The music in Fraggle Rock is absolutely amazing. Jerry Nelson’s harmonies are out of this world.
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I loved the show as a kid but the Doozers always disturbed me for their lack of clothes (but still wore safety gear). I don’t really know why it bothered me so much lol. I also found the live action old guy to be kind of depressing, living all alone with the dog ]:
This show was weird
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It wasn’t til I was older that this made real sense to me: While Doozers don’t actually like or care for the Fraggles, the fact that they love to eat their buildings means there’s always a need to keep building. They’re made of radish dust, which is why the Fraggles love them so.
Also, there’s a Doozers series on Hulu; I thinks it’s geared more to younger kids.
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As much as I liked Sesame Street or any other Henson production, I would give most of the concept credit for Emmett Otter to Russell Hoban (creator of Frances the Badger).
His novel, Riddley Walker, is still at the top of my must reads list.
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Wow! You have hereby made my week! And also the week for my 9-year-old! I’ve been reading the Tiffany Aching books to her at bedtime for months now (we’re currently about halfway through Wintersmith). She’s a perfectly competent reader herself, but likes to hear me do the voices, and it’s a nice bonding experience at the end of the day.
We’ve been thinking that the world is long overdue for a Tiffany Aching movie.
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Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas holds a special place in my heart - I remembering scouring the pre-web Internet for an mp3 of ‘Brothers’ to put on a mix tape for my brother years ago. And now it’s at our fingertips.
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With most lyrics by Dennis Lee, the writer of such classic poems as Alligator Pie and In Kamloops:
In Kamloops
In Kamloops
I’ll eat your boots.
In the Gatineaus
I’ll eat your toes.
In Napanee
I’ll eat your knee.
In Winnipeg
I’ll eat your leg.
In Charlottetown
I’ll eat your gown.
In Crysler’s Farm
I’ll eat your arm.
In Aklavik
I’ll eat your neck.
In Red Deer
I’ll eat your ear.
In Trois Rivières
I’ll eat your hair.
In Kitimat
I’ll eat your hat.
And I’ll eat your nose
And I’ll eat your toes
In Medicine Hat and
Moose Jaw.
If you ever get the chance, go see SoulPepper’s “Alligator Pie”. It’s startlingly brilliant. http://www1.soulpepper.ca/performances/Touring/alligator-pie
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Many years ago I was visiting the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum while they had a traveling Henson exhibit on display. I also had a friend on staff, so I got to hold a Doozer in my hand.
Spoilers for Zootopia
I was quite tickled that the otter that kicked off the mystery was named Emmet.
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Am I the only one who named their compost heap Marjorie in honor of the Fraggles’ oracle?
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I hate this show (although I’ve only seen bits and pieces of a couple episodes) because it came out on HBO, and there was a sharp class divide at my school between the kids who had premium cable channels and those of us who just had crappy rabbit-ears.
You don’t know seething rage until you’re an 8-year-old who realizes there’s a cool, age-appropriate pop culture reference he’s not getting.
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I’m somewhat biased about Fraggle Rock because it was the show that took me away from being a starving mime and gave me a job for Henson inside Junior Gorg. The five years of production was the best film school anyone could ever attend. It’s message of peaceful harmony across all the species (Fraggles, Gorgs, Doozers & more) still resonates with audiences. And while the work of making the show was hard - it was also a pant load of fun. So there. : )
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I didn’t have any kind of cable growing up – just ‘air TV’ – and was endlessly jealous about all the grownup movies with actual swearing that my friends with HBO/Skinemax got to watch. But nobody I knew watched Fraggle Rock, and the TV Guide never had episode descriptions. So I’d see it there with no idea what it was, but as this was the era of 80s dramas, I assumed it was some sort of dramatic show taking place on a cliffside city called Fraggle Rock. Maybe in Scotland or something. It was a shock later on to find out that it was a Muppet kids’ show.
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What clued me in was that a few kids had lunch boxes with cartoons of branded characters I couldn’t instantaneously identify. It was like dividing by zero. I knew I watched 16 hours of kid-oriented crap a day. I could tell you the names of minor characters from syndicated Hanna-Barbera cartoons made twenty years before I was born. How could I not recognize these “Fraggles?” DOES NOT COMPUTE.
But yes, similar to your experience, I eventually grew up from the outraged 8-year-old missing out on premium muppets into the outraged 13-year-old missing out on boobs.
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One song that always got stuck in my head by the Doozers when they had a radish famine:
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YES! We’re excited too! I have high hopes and I hope they aren’t dashed by poor execution…
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I try to explain to my kid how lucky she is to be able to have this stuff whenever she wants to see it… These kids today have an embarrassment of cultural riches! 
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That’s. Fucking. AWESOME!!!
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You don’t post that often, but when you do
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The only episode of Fraggle Rock I ever saw was overdubbed in Russian, on the Russia channel our campus network had in 1990. I turned the TV upside down and fell asleep watching it.
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If you can, find the audiobook version for Pratchett’s “Tiffany Aching” series. Stephen Briggs does a masterful job of acting all the parts. Just wonderful work.
Your library system may in fact have the CDs for the first three books or more. And there’s always Audible.com
There’s a “play audio sample” feature on that page. Yum! He does a fine job on Pratchett’s Nation as well.
I am a big fan of Stephen Briggs’ work.
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