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"The magic is always there, as long as we keep looking for it... "
—Uncle Travelling Matt
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The story goes that Jim Henson was taking a long and boring trip and mused aloud, "I'd like to make a TV show that brings about world peace."
The result of this idea was Fraggle Rock, produced for the CBC in Canada, and aired on HBO in the U.S. in 1983-87. The series depicted a colorful and fun world, but it was also a world with a relatively complex ecosystem. The different races of creatures were each connected through symbiosis, even though they never realized it. This was meant as an allegory of the human world, where each group was somewhat unaware of how interconnected and important they were to one another. Creating this allegorical world allowed the program to entertain and amuse while seriously exploring complex issues of prejudice, spirituality, personal identity, ecology, and social conflict.
The series' triumph, by far, was being able to express all of this onscreen without being Anvilicious or insulting the intelligence of its young audience. By the second season, there wasn't an issue they wouldn't tackle. The writers refused to over-simplify any individual issue, and instead simply illustrated the consequences and inherent difficulties of different actions and relationships. Though the Fraggles do learn important lessons, they are rarely self-conscious about it.
And furthermore, the series is fun as hell. With wall-to-wall music and engaging characters in a fantastic, well-realized setting, you barely notice that you're learning any life lessons at all. It also contains some of the most astonishing and ingenious special effects ever devised for a Muppet series. Many have argued that the series is even better when you go back and watch it as an adult with your own children. Even back then, kids weren't the only ones watching; the show had a sizeable Periphery Demographic of adults, enabling it to beat 60 Minutes in the Canadian ratings. While the show's American reach was considerably less due to HBO being a pay-TV network, it still had higher ratings with kids than even the network's much-ballyhooed premiere of Star Wars in 1983.
The ideals of friendship, being true to yourself and learning to love those who are incredibly different were the cornerstones of Jim Henson's work throughout his career, and he considered Fraggle Rock to be one of the purest and most successful expressions of that vision. In turn, many Henson fans have agreed that Fraggle Rock may be his masterpiece. Which is ironic considering that Henson, who was busy with Labyrinth and other projects at the time, delegated most of the day-to-day responsibilities of making the show, having assembled a top-notch cast and crew he could trust to bring his vision to life.
A far less successful Animated Adaptation for NBC followed in 1987-88, which was animated by the same crew who worked on Muppet Babies but featured none of the original Muppet performers (save for Dave Goelz, who reprised his role of Traveling Matt in puppet interstitials). It was released on DVD in January 2010.
The original series has been rerun on several cable networks (including TNT and The Disney Channel) since its end and is now available on the Apple TV+ streaming service. The Doozers got a CGI-animated spinoff series on Hulu in 2014, and six years later, the Fraggles themselves returned for Fraggle Rock: Rock On!, a series of musical shorts on Apple TV+, which, in the Muppet Show tradition, paired the Fraggles with human guest stars such as Neil Patrick Harris and Alanis Morissette. This was followed two years later by a proper reboot series, Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, also on Apple TV+, which resets the series continuity to zero but brings back most of the important original characters plus a few of the supporting characters (and a few of the original Muppeteers). Unlike the '80s animated version, it's met with near universal acclaim and has won several awards. A second season of Back to the Rock was released in March 2024.
A comic book continuation by Archaia Entertainment ran from 2010 to 2018.
Not to be confused with where the pilgrims landed.
Tropes:[]
- Adaptation Name Change: When Begoony re-appeared in Back to the Rock, his name was changed to Bongo.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Wembley's Wonderful Whoopie Water. Also, Wembley's favorite food, Peach and Pepper Potage.
- Adult Child: Doc certainly didn't have the most mature outlook on life, but he never lost his childlike sense of wonder either. The "new" Doc in Back to the Rock is much the same.
- Adventurer Outfit: Traveling Matt looks like a stereotypical explorer complete with pith helmet and khakis. Very rarely is he seen wearing anything else, even when he's home in Fraggle Rock.
- Aerith and Bob: The names of the five baby Merggles born on the night of "The Merggle Moon Migration" (in Back to the Rock) are Perggle, Thurggle, Ferggle, Verggle, and Larry.
- An Aesop: Each different variety of Aesop got to have at least one episode.
- All There in the Manual: Where do baby Fraggles come from? According to the book "The Legend of the Doozer Who Didn't," doozers who stop working turn into these!
- Though it turns out that's just a story Doozer parents frighten their children with, as revealed in "All Work and All Play." Cotterpin Doozer wants to become a Fraggle, but eventually has to face up to the fact that the old story isn't true and that she has to remain a Doozer.
- According to one of the "series Bibles" included with one of the season DVD sets, Fraggles are apparently egg-layers. This along with their feathers, beaks, and long tails, has led to some interesting logic.
- Although this may be inconclusive, as none of the Fraggles knew what an egg was in "Wembley's Egg".
- And it is likely destined to remain inconclusive. According to Fraggle performer Terry Angus, the idea of discussing where baby Fraggles come from was considered by the writers (baby Fraggles can even be seen in the opening sequence) but ultimately set aside because they didn't want to discuss such matters in a kids' show.
- For what it's worth, Gobo sings about having parents in the song "Workin'." Since his parents are never seen or otherwise even mentioned on the show and he was obviously raised by his uncle, it's fair to assume he's an orphan.
- Meanwhile, according to Convincing John, Fraggles who eat too many Doozer constructions turn into human beings. The Fraggles are accordingly horrified at this prospect, since they only know humans by Traveling Matt's term, "silly creatures."
- Ambiguously Jewish: Marjorie, the Trash Heap. According to her performer Jerry Nelson, the network got a few angry letters from people whose kids asked why a pile of garbage talked like their grandmothers. Nelson claimed he had modeled the voice after a Russian actress he admired. In Back to the Rock, the Trash Heap's new performer, Aymee Garcia, uses something of a New York accent.
