Fraggle Rock

Fraggle Rock
Also known as
  • Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock
  • Fraggle Rock with Jim Henson's Muppets
  • Disney's Fraggle Rock

Genre
Created by Jim Henson
Written by
Directed by
Starring
Opening theme "Down at Fraggle Rock"
Ending theme "Down at Fraggle Rock" (second verse)
Country of origin
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • Canada
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 5
No. of episodes 96 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Jim Henson
Producer(s) Jerry Juhl
Location(s) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Editor(s) Christopher Roy
Running time 25 minutes
Production company(s)
Distributor Disney-ABC Domestic Television
Release
Original network
Picture format
Audio format
Original release January 10, 1983 (1983-01-10) – March 30, 1987 (1987-03-30)
Chronology
Followed by Fraggle Rock: The Animated Series
Related shows The Muppet Show
External links
www.henson.com/family_content.php?content=fragglerock

Fraggle Rock (also known as Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock Disney's Fraggle Rock or Fraggle Rock with Jim Henson's Muppets) is a British/American/Canadian children's live action puppet television series about interconnected societies of Muppet creatures, created by Jim Henson.

Fraggle Rock was co-produced by British television company Television South (TVS), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, U.S. pay television service Home Box Office and Henson Associates. Unlike Sesame Street, which had been created for a single market and later adapted for international markets, Fraggle Rock was intended from the start to be an international production and the entire show was constructed with this in mind, The Rights for Fraggle Rock are now owned by The Walt Disney Company (as part of The Muppets Studio).

History

Fraggle Rock debuted in 1983 as one of the first shows involving the collaboration of Henson International Television (HiT Entertainment from 1989), the international arm of Jim Henson Productions. The co-production brought together British regional ITV franchise-holder Television South (TVS), CBC Television, United States pay-television service Home Box Office and Henson Associates (later Jim Henson Productions). Filming took place on a Toronto sound-stage (and later at Elstree Studios, London). The avant-garde poet bpNichol worked as one of the show's writers. In the early days of development, the script called the Fraggles "Woozles" pending the devising of a more suitable name.

Henson described the Fraggle Rock series as "a high-energy, raucous musical romp. It's a lot of silliness. It's wonderful."[1] The program proved accessible to audiences of all ages, and used the fantasy creatures as an allegory to deal with serious issues such as prejudice, spirituality, personal identity, the environment, and social conflict.[2]

In 2009, as part of the Jim Henson Foundation's donation of puppets to the Center for Puppetry Arts, the Atlanta museum displayed many of the original puppet characters from Fraggle Rock in their exhibition Jim Henson: Wonders from his Workshop.[3]

International co-productions

The producers made the series with the intention of it airing in various forms internationally. That concept grew out of Jim Henson's experience adapting Sesame Street to the requirements of foreign markets.[1] The human "wraparound" segments were produced separately in several countries, so the viewer could always relate to the world of the program. The series has appeared now in over ten countries and languages. The head producer was Wesley James Tomlinson.

Setting

There are four main intelligent anthropomorphic species in the Fraggle Rock environment: Fraggles, Doozers, Gorgs and Silly Creatures. The Fraggles and Doozers live in a system of natural caves called Fraggle Rock that are filled with all manner of creatures and features and which connect to at least two different areas:

One of the main themes of the series is that, although the three species depend on the other for their survival, they usually fail to communicate due to vast differences in their biology and culture. The series mainly follows the adventures of five Fraggles with five personalities: pragmatic Gobo, idealistic Mokey, impetuous Red, indecisive Wembley and superstitious Boober. Some of the character's names are film industry in-jokes. For example, Uncle Travelling Matt is a reference to the travelling matte technique used with blue screen to give the impression a character is somewhere they're not; Gobo is named after a shaped metal grill placed over a theatre light to produce interesting shadows (window shapes, leaves etc) and Red is a reference to a redhead, another name for an 800w film light.

Fraggles

Fraggles are small anthropomorphic creatures, typically 18 inches (46 cm) tall,[5] that come in a variety of colors and have fur tuft tipped tails. Fraggles live a generally carefree life, spending most of their time (they have a thirty-minute work week) playing, exploring, and generally enjoying themselves. They live on mainly radishes and Doozer sticks, made of ground-up radishes and the material with which the Doozers build their constructions. The Fraggles seek wisdom from Marjory the Trash Heap, who is located in a corner of the Gorg's garden. Marjory the Trash Heap is a large, matronly, sentient compost heap. According to her rat-like companions Philo and Gunge, the Trash Heap "knows all and sees all."

