Is Dinosaurs Really Muppet Worlds?

[RedPiggy]

That drup episode isn't the only time they broke the 4th wall. Earl and Baby would frequently comment to the camera in multiple episodes. Also, during the A New Leaf episode, Robbie, high as a kite, starts wondering if they're being watched "in a parallel universe, somewhere" and points at the camera, which then follows his finger movements.

References weren't easy to spot unless you practically live, breathe, and eat the Muppets.

Off-hand, the most overt reference is Ethyl's brother Elmo. Most of the time, though, they just make off-hand comments, like when Earl suggests to BP Richfield at some point that they should make something educational, and BP gripes that this isn't "public television". "Nuts to War" introduces a hole in the wall, where a "cookie creature" harasses Baby Sinclair and looks like (to me, anyway) a common ancestor to gorgs and fraggles (in that it resembles a balder gorg of doozer height and comes from an independently lighted tunnel from under the house), though it is a creature, not a muppet. That episode also repeats many themes to be found in Fraggle Rock. An episode where Baby and Earl are watching a show of sock puppets leads to references that the Muppets were thought to be just a kid's show (Fran dislikes kid's shows), to which Earl protests by breaking the 4th wall and commenting that the writing is clearly skewed to adults. So, yeah, the references are usually just in-jokes or thematic repetitions.

 

[minor muppetz]

There was also a reference in Georgie Must Die. On the se tof Georgie's show,there are a number of street signs, one of which is "Says Me Street".

 

[Redsonga]

I don't see any of the shows as them being just actors, except with Dinosaurs (Which had such a depressing ending it was best they were just actors I think).

It takes all the fun out of things for me think that what they did isn't 'real' even if there isn't 'one canon to rule them all'. That could be why I see each muppet movie as their own connected AUs where everything in them really happened...

This could be why, to, I never cared for 'The Fraggles Look For Jobs' since it implies that some place magical like Fraggle Rock was just a set to them to :\.
I mean it's fine and dandy when it is just a show in the real world but when a stories characters start say it is all just an act, magic and all, it is really disheartening to the story they 'lived' and the place they lived in IMHO. Since FR wasn't just characters, it was a whole world to...

And yes, I am the type of viewer that doesn't like blooper reels..I know, I know, everyone else loves them *lol*

 

[beaker]

I don't see any of the shows as them being just actors, except with Dinosaurs (Which had such a depressing ending it was best they were just actors I think).

It takes all the fun out of things for me think that what they did isn't 'real' even if there isn't 'one canon to rule them all'. That could be why I see each muppet movie as their own connected AUs where everything in them really happened...

This could be why, to, I never cared for 'The Fraggles Look For Jobs' since it implies that some place magical like Fraggle Rock was just a set to them to :\.
I mean it's fine and dandy when it is just a show in the real world but when a stories characters start say it is all just an act, magic and all, it is really disheartening to the story they 'lived' and the place they lived in IMHO. Since FR wasn't just characters, it was a whole world to...

And yes, I am the type of viewer that doesn't like blooper reels..I know, I know, everyone else loves them *lol*

Well I didn't always think that. It's just, the more I thought about it...everytime Kermit, Piggy, Gonzo, Pepe, etc were interviewed they would say that what happened in the movies was just part of the script.

Personally I don't think it takes away at all any part of the magic or message of the Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, Sesame, Bear in the Big Blue House, etc to think they're actors on sets within the canon. I literally cry every time I see the final episode of Fraggle Rock, I well up with goosebumps and awe whenever Cantus sings a song.

With the Muppets Remember Jim Henson from 1990, I always cry when Fozzie reads the letters and realizes JH is no more.

The chemistry, sadness and heartfelt emotion in The Muppets Take Manhattan could not be any more stronger now than when I saw it in theaters as a child.

Now I guess there is a loose basic canon within the three franchises. In TMTM we see Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock represented at the end. And in Muppets Family Christmas its both a Muppets and Sesame special equally, with Fraggle Rock too(who, within Muppet canon live in fraggle caves that stretch out to under Fozzie's moms place)

So you are right, that there is a sort of loose Muppet canon. Where Fraggles live in caves, and Kermit came from a swamp.
I do acknowledge Fraggles Look For Jobs as part of Muppet canon, however Fraggles even as actors I would wager really do come from such magical caves...as Kermit comes from a swamp.

On another thread, someone was trying to tell me that Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, etc. were no longer considered Muppets legally.

To that I answer with: http://www.sesamestreet.org/muppet
Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, and any non creature shop Jim Henson company puppets(Puppet Up, Animal Jam, Pajanimals), etc will forever always be Muppets.

 

[Redsonga]

I dunno, it just takes away something when I think their emotions are just acted by the characters themselves. I see it more as an in joke from the performers than actual canon that the fraggles, or any of them, are just playing parts .
Most of all I think 'Fraggles look for jobs' was meant as a joke, not a serious take on the fraggles acting ...

 

[Drtooth]

And whoah...the puppet of Gunge was in Dinosaurs several times? No way! whoah. I remember Jerry Nelson said Fizgig had a cameo in an episode of Fraggle Rock.

Oh yeah... I swear I saw him in the fridge several times. I want to say that the puppet was used in "Refrigerator Day" when Earl was trying to get something from the Fridge and Fran said they were fasting for the holiday... and the little furry animal he was holding was Gunge, who said "A couple days fasting wouldn't exactly kill you there, Slim!" I want to, but I don't think it's 100 percent correct now that I think of it.

I also seem to remember Gunge being in "I Never Ate for my Father" in the mouth of the dinosaur that ate Robbie... the little creature that kept saying "INCOMING!"

 

[Redsonga]

I remember him in the fridge!o.o But I never connected him with FR for some reason...

 

[beaker]

I dunno, it just takes away something when I think their emotions are just acted by the characters themselves. I see it more as an in joke from the performers than actual canon that the fraggles, or any of them, are just playing parts .
Most of all I think 'Fraggles look for jobs' was meant as a joke, not a serious take on the fraggles acting ...

We I think it could be both, or at least we see Fraggles interact with Muppets and Sesame Street(MTM, MFC, Remembering Jim Henson, etc) I like the idea of "outer space", I think it bridges the gap.

Within canon, perhaps the Fraggle main group were in Fraggle Rock but then had to get jobs. There was going to be a new Fraggle Rock short for the dvd, and we see Red visiting the San Diego Comic Con last year

Youre right, it would be strange for JHC to create this fantastic world with deep resonating culture and story only to render it all just set pieces and such.

I remember in 1993 Uncle Matt and some Doozers appearing on Good Morning America to promote the Disney vhs release, so I take it Fraggle characters take quite a liberty with outer space(and time travel, since we see Sprocket in Muppet Treasure Island)

 

[beaker]

I remember him in the fridge!o.o But I never connected him with FR for some reason...

Maybe there's a portal from Fraggle Rock world to 60 some odd million years BC

 

[RedPiggy]

Well, considering he's never named Gunge either through dialogue or in the credits (you're just supposed to recognize him, that's all) ... and he obviously isn't voiced by Hunt (or by the same person at all, really) ... I just took it as either an ancestor of Philo/Gunge's species or Gunge (just inconsistently voiced) was acting on their show like the dinosaurs were.