- Ambition Is Evil: Bug-eyed Marlon Fraggle has "frustrated megalomaniac" written all over him.
- Animated Adaptation: Ran for a single season immediately after the Muppet-centric series ended. Suffered from significant Adaptation Decay in both the scripting and musical departments, and the animation wasn't fantastic either.
- Answer Cut: In the Back to the Rock episode "The Glow," Doc opens the package Uncle Matt has sent home to Gobo, finds an empty plastic water bottle, and, puzzled, tosses it into the recycle bin.
Doc: [to Sprocket, perplexed] Who on earth would send a water bottle through the mail? |
- Art Shift: For the Back to the Rock reboot series, Mokey underwent a substantial redesign, with longer hair which she now wears in a ponytail (except when sleeping), her gray robe replaced by a green dress, and her Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes downplayed.
- Ascended Extra: Cotterpin was already the most prominent Doozer character in the original show, but Back to the Rock gives her a more significant role in the story arc. Likewise the Merggles, who were first introduced in the Season 4 episode "Beyond the Pond."
- Author Avatar: Cantus, who is a great character to be sure, but Jim Henson wasn't even subtle about it.
- Overlaps with Ink Suit Actor, as Cantus was designed to vaguely resemble Henson.
- Likely the reason why Cantus and Convincing John did not return for Back to the Rock, but were replaced with new, vaguely similar characters.
- Awesome Moment of Crowning: Junior in one of the last episodes. Promptly subverted when he realizes the Universe is fine on its own and abolishes the Gorg monarchy forever.
- Bad Liar: Gobo, faced with No Gravity for You in "The Grapes of Generosity," tells Wembley he just likes to sit with a boulder on his lap sometimes; Wembley doesn't buy it. Wembley ups the ante with this in the Back to the Rock episode "The Glow," telling multiple different stories to his friends to explain why the "bizzle" (plastic water bottle) is on Boober's tail.
- Balloonacy: used to return a bird who's egg has fallen into the Fraggle Pond back to the Gorgs' Garden.
- Barefoot Cartoon Animals/Does Not Wear Shoes: All of the Fraggles go barefoot, with the exception of Uncle Traveling Matt (at least while he's exploring the human--er, silly creature world). Which leads to the Fridge Logic: where do the socks Boober Fraggle washes come from?
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Red and Gobo - even the Trash Heap's attendants noticed.
- Beneath the Earth
- Berserk Button: Gobo doesn't take kindly to anyone (particularly Red) badmouthing his Uncle Matt. And speaking of Red, steal her radish bars at your own peril.
- Blinding Bangs: Boober.
- Book Ends: Always involve the local equivalent of the Doc's Workshop subplots.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: A number of times, even in the theme song (both 1980s and 2020s versions) with the Fraggles and Doozers singing the theme song directly to the viewer. During the series itself, Gobo addresses the viewer directly on occasion (i.e. at the end of "The Riddle of Rhyming Rock"), and Sprocket will sometimes give the viewer an "isn't he nuts?" look in response to Doc's antics.
- Brutal Honesty: Gobo and Wembley invoke this in "Doomsday Soup" when they flat-out tell Boober that his rutabaga-and-skunk-cabbage gumbo is awful. Boober then proceeds to sing a song about it, suggesting such brutal honesty regarding his cooking happens often.
- Call-Back: Mokey's iconic outfit from the original series returned in Season 2 of Back to the Rock, only now it's worn by Wembley.
- The Cameo: Foo Fighters appear as themselves in one Back to the Rock episode, performing the song "Fraggle Rock Rock" (performed by Gobo in the original series). Some episodes also have voice-only cameos by celebrities such as Patti LaBelle, Cynthia Erivo, Kenan Thompson, Ed Helms and Daveed Diggs, who voices the recurring character Jamdolin (aka "the new Cantus"). Others including Ariana DeBose, Catherine O'Hara, and Brett Goldstein have been announced for season two.
- Canada Eh: It wasn't the first Henson or Muppet production to be made in Canada, or even in Toronto, but it's a lot more obvious than the others. Lots of Canadian talent were involved, both onscreen (i.e. Irish-born Canadian Gerry Parkes as Doc, plus most of the secondary Muppet performers) and off, allowing it to count as Canadian content and to have a second run in Canadian syndication. Oklahoma-born Jerry Nelson took his "Robin the Frog" voice, deepened it and gave it a Canadian dialect for Gobo, which he based on Bob and Doug McKenzie, complete with "Eh"'s (although he never says "aboot"). Traveling Matt even visits the CN Tower in one episode. And the songs were all written by a Canadian songwriting duo (Philip Balsam and Dennis Lee). Little wonder it ended up being one of CBC's most popular shows of the '80s.
- Back to the Rock, shot in Calgary, Alberta, continues the tradition of Canadian involvement. Wembley is now performed and voiced by Jordan Lockhart, an Ottawa native, and Boober and Traveling Matt are puppeteered mainly by Frank Meschkuleit (from Kitchener, Ontario), although still voiced by Californian Dave Goelz. And John Tartaglia, a New Jersey native, again gives Gobo a Canadian accent.
- Canon Dis Continuity: The Animated Adaptation basically pretended the earlier series never happened. Naturally, most fans pretend the animated series never happened. As this Tough Pigs review shows, it isn't terrible, but it's aimed at a considerably younger audience and isn't considered by most nearly as good as the classic series (in short, a similar case to Muppet Babies vs. The Muppet Show).
- The fact all of the songs were blatantly recycled from the original show didn't help.
- A Muppet Family Christmas was made after the original series ended, but in the special, Doc still doesn't know what Fraggles are, despite having met Gobo at the end of the original show. As the animated version was still airing at the time, this may have been deliberate so as not to spoil the franchise for new fans.
