George Carlin

George Denis Patrick Carlin (12th May 1937 - 22nd June 2008) was a five-time Grammy-winning American stand-up comedian, actor, voice actor, social critic, producer, writer and author. He was known for his dark comedic humor, his commentary on the American political issues and satirizing the American culture.

He narrated the third and fourth series of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, along with recordings of the first and second series after Ringo Starr left for American audiences on Shining Time Station and played Mr. Conductor in Shining Time Station and "Mr Conductor's Thomas Tales". His third series narrations were also used for New Zealand VHS releases. After narrating the fourth series, Carlin left the series to do several explicit comedy specials and pursued other projects.

On 22nd June 2008, a short while after David Mitton's death, Carlin died of heart failure at a hospital in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 71. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered off the Spofford Lake waters and countless New York City nightclubs without any religious ceremonies, as he wished. Following his death, Britt Allcroft and Rick Siggelkow (the co-producer of Shining Time Station) wrote tributes to him.

Carlin was known to insult most of the shows he worked on due to issues on set (such as his time on his own series The George Carlin Show), but often spoke very fondly of both Shining Time Station and Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, even in some of his stand-up comedy routines. In an interview on "TV Legends" conducted shortly before his death, he explained that he signed on to both shows so that people could see a different side of him from his profanity-laden persona.

Filmography
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Film

 * "With Six You Get Eggroll" (1968)
 * "Car Wash" (1976)
 * "Americathon" (1979)
 * "Outrageous Fortune" (1987)
 * "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" (1989)
 * "Working Trash" (1990)
 * "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey" (1991)
 * "The Prince of Tides" (1991)
 * "Dogma" (1999)
 * "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" (2001)
 * "Scary Movie 3" (2003)
 * "Jersey Girl" (2004)
 * "Tarzan II" (2005)
 * "Cars" (2006)
 * "Mater and the Ghostlight" (2006)
 * "Happily N'Ever After" (2007)
 * "Bill and Ted: Face the Music" (2020; archival footage, posthumous role)

Television

 * "The Kraft Summer Music Hall" (1966)
 * "The Hollywood Palace" (1966)
 * "That Girl" (1966)
 * "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" (1968)
 * "The Flip Wilson Show" - also writer and performer (1971-1973)
 * "The Mike Douglas Show" (1972)
 * "Saturday Night Live" (1975 and 1984)
 * "Justin Case" (1988)
 * "Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends" (1991-1998)
 * "Shining Time Station" (1991-1995)
 * "Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales" (1996)
 * "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures" (1990)
 * "The George Carlin Show" (1994-1995)
 * "Streets of Laredo" (1995)
 * "The Simpsons" (1998)
 * "The Daily Show" (1999 twice and 2004)
 * "MADtv" (2000)
 * "Inside the Actors Studio" (2004)
 * "Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales" (2009; archival recordings, posthumous role)

HBO specials

 * "George Carlin at USC" (1977)
 * "George Carlin: Again!" (1978)
 * "Carlin at Carnegie" (1982)
 * "Carlin on Campus" (1984)
 * "Playin' with Your Head" (1986)
 * "What am I Doing in New Jersey?" (1988)
 * "Doin' it Again" (1990)
 * "Jammin' in New York" (1992)
 * "Back in Town" (1996)
 * "George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy" (1997)
 * "You are All Diseased" (1999)
 * "Complaints and Grievances" (2001)
 * "Life is Worth Losing" (2005)
 * "It's Bad for Ya" (2008)}}

Books

 * "Sometimes a Little Brain Damage can Help" (1984)
 * "Brain Droppings" (1997)
 * "Napalm and Silly Putty" (2001)
 * "When will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?" (2004)
 * "Watch my Language" (2007)

Major awards and nominations

 * WON: Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording, 1972, for "FM and AM"
 * WON: Grammy Award for Best Spoken Comedy Album, 1993, for "Jammin' in New York"
 * WON: Grammy Award for Best Spoken Comedy Album, 2001, for "Brain Droppings"
 * WON: Grammy Award for Best Spoken Comedy Album, 2002, for "Napalm and Silly Putty"
 * WON: Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording, 2008, for "It's Bad For Ya"
 * Nominated - Daytime Emmy Awards - Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series, 1992 and 1994 for "Shining Time Station"

Trivia

 * He was a proponent of the choice by Kenn Viselman.
 * He was good friends with Russell Means, who played Billy Twofeathers in Thomas and the Magic Railroad.
 * He was originally intended to reprise his role of Mr. Conductor for Thomas and the Magic Railroad.
 * Despite him being a North American narrator, his narrations for the third series were released on VHS in New Zealand, heard in the background for Ukrainian dubs of the first thirteen episodes of the third series. He was credited as a narrator on all Series 1-2 DVD releases in the Philippines, the opening credits of the Time for Trouble and Other Stories Danish DVD, the Taiwan Mandarin dub of the fourth series and the early Norwegian broadcasts of the third series. In some ways, this makes him a semi-international narrator.
 * In technicality, George Carlin was the first official American Thomas narrator after Ringo Starr left Shining Time Station for his music career. This is likely the reason why on most home media releases, episodes from the first two series were narrated by George Carlin instead of Ringo Starr.
 * George stated in an interview that when he worked on Shining Time Station, he would tell children when they came up to see if he was Mr. Conductor, because he was tall, "I'm not on the Island of Sodor today, I'm not working, but I am Mr. Conductor".
 * George was born on the same day The Railway Series was first published. More specifically, The Three Railway Engines was published on his eighth birthday in 1945.
 * George was always regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comics of all time, being dubbed as "the dean of counterculture comedians".
 * Carlin sometimes referred to himself as the "anti-Pete Best" with regards to his replacing Ringo Starr on Shining Time Station; this was a nod to the original drummer for The Beatles whom Ringo Starr famously replaced.
 * According to Britt Allcroft, on his first day of recording narration for the series, George expressed nervousness at the fact he had no audience to deliver the story to in the booth. As bringing an actual child in was not an option, Britt had a teddy bear delivered to the studio, which became Carlin's audience for all of the voiceover sessions. At the end of George's run, he gifted Britt with her own teddy bear named Teddy Carlin, which sits on her piano to this day.

Gallery
George Carlin ג'ורג' קרלין George Carlin