Technically, there was a Season Four AND a Season Five to Fraggle Rock, if you watched it on tv. They did some number shuffling for a variety of reasons. Reading Henson’s bio talked about this a little. It had to do with what studios would accept, etc, So they stretched out the final season into 2 seasons. As I’m watching dvd rips, I’m getting it the way it was originally produced.
When they made the choice to split the final season, they cut 2 episodes from Season Three, added them to the final season and then cut that in half for 2 shorter seasons of 13 episodes each. Yeah, it makes a real hash of trying to figure out stuff. I guess that was why I included the episode list in my last review so I could keep straight what episodes were going where. So here’s this sets episode list:
Disc 1
Sidebottom Blues
Uncle Matt’s Discovery
Junior Faces the Music
The Perfect Blue Rollie
A Tune for Two
A Brush with Jealousy
Disc 2
Wembley’s Flight
Wonder Mountain
Red’s Blue Dragon
Space Frog Follies
Boober Gorg
Mirror, Mirror
Disc 3
The Riddle of Rhyming Rock
The Voice Inside
The Trial of Cotterpin Doozer
The River of Life
Beyond the Pond
Gone, But Not Forgotten
Disc 4
Mokey, Then and Now
Ring Around the Rock
Inspector Red
The Gorg Who Would Be King
The Honk of Honks
Change of Address
After reading Henson’s bio, watching this season made so much sense. Henson was adamant about only producing top quality stuff and at the same time was all about letting the artistic side of himself dictate stuff. So when he got bored with something, he would drop it. But unlike a certain jackass author *coughgrrmartincough* Henson made sure to finish things up. Which meant his shows usually ended on a high point.
We’re so unused to that here in the States now (where producers, executives, studios milk anything until they destroy it) that it is extremely refreshing but also gives me pause, as I did find myself saying “Awwww come on, I want some more”. But more wouldn’t have been better. Doc and Sprockett move away and the Fraggles find that they can make entries into our world using the power of magic so the adventures don’t have to end. It was the perfect ending to this light, (extremely) loud and frenetic series.
While I enjoyed the Muppet Show more, this was still very engaging and fun and I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent at Fraggle Rock. I can also see myself coming back and just listening to this in the background as I do other things. If you enjoy the Muppets, I would unreservedly recommend this series as well.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Jim Henson: The Biography Series: ———- Authors: Brian Jones Rating: 1 of 5 Stars Genre: Non-fiction Pages: 591 Words: 215K
Synopsis:
From the Publisher
For the first time ever—a comprehensive biography of one of the twentieth century’s most innovative creative artists: the incomparable, irreplaceable Jim Henson
He was a gentle dreamer whose genial bearded visage was recognized around the world, but most people got to know him only through the iconic characters born of his fertile imagination: Kermit the Frog, Bert and Ernie, Miss Piggy, Big Bird. The Muppets made Jim Henson a household name, but they were just part of his remarkable story.
This extraordinary biography—written with the generous cooperation of the Henson family—covers the full arc of Henson’s all-too-brief life: from his childhood in Leland, Mississippi, through the years of burgeoning fame in America, to the decade of international celebrity that preceded his untimely death at age fifty-three. Drawing on hundreds of hours of new interviews with Henson’s family, friends, and closest collaborators, as well as unprecedented access to private family and company archives, Brian Jay Jones explores the creation of the Muppets, Henson’s contributions to Sesame Street and Saturday Night Live, and his nearly ten-year campaign to bring The Muppet Show to television. Jones provides the imaginative context for Henson’s non-Muppet projects, including the richly imagined worlds of The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth—as well as fascinating misfires like Henson’s dream of opening an inflatable psychedelic nightclub.
An uncommonly intimate portrait, Jim Henson captures all the facets of this American original: the master craftsman who revolutionized the presentation of puppets on television, the savvy businessman whose dealmaking prowess won him a reputation as “the new Walt Disney,” and the creative team leader whose collaborative ethos earned him the undying loyalty of everyone who worked for him. Here also is insight into Henson’s intensely private personal life: his Christian Science upbringing, his love of fast cars and expensive art, and his weakness for women. Though an optimist by nature, Henson was haunted by the notion that he would not have time to do all the things he wanted to do in life—a fear that his heartbreaking final hours would prove all too well founded.
