Epic Win: Fraggle Rock
From Wikipedia:
Fraggle Rock is a children’s television series with a total of 5 seasons and 96 episodes that originally ran from January 10, 1983 to March 30, 1987 on HBO in the United States, CBC Television in Canada, TV2 in New Zealand and ITV in the UK. It was later shown in the UK on Boomerang and Cartoonito. In 2008, Fraggle Rock is showing in the UK on POP! and Tiny Pop, in Australia on Boomerang and in Canada on Teletoon Retro. The series was created by Jim Henson, primarily featuring a cast of Muppet creatures called Fraggles, with music by Philip Balsam and Dennis Lee. It was one of the first shows to be co-produced by HIT Entertainment since its foundation in 1989 when it was called Henson International Television, the international arm of Jim Henson Productions.
The vision of Fraggle Rock articulated by Jim Henson was to depict a colourful and fun world. Also a world with a relatively complex system of symbiotic relationships between different “races” of creatures, an allegory to the human world, where each group was somewhat unaware of how interconnected and important they were to one another. Creating this allegorical world allowed the program to entertain and amuse while seriously exploring complex issues of prejudice, spirituality, personal identity, environment, and social conflict. Fraggle Rock generally refused to over-simplify any individual issue, instead simply illustrating the consequences and inherent difficulties of different actions and relationships.
The show was a worldwide hit, like Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. The “Fraggle Rock Theme” reached number 33 in the British charts during the phenomenon.
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I went out and bought the DVD’s of this a while back. Some of the best money I have ever spent.
I still own every Fraggle Rock doll… each have their own case and sit up on my display case that distinctly says “only touch if you can the theme song” so far no one can ^__^
Where is your action verb?
“only touch if you can the theme song”?
.
Use an action verb! *giggles*
“DANCE THE CARES AWAY!!! *CLAP*CLAP* WORRIES FOR ANOTHER DAY!!!”
Man that was an awesome theme song…
*sings along*
*dances waving hands in the air*
*gets carried off to looney bin by co-workers*
ooh yes the fraggels are so nice they realy belongs into this site
Oh wow, that brought back some memories. I was still fairly young when it went off the air but I do remember the show and begging my mom to let me watch it. The only thing is I swear it was also shown on PBS. We never had cable growing up so there was no way I saw it on HBO but I did watch often when I was little
It was on CBS in the United States too. I clearly remember this.
I’m not crazy then!
I knew it came on a ‘free’ station
Fortunately for your sanity, I grew up with no cable also!
I don’t remember that it came on CBS but I was born in 82 so by the time Fraggle rock went off the air I was still to young to even notice the stations.
I need to amend my statement. It was on HBO and PBS not CBS. My mom corrected me lol.
“Correction from Mom”….FTW
TC it was absolutely cable based and shown only on HBO…your parents were cable pirates? (wink, wink) No matter bud, glad you got to see and love it! Kids today need to have this kinder, gentler programming SHOVED DOWN THEIR THROATS!
Ha, nope my parents didn’t ‘borrow’ the cable, I wished they had I missed out on the classics like Beavis and Butthead. Fraggle Rock had to come on a free station.
I remember it being on PBS, too, along with Sesame Street and whatnot. We had cable, but HBO costed extra and my p’s didn’t subscribe to get it… Disney, however, was apparently worth the extra money at the time. (And I agree. It was good times watching those classic cartoons without any commercials!)
Question though… How is it that Fraggle Rock “…originally ran from January 10, 1983 to March 30, 1987…” and could be “…one of the first shows to be co-produced by HIT Entertainment since its foundation in 1989…”?
Well it is afterall Wikepedia
I tried looking up more info on Fraggle rock but I was just procrastinating, I have finals all next week that I should be worried about not Fraggle Rock
Don’t procrastinate too much. You’ll go blind
I watched this show as a kid…it was my favorite. It still is :>
I think it was one of the best children shows because of all those issues it tackled. The episodes always had a good lesson for the kids to learn.
[[Wembley is my favoritest ever <3]]
I lived in a town that had to name ALL of the roads in the county for 911 purposes. One was named Fraggle Rock! I always smiled when I went past it. I had the opportunity to ask someone who lived on that road how it got that name. Everyone, including children, put names in a hat and that is the one that was drawn.
