Television Reviews : Ringo Starr Conducts a New PBS Series

No program that includes Ringo Starr narrating segments of the exceptional English animated series “Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends” can be bad. “Thomas” is the high point of the new PBS children’s series “Shining Time Station,” debuting today at 9 a.m. on Channel 28.

There are no low moments, just ordinary ones, and that’s surprising. So much talent has gone into the series that it reads like a who’s who of children’s programming.

The cast includes Starr as a magical 18-inch-tall railroad conductor, Didi Conn (“Grease”) as the owner of a quaint old railway station, and Leonard Jackson (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) as a stern but nice engineer. It is written by Emmy Award winner Brian McConnachie, “Reading Rainbow’s” Ellis Weiner and “Wonderworks’ ” Alan Kingsberg, and it gets its charming look from Wayne White (“Pee-wee’s Playhouse”), Rosaria Sinisi (“The Cosby Show”) and Michael Landry (“Crocodile Dundee II”).

Each episode contains two animated “Thomas” stories, the jukebox puppet band playing musical Americana, the Picture Machine showing a music video and a live-action plot aimed at children’s concerns--making friends, making mistakes, self-confidence. (Child actors Jason Woliner and Nicole Leach learn the lessons.)

The live action is the problem. It is overly earnest, slightly forced, and Conn veers from sweet to cloying. The rest of the show, aimed at ages 4 to 7, is engaging; the trains are terrific.