Fraggle Rock

Fraggles are small anthropomorphic creatures, typically 22 inches (56 cm) tall,[8] 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 Gorgs' 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." By her own admission, she has "everything".

Within Fraggle Rock lives a second species of small humanoid creatures, the pudgy, green and industrious Doozers. Standing about 6 inches (15 cm) tall ("knee-high to a Fraggle").[8] Doozers are in a sense the opposite of 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 just for the sake of it, and Fraggles spend much of their time eating Doozer buildings which they consider delicious. The Doozers say in an early episode that "architecture is meant to be enjoyed", and in "The Preachification of Convincing John" Mokey prevents the other Fraggles from eating the building work, believing it to be insensitive to the Doozers. As a result, the Doozer building eventually takes over Fraggle rock, and once full the Doozers plan on moving out as they have nowhere left to build. They explain that they want the Fraggles to eat their work in order to create space for more building work to go up again. Despite this co-dependence, the Doozers generally maintain a low opinion of Fraggles, considering them frivolous. The Doozers also seem to have little knowledge of the universe outside Fraggle Rock; early in the series they are unaware of the existence of the Gorgs or their garden. However, there was also one time when Doc found, in his workshop an ancient-looking Doozer helmet, indicating that the Doozers may have explored outside Fraggle Rock into "Outer Space" at some time in their forgotten past.

Adolescent Doozers come of age with a "taking the helmet" ceremony, in which they proudly accept their Doozer helmet from the Doozer Architect, after swearing to live a life of hard work. Rarely, a Doozer will refuse to "take the helmet"; a once in a generation occurrence that is generally met with shock and disbelief in the Doozer community. Such non-conformist Doozers can, however, find places of high regard in the Doozer society, due to the advantages of their more creative way of thinking.

Outside another exit from Fraggle Rock live a small family of Gorgs, fat furry humanoids standing about 264 inches (670 cm).[8] 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.[9]

Fraggles are considered pests by the Gorgs, as they often steal radishes from the garden. The Fraggles do not consider it stealing. The Gorgs use the radishes to make anti-vanishing cream, without which they disappear headfirst.[10]

In the North American, French, and German versions of Fraggle Rock (along with most other foreign dubs), 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 lives with his dog, 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 film compositing 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 arc of the original North American version of the show, Doc himself finally meets Gobo and befriends him. Gobo tells Doc that Fraggles refer to humans as "silly creatures", and apologizes. Doc tells him that he thinks that it is a very good name for humans. Unfortunately in the final episode, Doc and Sprocket have to move to another state, but the Fraggles discover a magic tunnel that allows them to visit Doc and Sprocket's new home easily at any time.

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.

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 12 episodes had survived. Research found more episodes, but many of the original 95 remained lost.[6] 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 used the 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 December 2017, search efforts and returned episodes from private collectors - mostly home recordings on VHS - has raised the number of episodes to 95, with only one episode - "Gobo’s School For Explorers", missing.[21] In December 2020 TV preservation company Kaleidoscope announced via their Facebook page that VHS copies of all episodes had been located and transferred from the collection of Producer Victor Pemberton. 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.

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

In 1993, Buena Vista Home Video, under their Jim Henson Video label 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.

In 2009, Lionsgate Home Entertainment reached a deal with The Jim Henson Company to release Fraggle Rock on DVD. It subsequently released the final season on DVD for the first time on November 3, 2009.[22] It re-released the "Complete Series" collection with new packaging (due to numerous complaints about the previous release) on the same day.[23]

In 2013, Vivendi Visual Entertainment acquired the license to release Jim Henson Company DVDs, including Fraggle Rock.[24] 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.[25] 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.

On July 11, 2018, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced that they would be releasing a complete series set of Fraggle Rock on Blu-ray in honor of the show's 35th anniversary. The 12-disc set includes remastered versions of all 96 episodes of the series in high-definition, and includes all features from the previous DVD season releases as well as additional new material such as a 1993 Today Show segment featuring Uncle Traveling Matt, a series of on-set videos with creator Jim Henson, and all 13 episodes of Fraggle Rock: The Animated Series. It was released on September 25, 2018.[26][27]

An animated Fraggle Rock series aired for one season on NBC's Saturday morning lineup in 1987.[28] The cartoon series introduced some Fraggles, Doozers, and other cave creatures exclusive to the series.

