Fraggles and Farscape now available on iTunes

[Traveling Matt]

The Jim Henson Company launches on iTunes
Sci-fi cult hit "Farscape" and classic puppet series "Fraggle Rock" go digital

New York and Los Angeles - January 28, 2008

The Jim Henson Company today announced that favorites from the Company’s TV programming and feature film library will be available for purchase and download on the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com) beginning today, January 28th, 2008. The launch will begin with episodes from the first seasons of the critically acclaimed award-winning sci-fi series "Farscape" and the endearing favorite "Fraggle Rock."

The Jim Henson Company has partnered with New Video, a leading digital aggregator of independent video content, to bring these highly sought after programs to the iTunes Store, the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store. Television shows are $1.99 (US) per episode, and music videos and short films are $1.99 (US) each. Through this new partnership between New Video and the Jim Henson Company, both the "Fraggle Rock" and "Farscape" series will be available in their entirety in the coming months.

"We continue to be honored and thrilled by our fans’ ongoing desire to support their favorite shows and view them using all formats of media," said Nicole Goldman, Vice President of Marketing and Publicity of The Jim Henson Company. "We know our fans have been asking for these titles on iTunes and through our partnership with New Video, we hope to serve our loyal supporters and also introduce these beloved shows to new audiences."

FARSCAPE
On January 28, the cult science fiction series "Farscape" in its first season entirety (all 22 episodes) will be available on iTunes. This is exciting news for die-hard "Farscape" fans who no doubt know how difficult and expensive it is to find the complete first season on DVD. Season one includes the enthralling premiere episode of this ground breaking sci-fi hit that made extensive use of CGI, prosthetics, and state-of-the-art puppetry - courtesy of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.

FRAGGLE ROCK
Are you ready to “dance your cares away?" Well, you can on January 28 when all episodes for the first season (24 episodes) of this highly acclaimed puppet series loved by both children and adults alike is available for easy download on iTunes. 2008 marks the 25th anniversary of "Fraggle Rock" and from these fun-loving subterranean creatures came 96 total episodes, 100 original songs, and millions of fans all around the world.

http://henson.com/press_releases/2008-1-28.pdf

[Traveling Matt]

Great news, but when will the SONGS of Fraggle Rock be available for download? All of them?

[stephenjlizard]

Oh my God! I just got this email from Nicole G. at Jim Henson saying this too. WOW! And Matt, check your iTunes. The recent 3-CD Fraggle set IS available for download. I don't know if they just added it today or not, but it's there!

Finally, I can get ahold of Farscape Season 1!

Can you tell I'm excited?

[MrsPepper]

Originally Posted by stephenjlizard

Oh my God! I just got this email from Nicole G. at Jim Henson saying this too. WOW! And Matt, check your iTunes. The recent 3-CD Fraggle set IS available for download. I don't know if they just added it today or not, but it's there!

Finally, I can get ahold of Farscape Season 1!

Can you tell I'm excited?

No kidding! I was actually just about to message you to make sure you've seen this thread, because I remembered your recent Farscape plight. But I see that you are way ahead of me!

[Luke]

So you just need a video IPOD to download and play these right? I will get one now, just had a normal MP4 player before. Are the screens still tiny or have they got bigger yet?

VERY EXCITED!

[Phillip Chapman]

It's likely the mpeg-4 video is encoded at 320x240 which looks great on an iPod, but not much else at higher resolutions.

What will be interesting to see is if Fraggle Rock Season 4 is first available on iTunes or on DVD in September. It would also be great if Henson released some of their older, rarer remaining properties on iTunes that would likely never see an official DVD release.

[muppet baby]

Originally Posted by Phillip Chapman

It's likely the mpeg-4 video is encoded at 320x240 which looks great on an iPod, but not much else at higher resolutions.

What will be interesting to see is if Fraggle Rock Season 4 is first available on iTunes or on DVD in September. It would also be great if Henson released some of their older, rarer remaining properties on iTunes that would likely never see an official DVD release.

I totally agree with you phillip about the show season 4 coming to dvd or i tunes first i have seen several shows that come to i tunes and then dvd .

I have been hopeing that it would come to i tunes and when i got home and
from the trip that i was on this past weekend and hooked my i pod to my computer and then there it was faggle rock season 1 wow and i bought it imeditly and it is downloading as we speak .

