Not sure why #FraggleRock is trending—but since it is, how about a short thread on SECRET ORIGINS OF FRAGGLE ROCK?

Come this way…. /1

#FraggleRock can trace its roots back to May 1980, when Jim Henson attended a christening party in Scotland for the son of Sesame Street writer Jocelyn Stevenson, who had asked Jim to serve as her son’s godfather. /2

In the days leading up to the party, Stevenson’s brother-in-law, Peter Orton—a savvy British TV exec who had handled international sales work for Sesame Street—begged her to seat him next to Jim. “I want to to talk with him about an idea I have,” Orton said. /3

At dinner, Orton told Henson that the international success of Sesame Street and The Muppet Show convinced him the time was right to produce a show aimed deliberately at an international market.

Jim was intrigued.

And immediately began thinking about it.

/4

By March 1981—after spending a year at work on The Great Muppet Caper —Jim wanted to start developing what he was now calling “The International Children’s Show” and brought in some of his most trusted members of his creative team: Jerry Juhl. Jocelyn Stevenson. Mike Frith. /5

Jim brought his team together in the Hyde Park Hotel in London for several days of creative brainstorming, and opened his pitch to them with one simple directive: “I want to do a children’s show that will stop war.” /6

With that direction, said Frith, “we talked about doing a show demonstrating how, through misconception, we can create problems that not only shouldn’t be there, but can be self-destructive—and how, through harmony, we can achieve strength.” /7

For three days, the team talked through various ideas, passing notes as Frith drew rough concept art of smiling, wide-eyed creatures huddling beneath water pipes and inside the foundations of houses. When they were done, Jim took the armloads of notes with him. /8

“Jim’s genius,” Jocelyn Stevenson said, “is that he can sit through days of meetings getting completely different views from people…and then at the end, he’d synthesize the whole thing.”

A week later, on a Concorde flightier from London to NYC, Jim did just that. /9

Jim’s first pass at ‘synthesizing’ their notes was a treatment for a show the creative team had decided to call “Woozle World.”

The setup sounds familiar: 3 different species —called Wizzles, Woozles, and Giant Wozles—live in harmony, even when they don’t always mean to. /10

“What the show is really about is people getting along with other people,” Jim wrote, “and understanding the delicate balances of the natural world. We will make the point that everything affects everything else, & that there is a beauty & harmony of life to be appreciated.” /11

Weeks later, Jim Henson installed Frith, Juhl, and Stevenson at his house in London, gave them his notes, and asked them to flesh out the rough proposal.

The first task: changing the name.

/12

Jim had already noted the name would “likely be changed,” even as Stevenson pointed out that “Woozles” was an A.A. Milne creature.

The next title, then?

Googlies.

/13

But Jim, who always considered the way words sounded, wasn’t keen with that title, either. After some back and forth, they recalled the names Jim and Jerry Juhl had given to some Muppet monsters in their 1970 special "The Great Santa Claus Switch."

Frackles.

/14

The word would quickly evolve to the softer, warmer, and fuzzier-sounding “Fraggles”—and the team worked the rest of the summer on a comprehensive guide to their universe, putting together the “Fraggle Bible” on the characters and rules of the realm. /15

Jamming everything into a binder labeled “THINGS WE KNOW ABOUT THE FRAGGLES,” the team polished and expanded on Jim’s “Woozle World” treatment. /16

Part of what made the project so intriguing—and ideal for international audiences (for that was where Jim started the discussion, remember)--was the ‘framing sequence.’ In the US, this would be the workshop where Doc and his dog Sprocket lived and worked. /17

Other countries would be able to create their own ‘home base’ for the show. In France, foe instance, it as a chef and his dog Croquette. In the UK, the home would be a crusty sea captain who lived in a lighthouse. /18

It was creative director Mike Frith who—tapping into his childhood memories of two boys in Bermuda who discovered a beautiful crystal cave—suggested moving the Fraggles out of the foundation of the house and into an underground maze of endless caves. /19

Frith’s suggestion also changed the name of the show, for the last time. Up until now, the team had finally settled on the name “Fraggle Hill,” which sounded vaguely English. With a cave setting, they agreed to change the name to the spunkier “Fraggle Rock.” /20

“'Fraggle Rock’ was a true depiction of Jim’s feelings of peace and harmony,” said Henson producer David Lazer. Added writer Jerry Juhl: “Jim had very high aspirations for that show and wanted to make sure it was just right.” /21

It took a while, however, before Henson found a network willing to take a chance on a new show, featuring new Muppets. Finally, agent Bernie Brillstein found a take with an upstart subscriber cable channel, looking to develop original content.

@HBO.

So, if you love @GameOfThrones or @VeepHBO or The Sopranos, or any number of HBO original series, you can thank Jim Henson and #FraggleRock for paving the way. Because it was a huge hit—or, as Jim said with his typical understatement, “a very nice project.” /END

(Apologies, as always, for typos and odd autocorrects. I have NO idea what a ‘flightier’ actually is….)