Fraggle Blog - postscript

So that's it. I just finished watching all the special features on the fifth disc of the final DVD set.

Fraggle Rock was a really special show, and I'm so glad I took the time to watch it all. I've tried to be analytical as I kept this blog, and as usual I've tried to figure out -- no matter how great a thing is -- how it could be better. But somehow that final episode swept away all my critical thinking, and I feel there's nothing more to say but what a great, truly noble show it was. Watching it all has been a great experience, and I'm the richer for it.

Fraggle Blog - Change of Address

Episode Vxiii, written by Jerry Juhl.

Somehow I knew the final episode would be written by Jerry Juhl.

Gobo has brained himself on the Gorg well for the last time.

They're moving to the desert!

I guess if the Fraggles speak English, they can read English too!

Sprocket is hysterical.

Jerome Crystal is Doc's name?

Another human voice! That of the mover.

"You cannot leave the magic". So says Marjory.

Cheesy model airplane. But Sprocket as the grandfather on the plane: Hilarious. (Jerry Juhl in the background, too.)

"Everything's magic, if you see it that way." -- Gobo

A beautiful ending.

Magic.

Fraggle Blog - The Honk of Honks

Episode Vxii, written by Jocelyn Stevenson.

"He's so ambiguously exact." Mokey about Cantus.

Nice episode. I like how decisively they set about ending the series. By golly, Doc's going to see a Fraggle! And he did. Clearly they're leading up to the final episode, entitled "Change of Address", with Doc having to move to be with his friend Ned Shimmelfinney. I see now that they were planting seeds for this; wasn't it in the previous episode that they were talking about Shimmelfinney's asthma? Maybe it comes off as just a bit contrived...a character we've never even met suddenly is spurring the "break up" of the entire show. It would be nice if it could be someone we cared about a bit more, like maybe Sprocket?

Still, this episode nicely brought out the series' overall, driving point: If we can all just get to know one another, we'll see that we're not so different from each other, and that we're all connected to and dependent upon each other. Nice too, as Muppet Wiki points out, that there are elements in this episode that consciously echo the shows from the first season.

Fraggle Blog - The Gorg Who Would Be King

Episode Vxi, written by Laura Phillips.

Camping! Outdoors!

I like the idea of a change in monarchs being tied to a natural phenomenon like a leaf falling.

What a pretty song Junior sang! It must be noted that the music seems to have gotten a lot better since the first season.

This is a neat episode. I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen next! Junior just disappeared! What's next?

There's something very weird about the Junior Gorg hand puppet. Nice though that they even built blinking eyes into the puppet.

So...were the Gorgs really unaware of Marjory before? I wouldn't have said so.

Marjory quotes The Stones!

Junior's learning not to thump!

"We each lead ourselves and we all lead each other." Thus spake Wembley, summing up nicely the entire Fraggle way of life.

Wembley didn't know Doozer constructions were made from radishes? I hope they did their fact checking...

Nice idea, showing the bomb on wheels and showing it whizzing past.

Really great episode. Love how they tied it all together at the end, with Doc and Sprocket finding the discarded Gorg crown. Junior has always been such a dunderhead, but he got enlightenment just in the nick of time, and learned "first hand" about the Fraggles' lives, and the Doozers' too. His first and only act as King was to abolish the title, because the universe seemed to run pretty well all on its own. I'm not sure exactly what kind of a political statement that makes, or how practical it is in terms of maintaining civilization...but I do love the overall "global thinking" of this show, and this episode in particular.

Fraggle Blog - Inspector Red

Episode Vx, written by Jerry and Susan Juhl.

I like how that song of Red's adds a beat in there. Fun song!

Oh, another Matt in Outer Space segment!

Who were all those weird creatures who popped up and said "You've lost your toupee"?

Fun idea to have a Sam Spade-like episode!

Marlon Fraggle is a dark, dark soul.

Hmm, the Juhls were billed with Susan first on this episode. Is that standard for when they write together? At any rate, a fun, different episode. And an excellent performance by Karen Prell as Red. Much fun to watch.

Fraggle Blog - Ring Around The Rock

Episode Vix, written by Sugith Varughese.

The show's almost over, and the things (mistakes, really) that bugged me in the intro are still bugging me...Make sure to get your title segment perfect, folks!

Ma and Pa Gorg have been married 513 years. If Junior is 473 as he said, that means they were married 40 years before they had Junior.

Ooh, Junior can play that instrument!

Okay, Pa Gorg is a sexy beast. They way he just said "The honeymoon...", he was definitely talking about sex. And in a kids' show! Horrors!

And now "My passion hath no patience"!

Now, it's not clear why Gobo thinks the ring's gone for good, as he says to Junior. He's been to Outer Space before, why would it be out of the question for him to go again to retrieve the ring?

What a nice episode! While ostensibly about tradition, it was really an excuse for Varughese to get the Gorg's wedding ring passed around among every major group of characters in the show. The Gorgs, Fraggles, Doozers, Uncle Matt, and Doc/Sprocket all came in contact with the ring. I love a good concept like that.

Interesting also that they seem to have completely abandoned the idea of the Uncle Matt Outer Space segments. I wonder if there will be any more in the last four episodes?

