Let the music play again: 'Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock' returns with big ideas, big guest stars

There’s an energy swirling around the second season of “Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock” for its producers Halle Stanford, John Tartaglia and Matt Fusfeld.

“We get the phone call from Apple TV+ saying that they love the first season and it was a big hit,” Fusfeld says. “Let’s make some more and from there it’s like jumping in and going forward.”

The second season of the Emmy Award-winning series has the Fraggles back for more epic, fun adventures.

Let the music play again: 'Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock' returns with big ideas, big guest stars

This time, with big changes affecting the Rock, the Fraggles, Doozers and Gorgs, they will be forced to confront their past and celebrate their interdependence as they move through challenges together with hope, silliness and brand-new songs, all while dancing their cares away.

Stanford says “Fraggle Rock” is a huge show.

“There are so many moving parts,” Stanford says. “We all had a different process. We were so collaborative with one another and we honor each other’s work. For me, my process was, ‘How are we going to dig deep and figure out the messaging of the season?’ We brought in an expert on Indigenous culture and some poets. We were going to bring in a scientist and then we’re going to talk to both parents and kids about important issues. I wanted to get the right people in the room to begin thinking about what the message of the show is.”

The second season takes a look at renewable energy for the series.

There is a slate of guest stars that includes the return of Daveed Diggs alongside Ariana DeBose, Brett Goldstein, Catherine O’Hara, Adam Lambert and K-pop group aespa.

Fusfeld says the writer’s room got together with a diverse group to start taking ideas from Stanford.

“We wanted to talk about what’s important to families,” Fusfeld says. “Climate change and food insecurity and thinking about how we tell that message in a larger overarching adventure over the course of 13 episodes. We came up with this idea about Doc studying wind power and how her experiments in her lab affect Fraggle Rock. It creates a big windstorm and blows strawberries up into the gorgeous garden, which take over the radishes. These are all big metaphors for big ideas.”

The trio agrees that each production has its own set of obstacles and “Fraggle Rock” was no different.

“I like to make the guys laugh. The biggest obstacle for me was walking up the steps and stepping on top of a helipad to shoot the aespa K-pop video with Uncle Travelling Matt,” Stanford says with a laugh. “I had to conquer my fears and stand strong. That was a little personal challenge for me.”

Tartaglia says getting the guest stars was an interesting process.

He says over the years, production finds out who are huge “Fraggle Rock” fans.

“Even before the reboot came out, you would have people visit the Henson lot and they would say that they were the biggest fans,” Tartaglia says. “So you kind of keep that in your back pocket. ‘Fraggle Rock’ has always been the cool rock musician fan show. There are times that we are in the writer’s room and we’ll come up with a character that we know we want to be a guest. One of those characters we wanted Catharine O’Hara to be. We thought it would be amazing to have a character like her and when we reached out to her, we found out she was the biggest ‘Fraggle Rock’ fan.”

Fusfeld is looking forward to having another season ready for the fans.

“I’m going to rewatch it another time when it premieres, this time with my kids,” he says. “I’m so excited about it because seeing their faces and watching something together as a family doesn’t happen often. We’re all enjoying the series on different levels. I’m very excited for everyone to see this season and to keep making more episodes for years to come.”