Fraggle Rock

It's time for the telecast brought to you by

the Geekcast Radio Network. for the show, Optimus

Solo. That's right, I am your host, Optimus Solo,

and I would like to say hello and welcome to

the 14th episode of the Telecast brought to you

by the Geekcast Radio Network. And today we are

continuing our look at puppet shows from our

childhood. Along with me for the ride this time

is Steve Megatron Phillips. Hello, sir. Hello.

And TFG1 Mike. Hello. Hello. And today the three

of us are going to be talking about... theme

song. It's so cool. Yes, I definitely agree with

that. And hopefully we'll have a chance to talk

more about that here in a little bit. And for

those of you that were sleeping for the last

couple minutes during the theme song, we are

talking about Fraggle Rock today. And to give

you a little background information on Fraggle

Rock, it debuted in 1983. So Mike and I were

very young and Steve was not born yet. And it

lasted until 1987. It was a 30 -minute show that

aired on HBO originally, and then we believe

it was rebroadcast on Nickelodeon after that

at some point. It was on the CBC in Canada. It

lasted for four seasons. Wikipedia, you're wrong.

It was not on for five seasons, and it was 96

episodes. Mike, I'm going to start with you.

What do you remember as far as Fraggle Rock?

I am the only one here. that ever watched it

on hbo because my family was special we had an

hbo subscription and for those of you that don't

know hbo stands for home box office uh this was

hbo's first series i know i'm getting into what

kevin's gonna have a little bit later but I remember

just watching this. It was so awesome because,

as I said, HBO had only shown movies up to this

point. Well, just real quick, because I don't

know, maybe the Canadian viewers know this or

listeners know this or maybe they don't, but

HBO is basically a pay cable channel. It's not

something that you get for free or with your

regular package, but go ahead. Yeah, HBO is a

premium movie channel, and it was just, I don't

know, we always had, I don't know what it was

back. Back then, we always had HBO in my house.

And when Fraggle Rock came on, it was like, oh,

cool. And I just absolutely loved it. I love

the little live action segments with Doc and

Sprocket. Actually, it's funny. I barely remember

Gobo. I remember Gobo's voice. I remember hearing

the voice of it, but I... I always remembered

Red more as the leader than Gobo for some strange

reason. Yeah, they kind of seemed like they were

almost on equal playing field as far as leaders

go. I remember this one just because when I was

this age, I was big up on Sesame Street and the

Muppets stuff, and this was obviously the same

type of thing, same vein. Whether I knew it or

not at the time, I'm not 100 % sure, but I'm

sure I made some connections. I just remember

it being fun, being very silly, very musical,

and just something different, like the same feel

as those other shows, but something completely

different. Steve, what are your memories of Fraggle

Rock? Although I don't remember many of their

names, I do remember the old man with the dogs,

Bracket, I believe his name is. Yeah. Because

I think that they say that in the theme song.

chasing these fraggles all over the place whenever

they come out, actually. But then, I don't know,

I like the whole feel of these little Muppets

that are inside the walls. I don't know, just

something about them was interesting, and I like

the fact that, I don't know, I liked a lot of

the Muppet shows back then just because usually

most of them were pretty good. They definitely

were pretty good. And, you know, you always got

a combination with Muppets and stuff. First of

all, it was unique because it wasn't just a cartoon

and it wasn't live action. Second of all, you

always had comedy. You always had music. You

know, you had everything that a kid would want

in a show. And then you had some genius people

behind the scenes. So I think that's why especially

most people of our generation, I don't know,

have you guys ever come across someone that disliked

the Muppets or Fraggle Rock or any of that stuff?

No. And if they do, they need to die in a fire.

Pick any cartoon in the world and you're going

to find people that say bad stuff about it or

people that are not fans. I don't know any single

person in my life so far that has said negative

stuff about The Muppets or Fraggle Rock. Sesame

Street is a little bit different because it's

definitely geared towards the younger group,

so I'm not necessarily lumping that in, even

though I haven't heard many people say anything

negative about Sesame Street either. There's

not much to complain about with the Muppets or

the Fraggles. No. No, no. Yeah, so let's just

get right into the who's who of Fraggle Rock.

We're going to do this very similar to what we

did in the last episode on the Sesame Street.

We're going to talk about the actual Muppet characters,

and then we'll do a little bit as far as talking

about the people behind them. Basically, there's

three different groups of characters that we

can talk about. We're going to talk about the

Fraggles, and then we're going to talk about

the Gorgs, and then we will talk about the Doozers.

So let's start with the most popular one, which

is the Fraggles. Now, I'm not going to necessarily

name all of them because there is a quadrillion

of them, but... We at least should identify the

main five, and then I want to name at least a

few of my favorite, and you guys can talk about

your favorite as far as the supporting characters

that had some recurring themes. But first off,

you have Gobo Fraggle, and he was the quote -unquote

leader of the group. He kind of had the purplish

hair, the orange skin tone or whatever. Whoa.

And then you had Moki, who was like the old artistic

mother of the group. She was purplish skin with

blue hair. We had Wembley Fraggle, who was the

indecisive ADD type. Wembley reminds me of Wade

the Duck. Yeah, and he had like a yellowish hair

and like a greenish -yellowish skin. You had

the orange -haired Boober Fraggle, who was kind

of the... What was he like the hypochondriac,

like almost OCD type guy, always doing his laundry.

And then you had Red, who wore the red shirt,

had orange hair and like the yellowish orange

skin. And she was like the high energy, like

constantly on the go girl of the group. Almost

kind of a leader, as in Gobo was, as far as those

were the two main characters, probably. But just

talking about those specific five main Fraggles,

Mike, which ones were your favorites, which ones

were your least favorites, or just what were

your overall opinions of the five main Fraggles?

I like Gobo, and I like Red the best. Wembley

was just... Wembley was a comedy relief thing

for me, because he was always... like you said,

indecisive and kind of a scary cat and just like,

really? Honestly, for me, it boils down to Gobo

and Red. I always like the two of them the most.

Actually, they're probably the only two that

I really remember the most out of all of these

characters. I mean, those are the ones that are

most prevalent. Yeah. I loved Boober, even though

I didn't love his name because it just... To

a kid, you can't help but be like, his name's

Boober. But anyways, I just loved how soft -spoken,

kind of, or just like, I don't know, I just liked

his element to it. Because you had Gobo and Red,

who had kind of like the high energy, and Wembley

was like crazy energy, in a way. And then Boober

was just kind of more laid -back, down -to -earth,

so I kind of liked him. I liked Gobo, too. Gobo

was probably my favorite. I don't know, I didn't

necessarily like... I didn't necessarily like

Red and Moki as much as the other ones for me,

and I don't know what it was about them. Moki

just, I think it was more of her look that kind

of threw me off. She looks like one of the characters

from, like, The Dark Crystal or something like

that. And, I don't know, Red just kind of annoyed

me in some ways. Steve, did you have favorites

out of the five main Fraggles or least favorites?

