Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock The Complete Second Season
November 2006 Reviewed by: Joseph Taylor Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

For a lot of people who grew up in the ‘80s, the HBO children’s series Fraggle Rock is a fond memory. It first appeared on the subscription channel in 1983 and ran for five seasons, producing a total of 96 episodes. Hit Entertainment has responded to popular demand by releasing the first two seasons of the show on DVD. Each five-disc set contains 24 episodes, plus extras, such as behind-the-scenes interviews. The sets are attractively packaged, and the second season includes a replica of the original pitch book that Jim Henson, one of the show’s co-creators, used to describe it to HBO and its co-producers from Canadian and British television.

Fraggle Rock itself is an alternate world the viewer enters through a small tunnel in the workshop of an eccentric inventor named Doc. Doc is the only human in the show, and he never sees any of the Fraggles when they make their rare trips through the tunnel and into his shop. But his dog Sprocket does, to his confusion. Jim Henson created Sprocket, who, like all the Fraggle Rock characters aside from Doc, has the soft, cuddly appearance that made Henson’s Muppets creations so popular.

Fraggle Rock is a cavernous world inhabited by the Fraggles and the Doozers. The Fraggles are about a foot-and-a-half high and don’t do much but sing and run around. The Doozers are small and like a bland version of the Pillsbury Dough Boy. They build intricate structures that clutter up Fraggle Rock. A third species of creature, the Gorgs, lives beyond Fraggle Rock. The Fraggles can enter the Gorgs’ world through a hole in the ground that takes them from their land underground to the Gorgs’ kingdom.

Henson and his co-creators used this small world to tell stories that would gently instruct children on such values as friendship, concern for the environment, and respect for the differences in others. In "Wembley’s Egg," a bird’s egg arrives in Fraggle Rock via a Gorg who shakes it loose from its nest. Wembley, who is feeling out of place and bored, takes care of the egg until it hatches. When he realizes the new bird needs to fly, he tries to teach it. In the process, he learns about caring for something other than himself. When he finds the bird’s parents, he realizes he must return it, despite how fond he’s grown of it. "All Work and All Play" shows the Doozers’ lives to be more interesting and fulfilling than the Fraggles assume it is, and Cotterpin Doozer finds out she can be whatever kind of Doozer she wants.

Each episode of Fraggle Rock includes a couple of songs and a visit to the human world via a postcard from a Fraggle named Traveling Mat, who years ago ventured out beyond Doc’s shop. With the show’s combination of entertainment and education, it could have easily been shown on PBS. Fraggle Rock was videotaped, and that medium’s limitations are more apparent on the detail that DVDs and today’s televisions allow. Although the sound is listed as Dolby two-channel, a switch from stereo to mono on my amp revealed no difference. To the kids for whom this show was created, those technical limitations won’t matter. What’s more, their parents will find Fraggle Rock to be nostalgic, as well as an antidote to the loud, badly produced children’s shows their kids watch.

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