Episode 101: Beginnings



Doc, an inventor and tinkerer, moves into a new workshop in a seaside town with his faithful dog, Sprocket. Doc doesn't know it, but a magical underground world lies just beyond the wall of his workshop -- Fraggle Rock, populated by free-spirited, fuzzy, three-foot-high creatures called Fraggles; tiny, hard-working Doozers; and gigantic, weak-minded Gorgs.

Traveling Matt Fraggle, a Fraggle explorer, discovers a hole that leads through the wall into Doc's Workshop, which he identifies as "Outer Space -- the final frontier for Fraggledom." When Matt decides to explore Outer Space, he notifies his nephew Gobo that he'll periodically send messages back to Doc's Workshop for Gobo to collect. Gobo watches his Uncle Matt venture into the workshop, where he's chased out of the door by a barking Sprocket. Gobo is terrified at the thought that he'll have to go out into that workshop every day to get Matt's messages. With the help of the Trash Heap and his friends, however, Gobo manages to summon the bravery to retrieve the first of what will be many postcards from his Uncle Travelling Matt.

Songs

 * "Hip Hip Hooray"
 * "Follow Me"
 * "A Little Doozer Music"
 * "I Seen Troubles"

Fraggle Facts

 * According to Uncle Matt's book on Fraggle Rock, "The center of the universe is, of course, that marvelous land known as Fraggle Rock. It is thus called because it is a Rock and Fraggles live there."

Video releases

 * Beginnings (HBO Video, 1986)
 * Meet the Fraggles! (Jim Henson Video, 1993) -- closing credits cut
 * Where It All Began (HIT!, 2004)
 * Fraggle Rock: Complete First Season (HIT!, 2005)

International Episode Titles

 * Denmark: "Begyndelsen"
 * Germany: "Der Anfang"
 * Netherlands: "Het Begin..."
 * Norway: "Slik begynte det"
 * Spain: "Érase una vez"
 * Sweden: "Så började det" (video title "Farbror Mack's resa")