Help Save British Fraggle Rock Episodes

[mostlikemokey]

They can find missing episodes of Dr. Who, but we have to dig tooth and nail to find fraggle rock. I'm happy for Who, but I wish they'd give Henson as much attention.

*uses sonic screwdriver to convert found fraggle rock episodes to useable file for the TARDIS*

 

[anathema]

The recent recovery was the first major find for over 20 years, and nobody thought it would ever happen. There probably are more Doctor Who episodes out there, but - up until now - it was generally thought that we might find an odd episode in a private collection but nothing more than that. Recovering two complete (or near-complete) stories from a TV archive was something of a miracle.

Fraggle was at least from the home-video age, so off-air recordings could exist. Who pre-dates that time.

 

[mostlikemokey]

Good point. Hey, they could have fallen through a time warp or something. XD
And I meant to be a bit tongue and cheek in the above post. As you said, they were found against astronomical odds.

 

[Kermieuk]

Did the UK episodes ever get broadcast in any other countries or did they always use the US versions in countries which didn't co produce there own versions??

Chris

 

[anathema]

So far as we know the US/Canadian version was used in all countries bar the UK, France and Germany.

 

[anathema]

News!

Another 15 episodes have been recovered! They're all off-air recordings, and most are missing their opening and/or closing titles with a few also missing a few seconds from the opening/closing scenes, but they are substantially complete. The titles are:

I Don't Care
Catch the Tail by the Tiger
The Finger of Light
The Challenge
New Trash Heap in Town
Uncle Matt Comes Home
Boober and the Glob
The Secret Society of Poohbahs
The Incredible Shrinking Mokey
Wembley's Wonderful Whoopiee Water
The Grapes of Generosity
The Cavern of Lost Dreams
Playing 'til it Hurts
Junior Faces the Music
Beyond the Pond

Details and screenshots are on my site as usual.

With this discovery, we now have 82 episodes known to exist in some form.

 

[theSHE124]

Calm down, new member! I'm sure Alex is getting your message by now!

 

[johnpeters999]

Challenge TV is having one more final try at getting TVS Catchphrase. This does mean someone will have to look out the archive/paperwork/ ex employers IF some progress is actually made. Hold your horse its a very long way away yet.

The main reason why DW episodes are still turning up is because there were sent around the world. The is a chance somewhere in the ITV archive some copies could be held since like crossroads etc things were moved around. of ITV would have to look out for stuff, while cleaning out the archives.

The point about "Brian Henson" for him to be puzzled is puzzling, since there have not released a proper UK series dics, unless the trouble has been really lazy DVD companies like HIT and who ever it is now.

HIT did ask Hensons archive about this and look high and low, and never got a proper answers, hence the reason why HIT never released a full DVD set.

I have to ask Anathema, what is the plan, once you have found all the episodes? Will copies be sent to the BFI? To Henson? will you continue to look for better copies of certain episodes?

 

[anathema]

I don't know anything about HIT's involvement; the original UK DVD release was from Columbia Tristar, which was when we learnt that only 12 episodes could be found.

The shows I locate are sent to Kaleidoscope, who will pass them onto the National Film Archive. And yes, I'm always on the lookout for better recordings! While we have found 82 episodes, which is an amazing total, most of these are on VHS and many are incomplete (missing titles/credits) and/or in poor condition. Only 29 are known to exist in broadcast-quality.

Copies of Fraggle were sent to other ITV broadcasters for non-networked repeat showings, but all the tapes were returned to TVS (and presumably wiped for reuse).

 

[johnpeters999]

HIT's involvement was around 2005-2008? when there held the DVD rights etc, I did email them etc and there also come back to " we don't know" and decide it would be a waste of money releasing the USA dvd.

Have you sent any details of this to Henson? Who might be able to take the best ones and release another DVD set. Just look at the improvements made to Doctor who.

What I still dont understand is WHY has the 29 broadcast-quality, episodes not been released on DVD? as the best etc. which would have been better than USA DVD?