Fraggle Rock turns 26!

[frogboy4]

The Fraggle Rock 26th anniversary celebration menu is up on the main page of Muppet Central.

​

I remember growing up in a household without cable television and had to catch whatever episodes were available when visiting my grandparents' house in Baltimore. They were both deaf for their entire lives (that's an interesting story in itself) so they had two closed caption televisions next together in their den. That resulted in being able to watch any program I wanted without disturbing their regular routine of watching the news and other programs. They were wonderful and amazing people so it was a bonus to be able to both see them and see an episode or two of such a great program.

26 years ago I was 8 years old going on 9. After all that time it's great to know I can finally watch every episode ever made on DVD. Thank you Jerry, Karen, Dave, Steve, Kathy, Richard, Terry, Jim, Jerry, Gerry and so many others on creating memories for this fan!

 

[Muppet Newsgirl]

26 years ago, I wasn't even born. But my brother was around.

And as a lot of people have said, Fraggle's more than 20 years old, but the message and the content aren't dated at all. Sure, the Silly Creatures' clothes might date it, but everything else is really fresh.

Let me second you in that toast, frogboy4: here's to the Fraggles, and all the (very) Silly Creatures who were responsible for creating this swell show.

 

[Redsonga]

That makes me feel old and young at the same time (a very odd feeling *pokes it and watches as it swirls like a lava lamp*).
Like I said a million times before I only saw the honest to goodness show for the first time when I was 12 (1995?) and our PBS for some reason showed one episode at a weird hour in the afternoon on Saturdays for only about two months. I remember because I got suddenly obsessed with finding out the real name for these blower thingies and I would dig around in our back yard a lot for ...something ; ). Um..oh and I tried a radish for the first time and hated them *lol*

But before then, when I was little I didn't even know FR was a tv show (since we had no cable what so ever, just free tv) I thought it was just a toy line : 3.
Since before I can remember I had a Fraggle Rocker drum (note to self: Try actually playing real drums someday, I might be okay at it) and when the Fraggle Rock Happy Meal toys were new I was right there in line pressing my little face up against the display and drooling over the cookie wheels . I played with my Red for years and years and can still remember the talk I had with my daddy while going home:

Me:"What's its' name?
Daddy:"Red."
Me: *poking at hair* " I know its red but what's its name?"
Daddy: -.-

I also remember disliking Mokey just because her car was an eggplant :\ (which is still on of my most hated vegetables).
Oh well, history is funny when you live though it .

Happy birthday Fraggle Rock, I'm so sorry I didn't know you sooner, you would have gone along fine with my Garfield and Friends watching

 

[Redsonga]

Well you see I never saw their real show so I couldn't have known they were muppety

 

[bazooka_beak]

I was a year old. To be honest, I didn't get to see it during it's original run - we didn't have HBO, or maybe I didn't even know the show existed at the time. I was too busy with Rainbow Brite and She-Ra

 

[Redsonga]

I was a year old. To be honest, I didn't get to see it during it's original run - we didn't have HBO, or maybe I didn't even know the show existed at the time. I was too busy with Rainbow Brite and She-Ra

My Little Pony, Rainbow Bright, Strawberry Shortcake, The Last Unicorn, The Neverending Story, Care Bears, Smurfs, The Chipmunk Adventure, and a side order of GI JOE, Ghostbusters, Popples, Bravestarr and Blackstar and for me .
That's not to say I wouldn't have loved them just as much

 

[Drtooth]

As one of the many that didn't grow up with cable, and had to actually watch the animated version on NBC (why they didn't just edit the episodes and re-air them instead is beyond me), I first saw an episode only several years ago (I swear I did see at least one episode when I was younger, but I don't remember it, and it could even be a false memory at that). And I have to say this...

I love the Muppet Show, I love Sesame Street... both I really love with my entire heart, but I think that Fraggle Rock has a much more interesting concept behind it... we see the behaviors of ourselves acted out by 4 different groups, The Fraggles, the Doozers, the Gorgs and Doc and Sprocket... We even see their similar problems acted out by them in different, yet similar ways... Wembly trying to change from Wembling at a bad time while Doc is trying to think positively while he can't turn the water back on, getting increasingly frustrated. Once again, I love the others, but it's so much more complex than a stage show being produced or a street where we learn letters and numbers.

Honestly, I think FR is a much deeper delve into Henson and Co's creative minds... SS has monsters, animals, grouches, Honkers, Dingers, humanoids and humans... TMS has Koosbanians, whatevers, live stock and Fruits and vegetables added to that... but Fraggle Rock... Gorgs, Fraggles, Doozers, Poison Cacklers, and hundreds of other unnamed and unidentified species all dwelling in different parts.... it has a much more whimsical sense to it... of course, that's like comparing what's sweeter, sugar or syrup.

