The Fraggle World...

Fraggles average about eighteen inches in height, come in all shapes, colors and ages, and have an endless supply of energy. Fraggles like to sing, dance, wear silly hats, eat Doozer sticks and swim.

Gorgs are huge - ten times the size of a Fraggle. There are only three Gorgs that we know about - Ma, Pa and Junior. Pa claims that at one time, their clan ruled the universe.

Doozers are six inches tall, or knee high to a Fraggle. Doozers are methodical, thorough, plodding, and single-minded. They spend most of their waking hours building. Often their building is accompanied by marching songs and various Doozer chants.


The Development Phase...

Another ground breaking television production began to surface a few years after 'Emmet Otters Jugband Christmas ', during the filming of the Dark Crystal. It was then discussions began about the TV series that would eventually become Fraggle Rock.

In its development phase, Fraggle Rock was first known as 'The International Children's Show.' And one of the main points of the project was that it was to be custom designed for international co-production. This concept grew out of Duncan Kenworthy's experience in helping adapt Sesame Street to the requirements of foreign markets.

The fact that Sesame Street had not been planned for co-production created a variety of problems in different parts of the world. To give a single example, the character Mumford the Magician could not be used in Arab countries because the Muslim religion forbids depictions of magic.

When Kenworthy and write Jocelyn Stevenson presented Jim with the notion of an internationally adaptable show, Jim was enthusiastic, but he asked the obvious question: "What will the show be about? What will make it special?" Shortly after he answered those questions himself. Coming across a newspaper headline describing some new atrocity of man against man, he decided on the show's them: World Peace.

Needless to say, Jim did not delude himself into thinking he could create a television show that could actually prevent wars, But he did sincerely believe that he could produce a program that would help sow the deeds of pacifism in the minds of the worlds children. A couple of meetings in London led to a core group Jim, Duncan, Jocelyn, Jerry Juhl and Michael Frith brainstorming in Jim's house in Hampstead during the summer of 1981. "We had already decided that there were going to be five main characters, and they'd be living in this underground world but would leave it sometimes for our world " Duncan recalls. "It was during this time that we came up with the names. Jerry Juhl, for example, named Wembley because he was reading in a newspaper about some event at Wembley stadium."

At first, the characters were called Woozles, which no one liked much. Michael reports that Jerry kept coming in to an old name for a bunch of Muppet monsters from the 1960's called Frackles: when the "ck" was softened to "gg". It won the vote. Later, Michael suggested Fraggle Hill as a name for the show. Too wimpy, Said Jocelyn. How about Fraggle Rock?

Bust with other projects, Jim gave the Fraggle Rock team more autonomy than any previous group involved with a major production. At the same time, however, he remained as involved with the show as he possibly could. He directed a number of episodes, Performed Cantus the Minstrel and convincing John, and continued to monitor Fraggle Rock's philosophy.

That philosophy can be summed up by saying that, while each episode would provide plenty of entertainment, it would also teach a meaningful lesson - the value of co-operation, for example - without be too heavy-handed. And these lessons would always be related to the central theme of promoting the idea of peace.

Fraggle Rock is a complex of underground caverns perceived by its inhabitants as the centre of the universe. Michael Frith based the setting in part of the limestone caves of his native Bermuda. Fraggle mythologists glorify the Fraggles as a noble race that has reached the pinnacle of civilization. Music is said to be the Fraggles' most elevated art form, and Fraggles are reported to be superb physical specimens, possessed of great athletic prowess combined with the grace of dancers.

That’s what the mythologists say. The truth is that the Fraggles' subterranean world is in fact inhabited by cute little Muppet creatures who sing in squeaky voices and frequently bump their heads as they make their way through the stone corridors of their homeland.

Sharing the Fraggle domain are Doozers - tiny, hard hatted construction workers who are perpetually and purposefully on the go, like any army of ants, building an interconnecting network of crystalline towers constructed primarily form radish dust. The Fraggles are completely nonplussed by the Doozers, but the two species manage to coexist without friction, even when Fraggles eat Doozer architecture.

The Fraggles' known world extends to a neighboring garden inhabited by three giant Gorgs - Pa, Ma and Junior. The Gorgs, represented primarily by junior, do their clumsy best to catch Fraggles when Fraggles attempt to get the radishes they eat. Also in the Gorgs kingdom is Marjory, an oracle-like talking trash heap, her two companions and sometime assistants - a pair of raffish, rodent-like creatures named Philo and Gunge. Rounding out the cast are Gobo's Uncle Travelling Mat, who is busy exploring our world: Doc, the elderly inventor/tinkerer who lives in a workshop that's above Fraggle Rock and provides the Fraggles with the means to enter our world: and Sprocket, Doc's inquisitive (Muppet) dog.

Each episode of Fraggle Rock features five young Fraggle friends - Gobo, Mokey, Red, Boober and Wembley. The show often focuses on the problem of the moment faced by one or other of them and is framed as a parable with a strong moral The parables, however, are always amusing and never ponderous " We want to deal with situations that children encounter, and to work through them in a way that will be helpful and at the same time completely entertaining," was Jim's description of his agenda for the show.

In its very different way, the world of Fraggle Rock is every bit as rich as the worlds formulated for The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. Mostly this I due to the conceptual skills of the creative team, but in addition Fraggle Rock displays a technical brilliance that is absolutely astonishing in the context of a television series, especially one made on a relatively low budget. In part, at least, this was a legacy of The Dark Crystal. That project had permitted Henson craftspeople to develop elaborate animatronic devices that could now be reapplied in this new context, thus providing Fraggle Rock with stunning production values.