Saving Mommy Money

If you know anything about this DVD series for kids, you will know what I am talking abut when I complain about how confusing it is to figure out which episodes I own. Since the Series' first episode, it has gone through a couple of production companies and other changes. There have also been several re-releases that have renamed DVDs which makes it even more confusing.  I have done quite a bit of research about this series as both my boys (4 years and 18 months) love them. If you are a fan and need Holiday ideas for the little boys in your life, I suggest purchasing a Canadian made Mighty Machine DVD. BUT FIRST, read the following information that I have gathered from Wikipedia, TVOkids and Treehouse.

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)

[edit] 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".

SERIES THREE (2008) - Seville Pictures

• Building an Airplane
• Ride the Mountain Rails!
• Car Wreckers

• Bringing in the Harvest

• At the steel mill

• hot off the press

• laying down the pipeline

Some series 3 locations:

• Nicklin Auto Parts & Recyclers
• B&R Trucking
• Gerdau Ameristeel

On Series Three, the theme song remained but the clips used for the accompanying video were from series 3. The scripts were by Bill Freeman and Wendy Loten, and the voice artists were: Christopher Quinn, Suzanne Hersh, Colin Kirley, Kim Godfrey, Shawn Colin, Todd Schick, Dave Crichton, and Blair Baily.

¹Canadian Airlines was bought out by Air Canada in 2000

[edit] External links

• NCircle Entertainment: Buy Mighty Machines DVDs
• Mighty Machines website on Treehouse TV

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