Fraggles and Farscape come to iTunes!

OK, this is cool. Starting today, properties from the The Jim Henson Company are coming to iTunes. The complete first seasons of Farscape and Fraggle Rock are available now for $1.99 an episode. According to the company's press release, the entire series should be available on the site in the coming months.

Now, I never watched Farscape, but as a television addict, I was pretty familiar with the various controversies over home video rights and for the show and how difficult it is to find on DVD. I can only guess that legions of Farscape fans will be happy to be able to download first season episodes from iTunes.

As for Fraggle Rock, well, this is something I can get behind. I remember watching the show on HBO at a very early age and the theme song still makes me smile. Fraggle Rock is actually the only "Muppet" property not owned by The Walt Disney Company (in 2004 The Jim Henson Company sold the rights to The Muppets and a few other properties to Disney), and as a result it's trek to DVD has not been as drawn out (though in the US we're still only up to season 3), but despite my general feelings about buying TV shows on iTunes, I will totally indulge in the nostalgia of the Fraggles.

Now that the TV season is pretty much at a standstill (we have Project Runway and American Idol, but that's about it), watching 25 year old Muppets sing songs or watching a beloved Sci-Fi show on the Mac or Apple TV is a bit more enticing than watching the emergency season of Big Brother.

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Source: http://www.docurama.com/digitalassets/henson/smpr.html

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OK, this is cool. Starting today, properties from the The Jim Henson Company are coming to iTunes. The complete first seasons of Farscape...

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Roy B

Well, that was rather abrupt. Meant to say that Farscape DVDs are still available at semi-reasonable prices from www.DeepDiscountDVD.com, which is where I bought them as they were being released by ADV. This includes the Starburst series, so forget that e-bay dren. Get your eema down to DeepDiscount and let some other idiot waste their frelling money paying $150 a box. Pass it on to your scaper friends and tell them EndersShadow/Bean sent you.

March 09 2008 at 11:43 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Roy B

http://search.deepdiscount.com/search?w=farscape&

March 09 2008 at 11:38 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Genius Jones

Run, don't walk, and watch Farscape.

January 30 2008 at 12:26 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

eric f

Farscape was super well written, and the humor was brilliant. Don't forget that you get to watch Claudia Black in every episode, either.

January 29 2008 at 11:26 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tony C

Huzzah!! Farscape on iTunes!! Not like I'm going to pay $44 for a full season of DRM video, but it's the thought that counts... Especially if fans want to snag their favorite episodes. Any idea what the specs on the encoding are? Video size? File size? I couldn't snag anything from the iTunes store information and I don't want to buy an ep just to find that out.

They REALLY need to re-release the Farscape "Starburst Edition" on DVD (or Blu-ray!), instead of letting it languish in the bargain bins of e-tailers and eBay. Particularly season one, where the discs are so long out of production that they regularly demand auction prices exponentially more than the original's full retail -- even used!! >:o( I just saw season one, collection one close out at $175 -- four discs, seven episodes... THAT'S NUTS!!!

January 29 2008 at 10:23 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

5 replies to Tony C's comment

Fraggles are not the only Muppet property that's not owned by Disney. Sesame Street didn't pass over to the Mouse.

That's why you don't see Kermit on Sesame Street anymore. He's owned by Disney, where the Street is pretty far away from the Magic Kingdom.

January 29 2008 at 9:42 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to KR's comment

Christina Warren

Right you are! I actually meant that Fraggles were the only Muppet property originally owned by The Jim Henson Company -- Seasame Street has always been owned by the Children's Television Workshop. I always thought Kermit's disappearance actually had more to do with Henson's death (as he was the voice), rather than the Disney thing. I'm sure selling to Disney didn't help.

January 29 2008 at 11:51 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Joe

Fraggle Rock may as well be on iTS. The DVDs don't really offer much of anything as far as extra features, and the show appeals to the late Gen-Xers who watched the show in kindergarten - well, after kindergarten.

Now we need some "You Can't Do That on Television." Why? I don't know.

January 29 2008 at 8:58 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Joe's comment

Christina Warren

Water!

January 29 2008 at 11:51 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Sarah

I adore Farscape, so this is great news. The first 14 episodes of season 1 are a little hit and miss but from then on the show overall really hits it's stride (although there is the occasional clunker).

No show has ripped my heart out, stamped on it, then handed it back to me as much as Farscape. It's wonderful character-driven, well written, cracked-out scifi. :)

January 29 2008 at 1:36 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Trevor

Typo: "it's trek to DVD" --> "its trek to DVD"

January 29 2008 at 12:35 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Chris Wirick

I never could get into Farscape, though I tried.

Loved Firefly, love Battlestar Galactica, but Farscape, meh.

Get BSG back on iTunes and I'll be happy. Give me the option of HD - I'll be ecstatic.

January 28 2008 at 10:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply