Watch Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock on @AppleTV +: tv.apple.com/us/show/fraggle-rock-back-to-the-rock/

Hey everyone! This is Morgana Ignis, who was on Mokeys right arm! Just to clarify, jumping in to assist the incredible Donna Kimball on Mokey was a last minute surprise for me (which I was beyond honored to do and had an absolute blast with). This was fully Donna and Johnnys interview time as it should be. I adore Adam and the REAL reason I was brought in to the Henson Creature Shop that day will be on Tested soon! Stay tuned, you’ll hear me talk plenty ^__^

Donna Kimball is my mom!!! And John Tartaglia and Morgana Ignis have been friends of mine for a long time. They’re all insanely talented and I’m the luckiest kid ever. Thank you Adam and Tested for shining a wonderful and honest light on the often-overlooked art of puppetry!!

It doesn't matter how much I know about behind the scenes, as soon as they go into character, I believe they are alive.

Something I love about puppeteers discussing their craft, is when they almost subconsciously stay in character from the shoulder out. The little nods and gestures of the puppet that's not even involved in the conversation at that moment. I wish we'd gotten a bit of a chat with Morgana on the tricks and tactics of a collab character, she's almost prescient back there! @20:49, before Mokey even catches the joke she's reacting!

I love how when asked about "How many muppets are made?" John responds with "How dare you!" as himself *and* Gobo at the same time!

The Jim Henson Scrunch™ is such a powerful puppeteering tool.

The magic trick puppeteers pull off every time they trick me into caring about some foam and ping pong balls never gets old.

It's a real testament to the craft that no matter how much you learn about the puppeteers or behind the scenes, it never ruins the "magic"... They always seem real.

46 years old and I still get tears of joy from the Muppets.

As a kid born in the 70s, growing up through the 80s, I cannot overstate how integral Muppets were in my childhood. I absolutely loved this episode. I could watch behind the scenes stuff like this for hours.

Mad props to Morgana in the background just being a total professional.

Every actor who says they've worked with puppets, all say the same thing. You forget the puppeteer is on the floor, and you buy into talking directly with the puppet. I love that, they are so good that people join a new reality where the puppets are in control. It's an art form that is only held back by ones imagination!

I loved that Mokey was one of the puppets in the clip. I watched Fraggle Rock when it was on TV in early 90s. Dubbed to my first language, Swedish. I remember snippets of the show but Mokey is imprinted in my brain for a specific reason. At one time I had a planned annual check up in a hospital away from home. On my birthday. On that morning nurses and patients who I had grown to know over years entered singing to me. And on a tray with breakfast was a 2in figurine of Mokey holding a flower. Found the figurine in storage this year and now it lives on a bookshelf right behind where I sit right now. Where I see her everyday.

Wow, it's amazing to see how just a the slightest motion and positioning makes them go from "just puppets" to "totaly alive". Fraggle rock is one of my most cherished memories from childhood, and it was even better when I rewatched it as an adult (but damn, some of those episodes were DARK!). Haven't seen back to the rock yet, but I will! And I really like the new design for Mokey!

Fraggles in the thumbnail?? 🤩🤩🤩🤩 My dad worked as a scenic artist on the original CBC production of Fraggle Rock, and my siblings & I were allowed to join him at the wrap party. We got to meet all the fraggles and their handlers. Yes, the fraggles themselves were partying! 🤗 Seeing this has expanded my heart with joy. Thank you Adam, and thanks to all three muppeteers (even tho we didn't hear from the third one). 💖

I remember watching John Tartaglia on Johnny and the Sprites on the Disney Channel! I never thought I would see him as an actual puppeteer several years later!

I was an adult when Fraggle Rock came out. Now I'm an elderly adult and still love it! Adam, thanks for sharing your many interests!

Muppets were my childhood, my parents were divorced but my dad had HBO and getting to watch Fraggle Rock was always one of the highlights of my visits

There should totally be a "Maker Fraggle" based on Adam, who makes crazy contraptions that (somehow) actually work (most of the time)!

OH MY GOD MORGANA IGNIS!!! I AM SUCH A FAN OF HERS! Voice work and creature actor on the star wars shows, she's amazing!

It’s interesting to me that Donna has difficulty switching voices while Mokey is on her shoulder but as soon as Mokey comes down, her natural voice comes back. I had the privilege of meeting Karen Prell and Red Fraggle several years ago. They are such a great team.

