The Doozers: Fraggle Rock spinoff planned

Cue intro:
Dance your cares away
Worry’s for another day
Let the music play
Down at Fraggle Rock

baxterGo ahead, admit it.  If you’re like me, you still have fond memories for those innocent days of watching the Muppets and Fraggle Rock–the days before cell phones, the internet and when playtime meant running around outside all day and night.   When I hear that theme song, it emits a Pavlovian reaction for the “good ol’ days.”

Well, there’s good news for you Muppet-lovers and parents of the preschool set:  The Jim Henson Company is teaming up with Decode Entertainment to produce a Fraggle Rock spinoff with a 3-D animated show based on The Doozers.

Who could forget the industrious little Doozers who wore hard hats as they cheerfully labored alongside the Fraggles, building scaffolds composed of ‘Doozer sticks’ made of ‘radish dust’? Now the Doozers are back to inspire kids to make the world a better place by making smart, eco-friendly choices, and by inventing tools, gadgets, buildings, structures, and other technology that supports the environment’s ecology.

According to various sites, the series is targeted at 4- to 7-year-olds, and is in pre-production with test animations being made.  Episodes are being planned to enter pre-production by the fall of 2009, with release estimated for fall 2010.

Kidscreen reported that instead of Down at Fraggle Rock, the show will focus on a trio of new apprentice Doozers, named Baxter, Puzzlebea and Daze, who take their construction projects above ground and learn through teamwork and cooperation.  The show is said to have a curriculum built around green technology and eco-consciousness.

Muppets, eco-consciousness and reliving childhood memories vicariously through the kid?  The Doozers sounds like a show that would fit perfectly into our family programming rotation.