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Episode 105: The Thirty-Minute Work Week

Fraggle Rock
Air Date	February 7, 1983
Written by	Jerry Juhl
Director	Norman Campbell

Traveling Matt, working on another one of his dangerous missions: a roller coaster.

"Aroooooooo!" Wembley becomes the siren for the Fraggle Rock Volunteer Fire Department.

Every Fraggle has to work a grueling thirty minutes a week, and it's Wembley's turn to choose a job. All of his friends have jobs -- Gobo collects messages from Traveling Matt, Mokey gathers radishes from the Gorgs' Garden, Red cleans the pool, and Boober does the laundry. Now Wembley has to decide what he wants to do... but can he choose before the pressure makes him explode?

Meanwhile, Doc tries to get Sprocket choose a one out of two doughnuts and soups.

1 Fraggle Facts
2 Notes
3 Songs
4 Supporting Cast
5 Video releases
6 International episode titles
7 References

Fraggle FactsEdit

The Gorgs' secret password for the day is "I don't know the password."

NotesEdit

This was the first Fraggle Rock episode to be produced; it was recorded on March 10, 1982. There was a gap between the production of this episode and the rest; the second episode shot -- "Don't Cry Over Spilt Milk" was recorded in mid-April. Some of the puppets underwent slight redesigns in the meantime; most notably Marjory the Trash Heap and Sprocket.
Dave Goelz, the Muppeteer who performs Uncle Traveling Matt, makes a cameo appearance in Matt's scene. When Matt boards a roller coaster, Goelz is sitting next to him, performing Matt. Goelz has a false arm on the back of the roller coaster. Pay close attention to the shot in which Matt stands up. The scene was filmed at Canada's Wonderland, a theme park in Maple, Ontario, just north of filming headquarters in Metropolitan Toronto. The park was relatively new, having opened in 1981; Wild Beast was one of the original rides at the park.
This is the first episode from the French co-production to NOT be released on DVD.
The reason this was the first episode is because it was the original pilot for Fraggle Rock: Jim Henson, CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corporation), and HBO wanted to see what the show would look like and what problems there could be and what changes could be wanted. The reason the pilot was not the first episode aired is because it was decided that it was not a proper introduction to the series. ^[1]