Doozers

Within Fraggle Rock lives a second species of small humanoid creatures, the pudgy, green, ant-like Doozers. Standing about 4 inches (10 cm) tall ("knee-high to a Fraggle").[5] Doozers are in a sense anti-Fraggles; their lives are dedicated to work and industry. Doozers spend much of their time busily constructing all manner of scaffolding throughout Fraggle Rock, using miniature construction equipment and wearing hardhats and work boots. Doozers build their constructions out of an edible candy-like substance (manufactured from radishes) which is greatly enjoyed by Fraggles. This is essentially the only interaction between Doozers and Fraggles; Doozers spend most of their time building, and Fraggles spend much of their time eating tasty Doozer buildings.

Gorgs

Outside another exit from Fraggle Rock live a small family of Gorgs, fat furry humanoids standing about 180 inches (460 cm).[5] The husband and wife of the family, Pa and Ma, consider themselves the King and Queen of the Universe, with their son Junior Gorg as its prince and heir-apparent, but to all appearances they are simple farmers with a rustic house and garden patch. In "The Gorg Who Would be King", Pa says he has ruled for 742 years.[6]

Fraggles are considered pests by the Gorgs, as they often steal radishes from the garden. The Fraggles don't consider it stealing. The Gorgs use the radishes to make anti-vanishing cream, without which they disappear headfirst.[7]

The Silly Creatures of Outer Space

In the North American, Spanish, French and German versions of Fraggle Rock, the connection between Fraggle Rock and Outer Space is a small hole in the wall of the workshop of an eccentric inventor named Doc and his (Muppet) dog Sprocket. In the British version the situation is much the same, except that the hole leads into the living quarters of a lighthouse where the keeper ("The Captain") lives with his dog (also called Sprocket).

Gobo must go out into Doc's workshop to retrieve the postcards from his uncle Matt from the wastebasket where Doc throws them, assuming they are misdelivered. Traveling Matt (a pun on travelling matte, the technique used in his segments) is exploring the wider world, observing humans and reporting humorously false conclusions about their everyday behaviour.

Sprocket often sees and chases Gobo, but can't convince Doc anything lives beyond the wall. Sprocket and Doc have many similar miscommunications throughout the series, given the language barrier, but overall, they understand each other quite well.

In the final episode, Gobo tells Doc that Fraggles refer to humans as "silly creatures", and apologizes. Doc smiles and tells him that he thinks that it's a very good name for humans.

Episodes

Broadcast history

The CBC/HBO version of the series has been broadcast and dubbed in 95 countries.[8] The series airs on Channel 7 in Australia, Doordarshan in India, and TV1 in New Zealand [9]

After the show ended on HBO in 1987, the channel started to rerun the series. In the late 1980s, it ran on TNT. The show aired on Disney Channel from October 1, 1992[10] to September 8, 1996.[11][12] From 1999 until 2001, the show moved to Odyssey Network, which had recently been purchased by Henson and Hallmark. After Hallmark took full control, it discontinued the reruns.

In 2007, Fraggle Rock reruns aired on television in several countries. On July 23, 2007, Boomerang And Cartoonito started repeating episodes of the North American co-production of Fraggle Rock in the UK. In January 2013, ITV broadcast 2 episodes of this version as part of their 'Old Skool' Weekend feature on the CITV channel.[13]

On October 24, 2007, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation begins repeating episodes on the digital-only ABC2 channel. On September 20, 2007, TVNZ 6 in New Zealand began airing episodes daily.

The series has aired on Teletoon Retro in Canada daily since 2008.

On October 10, 2010, Fraggle Rock reruns returned to U.S. airwaves on The Hub, but the series was discontinued on June 1, 2012. A three-hour marathon of the show aired on April 21, 2013, to honor Fraggle Rock's 30th anniversary. After the marathon, the reruns returned to Hub Network's schedule in June 2013. On July 6, 2014, the series was re-added on schedule and left on October 5, 2014, one week before it became Discovery Family. Fraggle Rock is available for streaming through Amazon Video and Hulu.

Fraggle Rock is available on HBO Now in HD [14] and in 2016 the seried began to air reruns on HBO Family.

