Fraggle Rock - Sprocket's Big Adventure (71)

Continuing the occasional looks at various Jim Henson related projects with the 71st episode of FRAGGLE ROCK, the season 4 debut.

Sprocket's Big Adventure

An unusual episode, one of the few I've seen where the Sprocket, the dog, takes center stage. In earlier episodes he'd finally made friends with Gobo, although still having no luck convincing Doc of the existence of furry creatures beyond the hole in the wall. However, plumbing problems lead to a hole in the floor, which allows Sprocket to dig through to Fraggle Rock, where he encounters Doozers (in a Gulliver's Travel type scene), Gorgs and the Trash Heap before finally returning home. Busy day.

I especially liked some of the extended Doozer scenes (including of course Cotterpin) in this episode, as they're one of my favourite bits of the show, with that odd way they look and move and are operated, which makes them a bit different from the everyday muppets. I also thought it was a nice touch that they remembered to do a few camera affects to make Sprocket smaller than he would normally be in relationship to the Gorgs naturally (as they always use smaller full-figure models of the Fraggles when they interact directly with the Gorgs).

As mentioned before, the first season of FRAGGLE ROCK is being released next week. Based on the stuff I've been watching in the past few weeks, I'm leaning towards picking it up, as most of my favourite MUPPET SHOW episodes are in later seasons, while the FRAGGLE ROCK stuff starts off stronger (but I'll probably also pick up the final FRAGGLE set, as about two-thirds of the episodes I've never seen will be on there).