A 'Fraggle Rock' Reboot Is Officially Coming To Apple TV+, Older Episodes Will Stream Too
Get ready to dance your cares away: Fraggle Rock is coming to Apple TV+. The beloved Jim Henson Company children's puppet program is returning as a rebooted Apple Original series "for new generations of fans to enjoy together." Apple TV+ has picked up the Fraggle Rock reboot for a full season, along with old episodes of the classic '80s series.
The Jim Henson Company is enjoying quite the resurgence. On the heels of an announcement for the Labyrinth sequel, another beloved Jim Henson property is coming back to life. Apple TV+ announced that it is teaming up with the Jim Henson Company to reboot Fraggle Rock as an Apple Original series. Apple TV+ also picked the streaming rights to the original series, which ran from 1983 to 1987.
The announcement of the Fraggle Rock reboot follows the successful debut of the Apple TV+ shorts Fraggle Rock: Rock On!, a five-episode series of shorts following beloved characters Gobo, Red, Boober, Mokey, Wembley, and Uncle Traveling Matt as they "join together for new stories and classic songs that show everyone how they are all connected through friendship." They were joined by buzzy guest stars like Alanis Morissette, Common, Jason Mraz, Neil Patrick Harris, Tiffany Haddish, and Ziggy Marley.
The new Fraggle Rock reboot series, produced by the Jim Henson Company in association with New Regency," will be "reimagined" as a global Apple Original series and will feature the return of original stars Gobo, Red, Boober, Mokey, Wembley, and Uncle Travelling Matt "for new songs and adventures, with the same spirit as the classic," per the press release.
Showrunners Matt Fusfeld and Alex Cuthbertson (New Girl, American Dad, Community) are attached to executive produce and write. Rita Peruggi (The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Yo Gabba Gabba!) will produce. Lisa Henson and Halle Stanford will executive produce the new Fraggle Rock series for The Jim Henson Company. Yariv Milchan and Michael Schaefer of New Regency and long-time Henson collaborator John Tartaglia (Splash and Bubbles, Johnny and the Sprites) are also executive producing. Harvey Mason Jr. is the executive music producer for the series.
The original puppet program ran from 1983 to 1987, and was created as an international production to appeal to Canadian, British, and U.S. children. While the series never reached the same height of global fame as Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock is still a widely beloved property. Its reboot shows that Jim Henson's vision of puppet storytelling still remains strong, and that we may perhaps see a return to old-school practical effects.