I think I'd have to agree with Mike on this one,

just because those are probably the only two

that I actually fully remember out of any of

them. I mean, granted, I don't know their names,

but I know them by appearance. But, yeah, I mean,

I remember them enough that I was like, oh, okay.

But, yeah, I always seem to gravitate towards

whoever's featured most. Yeah. main character

-wise, and pretty much anybody else that I see

pretty much goes by the wayside. That makes sense,

and that's what they intend for the most part.

I'll give Mike a second if he wants to talk on

any of the supporting Fraggles. I want to mention

just two of them that I really liked, and that

was obviously Uncle Matt, or Traveling Matt,

who... We're going to get into why his segments

and how he was used in a later part of the episode,

but I liked him. He brought a completely different

element. He lived outside the Fraggle world,

so I liked him. And I got to bring up convincing

John only because Jim Henson did his voice, and

I just loved when he would appear. Maybe I'll

put some of him in the commercial break so people

can hear him. But Jim Henson wasn't hugely involved

in everything with Fraggle Rock as much as he

was with the Muppets on Sesame Street. But when

he came in and did this convincing John part,

and he did a few other parts, I just really liked

that character. Was there any of the side characters,

Mike, that you remember? Or was it just basically

traveling Matt? I remember Uncle Gobo. More so

remember the Doozers or Dozers or whatever the

hell they're called. I think it's Doozers. Yeah,

Doozers. Wasn't it like... We can get into the

Doozers if you want to. Right, right. I'm trying

to remember. What was the premise? Wasn't it

like the Fraggles have to eat the Doozers? Basically,

I should have said this to begin with when I

outlined the three different groups, but the

Fraggles are as a species or whatever. They live

inside the wall there. They only work like...

30 minutes a week, and basically their life revolves

around singing, having fun, exploring, and all

the fun parts of life, whereas the doozers, their

passion in life is to wake up and to go to work.

They had a ceremony, almost like a graduation

ceremony, when a doozer was old enough to get

the hard helmet. And, like, that was, like, something

special that, like, it's something they look

forward to. Now, they grew, I hope I get the

right item here, turnips or something like that.

And then they used that to create these, whatever

you call them, these beams or these sticks or

whatever that they would build into these elaborate

architectural type things. And then the Fraggles

would come and eat them. Right. And so it was

kind of like this weird dynamic where they got

along, but they were destroying the other person's

work. And all the doozers had names that kind

of resembled working or tools, like you had Wrench

Doozer and Wingnut Doozer and Modem Doozer and

stuff like that. Caliph Doozer. Yeah, Cotterpin

Doozer and stuff like that. They never really

did a lot to... expand on the personalities and

the characters of them, which was kind of intentional

because, you know, workers oftentimes get, you

know, lost in the shuffle. But they each had,

like, their own little type of job they did,

and they're all these little green guys. They

were about, what, like, not even half the size

of a Fraggle. They were, like, smaller than that.

Between Fraggles and Doozers, I would say the

Fraggles are Gargamel and the Doozers are Smurfs.

Yeah, it's basically like that. The Doozers are

these tiny guys, and they sing and they talk

and they do stuff, but they don't have these

huge personalities like you have with the Fraggles.

Oh, yeah, no. So you had the Doozers, and the

other group that I wanted to talk about was the

Gorgs. And they are these giants that basically

live on... the outer part or, you know, above

where the Fraggles and the Doozers live. They're

kind of in the above ground, whereas the Fraggles

and Doozers are all below ground. And there's

three Gorgs. It's Ma Gorg, Pa Gorg, and Junior

Gorg. So basically a dad, a mom, and a son. And,

you know, they were huge comparatively. They

had people inside them, full people inside them.

So if you want to compare them to size, if you

go scale, you have the Gorgs, and then you have

the Fraggles, and then you have the Doozers.

What are your memories on Ma, Pa, and Junior

Gorg? I don't remember Ma or Pa. I remember Junior

because he always reminded me of Sweetums. Yeah,

he does remind me of Sweetums a little bit. He

has the same type of... Type of molded face type.

Yeah. He has obviously less hair. But the same

type of color hair type. Yeah. Whereas Pogorg

was all purple, which was always kind of weird.

And Mogorg actually looked somewhat human -esque

as far as the coloring goes. It's the purple

Fraggle Eater. And they were all really dumb,

especially... Pa Gorg, but they were all dumb.

And it was just kind of interesting the way they

interacted. And they would try to catch the Fraggles.

And they would try to capture them whenever they

saw the Fraggles. So that was always interesting.

I like in the intro or whatever, when Junior

has one of them, I think it's Gobo, has him in

his hand and somebody scares him and he throws

him up. It's like no one would be able to survive

the way he just threw him. Steve, do you remember

the Gorgs at all or the Doozers? Actually, I

do not. Which, I mean, I don't remember the middle

characters that kind of just, I don't know, were

the antagonists through some of it. But I mean,

I don't remember a whole lot of the secondary

characters besides the main five. I do remember...

Yeah, Marjorie the Trash Heap. Yes, I do remember

the big talking piece of garbage, and I thought

that was hilarious. And along with that, we should

mention that there's also two little henchmen,

Philo and, what is it, Gunge? I don't know if

I'm saying those right, but there was two little,

I don't even know what they were, trash heap

groupies. It was almost like the Waldorf and

Statler. or the talking penguins or whatever.

They were comic relief. One of them, I think,

was pinkish, and one of them was greenish, but

they would always be seen together, the three

of them. I remember the trash heap as a kid always

being like, that's disgusting. Yeah. I thought

it was awesome. And he's basically just a big

trash heap, or she is a big trash heap of everything,

banana peels and orange rinds and garbage, and

it's just kind of interesting. And then, of course,

we have Sprocket, the dog. and Doc, who is the

human character. And we're going to get into

some variations on him a little bit later. So,

I mean, is there any characters that we haven't

mentioned or anything that we want to bring up

as far as just Fraggle -related? No. What about

the look of the Fraggles compared to, like, the

Muppets? They're different enough, but I can

still see similarities. I like the, like, I don't

know how else to describe it besides, like, spiky

hair. Yeah. I kind of like that because you didn't

really see a lot of Muppets with that. And, like,

Red Fraggle looked like she had two pom -poms

on her head. I know. That looks hilarious, too.

I don't know. I kind of like the look of them.

It's like it was a mixture between, like, Dark

Crystal things and Muppet things. Yeah. I mean,

Red, actually, if you put glasses on her, took

her pom -poms away, she technically could be

Scooter or Skeeter. Yeah, that's true. That's

true. I mean, it's the same overall design type

of stuff, but still, it worked very, very well.