An up-close look at the charmed life of a legend, Jim Henson gives the full measure to a man whose joyful genius transcended age, language, geography, and culture—and continues to beguile audiences worldwide.
My Thoughts:
This is getting a 1star instead of the dreaded 1/2star & the tag “worst book of the year” simply because I learned a LOT about Jim Henson. Having seen what I have of Muppets, Fraggle Rock, etc, I can clearly see Henson’s fingerprints now that I know what to look for. That part was quite interesting and I think it will make my viewing of future movies and shows that much richer.
However, my main problem with this book wasn’t about or with Jim Henson, per se, but more with the author, Brian Jones. This was technically a biography but more than that, it was a puff piece, a love letter, a psalm of worship from an acolyte to his god. When somebody tells the life story of someone else, they have a duty to tell ALL of that life story, not just the good parts.
Any bad parts of Henson’s life was mentioned in one sentence when it occurred and then glossed over or ignored for the rest of the book. When interviewing people about Henson, only the most positive things were included, even from his wife, who he had separated from and was sleeping with other women. Every statement about Henson was positive and every statement by other people was positive. While I could have accepted that Henson led a charmed life and was charismatic and talented enough to draw everyone into his wake, people are people and have bad things to say. I’m not saying Jones should have been a muckraker or that I was looking for a smear campaign, but what I read wasn’t real in the sense that it simply didn’t present reality as we know it. Henson’s brother died. It got maybe 2 sentences then and maybe 4 out of the entire book and Jones never showed it affecting Henson.
Jones was given access to the Henson life in terms of private journals, etc and I suspect part of the deal was that he would only write good things. It was like reading cotton candy by the end of the book. Even Henson’s swift death by a virulent strain of pneumonia shows him as a giant teddy bear having his back rubbed by his ex-wife (technically not ex as they never divorced) and his death being some big “oopsie”. The tone of the entire book is fluff. While I learned a lot about Henson, and like I said before I think it will make my watching of his works that much more informed, I did not like being “handled” by the author as I was.
To end, if you want to learn about Henson, you can read this book and you’ll learn a lot. If you don’t mind literary cotton candy, this will work perfectly for you. If you want a full picture of Henson, try some other book because this author point blank refuses to give you that picture. I am very disappointed with how this turned out.
Another great season for Fraggle Rock. I’ve decided to include an episode list this time just to show some of the, ummm, “creative” genius of the show.
Red-Handed and the Invisible Thief
Boober and the Glob
The Grapes of Generosity
Blanket of Snow, Blanket of Woe
Pebble Pox Blues
Home Is Where the Trash Is
Believe It or Not
Wembley and the Mean Genie
The Secret Society of Poobahs
The Beanbarrow, the Burden and the Bright Bouquet
Gobo’s School for Explorers
Scared Silly
The Great Radish Caper
Born to Wander
The Battle of Leaking Roof
Playing Till It Hurts
Bored Stiff
The Cavern of Lost Dreams
The Incredible Shrinking Mokey
A Dark and Stormy Night
Gunge the Great and Glorious
The Bells of Fraggle Rock
Sprocket’s Big Adventure
Wembley’s Wonderful Whoopie Water
Reading the Jim Henson Bio has certainly opened my eyes while watching this season. Henson’s love of television as an artform, his creative genius, it all explains so MUCH about these shows (I’m including the Muppets too). His underlying new age philosophy also plays a much bigger part than I initially realized. It is rather amazing how much those kind of things influence a show and we the watchers would never full grasp it.
I still don’t like the wraparound scenes with Doc and Sprocket. I don’t like Doc and he hasn’t grown on me at all. Part of it is that he is a potterer and I can’t stand people who just potter around doing one thing one minute and another thing the next minute. He’s also a monomaniac when it comes to his inventions. There is one episode where Sprocket ends up going into Fraggle Land but his efforts to convince Doc that they exist come to naught. Sprocket can be extremely expressive for a muppet dog while Doc has got to be about the thickest human I’ve ever seen.
