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.

Fraggle Blog - Born to Wander

Episode IIIxv, written by B.P. Nichol.

Gerry Parkes is so, so, so great.

So is Matt's Uncle Gobo still alive?

It just occurred to me, but I guess they tried hard to leave all visible writing of any sort out of the Fraggle parts of the show, so that they could be dubbed and work internationally.

A fun episode. Neat to have a flashback about how things were when Matt was a kid.

Fraggle Blog - The Great Radish Caper

Episode IIIxiv, written by Sugith Varughese.

So they made a gigantic Junior Gorg hand to be in scale with the full-size Fraggles!

Mokey is wearing a pull top from a can. Is that new?

Junior's farewell letter writing speech sounded weird, like it was recorded at two different times and edited together.

Mokey thinks she can make everything right by returning Geraldine to Junior Gorg...but of course, by picking the radish, the Fraggles have killed Geraldine, who was after all a living thing.

Also...why does Geraldine have a regular human-type name? Well, I guess there are a few Fraggles with regular names. Like Marlon Fraggle.

"What are friends for?", is what Mokey asks at the end. And that's one of the very best things about this show: The aversion to overt moralizing. There's no one moment when Junior and Mokey realize that they have become friends. No bonding moment. It happens, and we realize it, but it seems that the characters themselves never quite do. That, of course, is a bit more difficult to write and play successfully than the obvious, hit-em-over-the-head type moment most shows would have.

Fraggle Blog - Scared Silly

Episode IIIxiii, written by Jocelyn Stevenson.

Now that's nice consistency. It was just an episode or two ago that Doc installed Sprocket's doggie door, and Sprocket just used it.

Seriously...how the heck does Wembley's eye mechanism work?

Marjory speaks out against revenge. Good for her!

Goelz is Philo, Hunt is Gunge. Not sure I knew that.

A Traveling Matt postcard with no intro. (Only an outro.)

I love the way Goelz makes Boober walk, especially towards the camera. Very funny.

Okay, Boober just kissed Wembley. Wow.

Hmm, this "Very Scary" song has great staging and cutting too. It's a trend!

Is it quite, quite perfectly in character for Boober to be such a connoisseur of scaring people?

Um...Wembley is being pretty stupid. Not that he was ever a font of intelligence...but he's being really dumb.

In all, an enjoyable episode.

Fraggle Blog - Gobo's School for Explorers

Episode IIIxii, written by David Young.

Okay...Sprocket's barking at Gobo. And he and the other Fraggles seem to regard Sprocket as a scary creature. I thought that was a communication barrier that had been eroded. Isn't that what's supposed to be happening as the show evolves? All the characters grow to understand each other? Disappointing.

Sure had been a while since we saw Gobo retrieve a postcard.

A couple of good songs in this episode. And the last one, "Face Facts, Pack Snacks, Make Tracks" had some very clever, well thought out staging and editing. Very nicely done.

Matt is really sort of a Cantus-like character. I love that about this show, that the authority figures are very questionable.

Wow, some really great staging in this episode in general. Great camera shots. Kudos to George Bloomfield.

Maybe part of the pleasure of this episode is that we're getting some brand new sets?

Wow...couldn't they have lowered that parachute a little more smoothly?

Okay, this was a really neat episode, the lapse in Fraggle/canine relations notwithstanding. Think for yourself! Throw away the rules! Of course, this thinking could get you into a lot of trouble too. But this was definitely one of the best episodes. Seems like it had a bigger budget than most, and we got new sets and elaborate staging. Yay!