AHH! That’s SO AWESOME…. >_< Cute that they actually went with it but the sad thing is today’s kids would prolly offer up something more vulgar/stoopid
In Bremerton, Wa, we have Cookie Monster Ln, Big Bird St, and a rock-quarry rock-moving contractor named Fraggle, rock co. near Seattle. i couldn’t believe it, with the big tough guy driving the truck haha.
down @ fraggle rock *clapclap*… ah, those were the days! red is still my faves, tho!
Mokey was my favourite, the quiet poetic one. I think she might have been my first love…
I love this show! Boober is my favorite, with his sock collection.
epic….win?
EPIC WIN!
One of my favorites. A very cute show I could actually stand to watch with my young kids. Spanx for the memory! OMG, same era, HBO’s ENCYCLOPEDIA, David The Gnome…..Okay, Okay, The Smurfs were kinda cute too!
omg david the gnome!!!! i miss shows like this on tv! now my kids have stupid stuff like spongebob or fairly oddparents… so disappointing!
YAY!! Muppets on Acid!!!
There was a Jim Henson exhibit at a local museum, and Wembley and Gobo were there in little climate controlled cases. It was awesome.
Yeah, here in DC they had a Henson exhibit at one of the Smithsonians. Best museum exhibit ever!
We didn’t have cable for a long time when I was a kid, so I had to go watch this at my aunt’s house. Great songs.
I love that show… I´m from South America, we had the show totally translated into spanish, even the songs. It was the coolest shows and one of my favorites back then…
This was the reason we got HBO when I was a kid. (Okay, I’m sure my parents had other reasons; but this is why my sister and I liked HBO.) The one thing this reminds me about is the fact that you could order just HBO from your cable company. We had a switchbox: Antenna, Videogame, and HBO. It switched what source transmitted to channel 3 on the TV. Not “cable” (we didn’t get that until the late ’80s,) but just HBO.
This also reminds me of the old HBO ‘intro’, with the flying through the cityscape.
Ahhh, nostalgia. I still have my Gobo Fraggle stuffed animal. Don’t know what happened to Wembley. (I even made postcards to stuff in Gobo’s pockets.)
Sigh. I miss my Gobo. I had him for 19 years before he fell off the back of my rucksack. He used to come to all the music festivals I went to and everything. A friend bought me a new one recently. He’s nice but… not the same. I loved that show.
Hell yeah. I watched this all the time, and one fateful day, when I was sick, my mom tried to give me orange Triamenic cough syrup and I puked it all over the both of us and proceeded to the family room so as not to miss a minute of Fraggle Rock. Poor Mom. My mom and Fraggle Rock=2 EPIC wins in my lifetime
For added chuckles, Google the theme song performed in other languages – German & French are particularly comical.
One of my favorite sayings is still “Don’t be such a Wembly!” My son has a few of the dolls. And where is a talking garbage heap when you need one? Really – the best TV was puppets (muppets). Dancing my cares away still. Oh, and we watched it on CBC out of Windsor. (We live in Michigan)
Watership Fraggle: Robot Chicken Meets Fraggle Rock! (Kinda gruesome.)
This is strange, but one of my most vivid memories from when I was kid about 12 was a hallucination when I had the flu and probably a very high fever. I remember being laid out on the bench seat of my parents’ van and having a vision that doozers were constructing one of their structures over me and Gobo and Red were there having a convo about it. I was definitely awake and imagining they were right there.
i dressed as a fraggle for halloween this year. where can i post a pic of it for all of you to see?
I was born in 84, so I was very little when this was on tv. I vaguely remember it, and what I do remember of it was that it scared the snot outta me… tiny weird creatures living in/under your house… too creepy! But I think I liked the dog (there was a dog, right??)
Bought it, love it, watch it all the time. I’m so glad they released it on dvd. Now little one can enjoy the shows her dad grew up with. Seeing a toddler dance around to the theme is the cutest thing I’ve seen in a while.
*crosses fingers* Come on Eureeka’s Castle…
Cheers for the awful reminder of my childhood! You have no idea how often I heard, and how I loathed that theme tune. Any guesses why?
LOL! Poor Fergal!
When we get shipments at work that are marked “Fragile,” I always announce to the recipient that their Fraggle came in the mail.
One of the best shows of all time, in my opinion. I had every one on video tape when I was a kid and I’m getting them all on DVD now. The songs were and are excellent, the characters were endearing with both virtues and flaws, and the stories were never simple. The show never talked down to anyone watching it. I never felt patronized watching this as a kid and even now it holds up as a worthwhile show.
