Help Save British Fraggle Rock Episodes

[anathema]

in some unrelated topic i decided to see if there was any eps of the uk version on youtube and there is i don't if any has said this yet the eps are marooned and the bells of fraggle rock this is getting exciting

Yes, they've been up for quite a while now. Both were known to exist prior to this - 'Marooned' was released on VHS in the 80s, and there are at least a couple of off-air recordings of 'Bells' knocking about.

 

[anathema]

There is something rather strange, If the paper work is missing how on earth did UK FR episodes get put on DVD?

Presumably the paperwork for those 12 episodes survived along with the tapes. The last I heard, those 12 were the only ones Henson had; I don't know when or where they acquired the tapes, but it's more than likely that they would have received the documentation at the same time.

 

[BlueFrackle]

I imagine that those 12 were the ones they kept as samples of the UK episodes.

 

[johnpeters999]

I still wonder if the rushes of the UK section were just all put onto a few tapes? instead of having 90 odd tapes, there would only need 3 which contain all the 4-5min worth of each episode from the uk, again there would need to be edited back in etc.? that very possible is it not?

 

[anathema]

It's possible, but all the tapes were junked.

 

[anathema]

I've added recording and broadcast details to the list: http://www.nightshade.org.uk/fraggleuk.html

For clarity, the column labelled 'Broadcast' lists the seven series that the episodes were split into for transmission, as noted in TVTimes. The UK segments were actually produced as four series, each of 24 episodes and corresponding roughly to the US production blocks; these are listed in the 'Production' column.

Things to note:
- the UK production series correspond roughly to the US production blocks, but episodes weren't always taped in the same order
- 'The Bells of Fraggle Rock' was part of the third US block, but the UK brought it forward to the second series, displacing 'Manny's Land of Carpets' which would eventually be produced in the fourth and final series
- 'Bells' was also first broadcast before all of the first-series episodes had been shown

The lighthouse-keeper for the first two production series was the Captain, played by Fulton Mackay. Mackay died in mid-1987, so when production resumed that autumn there was a new keeper, the Captain's nephew 'PK' ('principal keeper'), who was introduced in the episode 'Born to Wander'. PK was played by John Gordon Sinclair, but he only stayed for one production series. The final series saw a new keeper 'BJ', the son of the lighthouse's owner, played by Simon O'Brien. He was introduced in 'Gone, But Not Forgotten'. The show ended with the lighthouse being converted to automatic operation, paralleling real-world operational changes, and BJ and Sprocket left to take up a new job as caretaker of a local castle, where they found another Fraggle-hole.

 

[BlueFrackle]

Apparently Saturdays CITV episode will be "episode 1" - that's what in their system, fingers crossed that its the UK Episode 1!

 

[MuppetDanny]

Apparently Saturdays CITV episode will be "episode 1" - that's what in their system, fingers crossed that its the UK Episode 1!

Thanks Warrick

Any ideas on the Sunday's episode?

 

[BlueFrackle]

No idea yet, it'd be nice if it was the final episode. It'd be good to have that in better quality.

 

[johnpeters999]

So where has this UK Ep1 come from?