Let the music play (clap, clap) – again.
It’s been 35 years since Jim Henson’s “Fraggle Rock” last aired in 1987.
Henson’s musical and fun Fraggles are back.
Join Gobo, Red, Wembley, Mokey, Boober and new Fraggle friends on hilarious and epic adventures about the magic that happens when we celebrate and care for our interconnected world in the “Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock” series.
The series was influential on Matt Fusfeld and Alex Cuthbertson, who are bringing the reboot back to the screen for Apple TV+, where it’s now streaming.
Cuthbertson says the original show — which ran from 1983 to 1987 — was about creating world peace and ending war, and doing it in a fun and dynamic way.
“Our desire to do the show is rooted in that,” Cuthbertson says. “Those were the themes that drove the original. We all live in this world together and we wanted to bring those themes back.
Cuthbertson says being able to collaborate with the producers to do something positive was the icing on the cake for the show.
“We wanted it to be funny and fun to watch,” he says. “We wanted to put something really good in the world. He can bring something important. We are all in the same boat and we wanted to bring joy.
Fusfeld and Cuthbertson began their working relationship while working on the animated series “American Dad.”
With “Fraggle Rock”, it was very different.
“With animation, we could think of anything and it would be drawn,” says Fusfeld. “This time we were working with puppets and they can’t do much. It became a good challenge. It makes us discover clever ways to execute something. He took our crutches off and we had to focus on story and comedy. The sets were built and we worked with them.
Cuthbertson says anything done with puppets feels like magic.
“We often thought, ‘How did they do that?’ ” he says.
Taking a beloved series and rebooting it, the duo had nerves.
“It was almost immediate realizations of how Matt and I, as showrunners, were leading,” Cuthbertson says. “We had people involved who came from the original. One of the original authors was back with us. We never felt like we were in danger of going to a bad place. We talked about everything. When we were shooting the series, the whole crew was there.
Both Cuthbertson and Fusfeld feel like they would hang out with Mokey Fraggle because they are attracted to her.
“I would end up hanging out with Boober,” Fusfeld adds.
As the series kicks off its 13-episode season, Cuthbertson said he wants to deliver a quality show.
“Matt and I really like what we’ve done,” he says. “It’s joyful. And if that’s something that we can evoke in the audience and give them some joy. We are trying to make the world realize that we should all listen to each other. It was an incredible race.
