TUGS

"The tugboat, for its size, is the most powerful craft afloat. And the Star Tugs are the power behind the docks and waterways that make up the Bigg City Port."

From the makers of Thomas the Tank Engine comes a short-lived sister series. Set in Bigg City Port in The Roaring Twenties, it chronicles the adventures of the Star Tugs, a fleet of Thomas-esque boats with faces as they compete for contracts with their biggest rivals, the Z-Stacks.

What really sets this show apart from Thomas is the maturity of the stories. There are dangerous perils that the Tugs have to deal with, such as being crushed by a wayward ocean liner, or the risk of being scrapped.

Tropes used in TUGS include:

• Aerith and Bob: Zig-Zagged, Most of the characters have names like "Ten Cents", "Top Hat", "Sunshine", and even the ones that have normal names, Lillie, Sally and Billy, are surnamed "Lightship", "Seaplane" and "Shoepack" respectively.
• Affably Evil: Zebedee, especially in "High Winds".
• Alliterative Name: Lillie Lightship and Sally Seaplane.
• Alphabetical Theme Naming with the Z-Stacks being named Zorran, Zebedee, Zak, Zip and Zug, working for Captain Zero.
• Animate Inanimate Object/Sentient Vehicle: Just its sister series, Thomas the Tank Engine, the vehicles are anthropomorphic, however this series has a few anthropomorphized objects that aren't present in the other series, such as crane claws and buoys. Notably unlike Thomas however, the Tugs don't seem to need a crew, being able to drive themselves.
• Australia Gangster: Johnny Cuba.
• Big Bad: Captain Zero, being the owner of the Z-stacks, the main antagonists of the show.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Captain Star says as much at the end of "Munitions". As the ones doing the work, the Star fleet was right to demand that the cargo be loaded in the order that they deemed proper. But since it was a Navy contract, Bluenose, as a Navy representative, was well within his own rights to dictate the order that the Navy cargo ship should be loaded. Though Starr notes that if they'd all just calmed down and listened to their common sense instead of their egos, the fire could have been avoided.
• British Accents: Ten Cents has a Cockney accent, while Sunshine is a Geordie. Big Mac is Glaswegian, Top Hat has an upper-class accent, while Hercules has a sort of Cary Grant thing going on. And yet it's set in America...
• British Brevity: The show ran for 13 episodes.
• Camp Straight: Hercules' tendency to refer to his male friends as "Old darling" or "M' dears" and his flamboyant personality make him come off as pretty camp, but his heterosexuality is confirmed by him having a girlfriend, Lillie Lightship.
• The Casanova: Hercules is this.
• Composite Character: In Salty's Lighthouse, the Coast Guard and Davy Jones are combined into a character called "Cappy".
• Cool Boat: Literally the entire series revolves around this trope. The liners are especially treated as such, being held in high regard by the TUGS.
• Cut and Paste Translation: Aired as part of Salty's Lighthouse on TLC with American accents re-dubbed over the characters, name changes, and other edits.
• Damsel in Distress: Lillie Lightship essentially plays this in the episode "Regatta", when she ends up with a hole in her haul and is in danger of sinking. Grampus gets the idea to plug the hole with his nose until help arrives.
• Darker and Edgier: Compared to Thomas the Tank Engine, and done well. Some Tugs risk their lives to protect their friends.
  • It is meant for a slightly older crowd, after all.
• A Day in the Limelight: Most episodes put one Star or Z tug as the lead. The only Star tug to not be given the spotlight was Hercules, though he would have gotten one had a Series 2 been made.
• The Dragon: Zorran is this in that he's the "leader" of the Z-Stacks, but is owned by Captain Zero, like the others, techincally making Zorran second-in-command.
• Dumb Muscle: Warrior.
• Even Evil Has Standards: While Zorran loves plays dirty, even he treats dangerous jobs with the utmost care.
• Everything Is Better With Explosions: Billy Shoepack certainly thinks so. Also, many episodes have some sort of explosion or another.
• Evil Counterpart: Captain Zero and the Z-Stacks are this to Captain Star and the Star Tugs.
• Forced Into Evil: In the episode "Pirates", the thief, Sea Rogue turns out to be an unwilling lackey for the real villains, the green-eyed pirates, who are holding his uncle hostage and threaten to sink him if Sea Rogue refuses to steal barges.
• Funny Foreigner: Izzy Gomez is a comedic stereotypical Mexican.
• Furry Confusion: A non-animal example, in that some minor boats don't have faces, such as Nantucket. Only four barges, Lord Stinker, Pearl, Eddie and Frank, are shown to have faces. While the rest are normal faceless barges.
• Gender Flip: In Salty's Lighthouse, Captain Star, Sunshine and Little Ditcher are flipped from male to female.
• High-Class Glass: Top Hat.
