Unless you have kids, when many of us think of HBO, we probably don't think of children's series. The network that airs shows like Game of Thrones and Westworld may have Sesame Street, but it's not overwhelmingly kid-friendly. Still, HBO is responsible for the airing of one of the most creative and wonderful kids' shows of all time. Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock debuted on HBO back in 1983, but had a disappointingly short run. In the time since, it's become a cult hit and now longtime fans can dance their cares away and celebrate: the series is coming back to HBO, and it's going to look better than ever. The original episodes of Fraggle Rock will soon air in HD on HBO.
Fraggle Rock revolved around a species of puppet creatures known as the Fraggles, who valued fun and did as little work as possible. They shared their cave with the Doozers, who loved to do as much work as possible. The Fraggles and Doozers co-existed easily thanks to the Fraggles' love of eating the Doozers' creations and therefore allowing the Doozers to keep working. The local family of Gorgs was less friendly thanks to the Fraggles' penchant for stealing their radishes. The silly creatures - that is, the humans - remain almost entirely unaware of the dancing and singing creatures living down in Fraggle Rock.
The series sadly only ran for four seasons, airing 96 episodes from 1983 - 1987. At the time, the Fraggles never caught on quite as much as the Muppets or the puppets living over on Sesame Street. Luckily, the Fraggle Rock episodes will return in all their digitally remastered glory at the end of the year, according to Deadline. The re-release should come as a relief to those who haven't been willing to shell out the money for the Fraggle Rock DVD set.
Fans should definitely be glad to have some concrete news about Fraggle Rock returning to mainstream media. Teases of a possible Fraggle Rock movie have been circulating for years now, with nothing to show for it. Writers have dropped in and out, and the project has switched production companies. More promising news broke in 2015 with the announcement that Joseph Gordon-Levitt was attached to star in and produce a Fraggle Rock feature, but that still hasn't gone anywhere. Hopefully this latest attempt at a movie goes better than in years previous; at least we can absolutely count on the Fraggles busting out the songs on the small screen again thanks to HBO.
This isn't the first time that HBO has worked to add puppets to its lineup. The network worked out a deal to start producing new episodes of Sesame Street, which air exclusively on HBO before heading to PBS. It's entirely possible that HBO's feedback for Sesame Street played a part in the decision to bring back old episodes of Fraggle Rock in HD. It certainly won't be the same as a reboot, but who could really replace Jim Henson on the puppet front anyway? There's still plenty of magic to enjoy in the original episodes.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest news, and don't forget to check out our fall TV premiere schedule.