Home video

Australia

Magna Pacific published the American version of Fraggle Rock on Region 4 DVD in 2007. The DVD set Fraggle Rock: The Complete Fourth Season actually includes seasons four and five. The DVDs have no special features.

A set of plush dolls of Gobo, Wembley, Boober, and Red were released by Sababa Toys, each accompanied by a DVD featuring two episodes of the show, and one episode of the animated series.

United Kingdom

Twelve UK episodes were released on VHS and DVD by Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment in April 2004. TVS, the original ITV broadcaster, has passed through several owners since dropping out of the ITV network in 1992 and it was believed only these twelve episodes had survived. Research found more episodes, but many of the original 95 remain lost.[4] HiT Entertainment has tried unsuccessfully to locate the missing episodes, including extensive enquiries with The Jim Henson Company both in the UK and the US. When UK television channels wish to broadcast the show, they must use US versions; such was the case with Boomerang and Cartoonito in 2007. In addition to the unknown fate of the physical master material, much of the original TVS production paperwork and sales documentation has been lost during the intervening years. This problem affects the majority of the TVS programme archive, preventing any commercial exploitation. As of May 2016, search efforts and returned episodes from private collectors - mostly home recordings on VHS - has raised the number of episodes to 87, with only nine missing.[15] In 2010, Lionsgate Home Entertainment UK began releasing complete season box sets. These releases are the same as the American box sets, except without bonus features.

United States

HBO video released a collection of single-episode VHS tapes during the 1980s.

In 1993, Jim Henson Video released five Fraggle Rock VHS tapes with two episodes each.

HIT Entertainment released a number of single-disc DVDs with three episodes each (two in the VHS counterparts) plus bonus episodes which could be unlocked by completing a trivia game before releasing the first three seasons of Fraggle Rock on DVD in Region 1 between September 2005 and September 2007. It released a complete series box set on November 4, 2008 but did not release the final season in a separate release. Season 4 had originally been scheduled to be released on the same day as the complete series set but at the last minute it was scrapped and was never released. The season box sets have been re-released by Vivendi Visual Entertainment, but the 5 DVDs with 3 episodes are still sold in stores.

On August 10, 2009, Lionsgate Home Entertainment announced it had reached a deal with The Jim Henson Company to acquire the rights to release Fraggle Rock on DVD. It subsequently released the final season on DVD for the first time on November 3, 2009.[16] It re-released the "Complete Series" collection with new packaging (due to numerous complaints about the previous release) on the same day.[17]

On February 18, 2013, Vivendi Visual Entertainment announced it had acquired the rights to the series.[18] Season 1 was re-released on March 12, 2013, followed by Season 2 on April 16, 2013, Season 3 on May 14, 2013 and Season 4 on June 18, 2013.[19] A complete series set was released on May 14 as Fraggle Rock - The 30th Anniversary Collection. This 22-disc set features all 96 episodes of the series as well as bonus features. A six-episode DVD with the same title Meet The Fraggles as a previously released 1993 VHS cassette, but it contains different episodes.

DVD NameRelease DateEp #Additional Information
Fraggle Rock: Complete First Season September 6, 2005 24 Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock notepad, Behind the Scenes Documentary narrated by Jim Henson, Interviews with the cast and creators, Deluxe collectors box.
Fraggle Rock: Complete Second Season September 5, 2006 24 Jim Henson's Creatures and places of Fraggle Rock notepad, Steve Whitmire's Home Videos, Deluxe Collectors Box and tribute to Jerry Juhl.
Fraggle Rock: Complete Third Season September 11, 2007 24 All-new featurettes and interviews with Fraggle Rock cast and creators, Deluxe embossed collector's packaging.
Fraggle Rock: Complete Final Seasons November 3, 2009 24 All-new featurettes and interviews with Fraggle Rock cast and creators.
Fraggle Rock: Complete Series Collection November 4, 2008 96 All 96 Episodes in one collectible Package Art, Original Fraggle Rock Illustrated Poster, All New Featurettes and Interviews with Fraggle Rock cast and creators.

Spin-offs

Animated series

An animated Fraggle Rock series aired for one season on NBC's Saturday morning lineup in 1987.[20] The cartoon series introduced some Fraggles, Doozers, and other cave creatures exclusive to the series.