But there's so many variations that they pulled

off with pretty much the same designs throughout

there. Now that I'm looking at some of the actual

pictures of them, behind the voice actors, I

can see where the Gorgs looked pretty much like

the same model, I mean, just different colors

and different clothing on them. For each type

of whatever they are, whether they're a Fraggle,

a Gorg, or the Doozers, they're all pretty much

the same design based on what they are. It's

just that they have slight variations that make

them all memorable for what they are. Yeah, and

I do want to mention this because I almost forgot,

but I want to bring up just in case people are

not familiar with how these work. The actual

Fraggle characters are straight up... Muppets,

like puppets, like there's a hand in them or

they're controlling them by hand, you know, by

standing underneath them or whatever, just like

they would have the Muppets. The doozers are

all remote mechanical type deals because of their

size. So they would have had people actually

one person that was controlling their mouth and

their movements and the other one that was moving

them like as far as forward and back with like

almost like a remote control car type thing.

And the gorgs had. people inside them and somebody

controlling, like they had one person inside

them that was only controlling the arms and legs

movement. And then they had their voice actor

puppeteer off to the side that was remotely controlling

their facial stuff and doing the words. And interesting.

If you ever see a picture of one of the gorgs,

the human is actually below, like they're not

all like they're the human eyes are not where

the gorgs eyes are. They were more closer down

to like by their neck. And what they did is they

set up video cameras in the eyeballs of the gorgs.

And then there was a monitor lower in the gorg

so that the human could see what the gorg was

seeing. Yeah. So, I mean, they did some very

clever mechanical and technical stuff with this

show that they hadn't really done in some of

the other shows. So I think that does it for

the actual. Muppet characters, we can talk a

little bit about the people behind it. I want

to mention some of them. You're going to hear

a lot of similar names when we talked last time

about Sesame Street when we talked about the

Muppets in the next episode. But some people

are not involved as much. Frank Oz really is

not involved at all in Fraggle Rock. Jim Henson

is only the voice of Convincing John and Cantus

Fraggle. This was really a different group of

people that was running the show for the most

part. Jim Henson put his trust into some of his

main players to make this work. Honestly, I can

safely say that if not for Fraggle Rock taking

off on HBO, we wouldn't have stuff like The Sopranos,

like Band of Brothers. HBO has always been that

network since this. that has been the type of

thing where you have these adult... I mean, obviously,

it's a premium movie channel. You have these

adult -themed... content series. Like, like I

said, best example, Sopranos, band of brothers,

stuff like that. And you have all these television

series that HBO is doing and they're doing more

than just showing us old movies that we love.

And you wouldn't have that if Fraggle Rock hadn't

taken off. Right. And been so popular. No, exactly.

And the main players that Jim Henson kind of

put his trust in in this one, first off, the

one that did the most characters was Richard

Hunt. He did a lot more of the side characters.

His only main character was Junior Gorg, but

I really loved what he did with the voice on

that one. Your other main character was like

the same main character from Sesame Street, Jerry

Nelson. He was Gobo. He was the trash heap. He

was Uncle Gobo. He was Uncle Gobo. He was the

Pogorg. I mean, he's a freaking genius. Then

you had Steve Whitmire, who did Wembley, and

he also did Sprocket, even though Sprocket really

doesn't talk for the most part, but there is

a human doing the vocal effects. Steve Whitmire

did that. Dave Goels, who is most famous for

Gonzo, was the voice of Boober, and I think Traveling

Matt. And then there was two females that were

doing a lot of work. One was Karen Prell, who

did Red, and obviously the other one did Moki,

and that was Catherine Mullen. So those were

your main people behind the scenes. Was there

any voice that you guys preferred over another

in the show? I kind of liked them all. I mean,

you know, once you actually watch enough of the

show. It's more like they kind of not really

all run together, but you're so used to it. I

mean, there wasn't a voice for me. There wasn't

a voice that I didn't really care for. I liked,

like I said, I loved Jim Henson when he came

in and did Convincing John. That was a voice

that stood out for me. I loved the voice of Junior

Gorg because it was just this stupid, but he

got the giant part perfect and being the kid.

So he combined a lot of elements there. And I

liked Wembley and Boober. Just for vocal, I mean,

not character -wise necessarily, but their voices

I liked a lot. Steve, any voices that you either

cared for or didn't care for? I thought they

all, I mean, I'm pretty much in agreeance with

you guys. I think they were all pretty much,

they fit whoever they were supposed to be pretty

well. It was a funny thing in the, sorry to interrupt

you, I watched some of the bonus features earlier.

And they actually had these main five voice actors

or whatever come in, and they had actually already

decided who was going to be cast in each role.

And they didn't tell them that, though, and they

had them play the parts and switch off and try

the different ones, even though they weren't

telling them that they had already decided which

one was going to be which, just based on the

voice actor's personality. So I think that's

one reason why they fit so much. And with the

girls, I think they had three main girls come

in and vote and try for the two parts. So there

was one that didn't get a part, Cheryl Blaylock.

But I think that has something to do with why

we think the voices fit so much. It's because

they kind of fit each personality with the character

that they wanted that personality to kind of

be. So it kind of helps when you have people

that you're just familiar with and that you've

worked with a lot and you can kind of pick characters

that fit their personalities. Yep. So, I mean,

I think that's pretty much the who's who. I mean,

you've got your main characters. You've got your

voices behind it. So I think we're going to move

into our next clip. The good. The bad. The ugly.

That's right. It is time for the good, the bad,

and the ugly of Fraggle Rock. Now, first off,

to go back to what Mike said at the beginning

of the episode, let's talk a little bit about

the theme song. It was so upbeat. It was just,

it told a story of transitioning from Doc and

Sprocket to the Fraggles, to the Doozers, to

the Gorgs, Orgs, whatever the hell they're called.

I'm not looking at the page at the moment. And

it was just a really, really catchy theme song.

I love, this is one of my favorite theme songs

of all time. I mean, just because the way it

begins with just that beat. being dropped, and

then eventually you just get into this all -out

song later on. But it's not annoying at all.

You know, I could see some people, even though

the Sesame Street song is iconic, I could see

some people being annoyed with the little kids

being the singers and stuff like that. And the

Muppet Show song, I like, but to me, this is

the best theme song from any of the Jim Henson

things. Most definitely. Yeah. I don't know about

that. Which one are you going to put above? I

would actually rank Fraggle Rock and the Muppet

Show themes as being on equal ground. For some

part of me, I just slightly like the Fraggle

Rock one better. I don't know why. But, I mean,

the Muppet one's good, too. I'll have to listen

a little bit. I'll have to listen carefully when

we come to next week's or next episode's theme

song, but I like Fraggle Rock the best. I'm not

being wishy -washy. What about the rest of the

music that they did? I mean, they did... I don't

know how many songs per episode, but, I mean,

it was nonstop music. And they did country. They

did blues. They did rock. They did, like, you

know, almost like New Orleans, you know, almost

a Cajun feel. They had music for every different

genre of music. Do you guys remember any of the

music or remember there even being music? I remember

it, but very vaguely. Okay. I'll have to get

some music clips to throw into the commercial

break for you guys. But I mean, I don't remember

specific songs. It's not like it's not like the

type of songs like there was no rubber ducky

or, you know, see is for cookie or, you know,

I think there were, though. I mean, there wasn't

for me the ones that like stuck with me. Right.

