Mighty Machines

Cover of a Mighty Machines DVD.

Mighty Machines is a children's television show about machines and how they work. It is currently airing on TVO, and other channels in Canada, including Access (in Alberta), SCN (in Saskatchewan) and Knowledge Network (in British Columbia). It also aired on DiscoveryKids UK (in the United Kingdom) in 2005, and a French-language version airs on TFO (in Ontario) and in Quebec. It was nominated for a Gemini Award in 1996 in the category of Best Children's Program or Series.

Media

When it first aired as a production of Malofilm, the first season was the core base of what the 2004 season (done by Loten Media, and distributed by Seville Pictures) is made up of. It's like any other construction show, but instead of a human commentator talking to viewers, voice-over actors make the machines themselves talk to viewers, tell them what's happening, how the machines run, etc. Most of the episodes were filmed in Toronto and Montreal and the surrounding area. These are some companies, places, and businesses featured on the episodes over the years:

Mighty Machines at the Airport - Canadian Airlines¹ and Toronto Pearson International Airport

At the Demolition Site - Teperman Demolition and St. Lawrence Starch Plant (demolished in the episode)

At the Train Yard - Canadian Pacific (somewhere in Toronto)

At the Harbour - Toronto Police Service and Toronto City Harbour

In the Snowstorm - various locations in Montreal

Deep Underground - Sifto salt mine (Goderich, Ontario)

At the Ski Hill - Mount Tremblant (in Quebec)

In the Forest - Algonquin Forest (in northern Ontario)

At the Sawmill - Algonquin Forest and McRae Lumber Company Ltd. (Ontario)

All About Recycling - City of Toronto Works & Emergency Services; Metro Waste Paper Recovery Inc.; Dominion Nickel Alloys (DNA) Inc.; The Hard Rock Group; Office of the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario

Building a Truck - International Truck and Engine Corporation, Canada

Making Waves - Halifax Harbour (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Trucks, Trucks, Trucks - Flying J Travel Plaza (London, Ontario); Conklin Shows; Autoport Limited; Amherst Crane Rentals Ltd.; City of Toronto Works & Emergency Services; Dufferin Construction Company

On the Farm - the farm belonging to producer-director Wendy Loten's family

All Aboard - OC Transpo bus right-of-way, train stations & depot (Ottawa, Canada); GO Trains (tracks west of Union Station in Toronto); TTC Subway (Bloor & Union stations, Toronto); TTC Streetcars (Queen Street West & Spadina routes, Toronto)

List of episodes

The episodes were done in 2 formats for broadcast: 22-minute full episodes, and 5-minute excerpts for use as filler.

All of the episodes are available on VHS and DVD, individually or in box sets. There is also a 60-minute VHS featuring all of the 5-minute episodes from Series One.

SERIES ONE (1995) - Malofilms

Written by Doug Atkinson and Fiona Zippan (Denzey)

At The Airport
At The Quarry
In The City
In The Harbour
At The Construction Site
At the Racetrack

Written by Bryan A. Auld

At The Demolition Site
At The Train Yard
At The Fire Hall
On The Road
At The Garbage Dump
At The Cement Yard

SERIES TWO (2004) - Seville Pictures

In the Snowstorm
Deep Underground
At the Ski Hill
In the Sky
In the Forest
At the Sawmill
All About Recycling
Building a Truck
Making Waves
Making a Road
On the Farm
To the Rescue
Trucks, Trucks, Trucks
All Aboard

On Series Two, the scripts were by Bill Freeman, and the voice artists were: Alan Bacchus, Edward Daranyi, Suzanne Hersh, Santo Lupo, Christopher Quinn, Patte Rosebank, Tanya Schneider, Oliver Svendsen and Chuck Vollmar. Patte Rosebank has a listing of all her "Mighty Machines" voices, by episode, on her website [[1]]. The only episode she didn't work on was "To the Rescue".

¹Canadian Airlines was bought out by Air Canada in 2000

External links

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