Fraggle Blog - The Riddle of Rhyming Rock

Episode Vii, written by B.P. Nichol.

Herkimer's cool looking. I like the wrinkles.

The Storyteller has a falsetto voice not unlike Mr. Moose on Captain Kangaroo.

Hmm, I wonder if that entire shot was shot backwards. Would have been fun to lip sync backwards.

Kind of a weird episode. I felt like it should have been built around Da Vinci Code-like riddles (except actually clever), but it wasn't. It's always nice though when we discover a new area of the Rock that we've never seen before. Who created Rhyming Rock? What's its history? I wonder.

Fraggle Blog - Mirror, Mirror

Episode Vi, written by Jocelyn Stevenson.

The Magic Mirror has an unusual-sounding voice.

So Doc's mirror is the twin of the mirror Red found?

So...what's Red's motivation for running into the Gorg's castle to try to save Mavis the Mirror? Mavis was being kind of an inscrutable jerk.

This is suffering from hazy motivation. Things seem to be working out well, so why is Red still so dead set on getting Mavis away from Ma Gorg?

Ooh, Fraggle, Doozer and Gorg all in the same shot! Is that a first?

Doesn't that glue need to dry?

Gobo kissed Red! Now Boober too! More firsts?

So, I wonder if Doc's mirror is magical too? Can magical objects exist outside of Fraggle Rock, and into Outer Space? Of course, since Outer Space also contains a mystical land with golden apples and a blue dragon, I guess anything is possible.

Fraggle Blog - Boober Gorg

Episode IVxiii, written by Sugith Varughese.

Sprocket is one gorgeous puppet.

Amnesia! Has there ever been a TV show that didn't have an amnesia episode?

Gee, what was that Three Stooges move that Gobo just did to Boober? Tummy poke and nose twang?

This episode is all about brainwashing! Strange topic for a show, and carrying it through both the Fraggle and Doc/Sprocket storylines.

So, that's the end of what was broadcast as season 4, even though there was no break between the shooting of this episode and the next one. Wow, only 13 episodes to go!

Fraggle Blog - Space Frog Follies

Episode IVxii, written by David Young.

I feel like even if I hadn't read that Rob Mills was puppeteering Gobo to Jerry Nelson's voice, I would be able to tell that something's up. Things are really weird with Gobo. He's very subdued. But why wasn't Nelson doing the puppeteering? There must be a reason...

Okay, Wembley's "watch my lips" was a definite nod to Kermit and The Muppet Movie.

So how do Fraggles stick pickles to their noses?

The resolution of the Doc/Sprocket story was extremely farfetched. Ned Shimmelfinney likes for people to destroy his clothing! Of course!

A fun episode though. Neat to see a real life animal in Fraggle Rock. And they showed remarkable restraint in making only one Kermit reference!

Fraggle Blog - Wonder Mountain

Episode IVxi, written by Robert Sandler.

Okay, I guess Whitmire does show us Wembley running offscreen right in the opening, just before he's entirely out of the camera range. Which makes it a little more feasible that he could make that jump into the water.

Lanford is funny. How is it that two of the funniest characters on this show don't even have eyes? How do they do that?

Okay, those singing cacti were weird. A very Sid and Marty Krofft idea.

The Avalanche Monster looks like a demented gray Elmo.

Okay, Mokey and Red trying to work out their interpersonal relationship while they're hiding terrified from the Avalanche Monster just isn't working for me...

"We have got to think of a way out of this mess!" Yes, you certainly do...

All this talking about their feelings! Feelings! Feelings! Just do stuff, and let us figure it out!

Yeah, somehow this episode made me appreciate the writing of other episodes...the "moral" and "lesson" were just far too explicitly spelled out.

Fraggle Blog - Red's Blue Dragon

Episode IVx, written by Susan and Jerry Juhl.

Okay...so...why is Gobo retrieving a postcard from Doc's garbage when Matt has come back to stay?

Oh, okay...I guess they've accounted for the seeming discrepancy.

Now this is interesting...Red's "outer space" seems to be some sort of mystical fairy land!

Ooh, Red with a practical hand!

That was a fun episode. And it really revealed something interesting about the whole Fraggle Rock world..."Outer Space" isn't necessarily what we think of as "reality". It can also be a fictional place (fictional to us, anyway) like a fairy land where dragons live.

Fraggle Blog - Wembley's Flight

Episode IVix, written by Jerry Juhl.

Okay, so in the opening, don't we see Wembley standing there singing, and just as soon as he's out of the shot, he's jumping into the water? It doesn't seem as though he'd have enough time to get to wherever he's jumping from.