• Historical Gender Flip: Believe it or not, the character "Hercules" is based on a real vessel of the same name that is preserved. However, while the character in TUGS is male, his real-life basis is referred to with female pronouns, despite being named after a male Roman deity.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: The boats have a few of these.
  • Instead of "Look what the cat dragged in", they say "Look what the tide brought in".
  • Their version of "Good two shoes" is "Goody two screws".
  • "You'd lose your stack if it wasn't screwed on" replaces "You'd forget your head if it wasn't attached".
• Honor Before Reason: Bluenose likes to put orders before common sense.
• I Have Your Wife: In the episode "Pirate", two green-eyed pirate tugs have kidnapped Sea Rogue's uncle and threaten to sink him, unless Sea Rogue steals barges for them.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Top Hat, despite his arrogant attitude and belittling everyone around him does have a strong sense of honor. Zedebee is also one, and basically the single good member of the Z-Stacks.
• The Klutz: Warrior.
• Last of His Kind: O.J., the last paddleboat tug in Bigg City.
• Meaningful Name: Quite a few examples:
  • Sunshine has a cheerful and sunny disposition.
  • The tramp steamer "Krakatoa" from the episode "Munitions".
  • Big Mac, being the Big Guy.
  • Top Hat, of course wears a top hat.
  • Hercules is the strongest of the Star Tugs.
  • Lord Stinker, the garbage barge.
  • Big Mickey, because he's big.
  • Scuttlebutt Pete who is infamous for gossiping.
  • Bluenose the naval tug, his name literally means "a person who advocated a rigorous moral code".
• Mighty Glacier: What else would you expect from boats?
• National Stereotypes: You probably wouldn't know Izzy Gomez was meant to be Mexican if it weren't for the heavy accent, sombrero, Mexican flag on his stack and the laziness.
• New Transfer Student: Sunshine from "Up River". Not a school per se but has a different paint job until he's accepted at the end of the first episode.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Hercules' face was modeled after Australian-American actor, Errol Flynn, even his Casanova qualities are carried over to Hercules.
• Noodle Incident: It's not entirely clear what happened between Captain Zero and Johnny Cuba, but Zero is still pretty sore about it.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: The series takes places in the USA, with Bigg City being based off New York City, but all the characters have British accents.
• Ominous Fog: "Ghosts".
• Politically-Incorrect Villain: Zorran calls Izzy a "South American heap of junk" in the episode "Sunshine". Izzy is Mexican, which would actually make him Central American.
• Quintessential British Gentleman: Top Hat, again.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Captain Star speaks in a calm and collected tone most of the time, while Captain Zero is incredibly temperamental, violently shaking his megaphone when he speaks and is almost constantly yelling.
• Scenery Gorn: "Munitions" features a ten-minute sequence of the docks blowing up.
• Scenery Porn: The harbor, the docks, the boats....
• Sixth Ranger: Near the end of the series, Grampus the submarine joins the Star Tugs after the Navy sells him to Captain Star.
• Ship Tease: Hercules and Lillie Lightship are heavily implied to have romantic feelings for one another.
• Shout-Out: The Line "Goodnight Vienna" is a direct reference to Ringo Starr's album of the same name.
  • Even Captain Star's name was almost one to Ringo, since his surname almost had two R's, but changed to just having one.
• The Smurfette Principle: Lille Lightship is the only female tug shown in the main cast. Other side characters instead Pearl, the only female barge and Sally Seaplane, the only female plane (and only plane period) to appear in the series.
• Space Jews: Izzy Gomez is a tramp steamer version of the stereotypical lazy Mexican. He has an exaggerated accent and likes to sleep often.
• Species Surname: Non-animal examples of this trope. Lillie Lightship and Sally Seaplane. And they're among the few vehicles who HAVE last names.
• Spiritual Successor: Co-producer Robert Cardona would go on to produce the Canadian series Theodore Tugboat.
• Theme Music Power-Up: Not exactly the theme music, but there is a dramatic piece of music played whenever a Tug is acting heroically.
• The Voice: Captain Star and Captain Zero. The closest we see of any human is a megaphone.
• Token Good Teammate: Zebedee is this to the Z-Stacks.
• Token Minority: Izzy Gomez is the only Hispanic boat in the series.
• Unexplained Recovery: Big Mickey seemingly sinks in the episode "Munitions" but makes a cameo in "Ghosts". However, the "unexplained" part is averted in the TV version, where Captain Star explicitly states that falling in shallow water saved him from fire and explosions.
• Upperclass Twit: Bluenose and Top Hat.
• Violent Glaswegian: Big Mac.
• Visual Pun: Philbert the bell buoy wears the hat of a bellboy.