 | |
| PERFORMER | Richard Hunt voice & face |
| Rob Mills body, season 1-4 | |
| Frank Meschkuleit body, s5 | |
| DEBUT | 1983 |
| DESIGN | Michael K. Frith designer |
| Tim Miller, Connie Peterson, Polly Smith, Mary Strieff builders | |
Junior Gorg with Richard Hunt and Rob Mills.
Junior Gorg in Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock
Junior Gorg is the son of Pa Gorg and Ma Gorg, and is the youngest of the Gorgs. As prince, he is given orders for a number of chores around the castle, including the maintenance of the royal radish garden. He sets traps in the garden outside the castle for the purpose of capturing the Fraggles, who sneak onto the Gorgs' property to harvest radishes. His favorite dish is watermelon en croute.[1]
Junior is proud of his Gorg heritage. He is always eager to please his parents, even when he doesn't understand the orders they give him.
In "Junior Sells the Farm," Junior says that he is "only 473." Since the episode aired in 1984, assuming a literal time frame, this would place his birth date in the year 1511. Junior celebrates his 500th birthday in the Back to the Rock episode "I'm Pogey."
Junior Gorg's best friend is an enormous radish that he calls Geraldine.[1] This was apparently his only friend until "Bored Stiff," when he made friends with Gobo.
Seasons 4 and 5 saw a turnaround for the relationship between the Fraggles and the Gorgs. In "The Gorg Who Would Be King," Junior Gorg tries to prevent himself from becoming king by eating the last leaf on the Nirvana Tree, which ends up shrinking him to Fraggle size (an example of Switching walk-around and puppet). During that time, with the help of Wembley Fraggle, he ended up learning of the Fraggle and Doozer cultures, even preventing his parents from using a bomb to destroy Fraggle Rock. Upon returning to normal size, he becomes king and ends up disbanding the hierarchy as he throws his crown very far, where it lands in a forest in Outer Space where Doc and Sprocket were camping. In "The Honk of Honks," he can be seen talking with Gobo about the Honk of Honks where he lends a noisemaker to help Gobo in his quest, implying that relations between the Gorgs and Fraggles have dramatically improved.
His performer, Richard Hunt, said of Junior Gorg:
Junior returns in Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, with Dan Garza performing his face and voice and Ben Durocher as the body. Once again portrayed as an adversary to the Fraggles, Junior spends the first season of the show making friends with a plant (which he names "Junior Junior") and constructing a Gorg fountain in the garden.
Of Junior's character, Garza said:
Behind the Scenes[]
Junior is performed by two puppeteers: one person in the Gorg costume and another performing the voice and moving the character's eyes and mouth by remote control. A camera implanted in one of the eyes and a monitor screen built inside the head unit allow the puppeteer wearing the suit to see more clearly and grant them line of sight on the same level as the costume's eyes.
A small live-hand puppet version of the character was used in certain shots when Junior is seen on the roof of the castle (including "The Minstrels" and "Boober Gorg"). An alternate hand puppet version was made for the shrunken-down Junior in "The Gorg Who Would Be King."
According to Karen Falk, the original Junior Gorg is part of the collection donated to the Museum of the Moving Image. However, as of 2021, he has yet to be put on display at the museum's Jim Henson Exhibition.[4]
Filmography[]
- Fraggle Rock
- Episode 101: Beginnings
- Episode 102: Wembley and the Gorgs
- Episode 103: Let the Water Run
- Episode 104: You Can't Do That Without a Hat
- Episode 105: The Thirty-Minute Work Week
- Episode 107: I Want to Be You
- Episode 109: The Lost Treasure of the Fraggles
- Episode 110: Don't Cry Over Spilt Milk
- Episode 113: We Love You, Wembley
- Episode 114: The Challenge
- Episode 116: Capture the Moon
- Episode 118: The Minstrels
- Episode 119: The Great Radish Famine
- Episode 120: The Garden Plot
- Episode 122: Mokey's Funeral
- Episode 124: New Trash Heap in Town
- Episode 201: Wembley's Egg
- Episode 203: The Trash Heap Doesn't Live Here Anymore
- Episode 206: Boober's Dream
- Episode 209: Sir Hubris and the Gorgs
- Episode 210: A Friend in Need
- Episode 216: Junior Sells the Farm
- Episode 219: Doomsday Soup
- Episode 224: The Invasion of the Toe Ticklers
- Episode 305: Blanket of Snow, Blanket of Woe
- Episode 308: Believe It or Not
- Episode 314: The Great Radish Caper
- Episode 316: The Battle of Leaking Roof
- Episode 318: Bored Stiff
- Episode 321: A Dark and Stormy Night
- Episode 401: Sprocket's Big Adventure
- Episode 403: Sidebottom Blues
- Episode 405: Junior Faces the Music
- Episode 406: A Tune for Two
- Episode 413: Boober Gorg
- Episode 501: Mirror, Mirror (Voice Only)
- Episode 505: The River of Life
- Episode 509: Ring Around the Rock
- Episode 511: The Gorg Who Would Be King
- Episode 512: The Honk of Honks
- Episode 513: Change of Address
- Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock
Sources[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The Great Radish Caper"
- ↑ Unused footage from Down at Fraggle Rock: Behind the Scenes, [1]
- ↑ Dan Garza on Twitter
- ↑ "Fraggle Rock: A Celebration" at Museum of the Moving Image.