HIT DVD when I was a kid, Come Ride the Rails. I remember falling in love with the episode. And still do to this day.
You ever realize how the James and Gordon episodes are the best in the hit era?
Marvellous discussion. One of the best Hit Era Episodes.
I stopped watching the show after the HIT era started. It was youtubers like you that finally brought me back into the fandom. Thank you!
You vould say that this episode was...a hit. 😎
😐
It's criminal what youtube did to you and they should be ashamed of themselves. They should be help accountable.
Originally posted 2 years ago today and this is one of my favorite hit episodes
Respect for Gordon is definitely one of the better episodes from the HiT Era. I do sometimes wonder what this episode would've been like if Topham was in it.
If he were in this episode, he'd probably scold both Gordon and the other engines too.
Respect For Gordon gave this era a comeback! Glad you uploaded this
Gordon really does carry the show beyond the express
6:41-6:44 The way that was put together is pretty funny.
even though the hit era was bad( before the Sharon miller era, bwba, and all engines go took the crown) respect for Gordon was a good episode and felt like an episode from the classic era of Thomas.
I absolutely love this analysis. Thank you for uploading it again.
What a video. I remember coming back from the hospital and seeing this video and was pretty happy
You're not wrong as I watched it few times and I understand why that particular episode is one of the Hidden Gems in the HIT Era.
Rewatching these MTAKS videos and I’m really pumped for how you will review the HIT era in the retrospective series. I just watch Thomas Cynic’s video on HiT’s defense and it was awesome. I really hope you can find some gems in what many call a dull season.
I think another major reason the writing took a huge dive is because of the "mandate" of an annual season that started with Season 7 and is still going on, even for AEG (I'd really like to know if having Season 7 release in 2003 was a choice of Gullane or of HIT). That's why BWBA failed and them pushing out a season every year despite not knowing what they were doing just made things worse. If they released the seasons bi-annually, then maybe S7 wouldn't've been messed up for America, maybe the Models would've been around longer and maybe BWBA wouldn't've led to the OG show being cancelled.
Also what's funny about HIT changing the theme was that when Mattel hired Chris Renshaw to compose the music, they just kept the remixed Roll Call that I'm sure Hartshorne composed so shame on them for never brining back the OG theme when that's a huge thing everyone wanted.
Well, the show would still go into CGI either way since models gets too expensive eventually so around longer wouldn't be possible.
They would've been around a little longer if they didn't waste all their money on one offs that never appeared again
@@therwsgeek683 Not to mention the more excessive use from rushing out as many episodes as possible year by year likely wearing on the models and requiring fine tuning all the time.
Exactly! Despite Magic Railroad's failure, Thomas was still very popular in the 2000s so there was no need to feel forced to release something every year anyway
@@e-122psi3Also CGI increases the budget right? Sure you wouldnt need static wooden figures all the time and swap out faces in every shit but now you need to rely on computers to add in the moving faces and thus more crunch time is included because you need to sync up the narration
My Favorite episode from that era, and the first episode i remember seeing
I think it's save to say that Gordon is the Squidward of Thomas.
In some ways and also Cranky. Gordon is also similar to Lori Loud.
@@Koopalingfan Also RWS Thomas is a hybrid between Squidward and SpongeBob. And Spencer is Squiliam.
@@bentheg9793 Yeah.
How so?
@@Muzical-Man Both have a similiar character.
I grew up in the 2010-2020 era and remember watching the hit episodes and the early cgi episodes on dvd in the camper on the harvest run
I think someone said it on the upload of this before, but I'll say it here.
I am sure this was the only *Hit* of the Hit era.
I just thought of a new phrase, "If you can't decide which HIT Era episode to watch, pick the Gordon episodes."
Respect for Gordon is by far my favorite Gordon episode, and the favorite of the whole series even season 9.
Great to see this video re uploaded and two years to the day after the original upload👍🏻
Respect these episodes, people. No pun intended.
Just kidding.
In retrospect, the HIT era's lessons and morals seemed to be more gentle and realistic in tone. Things like "not shirking responsibility" (Thomas tries his best) and "never judge somebody by your first impression" (Thomas and the new engine), and "Pay close attention when busy" (The green controller). Morals that can easily be translated from Sodor to reality. What does AEG teach? Similar morals, but spelled in plain text. Classic era had subtle morals, HIT era had gentle morals, AEG has forced morals.
Kinda funny to me. The steam engine where has the biggest character arc in RWS was also the steam engine where was never out of character in S8-16.