I think the Spiderfly almost went a bit Shakespearean on us. Something about "more things than are dreamt of in your...(philosophy)".

That Spiderfly (or "Odd Old Man") is a great looking puppet!

1986, and Doc's got a personal computer he uses to authoritatively prove things. I guess computers were just beginning to capture the public's imagination.

Marlon Fraggle! Yay!

Wembley's singing voice sounds really pinched and nasal this episode.

Weird that the shot of Wembley flying in his and Gobo's room was so slowed down. It really felt out of place in the sequence.

Aw, I wanted to see Sprocket fly!

Another Doc/Sprocket concluding sequence that felt like it needed a tag line or something.

Okay, really, this episode was pretty much exactly like the one that came before it. Wembley was motivated principally by jealousy, and he learned the lesson that you should do a thing simply for the pleasure in doing it, and not for less pure motives. It was a fun episode, and the Spiderfly was a fun and funny character and great puppet, but it was odd having two such similar episodes back to back.

Fraggle Blog - A Brush With Jealousy

Episode IVviii, written by B.P. Nichol.

Wow, I was definitely not wishing Mokey would break out into a ballad at this juncture in the plot. And...is she singing in a weird dialect?

Cool shot of Sprocket running!

Gee, I think that episode was all about jealousy. Not one of my favorite episodes, somehow it never "struck fire" with me. I did like how the quality of Mokey's paintings was never really called into question; they weren't noticeably better or worse than Pedley Fraggle's paintings. It was about the motivation for painting, not the end result.

Fraggle Blog - The Perfect Blue Rollie

Episode IVvii, written by David Young.

Ms. Ardath is only 39? Awfully young for Doc to be romantically interested...

Romances never go much of anywhere on this show, do they?

You know, Wembley rather favors Steve Whitmire in a way.

Wow, I love the way Dave Goelz is playing this scene...he's really pushing Boober's character with some pretty naturalistic acting choices. Very strong choices.

Haven't we already had an episode where a character was hoarding something that they were supposed to share?

Boober is all psycho and Gollum-like in this episode!

Wow, they just threw a Matt poser in the water!

They're all planning to steal from Boober?

Nice filming of that whole avalanche.

Very good episode. It seems they were exploring how far they could push Boober's character, and they never hit the wall!

Fraggle Blog - A Tune For Two

Episode IVvi, written by Laura Phillips.

"Lecherous"? That's the only word I can think of that rhymes with "treacherous".

So, I guess the writers really got tired of having to fit a postcard from Matt into each episode, hence having him move back to the Rock.

Wembley looks weird, different somehow. Are the pupils on his eyes too small, and too widely spaced?

Boober loves Tosh! Romance in the Rock! Whatever happened to the Mokey/Gobo romance?

Mrs. Raskolnikov! Doc had a teacher from Crime and Punishment?

Holy crap, Whitmire is a good puppeteer. So endlessly inventive, thinking up funny things Wembley can do.

This is cool, Wembley and Cotterpin are like a mixed race couple who want to get married, in the face of prejudice from authorities!

It's frustrating when characters don't say the simple things that anyone would say in a given situation. "Sorry Cotterpin, I want to sing in the Duet-a-thon with you, but Gillis Fraggle won't let you be in it!" Instead, Cotterpin is left to feel somewhat rejected by Wembley, simply because he won't say those words.

I thought this was a Duet-a-thon. Why is everybody singing?

Why was that weird Fraggle singing with that Doozer in that shot before Junior Gorg's?

A show about the powers of music. Very nice!

Fraggle Blog - Junior Faces the Music

Episode IVv, written by Bob Sandler.

Yay, Cantus!

So why isn't Junior tempted to look behind the sheet and see who's there?

Cantus singing sounds a lot like Dr. Teeth.

Muppet Wiki tells us Bob Stutt is puppeteering Boober to Dave Goelz's voice in this episode...but it doesn't tell us why.

It's a kazoo, Junior...you gotta hum!

Now that episode wasn't nearly as well plotted as some recent ones. The depth to which these plots have been thought through is incredibly important to the overall success of the episode. In this case, the whole thing felt sort of "trumped up". There's some ritualistic rite of passage that Gorgs have to go through, and we've never heard of this before, but suddenly we're all supposed to really care whether or not Junior can play the mystical kazoo. The structuring seems haphazard at best, and the stakes are pretty nebulous. Not one of the best.

Fraggle Blog - Uncle Matt's Discovery

Episode IViv, written by Jerry Juhl.