A Muppet Family Christmas

Doc, Sprocket the Dog, Gobo Fraggle, Wembley Fraggle, Boober Fraggle, Mokey Fraggle, Red Fraggle, and Uncle Traveling Matt appeared in A Muppet Family Christmas. Doc and Sprocket rent the farmhouse of Fozzie Bear's mother while she plans to go to Malibu until Fozzie shows up with his friends. Doc and Sprocket end up adjusting to the Muppets and the characters from Sesame Street even to the part where Doc volunteers to help Kermit by looking for Miss Piggy in the blizzard. While Doc was out looking for Miss Piggy, Kermit and Robin find a Fraggle Hole in the basement and enter Fraggle Rock where they encounter the five main Fraggles and tell them about Christmas. During the song "Pass It On," Large Marvin Fraggle and the other background Fraggles made appearances. During the Christmas songs near the finale, the five Fraggles came up where Uncle Traveling Matt was seen sitting near Doc and Sprocket. In the final scenes, Sprocket helps Jim Henson to wash the dishes where Sprocket dries the dishes that Jim washes.

The Doozers

In 2012, The Jim Henson Company and DHX Media announced a computer animated spin-off to Fraggle Rock, titled The Doozers, targeted at children between ages 4 and 7. It focuses on four young Doozers named Spike, Mollybolt, Flex and Daisy Wheel, who live at Doozer Creek.[21]

The series began airing on Hulu on April 25, 2014.[22]

Feature film

In September 2005, The Jim Henson Company announced it was working on a film adaptation of Fraggle Rock, known as Fraggle Rock: The Movie, with the aim of a release in 2009. The story allegedly involves the original Fraggle characters.[23]

On October 20, 2006, Darkhorizons.com reported "Henson's company has hired executive producer Ahmet Zappa (The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless) to write a treatment for the film which will be a full-length live-action musical fantasy starring the underground dwellers who venture out into the human world. Henson Co. co-topper Lisa Henson is producing, whilst Brian Henson will exec produce."

In May 2008, The Weinstein Company announced it would distribute the Fraggle Rock movie. The film was written as a live-action musical by Cory Edwards, who would also direct. The film was to be produced by The Jim Henson Company; Ahmet Zappa was executive producing along with Brian Inerfeld. The film would involve all of the core characters from the series. The story would take the characters "outside of their home in Fraggle Rock, where they interact with humans, which they think are aliens."[24] Karen Prell and Dave Goelz were slated to return for the film as Red Fraggle, Boober Fraggle, and Uncle Traveling Matt, respectively.

In 2011, Weinstein's deal with Henson expired, leaving production of the film in doubt. The Scissor Sisters were announced to write music for the film. In October 2011, New Regency acquired the rights to the movie to be produced by The Jim Henson Company and The Montecito Picture Company, with 20th Century Fox distributing. New Regency and the producers are currently in discussion whether to use puppets or CGI as well as a mix of live action. Once this has been decided, it will look to a writer for the movie.[25]

In 2012, James Byrkit and Alex Manugian were announced as screenwriters.[26]

On March 18, 2015, Variety said Joseph Gordon-Levitt would star in and produce the film.[27]

Music

Music played a central part in Fraggle Rock. Every episode featured two or three original songs co-written by Canadian poet Dennis Lee and Philip Balsam, as well as incidental music. Several episodes (usually involving Cantus and the Minstrels) focused primarily on music—such as Red Fraggle's attempt to find "her song" for the Fraggle Medley, or the effect of music on the breaking of winter or the presence of light in Fraggle Rock.[28]

The "Fraggle Rock Theme" reached number 33 on the British music charts during the phenomenon.[29] Writers included Jim Henson, Jerry Juhl, and Jocelyn Stevenson, with songs by Philip Balsam and Dennis Lee.

Album releases

KOCH Records released Fraggle Rockin': A Collection, a three-disc box set of Fraggle Rock music, on October 30, 2007. The collection featured "restored and remastered" versions of three original Fraggle Rock LPs. The collection also included "special liner notes featuring rarely seen photos, contributions from the original composers and even sheet music for select songs."[30] The main portion of these liner notes, called "Getting Down at Fraggle Rock," features an interview with Philip Balsam and Lawrence S. Mirkin and is written by Mike Petersen and Saul Pincus.