Right. Yeah. There were songs that I enjoyed

at the time. And like, I loved watching it at

the time for the music. But years later, I can't

remember any individual song. So it makes me

want to go back and watch even more than I watched

in preparation for this episode. Let's talk a

bit about some of the segments. Specifically,

I want to talk about, well, first off, which

was your favorite segment? The one that focused

on just the Fraggles, just the Doozers, the Gorgs,

or the human, like the Doc and the Sprocket,

Mike? Which one was your favorite? Why don't

you go, Steve? Okay. I would have to say that

I preferred when they mostly hit on just the...

Fraggles. And I'd have to say that because some

of the other characters, I don't think they really

left that big of an impression on me, which is

why I couldn't remember them until you put the

Behind the Voice Actors page in there. I pretty

much like, because there were so many variations

in the Fraggles and so many different random

relatives of each other in there that I think

they were what kept it memorable for me. And

I do remember Ma, Gorg, and Junior somewhat,

but I don't remember enough about them to make

any kind of statement. But I also like the trash

heap. I don't know why. I think it was just one

of those things that it just was hilarious to

see a talking piece of garbage. Yeah. And I think

that's the only reason why I like the character.

No, it's definitely a unique character. And I

always felt bad for the dog. Now, poor Sprocket.

I did love the human that was doing Doc, though.

Oh, yeah. I don't know much about him, but I

thought he had a perfect voice for it. And just

hearing him in the theme song, Sprocket, oh boy,

or whatever. Mike, favorite group of people to

be watching on it? Doc and Sprocket. Like I said

before, it's a whole... beginning, middle, end

type of show. So I like Doc and Sprocket at the

beginning and at the end, because they kind of

open and close the show. I like the Fraggles,

and I like when the Fraggles interact with the

Doozers. Like I said before, the only real gorg

or whatever the... I don't remember. Yeah, Gorg.

The only Gorg that I really cared about was Junior

because, like I said, he so reminded me of Sweetums

from The Muppet Show. Yeah. But, I mean, yeah,

mostly I prefer seeing the Fraggles and the Doozers.

As a kid, I always remember being in love with

the Doozers, and I wanted to have. some of the

stuff that they were using to build. I wanted

whatever those sticks were. Because the Fraggles

were eating them, so I'm like, do they taste

good? But then they look cool. They're all shiny

and clear, and they're almost like a Lego -type

thing. I'm like, I want some of those. Can I

have some Doozers and some of their tools? But

yeah, I like the Fraggles. It kind of depended

on what the episode was as far as which characters

I liked. I never liked Ma or Pa Gorg so much,

so I didn't like those segments as much. I don't

remember seeing them, though. That's the thing.

I don't remember seeing Junior. Oh, no. I'll

send you some links. And then the other one is

the Traveling Matt segments that we should talk

about. And before we get to that, I want to kind

of get a little bit as to when Jim Henson set

out to do Fraggle Rock, it's said in the special

features and whatnot that he was wanting to create

a kids' show that focused – Basically, the general

feeling was a show that would teach people so

that we could prevent or end all wars. And I

know that sounds kind of like a big old weird

thing to be on a kid's show, but his idea was

let's put all these different types of people

and teach kids how they're different. how they

can get along or how they interact or how they're

codependent on each other and kind of this whole

conflict resolution thing. Yeah, that's like

cultural diversity. Right, cultural diversity.

And that's why we have, you know, you have the

human world, you have the gorg world, you have

the fraggle world, you have the doozers, and

you have them all kind of working, you know,

both against and for each other but codependently.

And traveling mat was a way to break out of the

fraggle world. and to show the human world from

a different perspective. And what would happen

is Traveling Matt would send a postcard back

to Gobo, and Gobo would grab it, and then they'd

kind of go to wherever Traveling Matt was, and

he would have this explanation of his ideas of

the human world. I remember one specifically

from when I was a kid where Traveling Matt was

describing an elevator to the Fraggles. It was

just interesting to see, you know, if you're

not part of our world, how you would interpret

things. Yeah. You know, he's like, there's this

room you go in that has, you know, all these

numbers. And, you know, it was like outer space

or something, like you were teleporting or something

to a different land, you know, as you came up

to a different floor. And there was another one

where he was trying to describe fishing. And

he's like, they throw these holes, which was

a net. They throw these holes into the water

because apparently they want to get rid of the

holes, or the holes are good for the water. He

was trying to describe someone throwing a net

in to catch fish, and it was just interesting

seeing somebody's perspective on stuff, like

an alien, what they would see if they were on

Earth. Why is it when you're describing his elevator

description, all I can think of... let's put

it on, what, the last suit you'll ever wear.

Oh, jeez. But I just thought it was a clever

way for them to mix the human world into this

fantasy world. Yeah, I mean, it's the same, and

I'm not meaning to cut you off, but it's the

same thing like with the live action stuff on

Sesame Street. Well, that's what I was just going

to bring up. It's almost like a third different

type of way to do things. Right. Because obviously

we talk about Mr. Rogers' world completely different.

This is make -believe world. This is the real

world. Separate it. Sesame Street is a complete

blend where humans and the Muppets are getting

along together. And in this one, you have both

the humans and the Muppets or the Fraggles coexisting,

but the humans don't know the Fraggles exist.

Right. So it's almost like a third way to do

it. I don't know which one's the best or which

one I prefer. I kind of like this one because

this one to me is the most imaginative or, as

a kid, stimulated my pretend world or my imagination

the most because of the whole fact that you could

have this world that humans don't know about,

but we know about it. Right, yeah. It's kind

of like a kid's little secret from their parents.

Yeah. living in the hole in the wall or whatever.

It's almost like the... I don't know if either

one of you guys are familiar with the cartoon

The Littles. I think it's The Littles. But they

live in a hole in a wall in a house, and they

try to stay away from the humans, too. But two

of the humans know that they exist, so it's kind

of like a similar idea. I don't know. I like

that dynamic, and I like the fact that they were

trying to mix, to have this diverse world where

people... you know, coexisted and some liked

each other. Some didn't like each other's, you

know, like the fraggles are eating what the doozers

are building. The gorgs are trying to catch the

fraggles. The dog is trying to eat the fraggles.