- The 2022 reboot series, back in puppet format, resets the continuity to zero, although most of the original characters and a few of the original cast and crew returned. The music is a mix of new tunes and classics from the original show.
- Canon Immigrant: Is there anything more glorious than Kermit and Robin visiting Fraggle Rock?
- Cassandra Truth: Often involves Wembley, who, being the youngest and most naive of the bunch, often isn't taken seriously at first (see: the Terrible Tunnel and Wembley's Egg episodes, where he's proven right in both instances). Also Red in "Red's Sea Monster," though she agrees to keep said sea monster's existence a secret and tell her friends she made it up.
- Catch Phrase. Many.
Junior Gorg: OOOH! A FWAGGLE! |
- Cats Are Mean: The first thing Fluffinella does upon seeing Sprocket is attack him. This being Fraggle Rock, it later turns out that she's a lot nicer than she seems at first.
- Character Development: The Doozer, Fraggles and Junior. The Doozers were all but invisible to the Fraggles until Cotterpin made friends with Red, and even more shocking was that by the final few episodes, Junior had stopped trying to capture (and kill?) Fraggles and was on a first name basis with Gobo.
- On a more personal level, all the Fraggle Five went through some Character Development over the series. It's most notable with Wembley, who at the beginning of the series has no opinions of his own and just agrees with whoever spoke last, but over the course of the show learns to think a little more for himself and even stand up for himself when he needs to — but without losing his flexibility and gist for seeing everyone's point of view.
- Christmas Episode: Doc and Sprocket are shown celebrating Christmas in "The Bells of Fraggle Rock," "The Night of the Lights" (a Back to the Rock episode), and A Muppet Family Christmas (where they celebrated with the Muppet Show and Sesame Street characters, and Jim Henson himself). Fraggles, of course, have their own seasonal holidays: the Festival of the Bells and the Night of the Lights. This didn't stop them from enjoying the Christmas carol medley in Muppet Family Christmas - if there's one thing Fraggles can't resist, it's joyful music.
- "The Perfect Blue Rollie" isn't a Christmas episode per se, but was bundled with "The Bells of Fraggle Rock" on VHS as A Festive Fraggle Holiday, due to its theme of gift-giving. A song from that episode, "Pass It On," was also reused in Muppet Family Christmas (with Kermit and Robin joining in).
- Chroma Key: Possibly the producers' one favorite special effect in the entire series. When there is a Conspicuously Light Patch around someone, generally that means something's up.
- "Walking through the cave" scenes were composed using a variant of the Matte Shot called the.... traveling matte.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Personified by Skenfrith, ties into the secret of The Festival Of Bells, and there's more and more.
- Doc and Sprocket's belief in the Fraggles (Gobo in particular) created the new tunnel and hole in the wall at the very end of the final episode.
- Comically Missing the Point: Doc manages this frequently. In one episode, he's trying to figure out how he and Sprocket can communicate:
Doc: And now the "I want to be friends" gesture. (rolls on his back like a dog, limbs in the air) |
- Continuity Nod: Tons. In part this was budgetary — custom Fraggle models reappeared frequently in crowd scenes after their debut, for example — but many were entirely script-based, such as Travelling Matt recognizing the hopping creatures.
- Cool Old Guy: Apparently, the Fraggle aging process only causes an elderly Fraggle to sprout a beard Dumbledore would envy. The World's Oldest Fraggle is even louder and more energetic than the main cast, and wavers somewhere between Crazy Awesome and Nightmare Fuel (by virtue of leading the happy, friendly, peace-loving Fraggles to war). He's mellower in Back to the Rock, but also goofier. Apparently also fancies himself quite the Casanova, if his thing for the Merggle Queen is any indication.
- Amongst the Doozers, the Architect also was pretty rev. Although Back to the Rock, again, makes him more than a little goofier than in the original.
- Doc himself seems to be a fun person to be around. So does Doc herself in the new series (although she's not old).
- You better believe Traveling Matt is this. He's getting up there in age, but is still spry enough to travel the world.
- Cosmic Horror: The Nightmare Fuel-eriffic Invisible Garboyl episode. Then there's the echo chamber Mokey gets stuck in in the Back to the Rock episode "The Merggle Moon Migration."
- Crossover: All six major Fraggles, plus Doc and Sprocket, appeared in A Muppet Family Christmas. Sprocket has also appeared in The Muppet Christmas Carol among other Muppet works, and Traveling Matt cameo'd in The Muppets Take Manhattan.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Put dithering, self-proclaimed wimp Wembley under stress and you get a Fraggle who furiously pummels the "Hairy Monster from Outer Space" (read: Sprocket, but consider how a Big Friendly Dog looks to a smaller creature) or beats The Ace Gobo in a full-out race.
- Cryptic Conversation: Cantus is quite fond of these. Lampshaded on multiple occasions by Red Fraggle, and Murray the Minstrel.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: When an egg falls into the Fraggle pond in "Wembley's Egg," the other Fraggles make fun of Wembley for suggesting that a strange creature will hatch from it. Lo and behold...
- Cultural Translation: Different actors played Doc's role for different countries. For example, the French version of the show took place in a bakery and in the UK Sprocket's owner was a lighthouse keeper called The Captain. Other countries, like Japan, just received a straight dub of the North American series.
- A Day in the Limelight: The Gorgs, the Doozers, and even Sprocket are the central focus of some episodes in which the Fraggles play a secondary role. The Doozers would later get their own CGI-animated spinoff series in 2014.