Fraggle Blog - Mokey Then and Now

Episode Vviii, written by Jocelyn Stevenson.

Boober has a stocking hat/shower cap thingee on, and he still doesn't have eyes.

Now, that was a weird episode. It was fun, I enjoyed it, but I can't say I detected any sort of "theme", "lesson", or "moral" in it. Kind of a nice change, actually! It just showed us how Fraggle society used to be. And it took Mokey to usher in the change to a more free and fun-loving way of life!

Fraggle Blog - Gone, But Not Forgotten

Episode Vvii, written by Laura Phillips.

I like Mudwell's logic about scarcity. And he's got a nice, folksy, Burl Ives-y singing voice.

Ooh, but he's kinda schizo.

How frustrating it must be for Sprocket that he can't talk. He's somewhere between Pluto and Goofy on the evolutionary dog chain.

What the heck was that? Boober and Wembley and the blankets...?

Oh, I guess this is the many weird ways the Fraggles have of dealing with death...

"We'll meet again, someday/Just a dream away"...that's what we hear Mudwell singing at the end.

That was a strange but nice episode. A sensitive way to deal with grieving for someone who died. The whole "mudbunny" premise is pretty weird. So he lies down next to a pit of boiling mud to die, and then he turns into some sort of mudbunny-shaped mud lump, then a lizard pops out. Very strange. But really, nicely handled as far as the grieving part goes. Very nice, sensitive performance by Whitmire. And Mudwell was a very strong Richard Hunt character; he accomplished a lot in a very limited amount of screen time.

Fraggle Blog - Beyond the Pond

Episode Vvi, written by Jocelyn Stevenson.

Hah! Doc to Sprocket: "And it's the tree where you...well, it's your favorite tree too."

Hmm...this, to me, is the unfortunate way that many Fraggle Rock episodes begin. Something that we've never heard of before -- in this case, knobblies -- suddenly presents a problem that the entire show will be about trying to solve. Not that I want to condemn the show in the first five minutes -- this could definitely get good. In fact, this whole Red swimming sequence is cool...

The Merggles are kind of fun...but why did they have to be so stupid as to lock up Red in a cage when she's their only hope for help? For the convenience of the plot, methinks.

A fun episode, and neat that there is a whole new race of people introduced so late in the series. I don't really want to rag on this episode too much, but yesterday's River of Life dealt with essentially the same theme, and handled it better. It didn't introduce a whole new group of people, it used what we already know, totally integrated the Doc/Sprocket storyline into the Fraggle one, and spun it all into something great. There need to be all different types of episodes, and this one was fun, but I don't think it was anything like the achievement of River of Life.

Something I suspect is that the many different "storylines" of this show -- Doc/Sprocket, Fraggles, Doozers, Gorgs, Uncle Matt -- made it difficult to write for. The structure kind of took over, and inhibited the writers with the need they felt to try to cover too many bases in each episode. It's possible to pull this off without an apparent strain, and the best episodes do just that. I dunno, it's a delicate balance, and of course the overall structure is one of the things that makes the show so special to begin with. But it must have been a challenging show to write for.

Fraggle Blog - The River Of Life

Episode Vv, written by David Young.

I don't suppose there's any sort of intentional wordplay on "Fraggle" and "Fragile"? As in, the balance of life is a very "fragile" one? I've never heard that mentioned. It just struck me.

Now this is a clever plot twist!

Boober is such a fully realized, totally believable character. Goelz plays his scenes with such interesting, delicate choices.

"We're talking science and facts!" says Doc. Interesting that they make science the enemy of truth here.

Marjory refers to Outer Space as "up there". Interesting.

Oh, Junior actually thumped Boober -- a finger flick to the nose!

A really, really great episode. What a fantastic script. There was so much going on, always crystal clear, perfectly motivated. I just loved it. Boober kneeling at the hole to Outer Space, it was like he was praying, praying to someone he wasn't sure was out there or was listening. And then he decided that that wasn't enough, and he needed to do something! An incredibly profound episode about life, interconnectivity, science, ecology, money, fear. Awesome. And all capped by an amazing, complex performance by Dave Goelz as Boober. Boober is one of the greatest Muppet characters ever.

Fraggle Blog - The Trial of Cotterpin Doozer

Episode Viv, written by Jerry Juhl.

That Tumbrell Doozer sounds like Marlon Brando.

Cool, Red is actually helping the Doozers build their constructions. That's something you wouldn't have seen at the beginning of the show.

Them Doozers got a corrupt court.

"So help you Doozerdom". The Doozers have no god!

Nice episode, featuring characters not often in the spotlight. And Doc and Sprocket outdoors again! I think if the show had continued on, we would have seen them in many other locations.

Fraggle Blog - The Voice Inside

Episode Viii, written by Laura Phillips.

Ooh, nice shot! This is amazing, Doc and Sprocket outdoors!

Wow, freaky weird fantasy (?) song sequence with Gobo doing a hat and cane dance number!

Sprocket gets a song! Or part of one, at least. Great to see him trotting along in the Rock with Gobo and Wrench.

Wrench was almost buried alive in a pile of Rice Krispies!

Now that's an interesting lesson...sometimes we have gut feelings about things, and we should trust them. Is that true? At any rate, a fun episode. Sprocket should have his own series.