Like, I don't know. It's just kind of an interesting

idea. Is there anything as far as segments or

stuff that you liked or didn't like about the

show, Mike, that we haven't brought up or parts

you remember or anything? Not really. I mean,

I think we've hit on all of it. What about you,

Steve? I think overall I pretty much like I don't

know I just like the whole show and everything

involved in it I didn't I may not have remembered

like a lot of it but what I do remember definitely

is something that eventually I may get this and

more so for a nostalgia thing and for when I

have kids because it's definitely a to watch

when you're a kid. Yeah. And you just brought

up a great... You just triggered something in

my mind to me, and this one doesn't have the

same type of... Like, The Muppet Show is just

as good in a lot of ways, but The Muppet Show

somehow is dated by their guest, the human guest

that came on, whereas this one, you might see

a little bit of dating with some of the music,

but most of the music is just kid -friendly music,

so this is something that... I can watch today

and it doesn't feel like it's outdated. It feels

like it stands up to the test of time, I guess

is what I'm trying to say. So I can picture you

showing it to your kids and them having just

as much enjoyment. Right. Well, I mean, between

the three... Puppet Muppet Shows that we've done

that are Henson -related, Sesame Street, this,

and then, of course, in 10 days we'll do the

Muppet Show. You have three very different programs,

as you said earlier, about blending and not blending

and everything else, but you also have three

different styles of approaching a program. Muppet

Show itself... I mean, it was supposed to be

the Muppets putting on a show. Like I said last

week in Sesame Street, just think if the Muppets

show went past its fifth season. Just think of

all the cool – if it was like – technically,

Muppets show is Saturday Night Live for Muppets.

So just think of what kind of cool guests we

could have had if it continued on. The thing

with Fraggle Rock is I agree it's more so – kid

-friendly and you can actually show it to your

kids as far as it not being dated. I think it

might be a little dated with the live -action

segments with Doc and Sprocket, just maybe what

they bring up. But as far as the Fraggle stuff

itself, no, it's not dated at all. Yeah, and

I don't know. Maybe I'm alone with that or maybe

I'm biased, but I can watch an episode of this.

today easier than I could watch like a whole

episode of some of the other ones, some of the

other puppet shows that we've been talking about.

We'll get more into that when we get into how

you can watch the show now, but let's move into

our next segment. Things that make you go. That's

right. It is time for some of the things that

you might not know about Fraggle Rock. First

thing that you might not know about Fraggle Rock

is originally when they were working on the concept

of the idea, Jim Henson called it the Woozle

Woozle Show. I'm glad he changed that. Can we

all go down to the land of wuzz now? As soon

as I read that in the script, I was like, oh

my god, it's wuzzles. Yeah, apparently Fraggles

didn't come along. The name Fraggle Rock didn't

come along until at the end, so just to have

something to use while they were coming up with

the name, they called it the Woozle Show. Second

thing you might not know about Fraggle Rock,

originally five different endings for the opening

intro were made with each of the main Fraggles

saying, down at Fraggle Rock at the end. So it

was meant to alternate between episodes between

the five saying that. As we all know, the one

with Boober is the only one that probably any

of us remember. They said that one with Wembley

was included in the episode, The Terrible Tunnel,

and one with Gobo was used in The Finger of Light,

but basically everybody liked the Boober one

so much that they just used that one, and I'm

glad because that's one reason why the theme

song is so cool with him saying that at the end.

I remember Red doing it a couple times. Yeah,

but I just like how he says it at the end. It's

just kind of like that monotone, down -on -his

-luck type. I don't know. Third thing that you

might not know about Fraggle Rock is the names

Gobo and Traveling Matt are actually film industry

in -jokes, both being words describing techniques

to superimpose images over a different background.

So when making some of the names, they actually

came up with these two based on some of the terms

for the industry stuff. Wembley is actually from

Wembley Stadium, where Wimbledon is played. someone

was reading a newspaper or looking at a thing

when they were coming up with names, and they

said, how about Wembley or something like that.

Moki is named after one of Jim Henson's friends,

childhood friends. So they each have, you know,

it's kind of interesting to see where they come

up with the names, but some of the stuff you

might not know. The fourth thing you might not

know about Fraggle Rock, as Mike kind of pointed

out in the beginning, when HBO first started,

it was purely a movie channel. This was the channel's

first. original series which kind of blows my

mind that a channel like HBO that we've maybe

it's just because so far you know in our generation

we've come to know it as kind of more of this

not necessarily cutting edge but these hard hitting

like Sopranos and like you said Band of Brothers

and all these types of shows that a show like

Fraggle Rock would have been its first series

like to me that's kind of surprising And the

way they did it was kind of a genius thing by

Jim Henson and the people behind it. They actually

sold the idea to the CBC in Canada and simultaneously

sold the idea to HBO in America. And what they

did was they ended up making it so that the CBC

was where everything was filmed. All this was

filmed in, I think, Toronto. And so the CBC provided

the facilities and all this other stuff. HBO

provided all the cash in order to get everything

going. But Jim Henson still retained ownership

of everything. So for merchandising and for all

that, he still owned everything. Right. So it

was kind of a genius move in getting two stations

to simultaneously. front everything they needed

to make the show and to air the show, yet he

retained ownership and all that stuff. So, you

know, you got to do what you got to do, and it

worked. Fifth thing you might not know about

Fraggle Rock is it actually won an Emmy in 1993.

It was something to do with the international

versions or something like that, which we're

kind of getting into in the next one. There was

actually, I did not know this until just today

or yesterday or whatever day it was, The United

States is the only one that has Doc, or the United

States, I think, is the only one that has Doc

and Sprocket. Probably. In the other countries,

they still have Sprocket, but Doc is replaced

with different people, and the whole setting

has changed. Because the idea, when Fraggle Rock

first came to be, the whole idea and the whole

purpose of this was to have an international

show. That was from the get -go. This was not

made to be an American show or this or that.

This was made to be international. across the

world. So the British version, instead of a little

house like we have with Doc and Sprocket, you're

in a lighthouse. In the French version, it's

a cook. In the German version, it's an inventor.

And each one has a different set, too. So what

they did, basically, is the idea was do the Fraggle

stuff in Canada because all that can easily be

dubbed over by voice actors in the other countries.

So that you don't have to change. And then just

the intro clip and the outro clip with Doc have

each country do their own thing. Right, yeah.

So, you know, Doc is actually played by, like,

you know, a dozen different people, depending

on what country you're in. I think that's completely

interesting. It's interesting, but just go with

the United States one. Well, it's interesting

because also on the DVDs they have... uh, they

show all of them and it's just interesting to

see how it looks. Um, yeah, they show like almost,

I don't know. They show the German one. They

show the French one. They show the British one.

I don't remember if they show any other ones,

but it's just kind of an interesting thing to

see. Like it looks so out of place if you're

used to what you grew up on. So that's some of

the stuff you might not have known about Fraggle

Rock, and now we're going to go into the Where

Are They Now section. Now, with last week, we

just kind of talked about Jim Henson a little

bit, and it was kind of a weird situation because

we had three episodes in a row that are dealing

with the exact same people, basically. So this

week, we are going to take a look at some of

the people I mentioned before, since we already

kind of talked about Jim Henson. Steve Whitmire,

who I mentioned, he actually is still the current

voice of Kermit the Frog and Rizzo the Rat and

Beaker in anything that's done in the Muppets.