- The series itself was sort of this for Jerry Nelson, who, while he'd performed many popular Sesame Street and Muppet Show characters (particularly Count von Count), had never had a show built around one of his characters. Ironically, Nelson initially wanted the role of Boober, and not Gobo, but Boober had been specifically developed with Dave Goelz in mind. The series also provided Karen Prell and Kathryn Mullen with far and away their most popular characters (Red and Mokey respectively), though both also worked on Sesame and Muppet Show.
- Dead Guy, Junior: Gobo, possibly. He was named after his great-uncle, whom Traveling Matt adored. Given Matt’s own advancing age and the fact that the original Gobo is only seen in flashback, it’s probably safe to assume that he is deceased.
- Deadpan Snarker: Boober. He gets easily the funniest lines in the show, in spite of himself. Red and Gobo also have their moments.
- Development Hell: Dear God, The Movie! Which, now that the franchise is being revived as a series on a streaming service, may be off the table, at least for now.
- Disney Acid Sequence: Dreaming of Someone, Talking About Germs, Do You Want It, Chase the Wind, I'm Never Alone
- Ditto Aliens: Cotterpin: "You Fraggles all look alike to me." Boober: "No we don't!"
- Dramatic Wind: When there's wind blowing stuff around, something's up.
- Dub Name Change: Red was renamed Rosi in Spanish and Maggie in French. Wembley was renamed Dudo in Spanish, and Mokey is known as Bea and Boober is Boubeur in French. Also in French, Sprocket is Croquette and Marjory the Trash Heap is Germaine, among other changes. In Japanese, Sprocket was renamed Mac and Philo and Gunge are Kuzu and Bororo, to name a few. Icy Joe in Back to the Rock is called Lady Glagla in the French dub, which may be a Lady Gaga Shout-Out.
- Edutainment Show: In addition to each episode having An Aesop, some episodes have Doc giving Sprocket a miniature science lesson on topics such as the states of matter (The Trash Heap Doesn't Live Here Anymore) and the Earth's axis and seasons (The Bells of Fraggle Rock). Back to the Rock also has an environmental subtext, with the now-female Doc on a quest to keep non-biodegradable materials such as plastic water bottles out of the Earth's oceans.
- The Eeyore: Boober, who's always, ALWAYS expecting the worst to happen. An episode of the 2022 reboot takes this Up To Eleven, with Boober assigned the New Day's Day address and a hilarious Imagine Spot in which he imagines falling flat on his face, landing on flowers which cause a rash, and getting an attack of full-body hiccups when he's to give his speech.
- Egg McGuffin: Done very well in the episode "Wembley's Egg".
- Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Junior Gorg tawks wike dis! Richard Hunt modeled the voice on a childhood friend of his.
- Expository Theme Tune
- Easy Amnesia: Boober gets this in the episode "Boober Gorg".
- Even the Dog Is Ashamed: Sprocket's reaction to some of Doc's wackier stunts.
- Everything's Better With Zombies: Doc is excited about one of the games for his new computer in season one episode The Challenge. (Although the word "zombie" was censored in some reruns in the 2000s.)
Doc: Zombie Attack! "Chase the alien enemy zombies from outer space, hurling flaming marshmallows!" Oh, yes, Sprocket! It sounds like a challenge! |
- Everything's Precious with Puppies: The children's book Sprocket's Christmas Tale gives us a glimpse of Sprocket as a puppy, when he was a stray and adopted by Doc, who saved him from going to the pound.
- The Faceless: Ned Shimmelfinney (and his Back to the Rock counterpart, Mrs. Shimmelfinney).
- Face of the Band: In-universe. Cantus is the only Minstrel the Fraggles know by name. Justified, however, in that the other four Minstrels’ names are All There in the Manual.
- Fantastic Racism: The Gorgs hate the Fraggles and treat them like invasive pests. Things get better as the show goes on, though.
- Fat Idiot: Junior Gorg is every bit as dumb as he is fat, which is to say VERY much so.
- Fiery Redhead: Red. Boober is a subversion.
- Five-Man Band: There are actually two of these. The obvious example are the main Fraggle characters; but the Minstrels also qualify.
- The Fraggles tend to trade roles back and forth; but mostly fall into the following:
- The Hero: Gobo.
- The Lancer: Mokey. (Often The Smart Guy as well.)
- The Big Guy: Boober. (Was also often The Chick.)
- The Smart Guy: Wembley.
- The Chick: Red. (Occasionally The Lancer.)
- The Minstrels don't have as much screen time, but their roles are a bit more clear-cut. Trickster Mentor Cantus is clearly The Hero of the group; with Only Sane Man Murray as The Lancer. What roles the others play seem to be along the lines of Brool as The Big Guy (mainly due to his size and his hinted past as a warrior), Brio as The Smart Guy, and not-too-bright Balsam as The Chick (which is ironic since Brio is the group's token female).
- Back to the Rock, in addition to renaming the group The Troubadours, replaced Cantus with the Daveed Diggs-performed Jamdolin, who is still The Hero but is sort of a cross between Cantus and the beatnik cool of Sgt. Floyd Pepper.
- The Fraggles tend to trade roles back and forth; but mostly fall into the following:
- Five Races: Humans, Fraggles, Gorgs, Doozers, and miscellaneous (too many others to count).
- Flat Earth Atheist: The source of some of Gobo's angst, most notably during The Festival Of Bells.
- Flowery Elizabethan English: Ma Gorg in the original series, on occasion.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble (or rather, the five-temperament expansion):
Gobo - Sanguine / Phlegmatic Type II |
- G-Rated Drug: Wembley's wonderful whoopie water, Love Potion Number Nine.
- Gang of Critters
- Gender Flip: Doc undergoes this and a Race Lift in the 2022 reboot, rewritten from an elderly white man to a young Black woman (played by Broadway star Lilli Cooper) who is studying for her doctorate. She refers to herself as "Doctor Doc" in one episode, and the Muppet Wiki calls her that to distinguish her from the original Doc. Her relationship with Sprocket is still very much like the original Doc's, though.