What the heck was Wembley doing? Bonking his nose? Hilarious and weird.

Oh, so that's why the garden gnomes were so big...so Doc could mistake Matt for one!

Why is Matt's mic so hot? Crazy! How could no one notice that?

Did they really need to rhyme "bawl" with "all"?

Wow, a location shoot! We got to see the Captain's Inn! Doc, Sprocket, Matt and Gobo all outside in Outer Space!

You know, there was such a sense of amazement and relief in seeing the characters in a different environment. It makes me wonder about the scenic design choices for the show. The entire show is very brown. Even Doc's workshop is pretty brown. It's so nice to get some color into the settings, I wonder if there wasn't a way, in hindsight, that they could have made the Rock more colorful.

At any rate, a really neat episode. I felt that Matt's cowardice was played up a bit too strongly though. It was as if he suddenly had a huge, debilitating character flaw that hadn't really manifested itself in the previous 70 episodes. Matt has been more bumbling and stupid than actually terrified. But that quibble aside, it was a good one.

Fraggle Blog - Sidebottom Blues

Episode IViii, written by David Young.

So is the name of this episode "Sidebottom Blues" as Muppet Wiki says, or "Sidebottom's Blues", as the DVD says? At any rate, I like these DVD screens on season 4 much better than on the other three sets. Take that, HIT!

Great opening of this episode. Perfectly set up with Wembley and Boober.

The whole Sidebottom thing is pretty weird...the fact that he can come out into reality, complete with a unique costume, and take over for Boober! Weird. But I love Sidebottom.

Great the way Boober and Sidebottom keep melding and splitting apart.

But the Fraggles won't go out into the Gorgs' garden because Junior Gorg is there. Why are they still afraid of Junior? Maybe I'm making too much of it, but it seems like sometimes the progression of the show gets ignored.

Wow, I think Dave Goelz is performing both Sidebottom and Boober in separate passes. Some really complex choreography.

Ooh, Wembley had different trick eyes for the bonkleberry shot!

Okay, that was a really great episode, one of the best. Incredibly well plotted, shot, and performed. Getting all those kinks out of the storyline makes all the difference in the world in terms of enjoyment.

And as that was the last episode shot for season 3, from this point onward we are firmly into season 4.

Fraggle Blog - Wembley's Wonderful Whoopie Water

Episode IVii, written by Jerry and Susan Juhl.

Wow, Whitmire is really working Wembley's rolly eyes!

Wembley's voice is especially high-pitched and squeaky this episode.

Hmm...how are they doing that effect where Wembley is digging and repeatedly throwing dirt from his shovel? I guess they're somehow quickly loading it when it's offscreen?

Some really beautiful puppeteering by Whitmire as Wembley. Like watching good animation.

What the heck was that deep deep voice down in the crack that said "Wup" or something like it? That was truly bizarre.

That was a really good episode, very tightly plotted. I suppose the moral might be "Even the best of intentions can give birth to serious problems". Good stuff.

Fraggle Blog - Sprocket's Big Adventure

Episode IVi, written by Sugith Varughese.

Okay, I like how this episode began unambiguously by showing Gobo and Sprocket getting along with each other.

"This Way": Cool song! Great segment! Awesome to see Sprocket in the Rock!

The Doozers are upset Sprocket destroyed their construction, but they're happy when the Fraggles do it! I guess it's the destroying without eating that they mind...

That was a fun episode! It was the first new episode they shot for season 4, even though it will be followed with two leftover episodes from the season 3 shoot. Muppet Wiki points out that it seems designed to serve as an introduction to the series, and I think that's true. Except interestingly, there was no Traveling Matt segment, even though we saw Gobo retrieve the postcard.

I've been wondering how much of the evolution of the series was actually planned out in advance. Was it the plan from the beginning that the characters would gradually befriend and come to appreciate each other? In hindsight, I think that evolution could have been planned better (if it was planned at all). For instance, there was an episode not too long ago where all the Fraggles, including Gobo, seemed to regard Sprocket with fear. And this was after Gobo and Sprocket had seemed to be friends.

At any rate, it has been a pleasure to experience the evolution of the show. We stand now on the cusp of season 3 and season 4. Looking forward to the rest!

Fraggle Blog - Gunge the Great and Glorious

Episode IIIxxii, written by Laura Phillips.

Wow, they really went out of their way to get in Uncle Matt's postcard this episode!

It seems that more characters dislike than like Matt's postcards! Were the writers regretting having to place one in each episode?

Wow, that Doc/Sprocket final scene really could have used a nice tag line. Neither character really seemed to know when it was over.