He was doing Ernie up until 2009. I don't believe

he is anymore, or I don't know if someone else

took over for him, but I don't have him credited

with anything in the last year as Ernie. He's

basically been in every major Henson Company

project, including The Dark Crystal, The Labyrinth,

and Dinosaurs, the ABC television series from

the 90s. So he's still doing Muppeteering, as

is Dave Goels, who is the current voice of Gonzo

Bunsen and Uncle Waldorf. His most recent credit

includes The Muppets Wizard of Oz and the first

few installments of the online series Statler

and Waldorf from the Balcony, which I am going

to have to go check out. I don't know what that

is. I've seen that, I believe. It's them doing...

Oh, there's one. I meant to grab the audio. I'll

have to see if I put it in my YouTube favorites.

Okay. There's one where they say, it's just them.

That was great. That was amazing. It was ugly.

I hated it. Red Karen Perel currently works as

an animator. Moki Catherine Mullen, she actually

has an interesting credit. She was one of the

performing assistants for Yoda on The Empire

Strikes Back also. and she also helped create

the show Between the Lions, but she isn't doing

any more Muppeteering at this point. Jerry Nelson,

in 2004, Jerry Nelson announced he would no longer

be performing his Muppet characters, citing health

reasons. He does continue to perform his characters

on Sesame Street, and it is possible that he

may return to the role of Gobo for something

that we're going to talk about in a little bit.

He also was a voice in an episode of The Grim

Adventures of Billy and Mandy. In December 2009,

Nelson independently released his first album

of original songs entitled True Daydreams or

something like that. So he's not doing as much

Muppeteering and whatnot, but apparently he's

done some musical stuff, and he's kind of, I

mean, he's at the end of his career, but he is

freaking amazing. And I did want to mention Richard

Hunt. Hunt actually died of AIDS -related complications

in 92. Episode 3136 of Sesame Street and the

film The Muppet Christmas Carol was dedicated

to his memory. But he was awesome when he was

doing his Muppeteering stuff, too. So those are

some of the people that were involved in Fraggle

Rock and what they're doing now. And we are going

to take a quick break. I'm going to put some

Fraggle Rock stuff in the commercial break, so

make sure you're listening for that. And we will

be back as soon as that's over. After these messages,

we'll be right back. Oh, hello there. My name

is Traveling Matt, and I am a visitor here from...

another world. Yes, the world I refer to can

be seen every week here on HBO. It is called

Fraggle Rock. These are Fraggles. This is Fraggle

Rock. Well, anyway, Fraggles are a noble race.

What a pleasure for you to see them. And you

can every week here on HBO when the Muppets present

their new fantasy show, Fraggle Rock. Yakko Warner

here, and you're listening to a podcast on the

Geekcast Radio Network. Lucky you. Ah, welcome

to my throne of future tales. The Beast Unleashed

podcast is over, not gone. You can hear more

of this great podcast. discussing all the episodes

of Beast Wars and Beast Machines on geekcastradio

.com. We include voice actor and writer interviews

with stellar hosting by Steve, Mike, and Michael.

Head on over to iTunes or the net, or else I

will send you my vehicles to extract your spark

and destroy you. Hahahaha! Yes! It must have

been very tough. They chewed and chewed and chewed,

but they seemed to like it so much that I hinted

politely that I might be pleased to share their

snack. The clever girl creatures got my message

and gave me a taste of this odd food. It certainly

was chewy, but it tasted delicious. I was enjoying

it when suddenly I noticed the two silly creatures

again. It was awful! Their tongues inflated and

exploded! Naturally, I spat out the food at once.

Who would eat things that made your tongue explode?

These creatures are weird. That's what Uncle

Matt says. Hey guys, Raphael here of the Teenage

Mutant Ninja Turtles. Did you say podcast? Dudes!

Do that! You're listening to the podcast on the

Gatecast Radio Network. Cowabunga! Hey guys,

this is Optimus Solo from the Geekcast Radio

Network, and I was thinking the other day that

maybe I've been too hard on the folks over at

IGN. I mean, they had to put some effort into

their Top 100 Animated Series of All Time list,

right? I mean, maybe it's just me that wants

to punch a baby when I read it. So in all fairness,

I thought we should gather some of the people

who were involved with this list and get their

opinions. So what do you guys think about the

IGN list? I didn't think it was physically possible,

but this both sucks and blows. Okay, uh, anyone

else? Dumb, dumb, dumb! Those dudes are so dumb!

I'm afraid to ask, but anyone else? Epic fail.

Homer, they put your show at the top of your

list. You gotta like their list, right? I stand

by my disappointed groan. So I guess we should

do something about it then. Are you pondering

what I'm pondering? I am, Brain. I think we should

unveil the Geek Cast Radio Network's Top 100

Animated Series of All Time list. I second that

emotion. And I know that our list will be much

better than the IGN list. Do you know why? We

watch a lot of TV. That and the fact that we

are teaming up with This Week in Geek, the Pop

Culture Network, Chicken Pop Pod, and some other

great geek sites. By your powers combined. We

will give you a list geeks everywhere can be

proud of. It says, Dear Nephew Gobo, sometimes

it's impossible to get rid of something you don't

want. Sometimes it's impossible to keep something

you do want. Shh. For instance, the other day

I observed a silly creature throwing away a curved

stick. Not very remarkable in itself, but the

sticks proved to be magic. It came back. How

strange! The silly creature tried to throw it

away again, and again, and again, but with no

success. The silly creature was obviously sad,

so I decided to help. I think I'll help. Fortunately,

Goboi am an expert in such matters, and can get

rid of any stick, even a magic one. Love, your

uncle, Traveling Matt. Just remember this lesson,

nephew. It is often painful to part with magic

objects. Your friend, Traveling Matt. That was

a good one, Gobo. All right. Thanks for staying

with us, everyone. And you may be wondering how

you can watch this show now. And this is like

the Sesame Street one last episode. There's a

lot of different options. So stick with us and

you'll hopefully hear something that will be

of interest to you. First off, let's talk about

the DVDs. The DVDs were released in individual

seasons, and then they were also released in

a complete series collection. So unlike all the

other puppet shows we've talked about so far,

you can own the complete series collection of

Fraggle Rock. I own it, so I'll give you as much

information as I can about it, just in case anyone

else is interested in it. It is a 20 -disc collection.

There's four individual DVD sleeves. The first

season... I'm just going to go over a little

bit about the bonus features. In the first season,

you get a behind -the -scenes documentary that's

an hour long by Jim Henson. You also get a series

of, I think it's about nine or ten different

interviews. One of them deals with music. One

of them deals with the origins of how the show

came about. One of them is with the voicing.

One of them is about the characters. They go

through all the different steps of the show.