- The World's Oldest Fraggle's sidekick Henchy is also a female in the new series. Would Hit a Girl is averted, though, since World's Oldest no longer whacks Henchy with his walking stick.
- Gender Blender Name: Icy Joe, who, despite what would one expect given the name, is female.
- Genius Loci: Not only the Trash Heap, there are several episodes that heavily imply that the Rock itself is "alive".
- Genki Girl: Red. Mokey also has shades of this in the 2020s series.
- Gentle Giant: Junior Gorg, though he does seem like a bully at first glance, especially Season 1. The 2022 reboot puts a stronger emphasis on this part of his personality, making him less of a bully and more of a lovable dimwit who only chases Fraggles because his Fraggle-hating parents make him.
- Brool the Minstrel also qualifies. Especially evident when we hear him speak and sing in "Mokey and the Minstrels".
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: Has anyone noticed that the episode "We Love You, Wembley" contains homoeroticism? Both male and female Fraggles are affected by Wembley's Love Potion Number 9.
- "Let Me Be Your Song" could easily be misconstrued as a sexual plea. Listen very closely to the lyrics.
- What does one do in the "Messing Around Cave"? Whatever "messing around" is, Wembley discovers in "The Grapes of Generosity" (offscreen) that you can do it by yourself.
- In the very first episode, Sprocket gets mail. It's his subscription to Puppy Dog Tails, which Doc teases him for.
- Girlish Pigtails: Red, except when sleeping.
- Granola Girl: Mokey. If she were human, you could easily picture her listening to sitar music and polishing crystals.
- Grand Finale: It took the last seven episodes or so to wrap up all the major plots.
- Grumpy Bear: Boober, at first. Turns out he just has a bad, bad case of OCD.
- Hair of Gold: Wembley, just like his Muppeteer, Steve Whitmire (back then anyway). Also Traveling Matt, back in his younger days.
- Wembley is an example of Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold as well, being probably the nicest and kindest of the Fraggle Five.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: The Fraggles and Doozers...
- Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: ... except for Traveling Matt.
- Happy Birthday to You: The events of "Marooned" take place on Boober's birthday. "Four Wembleys and a Birthday" in the Back to the Rock series (which establishes that Fraggles don't actually know their own birthdays, but celebrate them whenever they feel like it) is fairly obviously about Wembley's birthday. Gobo's birthday is a plot point in "Space Frog Follies" (with the titular frog being a birthday gift from Uncle Matt). And a children's storybook based on the original series, Gobo Fraggle and the Poison Cackler, deals with Gobo's friends throwing him a surprise birthday party (and Red dressing up as the titular Poison Cackler to throw him off guard).
- Henpecked Husband: Pa Gorg is this at times.
- Heterosexual Life Partners: Doc and Ned Shimmelfinney. Particularly evident in the last episodes. Also Red and Mokey. Wembley's best friend is Gobo, but he also has this dynamic with Boober in a few episodes (a great opportunity to highlight the real-life Those Two Guys dynamic between Steve Whitmire and Dave Goelz).
- Hollywood Darkness: Those caves are awfully brightly lit for an underground world. Turns out the light is supplied by tiny bioluminescent creatures called Ditsies that feed on music.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Poor Wembley. He’s wound up at the mercy of the Gorgs, Convincing John, a mean genie, the shady Wizard of Fraggle Rock, Jack Hammer...
- Humans Are Bastards: Highly Subverted, though Uncle Matt immediately identifies us as "The Silly Creatures". Later on, Doc agrees with him.
- Matt tends to hear words incorrectly (or just make up his own words for human objects). He misinterpreted "city creatures."
- In fact, some of the silly creatures are very friendly towards Uncle Matt, especially the little girl from "Let The Water Run" who shares her umbrella with Matt while it is raining, and a bunch of street punks who dress him up in punk clothes, in which Uncle Matt refers to them as the closest things a silly creature can be compared to a fraggle!
- Matt does have some more unfortunate experiences with other silly creatures, though those are largely the result of his not understanding their culture (and boundaries in particular).
- The Fraggles are horrified when Convincing John tells them that Fraggles who eat too many Doozer constructions turn into human beings (but he specifically uses that term, rather than "silly creatures," so it's likely the Fraggles didn't know what John was talking about).
- I Am Not Weasel: Gobo's called a "riding beast" by the "primitive" Doozers so many times in "The Cavern of Lost Dreams" that he finally loses his temper and yells that he's a Fraggle.
- Identical Great Nephew: In the flashbacks to Traveling Matt's childhood, we see that Gobo inherited his great-uncle and namesake's color scheme (orange with fuchsia hair).
- Identity Amnesia In "Boober Gorg" Boober gets a thump on the head and ends up thinking he's Junior Gorg. Ma and Pa Gorg think so too.
- I Just Want to Be You: The episode "I Want to Be You" is all about this. Red gets jealous of Mokey for being (so she thinks) more popular than her with everyone ("especially Gobo"), and spends the episode trying to imitate Mokey's hairstyle, voice, touchy-feely new age poetry, etc.
- Imagine Spot: Back to the Rock has a particularly funny one with Boober imagining all the ways he'll screw up his New Day's Day address, starting with falling flat on his face, then landing on a patch of flowers he's allergic to and getting a rash, then drinking a radish milkshake too fast and getting a violent case of hiccups. It's so over the top that even the normally chill Mokey loses patience with him.
- Impossibly Delicious Food: the Grapes of Generosity, so delicious that anyone who finds them will not want to part with them.
- In Memoriam: The final episode carries a dedication to Don Sahlin, the builder of many of the iconic puppets of Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, who had passed away in 1978, five years before Fraggle premiered. Writer Jocelyn Stevenson would often tell the story about how she and Jim Henson came up with the word "Doozers" at the same time while sitting on a bench in London that had been Sahlin's favorite, and chalked it up to Sahlin inspiring them from the "next world."