Fraggle Rock is my all time favorite Muppets series.

"How dare you..." Perfect line. I love watching Muppeteers do what they do, it's so rare that the Henson company actually lets people see this side of their characters, mostly to maintain the illusion that they are characters and not props, but this is amazing. Can't wait to see more from this visit.

To this day, since I've raised 3 children, I enjoy the magic and mechanics behind the Doozers on fraggle rock. They have to be my all time favorite. Big thanks to the artists that bring these things to life.

I cannot being to explain how important a role Fraggle Rock and The Muppet Show played in my childhood. This was a delight to watch and I'm going to be riding these happy feelings all week.

Fraggle Rock was always the best of the "Muppet" shows when I was a child. I always loved watching Sprocket bouncing round.

Note how even at like 5:25 Donna has Mokey looking straight at her, even when they're not acting. True professionalism

One of my favourite vids ever. The fact that they can’t turn the performance off when the puppets are up!! The out takes from muppets and the like have always been the best. When Ms Piggy stuffs her lines and gets angry it’s Ms Piggy that curses and gets angry with herself. Frank is just holding on for dear life..:)

Aughra is definitely my favorite puppet work from Donna! Love her!!

Adam, I love your exuberance. Your love of what you get to do shines through. Thank you for bringing a smile to my day.

I love John Tartaglia! From Johnny and the sprites, to Broadway to this! He is super talented with puppeteering!

The first movie I ever watched in a theater was "The Muppet Movie." The second was "The Empire Strikes Back." Jim Henson and Frank Oz and the rest of the Muppets have inspired and shaped me from the beginning. Thanks a lot, guys. Based on this interview, It's obvious that not much has changed in the love and care that this generation of Creature Shop performers and technicians put into the art.

I was having a rough day last week and my partner and I started singing “Dance your cares away” and then we started clapping and dancing, and then we got out a violin. It was awesome.

Shout out to Morgana Ignis, who must be a very attentive listener to be able to express someone else's intent, through a puppet's hand no less! Very impressed, hope she has her own puppet as well to show off her skills. No ego, just supporting a story, understanding the group effort knowing her skills elevate the story to a higher level. Amazing stuff. I don't want to diss the others but it just blew me away and taught me yet again how important team efforts are! EDIT: Morgana, just saw your comment, I look forward to your visit @ Tested!

I love, love, love how they reflexively emote with the puppets. Just an extension of their thoughts.

Poor girl, that one on the background, had to stay hunched over holding the puppet's hand for the whole video! haha

I'm finding it quite surreal watching the puppets and the puppeteers both talking at the same time with how alive and animated the puppets appear to be. Brilliant work on their behalf

Saw John in Avenue Q a few times. It was amazing how the puppeteers were on stage, but they all vanished behind their characters. Obviously it’s different than doing this to a camera.

I went to the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, and seeing Muppets in person, including DOOZERS! I highly recommend seeing muppets in person in any capacity. Awesome video Adam.

I’m 37 years old and watching this brings me right back to original Fraggle rock I love it. Awesome memories thank you for your pain.

The best joke name for a character in Fraggle Rock was Travelling Matt. A lot of film compositors must have enjoyed that. I went to the muppet exhibit when I was a teenager and got to see the Fraggles in action before the series aired. It was so cool.

Emmet Otter and Fraggle Rock were both lifechanging, felt like they were made for me, by people just like me.

OMG!!! I loved Fraggle Rock when I grew up. I am in my early 50's and was in my teens when it came out. My favorite character was BooBer. I lived on a farm growing up and named one of my pets after that character.

I LOVE John Tartaglia! loved him since he did Johnny and the Sprites!

Long live the magic of the legendary Jim Henson!

As a kid growing up in the 70’s this is so awesome. Would love to be a puppeteer. They must have strong shoulders and great orthopedist. That shoulder position has always impressed me to that job. ❤❤Bravo

What I love about the Muppets is: even when they are not talking they look so alive, I watched a interview with...Kevin Clash with Elmo recently and even though I could see Kevin Elmo looked so alive and animated even when Kevin was talking. It really is quite impressive.