The energy of this show is incredible. Just thinking about it makes me tired but while I’m watching I’m as jazzed up as anything. Considering this was aimed at prepubescent children, either I’m a big baby or Henson hits his notes for the show perfectly. Let’s go with the Creative Genius interpretation.
Only one more season to go and then it’s back to tracking down Muppet movies and shows again.
ps, I am trying this without the Jackass picture. I hope that the scumbag who forced me to use it last time will leave this poor little post alone.
With my Muppet Experiment still in full swing (Fraggles are muppets, even if not going by that particular name) and going so well, I at some point wanted to read about Henson, the man behind it all.
Well, at almost 800 pages I’m getting it all. I’ll be doing an actual review next week. For now, I’m enjoying this but realizing (again!! for about the umpteenth time) that non-fiction just doesn’t engage me, no matter how interested I am in the subject.
This post is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. If you copy this link without at least asking, you are a jackass and I hope you choke to death.
Season 2 tended to focus a bit more on the Fraggles themselves and as such there weren’t as many Uncle Traveling Matt skits or even skits with the Trash Heap or the Gorgs. However, we did get more episodes featuring the Doozers as characters.
As I mentioned in Season One, this was not the Muppets. Doc and Sprocket are as annoying as any absent minded inventor whose best friend is a dog, as you could imagine. In the US version Doc is played by Gerry Parker and my goodness, he really throws himself into the role. Why Sprocket hasn’t turned on him and eaten him is beyond me. Whatever lesson the Fraggles are learning that episode is always mirrored with Doc and Sprocket. I suspect Henson wanted to keep one foot in the real world to make kids watching realize that what was happening to the Fraggles also applied to them.
The episodic nature of the show lends itself to binge watching, as I did while having covid. The only downside is that the Fraggles are loud and rambunctious all the time and I usually took a break after 10 episodes or so just to give my ears a break. I cannot imagine children quietly watching this. I can see them jumping around and screaming and hollering right along with the Fraggles though.
This post is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. If you copy this link without at least asking, you are a jackass and I hope you choke to death.
Fraggle Rock follows the adventures of a core cast of 5 fraggles, little creatures that live in the wall of a shed of an inventor named Doc and his pet dog Sprocket. Gobo, Mokey, Red, Wembley and Boober each have a 30min work week and this show is all about their adventures.
They live in a place called Fraggle Rock, which is also inhabited by Doozers, even smaller creatures that live to build, and Gorgs, humongous creatures whose gardens the Fraggles raid for radishes.
The biggest difference between this and the muppets is that this was aimed directly at children. Lots of easy to repeat songs, fraggles screaming and hollering at the drop of a hat and simplistic and silly morality lessons.
Gobo is the main lead and his job is collect a postcard each week that his intrepid uncle, Explorer Matt, sends him. Uncle Matt has headed out into Outer Space (our world) to explore and each postcard tells of a different experience he has. Gobo has to overcome great danger each time, as the postcards are delivered to the shed where Doc and Sprocket tinker around.
The interactions between the Fraggles and the Gorgs play a big part of the show too. The Gorg King and Queen (who are the rulers of the universe) have a rather dumb son named Junior. Junior’s highest ambition in life is to catch Fraggles and thump them. In the gorg garden lives Marjory the Trash Heap, the All Knowing and All Seeing. She’s pretty much an oracle to the Fraggles and half the adventures revolve around the Fraggles avoiding the gorgs to talk to the Trash Heap.
What’s more, it all works. It works REALLY well. It did take me a couple of episodes to adjust my expectations but I was watching this while dealing with our covid adventures, so it was perfect to watch as I lay on the couch without much of a brain. It was bright, colorful, funny and easy to follow. Everything the doctor ordered in fact.
“Fraggle Rock is Great” The Almighty Trash Heap HAS SPOKEN!
I am pretty happy with this first season of Fraggle Rock and am already looking forward to watching more.
Sorry about having to use the jackass picture again, but the jackass who made me use it in the first place is back. I suspect it will be a regular thing for all movie related posts from now on. My apologies for someone else being a complete jackass.
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