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, Jim Henson washes the dishes while Sprocket dries them.

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.[29]

The series began airing on Hulu on April 25, 2014.[30]

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.[31]

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."[32] 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.[33]

In 2012, James Byrkit and Alex Manugian were announced as screenwriters.[34]

On March 18, 2015, Variety said Joseph Gordon-Levitt would star in and produce the film.[35] On July 28, 2018, Gordon-Levitt revealed that the film is still in early stages of development.[36]

The feature film project was subsequently cancelled in favor of a new television series.[37]

Fraggle Rock: Rock On! is a series of weekly live action shorts, first broadcast on the Apple TV+ streaming service starting on April 21, 2020. Episodes follow the Fraggles living in separate caves during a period of social distancing, and interacting with each other using a video chat system that was installed by the Doozers. Footage for the series is shot using smartphones in the production teams' and artists' own homes.[38] A total of six episodes have aired. Original cast members Karen Prell and Dave Goelz reprise their roles as Red Fraggle, and the voices of Boober Fraggle and Uncle Travelling Matt (they were puppeteered by John Tartaglia, who also performs Gobo Fraggle and puppeteers Wembley Fraggle). Other cast members include Donna Kimball as Mokey Fraggle and Frankie Cordero as the voice of Wembley.[39]

KOCH Records released Fraggle Rockin': A Collection, a three-disc box set of Fraggle Rock music, on October 30, 2007.[43] 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."[44] 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.

• Don Gillis — Musical Director
• Bernie LaBarge — Guitar
• Michael Francis — Guitar
• Bob McLaren — Drums
• Ray Parker — Keyboards
• Tom Szczesniak — Bass Guitar
• Dick Smith — Percussion

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

• Fraggle Rock: The Great Fraggle Travel Race

Magic Pen and Invisible Inks books for Lee Publications

• Fraggle Rock (No title - cover scene of Fraggles playing tag - artwork by Nate Butler) (1989)
• Fraggle Rock (No title - cover scene of Fraggles looking into musical treasure chest - artwork by Nate Butler) (1989)

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.[45] 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 its 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.

• Before its background appearance on Fraggle Rock, Food first appeared on Saturday Night Live during "The Land of Gorch" sketch. It was later recycled as Zsa Zsa Porkmustard in the "Science Fiction" episode of The Jim Henson Hour as well as an undersea creature cameo in the "Aquatic Life" episode.
• Uncle Traveling Matt appears in The Muppets Take Manhattan, seated in Piggy's wedding party during the play where he is in the same section as the bears that Fozzie Bear was hibernating with.
• There was a special featuring the Fraggles called Fraggles Look for Jobs which details the Fraggles after the show had ended. Gobo has secured a singing job billed as "Gobo the Frosty Fraggle," Wembley has no immediate plans except to stop wearing banana tree shirts, Mokey is writing a screenplay called "Girls of the Sixties," and Red has signed a contract to play hockey for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Boober spends most of the video on the phone (with Bernie and others) hoping to find another acting job, preferably as a romantic lead. Two clips from this have been shown on The Jim Henson Company's YouTube page.
• A prototype version of Blustering Bellowpane Monster appeared in the Play-Along Video film Neat Stuff: To Know & to Do as Mergie (performed by Camille Bonora).
• Mama Tree Bird and Baby Tree Bird appeared in The Ghost of Faffner Hall.
• The Rumble Bugs made background cameos in The Song of the Cloud Forest.
• Gobo Fraggle, Mokey Fraggle, and Wembley Fraggle made a cameo appearance in The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson alongside the other Muppets and characters from "Sesame Street" in the "Just One Person" tribute song to Jim Henson.
• The puppets for Sprocket the Dog, Begoony, Mudwell the Mudbunny, Murray the Minstrel, Aretha, Wander McMooch, Brool the Minstrel, and the Inkspots make cameo appearances in The Muppet Christmas Carol. Begooney was shown as the child of the characters depicted by Mudwell and Murray. Sprocket was seen in a crowd cameo. The Inkspots (performed by Jerry Nelson and Steve Whitmire) were seen in the house windows and one of them was seen near a mud puddle during the song "Scrooge" while sitting next to the Porcupine from Billy Bunny's Animal Songs. Aretha (performed by Karen Prell) appears in a crowd chorus where she has a line in the song with a Pig Businessman and the Blue Frackle. Wander McMooch (performed by David Rudman) and Brool the Minstrel (performed by Louise Gold) make cameo appearances as one of the guests at Fred's party.
• Large Marvin Fraggle, Blustering Bellowpane Monster, Begooney, Brool the Minstrel, Inkspots, Mudwell the Mudbunny, Murray the Minstrel, and Poison Cackler appear in Muppets Tonight.
• The puppets for Philo, Begoony, Blustering Bellowpane Monster, The Inkspots, Murray the Minstrel, Beastie, Mudwell the Mudbunny, Brool the Minstrel, Aretha, and an unnamed background cave creature appeared in Mopatop's Shop as various guests.
• Aretha appears in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz as a Flying Monkey.
• Blustering Bellowpane Monster appears in The Muppets. It can be seen in a Muppet crowd cameo near the end of the film.
• Blustering Bellowpane Monster appears in Muppets Most Wanted. He is seen in the opening of "El Muppet Show" and "The Wedding."