I am glad we've got all the episodes on DVD... sure, maybe not in the way we wanted... but remember, Warrick was the one who had the vision to say, "It needs to come back, it should come back" and I agree with "If What's Happenin' can be on DVD, Fraggles deserved a shot."

And look what's on the Horizon... a movie... something they tried to do in the 80's, and it never took off. A Fraggle Movie would have been unthinkable years ago... but now is the time, and we're going to see the Fraggles come back in an even bigger way.

 

[superboober]

An interesting quote there, "perhaps something they tried to do in the 80s." Now if they actually did at some point consider it, THAT would probably rank as one of the ultimate Lost Grails of Muppetdom. Surely if true, they might have had something intriguing in the pipeline.

More personally, I was 1 at the time of the premiere, but within a year had become hooked (or rather, HOOKED). For a good while I was convinced that if I could just dig up the basement floor, I'd find Fraggle tunnels, and further, that every cave system connected with it somehow. Moreover, when viewing the HBO Next On & Tonight On bumpers before and after the show, I pretended there were on the screen doing the promos, which made them all the more interesting (towards the end of its run, when the network had adopted outer space-themed bumpers, I pretended they, Doc and Sprocket were hosting them and the whole breaks from a control room inside the HBO spaceship from the immortal introductory sequence)

An intriguing incident I can relate is that around the time of my sister's birth during the show's 3rd season, my family got smashed into by another car (nothing major) in the hospital parking lot. Perhaps not too unsurprisingly, my uncle reacted by unleashing a tirade of profanity at the guilty driver, and I, unknowingly, repeated it verbatim once inside the hospital (probably an aftereffect of the high-end autism that still plagues me), much to the nurses' abject horror. Fortuitously, this embarassing incident was quickly quelled when the show came on the TV in the waiting room, and I quickly reverted my happy show state--namely, rocking from side to side on each foot during the theme song, assuming at age 3 that this constituted "dancing."

To those of you who were older at the time of the premiere, when did you first hear the show was coming, and what was your first opinion given what you saw/heard from that moment?

 

[The Shoe Fairy]

As one of the many that didn't grow up with cable, and had to actually watch the animated version on NBC (why they didn't just edit the episodes and re-air them instead is beyond me), I first saw an episode only several years ago (I swear I did see at least one episode when I was younger, but I don't remember it, and it could even be a false memory at that). And I have to say this...

I love the Muppet Show, I love Sesame Street... both I really love with my entire heart, but I think that Fraggle Rock has a much more interesting concept behind it... we see the behaviors of ourselves acted out by 4 different groups, The Fraggles, the Doozers, the Gorgs and Doc and Sprocket... We even see their similar problems acted out by them in different, yet similar ways... Wembly trying to change from Wembling at a bad time while Doc is trying to think positively while he can't turn the water back on, getting increasingly frustrated. Once again, I love the others, but it's so much more complex than a stage show being produced or a street where we learn letters and numbers.

Honestly, I think FR is a much deeper delve into Henson and Co's creative minds... SS has monsters, animals, grouches, Honkers, Dingers, humanoids and humans... TMS has Koosbanians, whatevers, live stock and Fruits and vegetables added to that... but Fraggle Rock... Gorgs, Fraggles, Doozers, Poison Cacklers, and hundreds of other unnamed and unidentified species all dwelling in different parts.... it has a much more whimsical sense to it... of course, that's like comparing what's sweeter, sugar or syrup.

I am glad we've got all the episodes on DVD... sure, maybe not in the way we wanted... but remember, Warrick was the one who had the vision to say, "It needs to come back, it should come back" and I agree with "If What's Happenin' can be on DVD, Fraggles deserved a shot."

And look what's on the Horizon... a movie... something they tried to do in the 80's, and it never took off. A Fraggle Movie would have been unthinkable years ago... but now is the time, and we're going to see the Fraggles come back in an even bigger way.

Well, I agree. The Fraggles are coming back, and that makes me glad. FR has acquired a cult following amongst some of my friends, including myself, and so Fraggle Rock is a frequently joked at and quoted thing. To add to this the movie is coming, and here our tv station ABC2 is now airing FR, and they are only up to episode 109, so it will gain popularity in this nation for some months to come. I do believe the reason for airing it is to hype up the movie, and frankly, that is a great thing!

I also remember disliking Mokey just because her car was an eggplant :\ (which is still on of my most hated vegetables).
Oh well, history is funny when you live though it .

Happy birthday Fraggle Rock, I'm so sorry I didn't know you sooner, you would have gone along fine with my Garfield and Friends watching

I agree. I discovered FR only after I found Muppet wiki, and I have loved it since. Lol the eggplant thing is funny, but eggplant is my favourite vegetable . Anyway, Happy Bday Fraggle Rock, and I hope you entertain me and my mates for years to come!

 

[RedRocker]

Awesome! I love Fraggle Rock, maybe even more than the Muppet Show itself, and even though I wasn't around 26 years ago, I still watch the re-runs on Pop, Tiny Pop and Cartoonito today.