The video that introduced me to and made me a fan of your channel! Glad to see it's back up! :D
I'd say that season 8 and 9 are the best of the New Series/HiT era/whatever you want to call this thing. Season 10 is where the three strikes formula became a norm for almost every episode and in general there's just a lot of bad episodes. However I feel like some people give this era too much hate. I'd say that HiT just understood something about Thomas that Mattel will never. Really nothing too drastic was changed in season 8 beyond the music, narration and runtime. It feels like when HiT owned the show, it kept that calming feel and they knew that what made Thomas successful is that it doesn't need to be changed too heavily. HiT even commissioned The Thomas & Friends Institute of Innovation promotional film which showed why Thomas is timeless and doesn't need a super heavy upgrade. No matter how wacky the plots got in the CGI era, I still can't convince myself that HiT didn't care about the show. I mean, all their new characters were still based on real life engines, which you can not say about AEG characters.
Honestly the Mattel ran the show into the ground compared to hit, the Hit Era was a bit Childish but it never feels like it got to the point where it was EXTREMELY Childish like Mattel took it in the Final Seasons, Mattel didn't care about the show like Hit Did, Mattel made way to many mistakes with the show like removing Edward and Henry and selling them out to characters we were barely introduced to and weren't even from Thomas since the very beginning like Edward and Henry were, atleast Hit never made any drastic changes like that.
The “not even based on real engines” thing started with BWBA, but at least there we had a mix of those and more realistic designs. Nowadays?
Amazing Reupload
5:58-5:59 Ha! Reaches a boiling point! That’s a great choice of words.
Thomas: Gordon's a mess, Gordon's a mess, he's the largest and jelliest!
0:59 I like this more than the original
I have a soft spot for the Hit Era because I grew up with it and as a result there’s a fair plenty of episodes from it that I like so I’m glad one got some well deserved love
I feel that Keeping up with James also used the 7min run time very well, but even then it had a bit of room for improvement, particularly making Edward a lot more snappy and wise to closer resemble his Railway series personality, and not a pathetic virgin
Hi I saw your Twitter then looked for this I hope you are ok and all of your fans are here for you
Even years later, and even after this analysis on the episode, this is definitely one of the HiT era episodes that has certainly aged well and is still enjoyable.
Watching the HIT era of Thomas as a fan was hard. I hated how they changed the theme, changed the personalities of certain trains, sometimes too goofy with some episodes and added so many characters and then did nothing with them.
Sir Topham Hatt: I am in severe credit card debt
My definition for this episode: “A HiT era episode that is actually well written”.
I think we owe hit a big apology after what Mattel did to the show
We don't really, just because someone else ended up doing worse doesn't make the other bad thing good.
Hit era more like miss era
Nice.
Yeah I miss the hit era, Thomas and friends of the 2000s it's such a cartune novel, live action, model prop nowadays
Yeah I miss the hit era, Thomas and friends of the 2000s it's such a cartune novel model prop as I see it nowadays
yay another reupload from the real unlucky tug 😊
I grew up with hit, but my mom bought me as a birthday gift all of the older seasons and I loved them, as a child I actually hated the little sections where Thomas or a character had a puzzle to do. I loved trains so I wanted my god damn trains, I’m 17 now and I do still like trains, I hope to go see the ones running in the UK
Thomas: We think you do deserve it, Gordon. That’s why we’re giving you a 21 fart gun salute!
(Minions fire fart guns while Gordon makes a grumpy face)
Respect for Gordon is one of the best hit era episodes why : because everyone is in character especially Gordon the crash is fantastic free is no three strikes formula and the characters are really fantastically used in this episode but my favorite Gordon episode is squeak rattle and roll but I still really like respect for Gordon
And the runtime is used perfectly structured and most hit episodes don’t do it
6 Years Agos Not Finishing 2 RUclips Videos
Gordon is always a gigachad
As someone who was born in 2008 i got to exerience very little of gullane thomas and what I knew back then was the HIT era, but obviously i was a toddler back then so I loved that era, but now im older and going back i do realize it wasn't a very good era for thomas, I will always have a soft spot for the HIT era because its what I grew up with, im just more aware of how much the franchise changed since I've grown out of the toddler mind. I understand more things and I'm able to see things the way you do, the HIT era really was a bit of a bad era. Still have a soft spot for it tho lol.
I watched a lot of HIT era episodes, but even then I preferred to watch the older seasons on what DVDs I had. I just knew even as a TODDLER that the show was boring in the present day(of the time) and not what it once was.
2:37 My head canon is that the engines were so old by this point that they're going senile.
The Hit era was the era I joined the fandom in so I am really biased because I love it lol
It's a fuckin' masterpiece. Not wrong Tug. It's great!
Amazing discussion!