I just happened to have watched the "Making of the Muppet Show" which I believe was made in 1982 the day before seeing this video. "Making of the Muppet Show" was narrated entirely by Jim Henson. At one point, he said it takes a year to go from no experience with puppets to being able to work in front of camera. He said the reason it takes so long is that you have to get to the point where you can work a puppet subconsciously without giving it any thought. Otherwise, all the things you have to do at the same time as you see here is just too much to do effectively. Truly very talented people who put themselves through a lot to do what they do.

I'm 43, grew up with those guys. And seeing them again makes me giggle like a child. Thank you so much. And a special thanks to the original puppeteers, you made my childhood a magical place. I never think of puppeteers when I see that kind of shows, which means they do a perfect job. Never go CG, please. Don't ruin the magic.

Sweet jebus this hits me in the childhood. Henson was my childhood. I didn't discover The Story Teller till I was in my 30s, and that so revitalized my love of the art. I was so disappointed Dark Crystal series didn't continue.

I'm just about to turn 53 and grew up on things like The Muppets, Labyrinth and Dark Crystal and countless other puppet based shows / films. And even getting to "see behind the curtain" in vids like these just fires my imagination even more not less 🙂 This kind of thing is MAGICAL and something that CGI etc can never ever replace and why audiences still love this kind of performance - because that's what it is, just like an actor on screen. It's a performance from the imagination of who came up with the character, the designers who came up with the ideas of how to create it, the engineers / crafters who make the puppets work in their environment and the actors who distil all those ideas and creativity as a whole to bring it alive for us, the audience, on screen or in the theatre. Like I said, just magical. Life wouldn't be the same without puppets, puppets of all kinds, shapes, sizes and technicality. Joyous beyond words x

When the original Muppet Show was made at Elstree studios, a couple of the muppeteers used to drink occasionally at the Edwarebury Country Club just up the road. It was a mock-Tudor building that for a while had been a private club (my dad was a member) but by this time was open to the public. A beautiful place, and still quite private as it was within its own grounds, it had been a popular location for various Elstree productions, includes the Devil Rides Out, The Saint, and all sorts. But it was strange going in there for a drink to hear Kermit order a beer at the bar! (Jim Henson didn't have to change his voice that much for Kermit.)

What a great episode!! When I started in ‘64, it was with marionettes and ended up working around the country with Sid & Marty Krofft in theme parks (and later their own park) with these massive puppet spectacles! We did have Hand & Rod puppets from time to time but mostly marionettes which also had their own problem when animating. I loved being around when the Muppets began. In fact, I met Kermit Love backstage at one of their touring shows and after talking to him for a while about my history, he asked me about possibly joining their team. This was back in the mid 70’s but I was already booked with Sid & Marty for the next few years. Such amazing memories!

It brings my heart joy to see all the artistic subtleties of playing to the camera with silly animal dolls that Jim Henson developed are being kept alive by such dedicated performers.

10:00 I love it when they dance. It's so... life-affirming! These are high quality puppets and actors.

I'm very good friends with a rather famous puppeteer whom I've worked with on various projects. His skills and talent are beyond measure. He works on small local projects with children and volunteers as well as on Broadway. He definitely doesn't get paid enough based on the skills and effort he brings to the table, but it's a labor of love. That's why I do what I do, because I love it, but from concept to creation, he just blows me away! I've always hoped that one day an opportunity to do something like Labyrinth or The Dark Crystal crosses his path because as a filmmaker myself and one of his co-workers, that would be a dream to work on together! I grew up with The Muppet Show, I've always loved them, can't get enough. Breathing life into an inanimate object and seeing them as real as you and I... is a skill few possess.

John Tartaglia is an absolute legend!!!!! Johnny and the Sprites holds as one of the greatest kids shows ever in my opinion!

Thanks for the amazing video. I wish Disney would let the their Muppet performers do more interviews with their puppets. I always loved when Jim Henson would go on talk shows with his characters. It was a real treat! Also: When they talked about the pond, it reminded me of an old story about how Jim Henson had to perform the swamp scene in the original Muppet Movie while being stuck in a tank underwater with a monitor to see his performance and a hose for air.

I could watch videos about puppetry every single day. As a puppeteer, I went to the Atlanta Puppetry Museum during their Dark Crystal and Labyrinth Promotion a few years ago, and it is something I will never forget.