So it's really good. And the interviews are with

people like Steve Whitmire and Jerry Nelson and

all the people that we've mentioned in the episodes

so far. The second season. You get a special

tribute to Jerry Jewell, which is one of the

guys behind the scenes. You get exclusive interviews,

traveling mat feature. You get 20 international

traveling mat clips, a music video, and a few

other things. On the third season, you get the

Great Hall of Silly Creatures. The Origin of

Fraggle Rock Species, The Cave of Fraggle Tales,

Under Construction Production Design and How

the Trash Heap Came to Be, The Tunnel of Fascinating

Secrets, Electromechanical Puppetry, Dooser Design,

Gorg Design, so it kind of goes into all that

type of stuff. And the final season, you get

a lot of stuff. The Inner Gorg, an interview

with the performers inside the costumes. designing

the puppets, an interview with the puppet makers,

directing the Fraggles, an interview with the

directors, let the music play, an interview with

the two people in charge of the music, dance

your cares away, the evolution of the theme song,

you cannot leave the magic excerpts from the

last day of shooting, which I'm definitely going

to be watching soon because I think that's probably

a sentimental, cool thing to watch, and celebrating

Fraggle Rock excerpts from the wrap party that

they had for Fraggle Rock. Basically, what you're

getting in this complete thing, you're getting

all 96 episodes, which is over 47 hours of content,

which includes 8 hours of bonus features. And

this is an absolutely great collection. The way

they package this is great. The way that the

DVDs are displayed inside the packaging, they're

very secure. They're very, you know, just nice

and neat DVDs. And the bonus features... are

out of this world. I have never seen a complete

series collection that has more bonus features

than this one has. I'm coming to your house and

I'm stealing the damn thing. You think I'm kidding.

I got this on one of Amazon's lightning deals

of the day or week or whatever. So I got it really

cheap. But if you're able to pick this up, it

is worth it for the bonus features alone, not

to mention the 96 episodes. So it is available

on DVD. It's available on Netflix. Each season

is available on Netflix. There's also some individual

special collections or something that are available.

I would just stick with the actual seasons. Yeah.

And then you can talk about the iTunes a little

bit. Yes. The Control Freak actually has a role

on podcast. I am the iTunes guru. Yes. Kevin

never looks up the goddamn information. I love

it because I actually was telling you off air,

I opened iTunes yesterday to grab the iTunes

information, and like three minutes later I was

like, why did I open iTunes? iTunes, yes. All

four seasons are on iTunes. At first, because

of Wikipedia, I was going to say only four out

of five seasons were on iTunes. You cannot trust

Wikipedia, people. Yeah. All of them are on iTunes.

There are 24 episodes per season. So, let's see.

That's right, 96. Yeah. Anyway, sorry. It's in

standard definition. Definition. Standard definition.

God damn it. Four seasons, 24 episodes each,

at $19 .99 each for a season. Although I'm sure

that you can buy individual episodes for... Let

me just pull it up here. Fraggle Rock Season

2, you can buy individual episodes for $1 .99.

$1 .99, not $199. That would be outrageous. But

yeah, I mean, they're $20 each for four seasons,

so you're paying... What is that? $80. Yeah,

you're paying $80 for four seasons on iTunes.

However, I would suggest if you want all the

special features, if you just want to see Fraggle

Rock on the go, sure, get it through iTunes.

I highly recommend that complete series DVD set.

Yeah, and... I can't speak of the YouTube because

I didn't watch any of it on YouTube since I have

it on DVD, but I'll let you guys handle your

experience with it. Any comments on YouTube?

A little difficult to find actual episodes. Damn

right. The first thing I found was someone remixing

Let Me Clear My Throat to Fraggle Rock images.

And I'm like, what the hell is this? I hate when

people do that. So a little frustrated on the

YouTube end? Yeah, it's very frustrating. I was

able to find like an episode and a half. Oh,

geez. So apparently YouTube is not a good option.

I did forget to mention, though, the Complete

Series, you can get it on Amazon right now for

$69 .99 for the buy new. You probably can get

it cheaper if you get the used copy, but you're

looking at about $60, $70, somewhere in there

for the Complete Series collection. isn't horrible

for everything that you're getting. No, it's

not at all. It's, it's very good. I mean the

complete series, it comes in, you know, specialized

packaging. Um, and it's just go with the complete

series. Yeah. Unless you're one of those people

that likes on the go type of stuff, go with iTunes.

Yeah. And if you are desperate and to watch this

and you can't find it on YouTube because YouTube

sucks for it and you don't have enough money

to spend, guess what folks? Turn on your TV if

you get the channel The Hub, because Fraggle

Rock is being re -ran right now on The Hub in

the United States. So you can watch it there.

I don't know if it's available through The Hub's

website at all, but I know it's available on

The Hub channel. The other thing I want to bring

up, this doesn't have anything to do with how

you can watch the old classic Fraggle Rock, but

I want to bring this up because it's news to

me. Apparently, this shouldn't be news because

it's... It seems like it's inevitable for every

franchise in the 80s or whatever. There's a feature

film in the works. Now, in September 2005, the

Jim Henson Company announced that it was working

on a film adaptation of Fraggle Rock known as

Fraggle Rock the Movie. It was supposed to be

released in 2009. It was supposed to involve

the original Fraggle characters. Then in 2006,

it was still current, and the BBC reported that

the film will be set in the human world. with

Frank Zappa's son at the helm. Then later it

was... Wait, which son? Dweezil? I'm at Zappa.

Who was supposed to write a treatment for the

film, etc., etc. Brian Henson was supposed to

be involved as well as an executive producer.

Skip forward to 2008. It was announced that the

Weinstein Company will be distributing the Fraggle

Rock movie. The film is being written as a live

-action musical who is going to be directed by

Corey Edwards. The film will be produced by the

Jim Henson Company. Again, Ahmed Zappa is still

executive producing. The film will involve all

the core characters from the series. The story

will take the characters outside of their home

in Fraggle Rock, where they interact with humans,

which they think are aliens. Karen Perel, Dave

Goels will return for the film as Red Fraggle

and Boober Fraggle and Uncle Traveling Matt.

In 2009, the movie was in production, and it

said it's going to be released in 2012. Delays

in the actual filming were due to script notes.

And it says, unlike previous film adaptations

of television series from the 80s, the movie

will not render the main characters in CGI. So

that's all the information I have on that. This

interests me. I don't know what to think of it.

I don't know if I should be excited, if I should

be scared. If they have some of the original

voice actors coming back, if it's not in CGI,

this might actually work. What do you guys think

of a feature film? As long as they don't get

stalker -looking Hank Azaria Gargamel to play

any of the human characters, I'm okay. Nice.

I'm just wondering how they're going. I don't

know if the doc would even be able to be in it.

I don't even think he'd be around anymore. No.

He wouldn't be. I wouldn't think so. So, I mean,

I can see why they're going out, but I don't

know how they're going to fill that little void.

Well, also, I'm sorry to interrupt you, Kevin.

They could do something like maybe the doc had

a kid or something. But my thing is, regardless

of what the storyline is, my thing right now

is trying to decide from an aesthetic standpoint,

this has to have somewhat of a look or feel of

one of the Muppet movies, doesn't it? think so.