- Ink Suit Actor: Cantus is a pretty obvious example as it relates to Jim Henson, in terms of personality and in terms of physical appearance to an extent. Convincing John was also based on Henson's ability to persuade people. Also, Gillis Fraggle is a reference to Don Gillis, the show's musical director, and Balsam Fraggle is modeled after songwriter Philip Balsam, who even provided the character's voice (although Steve Whitmire puppeteered him). Balsam is also the name of one of the Minstrels though Philip Balsam never puppeteered or voiced him.
- Insert Song: In this show, it's an art form. Dennis Lee and the late Philip Balsam wrote a total of nearly 200 songs for the show. Harvey Mason Jr. (known for his film work and for collaborating with such superstars as Beyonce, Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson) wrote several more for Back to the Rock.
- International Coproduction: Henson made the show with CBC and with funding from HBO. European versions were also co-produced with broadcasters in those respective countries, such as Britain's Television South and France's FR3.
- Interspecies Friendship: These slowly develop between Fraggles, Doozers, Gorgs, and a Hairy Monster from Outer Space (aka Sprocket) as the series progresses. Also, Doc (a human being) and Sprocket (a dog) are already the best of friends.
- Invisible to Normals: The final episodes have a very strange variation on this one. Seems Gobo never had to go through all the stress of hiding from Doc all those years...
- Involuntary Shapeshifting: Poor Skenfrith.
- Jerkass Ball: Each of the Fraggle FIve gets their turn to hold it, except maybe Wembley (though he's sometimes the victim of whoever is holding the ball).
- Just the Way You Are: Wembley's friends pressure him to "wemble" less, but when he becomes more decisive in "The Secret of Convincing John" and turns into a bossy, overbearing bully (who calls himself Wilfred) as a result, they quickly realize they want the old Wembley back. Eventually Wembley does become more assertive as a result of his Character Development during the series.
- Lethal Chef: Boober's cooking is usually at least edible, but he ventures into this territory whenever he experiments. He even gets a song about it in the episode "Doomsday Soup," after his rutabaga-and-skunk-cabbage gumbo turns out badly (though it turns out to have some very interesting side effects). There's even a children's book about it called Danger: Boober Cooking.
- To be fair, it's not always his fault; sometimes it's the result of not having any radishes to cook with, as is the case in "Doomsday Soup."
- Gobo's tribulations with making soup in "Marooned" (for Boober's surprise party, hence the reason why Gobo is cooking) suggest that cooking isn't one of his strong suits either.
- Lighthouse Point: Where the UK version took place.
- Like a Weasel: Wembley does this all the time, at least at first.
- Lost Forever: The British localization of Fraggle Rock suffered this fate, when the master tapes were junked. Of the 96 episodes made, only 12 are known to survive. This is why there's never been a DVD release.
- CBC's French-Canadian dub is mostly lost, to the point where Canadian DVD releases use European French episodes.
- NHK's original Japanese dub (1986) is also lost except for the handful of episodes that were released on VHS, as NHK recorded over the original masters. Apple TV+, however, has subtitled and redubbed the show from scratch for Japanese fans.
- Lovable Coward: Boober Fraggle. He's a total nervous wreck, but he's still just so endearing!
- Love Is in the Air
- Lyrical Dissonance:
- "Feel So Bad" in "Don't Cry Over Spilt Milk?" turns into an uptempo gospel-style rave-up, much to Boober's disgust. The Fraggles even lampshade it by mentioning how happy this "sad" song made them. The song is later reprised in a much more appropriate context as "Feel So Glad."
- "Dixie Wailin'" in "The Challenge." It's about death and funerals, but Gobo and Red sing it uptempo, not as the funeral dirge Boober insists it should be.
- The Magic Goes Away/The Magic Comes Back: The finale. When it looks like Doc is moving, Gobo races to tell him that he cannot leave the magic — and gets there too late, finding only a cold, dark, empty, utterly mundane room stripped of all the life and joy Doc and Sprocket had infused it with throughout the entire series. Luckily, the message wasn't an order. It's a statement of fact.
- Magic Music: Plays a role in a good number of episodes, and almost guaranteed to be employed whenever Cantus (or Jamdolin) shows up.
- Manipulative Bastard: Sort of. "Convincing John can convince anyone to do anything." So he's got the manipulative part down. He isn't shown to be evil, per se, although he does convince them to do really silly things for no apparent reason, such as convincing Red that wearing a blindfold all the time is the only way to live. He was also exiled from the Rock prior to the start of the series.
- Me's a Crowd: The Back to the Rock episode "Four Wembleys and a Birthday" has Wembley splitting into four separate Wembleys - none of which his friends can see or hear - after Gobo, Mokey, Red and Boober each propose a different way to celebrate his birthday and he's unable to say no to any of them. Also turns into a case of Self-Backing Vocalist as the four Wembleys sing the song "That's Not What I Want" as a quartet.
- Meaningful Name: Cantus is the Latin word for "song".
- Sidebottom is the fun side of Boober that he keeps on the bottom.
- In the Spanish dubs, Wembley is renamed Dudo, which means "I doubt" in Spanish.
- Meganekko: Storyteller Fraggle and Brio the Minstrel/Troubadour.
- Merchandise Driven: Fraggle Rock wasn't merchandised to the same extent as Sesame Street or The Muppet Show, but there was still plenty of merch, including stuffed toys, several albums (the first of which earned a Grammy nomination), stickers, children's books and even a board game. In the UK, a 45 single release of the theme song cracked the Top 40.
- Mistaken for Profound: Trash Heap.
- Mouse World: And multilayered to boot.