Born in the late 60s, I learned to read from Sesame Street and I adored the Muppet Show (though somehow I never watched Fraggle Rock, but my little sister did). I wanted to be a Muppeteer and got really into the idea in high school. But then I did some puppeteering my senior year and realized it wasn't for me. What talented and amazing folks that bring the Muppets to life! Thanks for this interview so much!

as a digital puppeteer I love this. I had a friend work on this show here in calgary. I wish i could have had the chance to see behind the scenes. This episode of tested made me very happy. 42 year old me turns into a kid again. Ive worked as a painter for props and theming for a place here in calgary many years ago. seeing the industry pick up again.

Loved fraggal rock when I was a kid, can still remember the theme song.

I remember getting to see some of Jim Henson's original Muppets, Fragile Rock, and Dark Crystal puppets and sketches. Absolutely amazing work!

It's nice to see the old puppeteer system Jim Henson created thriving in the modern era in which CGI has taken over. It would have been so easy to do the new Fraggle Rock show with CGI characters however they choose to stay true to how the original was made.

This is wonderful. I just love Jim Henson❤ I have my Kermit. I just remembered of his passing and thinking how we lost someone who was far beyond their time. I'm glad his family and friends were able to keep his work alive.

FRAGGLES!!! So awesome.

The joy that exudes is absolutely infectious when they talk about the puppets.

Adam Savage and the Jim Henson Company is such a wonderful fusion between two very influential parts of my childhood. These are the people who make me sure that there is magic in real life.

Like all millennials all of Jim's work meant a lot to me, and Fraggle Rock really meant a lot to me. It wasn't until I was watching the show again with my daughter that I realized exactly how much of my personal world view was specifically shaped by Fraggle Rock. Such a wonderful show.

I am SO ENVIOUS of you, Adam! My love for the Muppets and all of the Henson Creature Shop’s amazing work knows no bounds. The puppeteers are remarkable artists/actors and the myriad components necessary to create a great performance are mind-blowing.

John's Gobo actually sounds very similar to Jerry Nelson, which makes my heart happy. Some of the muppeteers who've come along to replace the original performers don't sound much like their counterparts. I know they do the best they can, but it means so much to me that John sounds like Jerry.

I grew up watching fraggle Rock and all the Muppet movies. To this day I still love to see them. I absolutely love it when famous people get a chance to hang out with Muppets. Seeing chef Gordon Ramsay hang out with the swedish chef and other Muppets was just awesome. Or having Lindsey Stirling with Josh Groban performing with all the Muppets was phenomenal.

John and Donna seem like the most likeable people ever. What a team!

The Chicago museum of science and Industry had a muppet exhibit once. They had cut aways of the gorgs and big bird. They also had some interactive puppets. They had monitors for you to see what the audience sees and they had us practice doing some moves and sing a song. My brother got to put his hand in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle forearm and manipulate the fingers. Best exhibit ever... other than the chicks... which I recently heard get fed to reptiles at Lincoln Park Zoo. Waste not want not I guess...lol.

Wow! What an amazing opportunity to visit the Creature Shop and experience real Fraggles! I grew up watching them and all of Henson's amazing work. I even have my own puppet that I performed with several times in a musical group decades ago (yes, I kept him!). That question people ask, "Who from history would you like to have lunch with?" has always been answered with Jim Henson for me. I am truly envious of Adam in this video.

This is FANTASTIC! So informative. One of the rare moments where a behind the scenes doesn't kill the magic and just makes me love these childhood friends more.

I was once able to visit the Jim Henson's Creature Shop in London, back in 1996, and it was just amazing. Just walk around a corner and there's one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - walk around another and there's one of the big bug guards from Labyrinth. At the time they were working on one of the 101 Dalmatians live action movies so there was a lot of white with dots fur fabric around.

I can't overestimate how much Henson and his creature shop influenced me growing up. I wanted desperately to be involved in this (or something like it) but not knowing anyone on the inside or even being anywhere close to anything similar, it had to remain an unfulfilled dream and nothing more. Instead, I ended up in the haunt industry, though I will say my love for (and familiarity with) puppeteers and my research into things like Dark Crystal has helped me do a lot of things over the years. Always wished I could have done it as a real job, though.

I'm so happy they brought back Fraggle Rock. I loved that show as a kid.