Song list

Soundtrack musicians

In other media

Books

Interactive books produced for Playskool's Talk 'n Play:

Magic Pen and Invisible Inks books for Lee Publications

Comics

The Star Comics imprint of Marvel Comics published two separate Fraggle Rock comic-book series in 1985 and 1988 respectively. Originally, the first series was to be drawn by Marty Taras, the creator of Baby Huey, and the cover of the first published issue of the Fraggle Rock comic is done by him. Also, at least one penciled page of his Fraggle work for that first issue has been preserved in print. [31] However the art assignment for the series finally went to Marie Severin, who illustrated all eight issue interiors and the other seven covers. The second series lasted six issues.

In early 2010, Archaia Studios Press published their first three-issue series of Fraggle Rock. A second three-issue series was followed in January 2011. Both series were collected into hardcover editions shortly after their respective publications. No further announcements were made regarding any future volumes.

Other televised appearances

Live appearances

Internet appearances

References

  1. 1 2 Random House, 1993. Jim Henson The Works: The Art, The Magic, The Imagination
  2. ↑ Down at Fraggle Rock documentary; 1987, HBO and Jim Henson Productions
  3. ↑ "Center for Puppetry Arts—Jim Henson: Wonders From His Workshop"
  4. 1 2 "Fraggle Rock UK - Missing Episodes". Nightshade.org.uk. Retrieved 2017-04-12.
  5. 1 2 3 "The Story of Fraggle Rock", from Henson.com
  6. ↑ "Episode 511: The Gorg Who Would Be King"
  7. ↑ "Episode 119: The Great Radish Famine"
  8. ↑ "About Fraggle Rock", from Henson.com
  9. ↑ Shulgold, Marc (May 10, 1987). "Hbo Bids Farewell To 'Fraggle Rock'". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-08-23.
  10. ↑ The Disney Channel Magazine, Vol. 10, no. 5, October/November 1992: pp. 31, 32, 34, 42-43.
  11. ↑ The Disney Channel Magazine, Vol. 14, no. 3, June/July 1996: p. 26.
  12. ↑ The Disney Channel Magazine, Vol. 14, no. 4, August/September 1996: p. 28.
  13. ↑ "CITV begins an "Old Skool" weekend to celebrate its 30th birthday". ITV. January 4, 2013. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
  14. ↑ Peters, Megan (October 10, 2016). "Fraggle Rock Is Returning To HBO". ComicBook.com. Retrieved October 10, 2016.
  15. ↑ List of missing episodes
  16. ↑ "Fraggle Rock—Henson Company/Lionsgate Deal Bring Final Season and Merry Fraggle". tvshowsondvd.com. 10 August 2009. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  17. ↑ "Fraggle Rock—Lionsgate/Henson Agreement Also Brings a Repackaged Complete Series Set". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Retrieved 2010-09-27.
  18. ↑ '30th Anniversary Collection' Joined By 'Meet the Fraggles' and Season Re-Releases
  19. ↑ "Fraggle Rock DVD news: Announcement for Fraggle Rock - The Complete 3rd Season". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
  20. ↑ "Fraggle Rock: The Complete Animated Series". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2011-12-06.
  21. ↑ 07/05/2012 12:18 pm Updated: 07/05/2012 12:18 pm (2012-07-05). "'Fraggle Rock' Spin-Off 'The Doozers' In The Works". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
  22. ↑ Levin, Gary. "'Fraggle Rock' Doozers land on Hulu". USA Today. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  23. ↑ James, Greg (September 20, 2005). "Fraggle Rock film in development". Muppet Central News. Retrieved 2006-03-26.
  24. ↑ Weinsteins roll with 'Fraggle Rock'
  25. ↑ Fleming, Mike. "New Regency Lands 'Fraggle Rock' Feature Rights Auction". Deadline.com. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
  26. ↑ Taylor, Drew. "'Rango' Collaborators Jim Byrkit & Alex Manugian Hired To Write Long-Developing 'Fraggle Rock' Movie". IndieWire. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  27. ↑ McNary, Drew (March 18, 2015). "Joseph Gordon-Levitt Starring in 'Fraggie Rock' Movie (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety.
  28. ↑ "A Latter-day Disney Jim Henson Brings 'Muppet Babies' And 'Fraggle Rock' Magic To Vinyl". Morning Call. Retrieved 2010-12-19.
  29. ↑ The Jim Henson Company (May 12, 2008). "Weinstein rolls with Fraggle Rock movie". Muppet Central News. Retrieved 2008-07-13.
  30. ↑ James, Greg. Fraggle Rockin' CD Details. The Muppet Newsflash. September 6, 2007
  31. ↑ Marvel Age, The Official Marvel News Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 19, October 1984
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