• Starting in 2008, Karen Prell began making live appearances with a rebuilt Red Fraggle puppet at various events like San Diego Comic-Con International.
• Wembley Fraggle, Red Fraggle, and Uncle Traveling Matt appeared in the "Fraggle Rock" portion of the Jim Henson's Musical World show at Carnegie Hall in 2012.
• On April 24, 2013, Red Fraggle and Gobo Fraggle appeared at "The Spare Room" to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of Fraggle Rock. Karen Prell performed Red as usual while John Tartaglia performed Gobo.
• In May 2013, John Tartaglia performed Gobo Fraggle at an event to grant the Museum of the Moving Image a permanent gallery devoted to Jim Henson.
• Kathryn Mullen and Karen Prell performed Mokey Fraggle and Red Fraggle at Dragon Con 2013 as part of Fraggle Rock's 30th Anniversary during the "Fraggle Rock Meet and Greet" event. Michael K. Frith also attended with puppeteers Paul McGinnis and Victor Yerrid.
• On September 24, 2016, Red, Gobo, Wembley, and Mokey appeared at a Puppets for Puppetry event honoring Muppet performer Dave Goelz. Karen Prell and John Tartaglia performed Red and Gobo as usual, while Kevin Clash performed Wembley and Donna Kimball performed Mokey.

• Gobo Fraggle, Wembley Fraggle, Boober Fraggle, Mokey Fraggle, Red Fraggle, and Uncle Traveling Matt appear in the music video for the Ben Folds Five song "Do It Anyway," for which Chris Hardwick and Lisa Henson served as executive producers. Only Red, Boober, and Uncle Traveling Matt have dialogue. While Karen Prell and Dave Goelz reprised their roles of Red Fraggle and Uncle Traveling Matt, the other puppeteers included Sean Johnson as Boober Fraggle, Patrick Johnson as Wembley Fraggle, and Donna Kimball as Mokey Fraggle. The music video begins with Uncle Traveling Matt reporting about his experience at a recording studio (portrayed by The Jim Henson Company Lot) where the recording of the song is overseen by a sound engineer played by Rob Corddry. During the song, the sound of the band's performance reaches Fraggle Rock, opening a hole through which the five main Fraggles are pulled out of upon grabbing a microphone cable. The Fraggles then join the band in performing the song. Also during the music video, a gate guard (played by Chris Hardwick) can be seen with a tattoo of Junior Gorg on his left arm, and a female receptionist (played by Anna Kendrick) wears a "Boy Gorg" T-shirt (featuring an image of Junior Gorg dressed as singer Boy George). The video ends with Folds, Hardwick, Corddry, Kendrick, and Red Fraggle singing the Fraggle Rock theme song, with Boober speaking the closing line, "down at Fraggle Rock", as in the original series. The music video was accompanied by a behind-the-scenes video, featuring interviews with Folds, Hardwick, and Red Fraggle.