I am way older than Fraggle Rock, but used to enjoy watching it with my then 5 yr old son. That and Danger Mouse were the household favorites.
OMG! Danger Mouse! I LOVED Danger Mouse!! I haven’t heard that in so long…. go to http://www.dangermouse.org and you can hear the theme song. Oh geez I am such a nerd huh?
Loved the Doozers – even bought a windup Doozer kiddies toy when I was an adult…
Used to watch this while babysitting my little nephew…was almost in High School at the time but loved it anyway…Favorite Episode: the one where Mokey gets everyone to stop eating the Doozer towers and even enlists the aid of a motivational speaker/preacher named Convincing John – only to discover that without the Fraggles eating their construction, the Doozers have run out of room to continue building more and thus have no purpose in life until they start up again. Plus, the Trash Heap was my favorite character…The Crapture has spoken….nyeah!
omg, this was on just a couple hours ago xD gotta love it
I don’t remember what channel i used to watch it on but i still have a stuffed “Red” to this day! She’s not in PERFECT condition but maybe worth money someday? Maybe??? :giggle:
Fraggle Rock > the whole wide world and I don’t care who knows it.
OMG… I absofrigginlutely loved this show when I was a kid. When we moved to a new place and didn’t have cable I was soooo mad… I would sit in front of the TV without it on, and my dad would ask what I was doing, and I would say, “I’m NOT watching fraggle rock, that’s what I’m doing!”
This show was also aired in Germany, with some success and a certain side effect: all those people wearing their hair in a Goth or New Wave style were suddenly called “Fraggles”, too – mostly in an affectionate way.
Guess what. They’re making a fraggle rock movie. Seriously. It’s slated for release in 2011. I think they’re still writing the script, and it might be terrible, but we can hope it’ll be awesome ^_^ If anyone wants to know more, check out imdb.com
Ah yes!! I remember this. My old dog was named Sprocket, by the family we got him from after the dog from Fraggle Rock. (We did try to change his name but he would only ever respond to Sprocket.) Unfortunately he’s no longer with us, however he did live for 14 years (not a bad age for a Westie
I remember all these things! Does anyone remember Snorkles or Smurfs out there? Or those Trolls with the jewelled center?
They are SNORKS, not snorkles!!! Snorks and Smurfs are both on the Boomerang channel now. Treasure Trolls always scared the crap out of me for some reason.
Does anyone here remember the Wuzzles? I used to LOVE that show!
I still have the full collection of Fraggle Rock books…. my son adored this show….
I LOVE fraggles! YAy!
I didn’t like them!!! I was afraid of the fraggles!!! Didn’t mind muppets or anything else, just fraggles. (Although, later when I watched Labrynth, I didn’t like the Fire gang, or who ever they are.)
Today’s cartoons are teh crappeh! COME BACK FRAGGLIES *chomp*!!!
I have a dog named Sprocket
I used to have a dog named Sprocket.
sorry, never understood the appeal of this lame Muppets spin-off.
I hated all the Muppets.
Not sure why- just Muppetist I guess.
There’s a lot of information about the Fraggles on Muppet Wiki
I’m only 13, and I remember Fraggle Rock! I watched it when I was like, 3 so I don’t remember much. But I do remember the little green people in construction hats who made buildings that you can eat (sorry if I’m wrong; like I said, I don’t remember much)
One word sums up Fraggle Rock: EPIC EPIC EPIC!!!! One of the best shows EVER!!! Why don’t they make quality children’s programming like this anymore? Heck, children don’t know what quality, truly entertaining, mentally healthy and stimulating programming is anymore.
I REMEMBER THIS SHOW!
although none of the show itself XP just the show in general
hahahah I couldnt remember where I came up with the name Boober and why I call my kid it until now
I loved Fraggle Rock… at first…then my aunt who has big eyes and was in her late teens early 20s decided to scare the bejesus outta me when i was like 3 by opening her eyes reeeeeeaaally wide and saying “fraggle roooooooooccccck” in a really spooky voice. I then was petrified! I got her back though… they took me to the Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade in NY in the late 80s and they were there as full body costume versions and i screamed until we had to leave! So ha to my aunt! I then in the 90s had a love/scared relationship with Fraggle Rock that continues to this day… I own seasons one and two that I show my 3 year old…. I just don’t watch at night nor do I like when anyone mentions them out of the blue or sings the song… I’m still kind of scared!
muppets were better.