- The Movie: Announced quite a few years ago. It was in development limbo for a very long time. Given the development time, some of the rumors, the actual revealed plot elements, and the recent news that the studio heads are gunning for a Darker and Edgier script (seriously), some fans are understandably very apprehensive. However, as of 2011, that iteration of the film is officially dead. However, the franchise was rebooted with new series on streaming services in the early 2020s, and with the success of Back to the Rock and appointment of John Tartaglia as official master of the franchise, talk of a movie version has been revived.
- Musical Episode: Inverted. Episodes with only one original song (there are no episodes with no original songs) were Something Completely Different, as most episodes feature two or three.
- Multi National Shows: While the Fraggle scenes were the same all over the world, various countries had their localised version of Doc (see Cultural Translation above).
- Muppet: It's a Jim Henson production, what did you expect? Of course, the characters can't legally be referred to as Muppets anymore since that term is owned/trademarked by Disney while the Hensons still own Fraggle Rock, but still.
- Mushroom Samba: "It tastes like a party!!!"
- Named by the Adaptation: Remember the lizard-like creature that arose from the remains of Mudwell the Mudbunny in "Gone, but Not Forgotten"? According to Back to the Rock, his name is Mr. Grizzard.
- Neologism: "Wemble", a verb meaning "to be pathologically indecisive". A "wembler" is a person who wembles, and "wembley" is an adjective describing a person who wembles (and it's also an acceptable name to give a child in Fraggle Rock — though according to Wembley, the people who named him apparently thought it meant "makes his mind up easily.")
- When Wembley stops being indecisive, he demands he be called "Wilfred", which might be his real name.
- "Rev" is Doozer for "cool".
- Never Say "Die": Averted like crazy. While it's a lighthearted and child-friendly show, they don't shy away from mentioning death at all. One of the biggest examples is when Red and Boober are trapped in a cave-in, and are desperately afraid that they'll die before they're rescued. This is even averted in the animated series, which is considerably less mature than the original.
- Nice Hat: Gobo has an extensive collection of these, and he wears them in many episodes. Boober's hat is also pretty fashionable. Wembley, on the other hand, never wears one, which is why Boober brings it up when he does in "The Trash Heap Doesn't Live Here Anymore."
- No Gravity for You: Gobo's punishment for eating "The Grapes of Generosity" without sharing them. The only way to revert it is, naturally, to do something generous.
- No Name Given: Doc (and his equivalents, including the new female Doc in the 2022 series). In the finale, mail finally reveals that Doc's name is "Jerome Crystal". Yes, that's right, Doc Crystal. Which could also be a shout-out to Jerry Nelson and Jerry Juhl, who were both born Jerome..
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Sprocket repeatedly tries (and fails) to prove the Fraggles' existence to Doc.
- Novelization: A few episodes (notably "Marooned" and "Wembley's Egg") were adapted into children's books, although most of the spinoff children's books were original stories.
- The Obi-Wan: Cantus again. "We see with our eyes. We know with our hearts."
- One-Hour Work Week: Almost literally (it's half an hour).
- The Character Died with Him: Doc's counterpart "The Captain" in the UK Adaptation of the show was only featured in the first two seasons of the show because of Fulton MacKay's unfortunate death. The Captain's nephew P.K. took over the lighthouse in season 3. After P.K. left for the final two seasons B.J.introduced as the Captain's son.
- While most characters from the original returned in the 2020s reboots, both of Jim Henson's recurring characters, Cantus and Convincing John, were replaced with similar substitutes: a beatnik Fraggle named Jamdolin and a Doozer named Jack Hammer, respectively. Meanwhile, a few of Jerry Nelson's and Richard Hunt's minor characters (for example, Feenie and Gillis) have yet to be recast.
- The Oner: Simulated in the opening and closing titles and in the "walking through the tunnels" scenes.
- Only Sane Man: Boober often plays this role for the Fraggles. Murray is clearly this for the Minstrels.
- Pac-Man Fever: When Doc and Sprocket start playing Zombie Attack in one episode. The game even plays the Pac-Man death sound when you lose.
- Parental Bonus: Lots of 'em!
- Pie in the Face: In "Fraggle Wars," this helps prevent a war between the Rock and Cave Fraggles, when the leaders of both Fraggle tribes get pied at the same time, which gets both tribes laughing at the same thing. Also, Doc gets pied twice in the North American version of that episode. He gets another pie in the face, as well as squirted with whipped cream, in "The Riddle of Rhyming Rock," while trying to put together a pie-baking machine. Boober also gets pied accidentally in the Back to the Rock episode "Deep Dive," when Wembley slips and falls while holding a pie; just as in "Fraggle Wars," this averts a tragedy by making the Merggles laugh, thus curing their hiccups when previous cure attempts have failed.
- Poisonous Friend: Begooney is arguably the first example of Borderline Personality Disorder in a kids' show.
- The Power of Friendship: Coupled with both Clap Your Hands If You Believe and The Power of Rock; the Fraggles are really a force to be reckoned with if you think of it.
- The Power of Rock: It's right in the title, isn't it?
- Reality Warper: Begoony (who managed to be genuinely creepy), the Mean Genie, and a few other one-off characters.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: In "A Friend in Need," the other Fraggles find Sprocket stuck in the Fraggle hole with Gobo's hat nearby, and, assuming the dog killed Gobo, mourn until Gobo shows up alive. Also happens with Red in the animated episode "Laundry Never Lies," which has Boober, Wembley and Gobo finding a soiled shirt of Red's and deducing that she is dead - until she shows up alive and well.
- Running Gag: Quite a few including Sprocket's reaction to any mention of Ned Shimmelfinney and Wembly's bad luck with that one pipe.
