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Gorgon Heap
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I agree with your points, Matleo. I was surprised when I received some early episodes how odd they were. The characters seemed different, at least some of them- in "Catch a Tail by the Tiger", Jerry wasn't playing Gobo very energetically. Gobo's voice was lower and he only sounded like the Gobo we know when he sang. Boober also sounded different, his voice was higher and kinda stilted (like he was overdoing the pronounciation of each word). In "We Love you Wembley" Mokey was just shrill. I think it's because the performers were still trying to find their footing as to the playing of their characters. The only ones who seemed to be there right from the start were Red and Wembley. Karen Prell found the voice for Red right away, and Steve Whitmire had passionately wanted to play Wembley so he probably had a good idea of how to do the character before he ever began.
The early episodes can seem kind of sluggish, and non-energetic. The pace is slow both in terms of action and also the reading of dialogue. The show looked different, too.
The other thing was it was sometimes difficult to ascertain what the message of the early shows was. In 'Tiger' the main idea is not to do things just because others expect them of you. But there are other possibilities, like not feeling you have to do something you're scared of doing, or doing maybe about doing them. In "We Love you Wembley" it starts out by being about how the other Fraggles are always asking Wembley for help and how they're simultaneously pulling him in different directions, and then in the middle it's about Wembley going along with Mokey's conviction that he's in love. The point of each episode sometimes got muddled in the early days. As the show went on they were able to pursue a theme straight down-the-line to make it apparent, but in the early shows it's hard to assess what we're actually supposed to be getting from this.
As to when the show got to be good, or when it hit it's stride, all the second season episodes I've seen were at least good, so I would say by the second season the writers, directors, and performers had all found their footing.
David "Gorgon Heap" Ebersole
The early episodes can seem kind of sluggish, and non-energetic. The pace is slow both in terms of action and also the reading of dialogue. The show looked different, too.
The other thing was it was sometimes difficult to ascertain what the message of the early shows was. In 'Tiger' the main idea is not to do things just because others expect them of you. But there are other possibilities, like not feeling you have to do something you're scared of doing, or doing maybe about doing them. In "We Love you Wembley" it starts out by being about how the other Fraggles are always asking Wembley for help and how they're simultaneously pulling him in different directions, and then in the middle it's about Wembley going along with Mokey's conviction that he's in love. The point of each episode sometimes got muddled in the early days. As the show went on they were able to pursue a theme straight down-the-line to make it apparent, but in the early shows it's hard to assess what we're actually supposed to be getting from this.
As to when the show got to be good, or when it hit it's stride, all the second season episodes I've seen were at least good, so I would say by the second season the writers, directors, and performers had all found their footing.
David "Gorgon Heap" Ebersole
I think Convincing John was one of the best Fraggle bits. I also liked the Red and Mokey bit too.