A month after announcing that a bunch of new mini-episodes of “Fraggle Rock” would be coming to Apple TV+, the streaming service is setting plans in motion for a proper reboot of the classic children’s series.
The reboot is part of a deal between Apple and the Jim Henson Company to make new, full-length episodes, and to relocate all of the original 1983-87 live-action episodes of “Fraggle Rock” to Apple from their previous home at HBO.
The original episodes will be available to stream starting May 27. The mini-episodes, called “Fraggle Rock: Rock On,” were shot in isolation on iPhone 11s and debuted on the streamer April 21.
The reboot was given a straight to series order, and will feature original puppet characters Gobo, Red, Boober, Mokey, Wembley, and Uncle Traveling Matt.
Jim Henson Company produces in association with New Regency. Matt Fusfeld and Alex Cuthbertson will serve as showrunners, writers, and executive producers. Lisa Henson and Hallen Stanford will also executive produce with longtime collaborator John Tartaglia. Rita Peruggi (“The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance”) will also serve as a producer. Original “Fraggle Rock” puppeteers Dave Goelz and Karen Prell also attached, with Harvey Mason Jr. signed on as executive music producer.
A source with knowledge of Apple’s strategy confirmed that despite a recent Bloomberg report, the streamer has no plans to accumulate a library of older, reliably popular movies and series to mimic strategies used by Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, and that Apple TV+’s strategy remains the same. The decision to add old episodes of “Fraggle Rock” was made to ensure that viewers wouldn’t have to go to a competing streaming service to watch the old episodes, and that the majority of the Fraggleverse would be in one place (aside from the animated spinoff, which is not part of Apple and the Henson company’s agreement).
News of the full “Fraggle” reboot was first reported by Vulture.