When they are done in a few hours i am going to watch them

i have been waiting and hoping for this i am on the go a lot so my pod goes everywhere with me .

I have fraggle rock season 1 on dvd and i have been wanting to to get the rest but for right now i am running out of room to put more dvds and need to do some reorganizing hehe . i will get them i want them so much .

i think i want to i pod version first since i am traveling a lot at the moments and i need my fraggle friends that way .
yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa whoooooooooooooooooooooo .

i am so happy i have watched season 1 on dvd a lot hehe i love them so much i have been iching for season 2 and 3 and now i can get them .

ha ha and yes ok i am going to get the dvd copies when move some things it is killing me that i have not aready
Although for christmas my parents have bought me a play station 3 and i got blu ray player with it .

i got some movies also i hope that maybe fraggle rock blu ray will come out .

the cases are smaller and resulation would be great haha it will happen i think because from what i have heard that blu ray is going to take over dvd by 09 or 2010 hmmmmmmm those blu ray movies are going down in price maybe that will happen for all muppets hehe


I

[Traveling Matt]

Originally Posted by stephenjlizard

And Matt, check your iTunes. The recent 3-CD Fraggle set IS available for download. I don't know if they just added it today or not, but it's there!

Well, I have the CD set. I was referring to the 200 or so remaining songs that have never been issued on an album before.

[muppet baby]

Originally Posted by Luke

So you just need a video IPOD to download and play these right? I will get one now, just had a normal MP4 player before. Are the screens still tiny or have they got bigger yet?

VERY EXCITED!

hi luke yes you need a i pod to download these fraggle rock shows .

the screen size is still the same but soooooooooo worth the money much better than a portable dvd player and dvds to carry around i mean you can just have the fraggle rock friends right in your pocket to watch any time that you want .
i have had two video i pods i have had the 30 gb and now i have the 160 gb i gave the the 3o to my mom and she loves it .

The 160 has great sound as do the others you can also get some referbished ones at a cheaper price at circite city stores .

i am not sure if they have those In London or not but some stores in London i am sure have some reforbished ones .

i have never heard anything bad about the reforbished ones but the new ones are going down in price all the time .

Good luck

[stephenjlizard]

Well, you don't need an iPod to download these. You can download them using iTunes and just watch them on your computer, and they won't look half bad. However, the only portable device that you'd be able to watch them on, apart from your PC/Mac, would be an iPod. But you can just watch them on your computer if you want. That's probably what I'll do with Farscape.

[erniebert1234ss]

Dance your cares away! (clap clap)

Sorry, but I couldn't resist.

Is there any chance of seeing the Animated Fraggle Rock as well as Muppet Babies going up soon? Muppet Babies is so amazingly likely, since Disney's practically in cahoots with Apple.

Also, the Muppet Show could be on iTunes, too, and when the DVDs come out, TMS would get a "new" season on iTunes!

But I'm still waiting for the long-awaited digital/iTunes debut of the Beatles!

BJ

[stephenjlizard]

The Muppet Show most certainly should be in iTunes! But of course that's a call for Disney to make, not Henson. And unfortunately that'll be a harder sell. But hey, if Fraggle and Farscape do well in initial sales, the Mouse might take notice!

You're more likely to see the animated Fraggles on DVD than in iTunes. But take heart, that very animated collection comes out on DVD in Australia next week; it's sure to follow here in the US soon enough!

[Kermieuk]

Hi Guys

Are these only available to USA ipod users.

When I open itunes it automatically opens the UK store, same as Disneyshopping web site, anyway, I cant find these episodes on the uk site?

In the Henson Podcast about these shows, they say they have a lot of request across the globe for these eps, but it seems again that only the US has access to them?

Chris

[muppet baby]

Hi Everyone wow i have almost finished watching season 1 of faggle rock on my i pod to me it seems that the resualsion is better on the i pod wow for now i think i am going to wait and buy seasons 2 -4 on my i pod and then wait for the blu - ray i have season 1 on dvd as well, but to me it looks better on i pod haha .


I really hope that if a lot of people buy all the seasons of faggle rock on i tunes that it might lead to having Muppet Babies on there that would be so great. I hope that happens. Muppet Babies is My all time faverite Cartoon and always will be .

Lets all keep our fingers crossed i mean they have aleady said for sure that all seasons of farscape and Fraggle rock are coming .