I grew up on the Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock and Sesame Street as a kid. This is such a treat to see this aspect of it. I have always imagined how the puppets were operated but I never knew it was as technical and demanding as this. My hat is off to the folk t the Jim Henson Creature shop, and to Adam from bringing this to us. I'm gonna go watch the Dark Crystal now. :)

I love the Muppets! Always awesome to see interviews with professional puppeteers. And yes, the arm position is probably the worst part; takes me about 2-3 hours to do the voiceover parts of my videos and I'm slowly getting used to it, but I imagine that this pain is never going away, no matter how long you train for it. Little known fact: it is actually much easier to mirror a CRT TV (just reverse the horizontal deflection coil) than it is a modern LCD (needs proper software rewrites) - so I think the original motivation wasn't a technical limitatino but rather an artistic choice: Images do look quite different when flipped, so the puppeteer doesn't get the exact same feedback about the look of a shot as it is with the normal image. And that reversing on the monitor is something that one takes up rather quickly.

One of the most interesting aspects of puppetry is getting the hand motions right within the mouth. Syllables have shapes and you have to try to match that shape. There are also inflections which carry facial and body movements as well. So it isn't just about moving the fingers. Sometimes, the head has to twitch slightly one direction or another, the eyes have to move, a shoulder has to droop, or an arm or hand flik. Adam used the term "sympathetic motion" to describe their habit of animating the puppet as they spoke and matching what they were doing. It isn't unlike a piano player or organist or drummer learning how to disassociate the movement of one limb from the other (independent motion)... It really is incredibly demanding even before you consider holding your hand over your head for four hours. Just try that alone and you'll gain an enormous amount of respect for these people! It's like a band director. Never arm wrestle a band director! It takes muscle to flap your arms like that all day long! 😅 From their descriptions of what you have to do to move around and align yourself in a shot, I can imagine that a scene of then performing behind a pair of ladders with a 2x4 strung between them as the "set", with the camera showing full frame the whole group, that this must be HILARIOUS to watch! Also... no conversation with the assistant, sitting there bored out of her skull holding this stick attached to the puppets arm, trying her damndest not to be seen? 😁

I’ve nose gestures that my kids recognize from the muppets…my whole life watching you, I love you guys!!! You have made so many kids happy…!!!!

Best Tested ever! Amazing how easy they can jump into character like that.

So I grew up with Muppets, Sesame Street, and Fraggle Rock, and literally everything else you listed, and I just have to say I spent this entire video smiling.

As excited as children as they talk about what they do, how wonderful is that?♥️

I was 17 in 1985, and I had a serious motorcycle accident, I fractured my femur and ended up in hospital on traction, for the best part of 3 months. As I was stuck in bed 24hrs a day for most of my stay, I was allowed a portable TV from home next to my bed. It had a 12inch B+W screen, and every week day at 10am Fraggle Rock was on TV, the episodes with Fulton MacKay as the lighthouse keeper. It brightened up every day and kept me sane. It's great to see it back. Thanks Adam

Watching the puppets in conversation, you see the incidental movement of hair and tails. This article (thank you Adam for sharing with us) shows how much of an all-body experience it must be to bring these puppets to life. Awesome work everybody!

Man, I remember watching the Muppet Show and Sesame Street as a kid and my favorite puppet was Howdie Doodie! Thank you for showing us the kid side of all this fun stuff!

The new Fraggle Rock makes me so happy. I'm astonished to find out most of the voices aren't the original people, they sound so perfect.

I've watched hours of behind the scenes Jim Henson stuff and this was better than most of it. Awesome.

Next to seeing him react to a full sized real life vintage spacesuit, this is the most in awe I've seen Adam in a long time.

My parents were professional puppeteers back in the 1980s and this was so fun to watch. So many good memories! I loved watching this interview and it it made me miss my parents. Thank you!

Is there anything as pure as Adam Savage and Fraggles... This needs to be a show- Savage Fraggles.

I couldn't stop grinning watching this. The sheer joy and enthusiasm of the puppeteers was absolutely infectious.

I wish this was longer! I think I could watch puppeteers for hours and hours… can’t wait for season two🎉

Hats off and shout out to Morgana, who with unflinching laser focus, silently remained in the background for this whole interview 👏👏👏

Jim is amazing puppeteer and optical illusionist. Just mind blowing how something we don't notice until they point it out, and the details behind the simplest movements. Amazing crew there it sounds like. Must be really cool to be there and feel like a child again

Used to love Fragle rock!!!!..... Everyone always forgets about the genius puppetry on Farscape. And how it was connected to Jim Henson's company. The Piolet was probably one of the biggest puppets ever. Probably had five or six people all squished inside...