So with this episode we come to what ended up being the end of the third season, even though they produced two more episodes for season 3 which got rolled into season 4.

This was a fun episode, the moral of which might be "It's bad to be the king". The dental differences between Philo and Gunge were pointed out with great clarity, and it was interesting to see the rat-like creatures interact with the Doozers, about whom we learned a lot more than we knew before. Nice for Marjory to have an appearance as well!

Okay, on (sort of) to season 4.

Fraggle Blog - A Dark and Stormy Night

Episode IIIxxi, written by Sugith Varughese.

Red's eyeballs might pop right out of her head? Um...where are they now?

A complexly plotted episode! But I like how it showed Junior and the Fraggles working together, once they got over being scared of each other.

Fraggle Blog - The Incredible Shrinking Mokey

Episode IIIxx, written by Jocelyn Stevenson.

Yay! Puppets doing puppets! (But not in an Avenue Q kind of way...)

Aw, Red's head got in the shot.

Ooh, I love how Boober goes all psycho-cuckoo with the puppets!

Hmmm...isn't the song Sprocket was listening to with headphones at the very end of the show the same song that was featured in the show? That's very weird.

And it was a weird episode! Jocelyn Stevenson seems to want to explore the repressed and hidden aspects of the Fraggles' personalities. And it seems she likes to invent new and weird characters, too. The Begoony? That's pretty weird. I guess Stevenson figured that she needed a character with magical powers, so it couldn't be just another new Fraggle that Mokey befriends.

An entertaining, if a bit "random", episode.

Fraggle Blog - The Cavern of Lost Dreams

Episode IIIxix, written by B.P. Nichol.

Okay, Sprocket's Swedish Chef impersonation was classic. "Bark bark bark!"

Both songs this episode have seemed pretty grafted on. What does "Eye to Eye" really have to do with the current situation?

The idea of Gobo being intimidated by a couple of ancient Doozers with spears, and the subsequent "overthrow" of the situation, was a bit hard to believe.

Somehow this episode seemed to suffer from some implausible concepts. So, Doozer structures taste better when their design is original? Aren't they all made of the same stuff? Really, the idea that Doozers wouldn't mind at all that Fraggles came along and destroyed structures while the Doozers were in the middle of admiring them is hard to believe. Not one of the best.

Fraggle Blog - Bored Stiff

Episode IIIxviii, written by Jocelyn Stevenson.

Wow, that was a bit racy! "Kissing Rock" is where Ma and Pa first...well, Junior will understand when he's older! So I guess it wasn't kissing...

Hmmm...it is kind of hard to frame up five Fraggles in the same shot. No wonder one of them is frequently absent.

Okay, Sprocket is still pretty barky around the Fraggle hole, but he seems not to want Doc to hurt them, as if he's fond of them.

Okay, "It's a presence to be in your pleasure" is pretty racy too! Then of course there's the episode's title itself...

Well, that was a nice episode, and maybe the most everyone's-starting-to-get-along episode yet. Sprocket made it clear that he was fond of the Fraggles in the wall, and Fraggle/Gorg relations really seemed to make a major advancement as well. Although Junior still professed that he wanted to "thump" the Fraggles, and what exactly "thumping" means is far from clear. But it probably doesn't feel very good.

Fraggle Blog - Playing Till It Hurts

Episode IIIxvii, written by Jerry Juhl.

"Chase the Wind" is another fun production number!

The scene between Gobo and Feenie Fraggle was weird, as Jerry Nelson voiced both characters. Why wouldn't they assign Feenie to someone else, if he's a new character who starts with a lengthy dialog scene with Gobo?

Nice that the Doozers are interested in watching the Fraggles play rock hockey.

Interesting what Muppet Wiki says about Whitmire breaking his hand...yet Wembley is in this episode a bit.

Of course, Whitmire performs Sprocket too...but in this episode, Sprocket can't move his mouth because he hurt his nose! So, is this entire plot line based on Whitmire being hurt? I'll have to go look up that interview with Karen. But it was a fun episode.

Fraggle Blog - The Battle of Leaking Roof

Episode IIIxvi, written by Robert Sandler.

Just beautiful puppeteering on Sprocket. Whitmire and Prell working together beautifully.

This "I'm Not Scared of Anything At All" song really needs a better backing track. Really cheap sounding, atypical for the show. Cheesy synth horns. Yucch.

An almost all-Gorg show, and an enjoyable one! I think they are a little bit too stereotypically loud and coarse, but this show seemed to overcome the disconnect between the voice/face performers and the guys inside the costumes. Good one.