Fraggle Rock Is Trending And Here Are Some Of The Best Tweets About It

In the midst of a deadly pandemic that has much of the world isolated to their homes, it's probably not surprising that some folks just want to embrace nostalgia and "dance their cares away." That's likely why Fraggle Rock has been trending on Twitter today -- one of those things where it's trending, but when you click on the trend for more details, about 80% of the tweets are just things saying "I don't know why this is trending." It's common enough, but hard to be mad when the tweets are about something like the beloved, Jim Henson-created HBO series about a subterranean race of Muppets.

Actually, it's probably no longer okay to call them Muppets. While the Fraggles appeared in 1987's A Muppet Family Christmas, alongside the classic Muppets, Sesame Street Muppets, and Muppet Babies, the Fraggle Rock characters still reside with the Henson family's production company, whereas the classic Muppets have been sold to Disney and the Sesame Workshop took ownership of the characters Henson and his associates created for their show.

The series centered on the Fraggles, a race of subterranean, fun-loving, radish-eating characters. They hid from the Silly Creatures From Outer Space (humans), lived with the hard-working Doozers (who now have their own series on Hulu), and fled from the Gorgs -- giant, walkaround puppets who would try to eat the Fraggles.

Anyway, Fraggle Rock ran from 1983 until 1987, producing 96 episodes that aired around the world, sometimes with the human character who appeared in the bumper segments replaced by someone who spoke the regional dialect. The show marked HBO's first foray into original programming, and another major hit for Henson, whose The Muppet Show had been the most-watched show on Earth for a while.

At the time, Henson described Fraggle Rock as "a high-energy, raucous musical romp. It's a lot of silliness. It's wonderful." The international marketing and appeal was more than just a cash-grab; he hoped to create something that would bring people around the world together. The Muppet Show had been one of the first American TV shows to air in the Soviet Union.

The original Fraggles, along with numerous other puppets from the Henson studio, were donated to the Smithsonian and can be seen in museums around the country (primarily in Washington, DC).

We've rounded up some of the best and most joyous (and sometimes a little confused) Fraggle Rock tweets from this morning to share with you. If you want to revisit Fraggle Rock yourself, you can see the series on HBO Go or Amazon Prime.