- Scare 'Em Straight: A legend that Doozer parents tell their children is that Doozers who don't work turn into Fraggles. This backfires with Cotterpin, as she wants to be a Fraggle... until she learns it's impossible.
- When Mokey tries to get the Fraggles to stop eating Doozer constructions, Convincing John also claims that Fraggles who eat too many Doozer sticks become human beings (he uses that term specifically, not "silly creatures"). Though knowing Convincing John, that's probably something he made up out of cold cloth.
- Serious Business: Satirized ten ways to Tuesday, most aggressively in the "Grand Poobahs" episode. Note that, in Fraggle society, major, far-reaching decisions can be settled with such things as who can stack the most pickles on the end of her/his beak.
- Short Run in Peru: HBO divided the fourth and final season into two very short seasons, at Jim Henson's request (HBO had pulled its funding for the series and Henson decided to end on a high note rather than continue and sacrifice quality, but he still wanted the show to air over five seasons). Fortunately, the upcoming DVD collection will finally rectify this for American fans.
- Or not. Wah.
- Thankfully, although it took an agonizingly long time, the Final Season set has been released!
- Or not. Wah.
- Shout-Out: Lots of company cross-references to other Muppet and Jim Henson productions, particularly The Muppet Show. These range from a kid wearing a Kermit the Frog costume for Halloween (in a Traveling Matt segment) to Sprocket doing a remarkably accurate impersonation of The Swedish Chef. It's even in Doc's name: Doc Crystal. (Doc's real name is Jerome, which is likely a shoutout to Jerry Nelson, writer Jerry Juhl, or both, as both were born Jerome.) The Dark Crystal is also seen playing at a drive-in theater in another Traveling Matt skit. And the 2020s reboots have plenty to the original series too.
- Perhaps unintentional, but in "Let the Water Run," Sprocket is shown to take baths with a rubber duckie.
- Wembley was in fact named after London's Wembley Stadium.
- In "Mokey and the Minstrels," Cantus says, "All is all, is is," a re-used line from The Cube, where it was spoken by a monk played by Jerry (Gobo) Nelson. That film was also written by Fraggle's creative producer, Jerry Juhl.
- Sick Episode: "Pebble Pox Blues" features Gobo, Wembley and finally Boober all coming down with the titular illness. Sprocket also has a cold in the North American version of "The Beast of Bluerock" and has to get over his fear of going to the vet.
- Sneeze of Doom: In "The Perfect Blue Rollie", Wembly sneezes when he sneaks into Boober's hidey-hole to retreive the rollie, waking up Boober. Then he sneezes and blows the rollie into a crack in the wall.
- Soapbox Sadie: Mokey.
- The Southpaw: Gobo plays his guitar left-handed. This is par for the course for Muppets, though.
- Species Surname
- Stable Time Loop, or prehaps Tricked-Out Time - "Mokey, Then and Now"
- Team Chef: Boober.
- Team Mom: Mokey, again. Jim Henson referred to her as "the den mother of the Fraggle Five", and the oldest.
- Theme Tune Cameo: Gobo whistles a portion of it in "Gobo's School for Explorers," and sings the chorus in "The Riddle of Rhyming Rock."
- Red sings a version with parody lyrics to mock Boober in "Boober Rock."
- Theme Tune Roll Call: "Let the Fraggles play! We're Gobo, Mokey, Wembley, Boober, Red!"
- This Is No Time to Panic: "The Great Radish Famine." When there's no radishes, Fraggles, Gorgs and Doozers all say this - then panic and accuse the others of stealing them.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Red and Mokey. Mokey's slightly less girly in Back to the Rock, but this still applies.
- Trapped in Another World: Gobo in one of the very first episodes. Sprocket, at least once a season thereafter.
- Trickster Mentor: Cantus again, mostly by virtue of being terribly mysterious.
- Unexplained Accent: Gobo has a Canadian accent complete with "eh" at the end of many of his sentences.
- All of Gobo's performers to date have been American: Jerry Nelson was from Oklahoma, Townsend Coleman (who voiced animated Gobo) is a New Yorker, and Gobo's current performer, John Tartaglia, is from New Jersey. The accent is a reference to show's Canadian home- the original was shot in Toronto, and Back to the Rock in Calgary.
- Dave Goelz is from California, but when New Jersey-born Richard Hunt performed Gunge with a Jersey accent, Goelz did the same with Philo.
- Unfortunately, this was Flanderized all to hell in the animated series.
- Unusual Euphemism: Pa Gorg's "Drat and Deuteronomy!" Also, Wembley's idea of an expletive is "Oh, rocks!"
- Vague Age
- Verbal Tic: Wembley has a tendency to run around yelling "squeet squeet squat squat" or some variation thereof when he's happy or excited. It shows up in many of his songs, too (including the end credits).
- Walking the Earth: "Call me Uncle Traveling Matt."
- Walk This Way: Invoked by Cantus in "Junior Faces The Music", which resulted in the Fraggle Five following him and imitating his regal gait.
- Wandering Minstrel: Cantus
- Welcome Titles
- What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Boober's attitude towards laundry.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Wembley in season 2 of Back to the Rock occasionally wears an outfit identical to that worn by Mokey in the original series. He still identifies as a male Fraggle, although Pogey, a new character in the reboot, is non-binary.
- Wild Hair: Mokey (in her original design) and Cantus have it. The latter gets bonus points for having tufts of hair that defy the laws of gravity.
- The World Tree
- You Mean "Xmas": Actually well-done and believable in this series. Happy Festival Of The Bells / Night of the Lights!
- Zeerust: King Gorg owns a blunderbuss.
- The Gorgs are this in general; they're the only ones who seem to be living in a weird combination of medieval times and a perpetual warfront (with a completely imaginary enemy).
- Partially justifiable when you consider how old the gorgs are and that they are essentially isolated from the rest of the world.