Post by foreverfox on Jan 28, 2019 13:17:22 GMT
Not quite sure if this counts as lost media since it isn't quite "media" as you normally think of it.
TUGS is an obscure British kids show created by Robert D. Cardona and David Mitton, famous for their work on Thomas and Friends. Well liked for it's full voice cast, mature tone and story, and outstanding model work and practical effects, the series was sadly cancelled after only 13 episodes out of apparently roughly 99 written due to the bankruptcy of the company producing it, Clearwater studios. It did have many VHS releases and books released afterwards however, remains something of a cult classic to this day.
TUGS is not lost media. Thanks to the VHS we have all 13 episodes, even alternate versions of some due to some episodes having 15 minute long TV cuts and 20 minute long VHS cuts.
The story gets a lot more complicated from here.
In the 1990s, a decade after TUGS' original run, footage from the show was dubbed over and used in segments of the show Salty's Lighthouse by Sunbow Studios, famous for making cartoons of many Hasbro properties like Transformers, My Little Pony, and G.I Joe.
Now almost 30 years after its original run many fans have held out hope for some kind of continuation or reboot, but that has been impossible because, as far as we can tell, nobody knows who owns the rights to TUGS. I, as well as a few other associated people from our Discord server, have been investigating this now.
Here's what we know so far:
Robert Cardona and Castle Communications, who released TUGS on VHS, sold a 50% stake in ownership to Sunbow.
Sunbow were bought out by Sony in the 2000s, moving between divisions several times. originally it was thought it may now be stuck somewhere in the Sony corporate ladder, however it has been uncovered that they had sold off Sunbow's production assets and distribution rights to a German company known as TV Loonland.
TV Loonland has, ironically enough, also gone bankrupt, and was acquired by a brand management company known as m4e MG, a subsidiary of Studio 100.
I have emailed Studio 100 and am currently awaiting a response.
There's also Peter Voelke, the former CEO of TV Loonland. Although he most likely doesn't personally own any stake of TUGS, he is still a person of interest.
As for Castle Communications, they had been planning on trying to revive TUGS through a release of the VHS tapes in the 90s, but shifted their focus to record labels. Renaming themselves "Sanctuary Group" they were bought up by Universal, and are now under BMG Brand Management.
David Mitton passed away in 2008, leaving only Robert Cardona. He is now 88 and has no active internet presences, although he has a son named Tarquin who wrote a couple episodes of TUGS.
We have uncovered a freelance filmmaker/photography named Tarquin Cardona who we believe is the right Tarquin. Aside from the name and shared occupation both are Mexican-American men who live in England.
So the question is: Who owns TUGS? There are at least three potential parties, and it's likely non of the involved companies presently even have any idea about TUGS or its cult following.
If anyone else cares then you try contacting Tarquin at his website, Studio 100 at there's, or even BMG .
TUGS is an obscure British kids show created by Robert D. Cardona and David Mitton, famous for their work on Thomas and Friends. Well liked for it's full voice cast, mature tone and story, and outstanding model work and practical effects, the series was sadly cancelled after only 13 episodes out of apparently roughly 99 written due to the bankruptcy of the company producing it, Clearwater studios. It did have many VHS releases and books released afterwards however, remains something of a cult classic to this day.
TUGS is not lost media. Thanks to the VHS we have all 13 episodes, even alternate versions of some due to some episodes having 15 minute long TV cuts and 20 minute long VHS cuts.
The story gets a lot more complicated from here.
In the 1990s, a decade after TUGS' original run, footage from the show was dubbed over and used in segments of the show Salty's Lighthouse by Sunbow Studios, famous for making cartoons of many Hasbro properties like Transformers, My Little Pony, and G.I Joe.
Now almost 30 years after its original run many fans have held out hope for some kind of continuation or reboot, but that has been impossible because, as far as we can tell, nobody knows who owns the rights to TUGS. I, as well as a few other associated people from our Discord server, have been investigating this now.
Here's what we know so far:
Robert Cardona and Castle Communications, who released TUGS on VHS, sold a 50% stake in ownership to Sunbow.
Sunbow were bought out by Sony in the 2000s, moving between divisions several times. originally it was thought it may now be stuck somewhere in the Sony corporate ladder, however it has been uncovered that they had sold off Sunbow's production assets and distribution rights to a German company known as TV Loonland.
TV Loonland has, ironically enough, also gone bankrupt, and was acquired by a brand management company known as m4e MG, a subsidiary of Studio 100.
I have emailed Studio 100 and am currently awaiting a response.
There's also Peter Voelke, the former CEO of TV Loonland. Although he most likely doesn't personally own any stake of TUGS, he is still a person of interest.
As for Castle Communications, they had been planning on trying to revive TUGS through a release of the VHS tapes in the 90s, but shifted their focus to record labels. Renaming themselves "Sanctuary Group" they were bought up by Universal, and are now under BMG Brand Management.
David Mitton passed away in 2008, leaving only Robert Cardona. He is now 88 and has no active internet presences, although he has a son named Tarquin who wrote a couple episodes of TUGS.
We have uncovered a freelance filmmaker/photography named Tarquin Cardona who we believe is the right Tarquin. Aside from the name and shared occupation both are Mexican-American men who live in England.
So the question is: Who owns TUGS? There are at least three potential parties, and it's likely non of the involved companies presently even have any idea about TUGS or its cult following.
If anyone else cares then you try contacting Tarquin at his website, Studio 100 at there's, or even BMG .
