15 Favorite Episodes

I wanted to make note of my 15 favorite Fraggle Rock episodes, in order of airing:

Iviii The Terrible Tunnel

Ixvi Capture the Moon

Ixviii The Minstrels

IIi Wembley's Egg

IIii Boober Rock

IIvi Boober's Dream

IIIi The Bells of Fraggle Rock

IIIxii Gobo's School for Explorers

IIIxiv The Great Radish Caper

IVii Wembley's Wonderful Whoopie Water

IViii Sidebottom Blues

Vv The River of Life

Vix Ring Around the Rock

Vxi The Gorg Who Would Be King

Vxiii Change of Address

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?