Synopsis: On the night of a rainstorm, the Gorgs’ roof springs a leak. Pa Gorg insists on being the one to fix it, but his hidden fear of heights is aggravated when a broken ladder leaves him stranded on the roof.
Original air date: April 15, 1985
Kids are afraid of lots of things: the dark, monsters, foods that aren’t chicken nuggets. With kids being the primary target audience of Fraggle Rock, it’s logical that several episodes involve characters encountering things they’re afraid of — “The Terrible Tunnel,” “Scared Silly,” “Boober and the Glob,” “Gobo’s Discovery,” and so on.
Usually it’s Fraggles who find themselves facing their fears. But not in “The Battle of Leaking Roof!” This episode is an unusual one, because the Fraggles are barely in it. With the exception of a very brief Uncle Traveling Matt postcard, we only see Mokey and Boober, and they don’t even show up until almost nine minutes into the episode.
This episode is all about our favorite Gorg royal family. With the Fraggles relegated to a minor subplot, it would be unsurprising if this episode turned out to be kinda boring, but it’s really not. At times it gets frustrating — seeing Pa Gorg hiding his fear of heights from his wife, and repeatedly being a jerk to Junior, who’s only trying to help him with his various roof-related troubles. But it’s never boring, mostly thanks to the presence of Junior, who’s always loveable and entertaining. That endearing lunkhead helps the episode avoid wearing out its welcome.
It’s also fun to spend time with the Gorgs because the fact that they’re costume-style puppets provides lots of opportunities for physical comedy that would be difficult for the Fraggles to do. Junior even does a Sideshow Bob “step on a rake, get thwacked in the face” gag!
When Pa is stuck up on the roof, he’s terrified, but once he’s safe and sound on the ground floor, he learns not one but TWO valuable lessons. After crawling across a plank and down a stepladder set up by Junior, Pa learns that sometimes when you face your fear, the thing you were afraid of isn’t as bad as you thought it might be. And when he accidentally admits his fear to Ma, Pa realizes that he should have told her the truth in the first place.
Those are good lessons for those scaredy-cat kids watching the show — and it couldn’t hurt for the scaredy-cat adults in the audience to hear them too. I don’t know about you, but I’m afraid of lots of things. Driving in crowded urban city centers, for example. I avoid it when I can, but sometimes, like Pa on that ladder, I have to face that fear to get where I need to go (in Pa’s case, it’s off the roof; in mine, it’s often a doctor’s office… or my favorite downtown taco joint). And very often, I find that the drive wasn’t as traumatic as I anticipated.
I guess the fact that I just told you about my fear means I’ve learned Pa’s second lesson. Gosh, what a helpful show this is! Even when there are hardly any Fraggles in it.
Strongest Moment: Ma Gorg makes a garlic radish soufflé but dumps in way too much of various ingredients, which causes it to grow and take on a life of its own, like something from a Swedish Chef sketch. When it starts attacking Junior, he grabs a sword and says, “Touché, soufflé!”
Amusing Moment: I enjoyed this exchange, from when Junior is trying to come up with ways to get Pa down from the roof without a ladder…
JUNIOR: “You could jump.”
PA: “Jump?! Are you crazy, Junior? What’s to prevent me from squashing like a radish in a nutcracker?”
JUNIOR: “No, no, no. Listen: Just as your feet hit the ground, jump up again and go TA-DA!”
MVF (Most Valuable Fraggle): Mokey risks life and limb to retrieve Boober’s lucky hat from the Gorgs’ castle. What a good friend!
MVG (Most Valuable Gorg): Pa is at the center of this episode’s story, but Junior steals the show, as he often does.
Musical Highlight: “I’m Not Scared of Anything at All” is sung by Pa Gorg, who tries to fool his wife and son and himself by boasting of his strength and military prowess, even as he spends the whole song getting spooked by ordinary objects. (In our modern reality, cowardly men don’t sing songs about their fake bravery. They post on Twitter.)
Coolest Puppetry Effect: Pa descending that ladder headfirst is a pretty great trick, considering the limited visibility inside those Gorg suits! An impressive feat by suit performer Gord Robertson!
Darkest Moment: The whole episode is pretty dark. It takes place on a stormy night! But also, as Junior looks down from the top of the roof, he remarks, “If you fell from here, you’d kill yourself for sure!” Yikes.
One More Thing…: Ma offers to fix the roof, but Pa initially resists because his brain is all scrambled by old-fashioned notions of traditional gender roles. Eventually, Ma climbs the ladder to the roof — still wearing her long dress! — and sets out to make the repair. Unfortunately, she finds Mokey in her toolbox, which spooks her and interrupts the job. But it’s nice to see her throwing away those old-fashioned notions, if only for a moment!
Okay, One More Thing…: Junior wants to get help Ma fix the roof, so he asks Pa to watch the soufflé, to which Pa responds, “Real men don’t watch soufflé!” Could this be a subtle reference to Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche, the 1982 bestselling book that satirized stereotypical masculinity?
Click here to fix the leak in the roof of the Tough Pigs Discord!
by Ryan Roe – [email protected]