I'm not too fond on the HIT Era, but there are some good episodes in it. Including this one. I remember the first time I saw "Respect For Gordon" on PBS Kids KCET, back when I first started watching that version of the show, and was the first time I had seen it on actual TV instead of DVD and video, which was how I had been watching the show up to that point. Of course, it was the Classic Era, and then the 6th and 7th seasons. But when I discovered the show airing on PBS Kids, that got me interested. Of course, I didn't get the new format too much and didn't really find it as likable as the original, but to me, at least at the time, it was still Thomas overall, which I am a big fan of. And when "Respect For Gordon" played, I during the time had to admit that this was a rather good episode from those new seasons. The jam part I especially liked, and it reminded me of when Percy got covered in it in "A Scarf For Percy" at the very beginning of Season 3.
So yeah, I highly agree that this episode is the more better one of the HIT Era and Season 9, and one of my personal favorites from them.
Fun fact guys: some hit era episodes weas on the sprout channel
Yes, I do have respect for Gordon on DVD with the complete series 9 and also come ride the rails
Happy your back tug 🙂
grew up just before the HiT era, was just coming onto as i stopped watching TV. It was alright from what i remember
I don’t think every episode from this era is good, but I *so* rather rewatch season 8-11 than the majority of BWBA or watch any episode of the dumpster fire reboot *any* day!!!
Season 12 (except for James Works it Out), on the other hand, *IS* the only season I can wholeheartedly agree I’m not the biggest fan of.
I love the hit Era I grew up on this
Still can't get over the fact that the first episode I remember watching was the episode were Percy crashed into a damn chocolate factiry
Happy 2 year anniversary video
A majority of us, we all weren’t a 80s nor 90s kids and born of the classics. I sure was not. I grew up with the Hit ERA. And yes I do think they made Thomas more of a baby like show. Though some episodes I do have favorites, such as “James the second best.” “Top Off Thomas.” & “Respect for Gordon.” These three I enjoyed growing up watching it. Hit era did some sufficient work on Thomas. But the classic Thomas would never be forgotten in my childhood.
1:10
Edward, that's kinda sus...
Emily being an absolute queen in this episode is always good to see
This episode scared me so much when I was a kid
4:09 "take an episode like 'Thomas And The Insert Object Name Here' where the majority of the runtime is just the three strokes formula"
Thomas And The Fireworks Display is probably one of the various "insert object name here" episodes that doesn't use that formula
This is nice
In Thomas and the Snowman, what is stopping Thomas' driver and fireman from detaching the lines connecting the snowman inflatable and Thomas' rear buffers?
Lazy writing.
wait do you mean thomas’ frosty friend
I was a kid when this era came out and I didn’t watch a lot of it back then cause I didn’t know what channel it was on and it’s aired time but I did rent a few DVDs back then like Thomas and the treasure and the great discovery and a Halloween themed hit favorites dvd with the episode Halloween.
I said this on the original upload, but the biggest reason for the visual downgrade during the hit era, in my opinion, has to do with the retirement of the 35mm camera in favor of the (then) modern Sony Betacam
I Like This Episode Because Of Gordon's Crash.
How TF did i think that was a real episode 4:09
Me too
Me too bro
It’s easily the best episode in the entire era
I can't wait for the Season 12 episode of the Thomas Retrospective, I really want to know your thoughts on it.
It’s out now
4:09 Ah yes, my best episode, and THE BEST Hit Entertainment episode
Even though some fans actualy hate the Hit era of thomad and friends, there are still people who like it but not love it. I still like/love it. I even like the Hit era theme song^^ all of us ain't the same and we have different tastes so ye. I respect your opinion unlucky_tug and the others^^
I'm guessing the reason they made the Hit era appeal to a younger audience maybe it's because Series 5 was criticised for being too dark. When I first seen the episode Stepney Gets Lost, it makes me prefer Series 1-4 as the best of the Model era years before Series 17-20 were the best of the CGI era. On the bright side, The Great Discovery and Jack & the Sodor Construction Company were the highlights between the Classic Series and the Andrew Brenner era.
this is likely not true. the criticism would have not have been large enough. the hit era was made because they just wanted money. they saw that they could make money from the talking choo choo show. also jack and the sodor construction company was written, filmed and partially edited during the classic series. around series 6 - 7. (2002 about.)
The 1 Best Gordon Episode ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Childhood Classic
I feel like most people (at least now) aren't even aware that you dissapeared. Probably because you upload rarely, so they keep waiting for the new episode
Just because I grew up in the hit Era, I still believe the hit Era destroyed Thomas
Even worse than Mattel did?
Nah Mattel is million times worse than hit
My favroutie episode as a kid growing up on hit was the Arthur introduction episodes
I also watched alot of the earlier cgi stuff and some of the brit erea
I thought you were talking about arthur read from pbs kids the same place we're Thomas and friends was at back in the novel 2000s
Remember when Thomas used to be a good show?
What is it with the BGM in the HiT Model Era having tubas?