'Fraggle Rock' puppeteer John Tartaglia keeps tradition going

“Our ability to perform them lets them be more detailed,” he says. “They don’t have a lot of extra things. Mokey has an eyeblink and Wembley has eyes that roll, but that’s it. They’re pretty standard hand puppets.”

A veteran puppeteer, Tartaglia won a Tony nomination for his work in “Avenue Q” and has been part of the Henson company for years. “Fraggle Rock,” his latest assignment, taps into his love for the series when it first appeared in the 1980s. Now, says Executive Producer Matt Fusfeld, he’s the show’s expert. “He keeps us looking good and honest. We couldn’t do it without him.”

A Fraggle gaggle

When the series was first rebooted (it’s entering its second year on AppleTV+), Executive Producer Halle Stanford arranged a “Fraggle gaggle,” combining members of the original series with ones from the reboot. The goal, she says, was to “talk about all the places the original series didn’t get a chance to go.”

The learning curve was eased by the Henson Company’s Creature Shop. “They had puppets from the original series,” she says. “There were patterns for some of them. The modern builders of the Doozers performed surgery on some of the older (Muppets) to see how the mechanics were made. They took some of the learnings from the past to bring back to these Doozers today.”

While “Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock” has technical advances, puppeteers enjoy the old-school methods used to create the village. For the most elaborate scene, 25 puppeteers were employed. “The original series never had more than 16 or 17 people,” Tartaglia, who also directs, says. “It sounds like a lot but it’s amazing how fast 25 people go.”

Shot in Calgary, Alberta, “Fraggle Rock” has been a magnet for new puppeteers.

Starting moves

To make sure no time is wasted, Fusfeld, Tartaglia and Alex Cuthbertson mapped out the season before it even started.

In addition to writing new songs, the team selected classics from the past. Tartaglia knew which ones to pick because, Fusfeld says, “he’s the ultimate Fraggle fan. Having an expert in the writers’ room is pretty annoying…no, it’s truly the greatest because it keeps us looking good…and honest.”

That expertise, Tartaglia says, has prompted them to bring back creatures “who never got explored,” like the Ditzies who give off light.

“We also took this background puppet who was kind of weird looking and realized we could write for it,” Tartaglia says. “It was fun to think of little one-shot characters from the original series that we could now write as main characters.”

New discoveries

In the new season, the Fraggles, Doozers and Uncle Traveling Matt have opportunities to comment on activity in the world outside their caves. Their radish diet expands, too, and their friendships know no bounds.

Designed to expand the Muppet universe into other markets, “Fraggle Rock” let creator Jim Henson and his team discuss everything from social issues to environmental concerns. Some 96 episodes were produced between 1983 and 1987. Spin-offs, animated versions and reruns kept the Fraggles around until AppleTV+ premiered “Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock” in 2022. Now in the second season, the reboot can extend the franchise’s reach considerably.

Tartaglia, who also worked on “Sesame Street” and his own series, “Johnny and the Sprites,” says the thrill of delving into the Muppets world is getting to know their origins. “They’re so layered and they’re so beautifully conceived,” he says. They’re very simple puppets.”

"Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock" airs on AppleTV+ beginning March 29.