I mean, this can't be... You can't do a Fraggle

Rock movie and not have there actually be Muppets

in there. I mean, you can't have this... If they're

not doing CGI, I'm assuming they're doing actual

Muppets. Or... That's what I'm worried about.

How else would you do it? They can't animate

them. Yeah, I don't know. I hope they're not

animating them. I mean, if... If it's a... I

don't know. I mean, everything these days is

all about CGI that. Whether it's live -action

CGI or animation CGI. And sometimes it works

and sometimes it doesn't. I haven't seen it,

and it will probably end up being a DeLorean

time episode in ToonCast Beyond. Fraggle Rock,

the animated series, was that traditional animation?

Completely traditional. If they did a traditional

animated movie, I wouldn't mind it, but I don't

think they're going to do that. I think they're

going to try to find a way to mesh real, like

what Smurfs is doing. Well, the thing is, though,

see, that's why I don't want it. It is said it's

going to be a full -length live -action musical

fantasy, basically, starring the underground

dwellers venturing out in the human world. So

it is going to be live -action with the humans,

but what I'm saying is... I don't want it to

have that feel like I'm getting from the trailers

from Smurfs. I want it to have a feel of when

the Muppet movies interacted with humans. You

know what I mean? Like when you had the Great

Muppet Caper or the Muppet movie or Muppets Take

Manhattan or whatever. Yeah, I mean, if it's

something like that, that would be cool. Which

they've still been doing since they've still

been doing Muppet movies, so I wouldn't think

it would be that difficult. And since the Jim

Henson Company is involved, I'm going to say

that it's going to be good. I'm still somewhat

a little bit leery just based off of all the

other reboots we've got in live action. But it's

still interesting. I did not know that this was

in the works. So anyway, so you have multiple

ways to watch this. You can watch it on TV if

you have the hub. You can go the iTunes route,

Netflix route, or you can buy it on DVD. Really,

the YouTube is the only bad route to go on this

one. Let's get into our ratings. Let's start

with which one of you guys wants to start? Four.

Mike's giving this one a four. I don't make it.

It's just an obvious choice for me. I mean, four.

Yes. Steve? I would probably give it a four.

I don't have it, but I probably will end up with

it before I end up with kids. Yeah. Because I

don't want to go to Garen's house, gang up on

him, and steal his copy. I think by default I

have to give it a 4 since I already own it all.

DVD season sets. To me, this is one of my favorite

non -cartoon shows from my childhood. And because

it was available in a complete series set, I

had to get it. It was a good price. The bonus

features are amazing. I just really like this

set. And I like the show. And to me, like I was

saying before, this is one that holds up to me.

I mean, it doesn't feel dated. I can watch this

right now and I don't get tired of it. I don't

know. And I think kids would like it. The music

was there. The comedy is there. It's got a lot

of different types of characters. So for me,

this one, I am not afraid to give this one. I

haven't given out very many on season one of

the telecast, but I'm giving this one a four.

Isn't this your first four? I'm trying to think

if I gave one other one a four. I think I gave,

I might have given Hey Dude a four or a high

three. I don't know. I'll have to go back through

and look. I haven't given out many, that's for

sure, but this one's going to get one. And not

to spoil anything, but I may be giving out another

one real soon. So any last words from you guys

about Fraggle Rock, the whole franchise, the

Fraggle Rock series, or whatever you want to

say that you haven't had a chance to say, Mike?

When it comes to Muppet shows, like entertaining

Muppet shows, like Sesame Street is separate.

Sesame Street, as I said 10 days ago, Sesame

Street, best educational show ever, but it was

also entertaining. I lump Fraggle Rock and The

Muppet Show more into the entertainment rather

than the edutainment. So I would say of the 80s

or 70s and 80s, because technically Muppet Show

was 70s, those two for me are tied for best puppet

entertainment show of that time. Steve? I would

have to agree, and I would have to say that Between

Muppet Show and this, I'd have to say that they're

pretty much almost neck and neck, but I think

that I'll get more into the other show next week

if I like that one more. But I would have to

say that this is definitely a strong show to

watch, especially if you were one that watched

it in the past. Yeah. And I think, you know,

I agree with both of you that this one and The

Muppet Show are just like they're in a class

by themselves. No other show. And I know there's

been the ones that we've covered here in this

little block, and there's been other puppet -type

shows before, and there's been others since.

But nothing can touch Fraggle Rock and Muppets

as far as, like, straight -up entertainment puppet

show. I'm going to agree with you guys, probably

both, that they're – a little bit different,

and the Muppet Show is something probably that

I would put a little bit above it. But they're

completely different types of shows. Like Mike

said, the Muppet Show is like the SNL of puppets,

and Fraggle Rock is more of a... It's almost

like you have a gradation there. You have Sesame

Street for the really young, and then you have

Fraggle Rock for that next stage, and then Muppets

can be for almost all ages. Well, a Muppet show

is like Saturday Night Live in the sense that

you have your host of the week. Right. So I think

they're both great shows. Like I said, Fraggle

Rock is one of my favorites from when I was a

kid. I just have a special place for it. My sister

and I both loved the show, loved the theme song,

loved the characters, loved Jim Henson, and I

own it on DVD, so everybody else should go get

it on DVD as well. So I think that does it for

this episode. I'd like to thank both Steve and

Mike for joining me today. And thank everyone

else for joining us and listening to this episode

of the Telecast. If you want to leave us feedback

on the show, there are three main ways to do

that. First, visit the website, www .geekcastradio

.com, where you can comment on all of our different

podcasts. I know people have been commenting

on the other episodes, Sesame Street and whatnot,

so please go over to geekcastradio .com and leave

some comments on the episode and let us know

what you think. You can also rate our show and

leave us feedback. So please do that. We've had

quite a few reviews and ratings, so we would

love to get yours as well. If you want your comments

to be shown or heard on a future episode, call

the voicemail line 502 -526 -58. Tell us your

name. Tell us you're leaving a message for the

telecast, and we will play it on air. If you

want to keep up to date with all things Geekcast

related, the best way to do that is to become

a fan of us on Facebook by going to facebook

.com slash geekcastradionetwork. And, Mike. and

Steve make posts there all the time, so you can

definitely keep up with everything that's coming

out if you're a fan of us on Facebook. And Kevin

hates to be tagged in posts. I do. Also, we've

got the theme song contest and the listener's

choice episode voting. If you don't know what

I'm talking about, please go to geekcastradio

.com and find the post about the theme song contest

and the listener's choice episode voting so you

can get all the information on that. So that

does it for now. We hope we succeeded in entertaining

you, informing you, and most importantly, unleashing

the geek in you on this episode of The Telecast.

And we hope that you will tune in for our next

episode when we complete our puppet quest with

The Muppet Show. For now, I am your host, Optimus

Solo, with... How you doing, Mike? And Steve

Megatron Phillips. And tune in in 10 days for

another episode of... The telecast. It's all

your damn fault. I have that stuck in my head.

Discover this.