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Traveling Matt

The television series Fraggle Rock has resulted in four television spin-offs — a Saturday morning cartoon in 1987, the animated series The Doozers in 2013, the short-form series Fraggle Rock: Rock On! in 2020, and the rebooted series Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock in 2022. Producers have explored the idea of other possible spin-off productions over the years:

Traveling Matt spin-off[]

During production of the third season of Fraggle Rock, Jim Henson began thinking of projects for after the series. One idea, outlined in a March 1984 memo, focused on Traveling Matt and two new Fraggle characters exploring the globe in a hot air balloon. According to Henson biographer Brian Jay Jones:

Henson was more excited, however, by the idea of doing a Fraggle Rock spinoff series. In a memo to the creative staff, Jim described a show built around Uncle Matt and two new Fraggle characters, who "travel around the world in a nutty hot air balloon," wrote Jim enthusiastically, "landing in new places each week ... possibly on a quest to gather music." Jim had even planned out the technical tricks he wanted to put to work each week. "We could radio-control Uncle Matt and the female Fraggle on a bicycle with a sidecar ... and the Doozers might follow along in their radio-controlled vehicles."[1]

Gorg Fairy Tales[]

A Saturday morning cartoon series pitched around 1985.[2]

Doozers[]

The Henson Company was interested in creating a spin-off starring the Doozers as far back as when Fraggle Rock was still on the air. One of the first efforts to do so was in development in 1993 and 1994. Titled Doozers, the 2D animated series aimed at young children would have featured Cotterpin Doozer and her friends Lugnut, Patch, and Downspout as they came up with solutions for Doozer problems. Michael K. Frith contributed concept art to the project. Although this particular project never made it to screen, the Henson Company kept the concept of a series for the Doozers in mind before the eventual 2013 computer animated series.[3]

The Saga of Fraggle Rock[]

Among ideas Jim Henson proposed for a feature in the second half-hour of a potential episode of The Jim Henson Hour was "an origin storytelling of the discovery of Fraggle Rock called The Saga of Fraggle Rock."[4] The special was not produced.

Fraggle Rock: The Movie[]

For more information, see Fraggle Rock (movie)

A feature film based on Fraggle Rock has been in and out of development with The Jim Henson Company since 2005. The proposed film would take "Gobo, Wembley, Mokey, Boober and Red on an adventure outside of Fraggle Rock where they interact with the strange beings in 'outer space' (also known as humans)."[5]

See also[]

Sources[]

  1. Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones (page 379)
  2. Fraggle Rock: The Ultimate Visual History by Jody Revenson and Noel Murray
  3. Fraggle Rock: The Ultimate Visual History by Jody Revenson and Noel Murray (page 212-213)
  4. Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones (page 413)
  5. Fraggle Rock is Coming to the Big Screen!" (HTML version), The Jim Henson Company press release. May 12, 2008.