Uncle Traveling Matt in "Outer Space".
Traveling Matt with Red and Wembley at the Jim Henson's Musical World concert on April 14, 2012.
Uncle Traveling Matt is a brave Fraggle explorer and Gobo's uncle on Fraggle Rock. In "Beginnings," he ventured out of the Rock to explore the human world of Outer Space.
To document his exploits, Matt sends Gobo a series of postcards recounting his experiences with the Silly Creatures and their culture from the Fraggle point of view. Uncle Matt prides himself on his bravery and resourcefulness, but also tends towards clumsiness, frequently falling backwards or tripping during his travels.
He makes a brief return visit back to Fraggle Rock in the second season episode "Uncle Matt Comes Home," but in the fourth season episode "Uncle Matt's Discovery," he returns to the Rock for good. Although he still makes a few occasional trips to Outer Space, he mostly recounts his travels to the other Fraggles orally, as flashbacks are shown.
As a boy, Matt discovered the Gorgs' Garden and, with it, a new source of food (radishes) during a mushroom blight. He was raised by his Uncle Gobo, also a great Fraggle explorer. As a child, Matt resembled his nephew Gobo, only with blond hair and tan skin and fur. His Uncle Gobo resembled Matt as an adult except his skin was orange and his hair was a faded purple.
In a 2006 interview, Dave Goelz discussed the three character flaws that define Matt's personality: his misperceptions, his clumsiness (created by Goelz to make taping Matt's segments more interesting), and his denial of the first two flaws. As Goelz later said in a 2011 interview;
"The original concept for him was that he went out and misinterpreted everything and then sent postcards back that we saw on video, where he described the outside world in a distorted way. I just didn't think it was very funny, so I started adding two other components. I started adding clumsiness so he was also physically an inept explorer. And then I added this emotional disconnect. So when he wrote back to his nephew, he would say, "I decided to leave the shop." In actuality, you see him being drop-kicked out of the place and flying through the air and hitting a wall. That aesthetic started to become part of the material, and it was written in as we developed it.[1]"
- Uncle Traveling Matt
Traveling Matt is the only Fraggle, and one of the few Fraggle Rock characters in general, to make solo cameo appearances in other Muppet productions, without other Fraggles. He appeared at Kermit and Miss Piggy's wedding in The Muppets Take Manhattan, and promoted the film on German television in 1984. The following year, he was the only Fraggle Rock character present when the Muppets appeared on Night of 100 Stars. In 1986, he received company in the form of Sprocket when introducing scenes in The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years. Reuniting with his fellow Fraggles, he participated in mass appearances in the 1987 Television Academy Hall of Fame induction of Jim Henson, and in A Muppet Family Christmas (in which he provided part of the bass vocals for "The Holly and The Ivy" as part of the Carol Sing Medley where he pops up next to Doc and Sprocket when the other five Fraggles come into view). Matt also graced NBC interstitial segments for the animated version of Fraggle Rock. Most recently, he made an illustrated appearance at a dance in Volume 1 of the Return to Labyrinth manga series, asking Hana if they have any radishes. He also appeared alongside Red Fraggle and Wembley Fraggle at Carnegie Hall as part of Jim Henson's Musical World, where he mistook the hall for "Carnegie Cave" and as a Doozer cave built for the Gorgs.
A traveling matte is a technique used in television and film to insert a foreground object into a prerecorded background image. This technique was often used in Fraggle Rock, especially when the Fraggles are walking through the many underground caves, as well as the Gorg's Garden.
Dave Goelz performing Traveling Matt on location in Toronto.
Filmography
- Fraggle Rock
- Episode 101: Beginnings
- Episode 102: Wembley and the Gorgs
- Episode 103: Let the Water Run
- Episode 104: You Can't Do That Without a Hat
- Episode 105: The Thirty-Minute Work Week
- Episode 106: The Preachification of Convincing John
- Episode 107: I Want to Be You
- Episode 108: The Terrible Tunnel
- Episode 109: The Lost Treasure of the Fraggles
- Episode 110: Don't Cry Over Spilt Milk
- Episode 111: Catch the Tail by the Tiger
- Episode 112: The Finger of Light
- Episode 113: We Love You, Wembley
- Episode 114: The Challenge
- Episode 115: I Don't Care
- Episode 116: Capture the Moon
- Episode 117: Marooned
- Episode 118: The Minstrels
- Episode 120: The Garden Plot
- Episode 121: Gobo's Discovery
- Episode 122: Mokey's Funeral
- Episode 123: The Beast of Blue Rock
- Episode 124: New Trash Heap in Town
- Episode 201: Wembley's Egg
- Episode 202: Boober Rock
- Episode 203: The Trash Heap Doesn't Live Here Anymore
- Episode 204: Red's Sea Monster
- Episode 205: Uncle Matt Comes Home
- Episode 206: Boober's Dream
- Episode 208: All Work and All Play
- Episode 209: Sir Hubris and the Gorgs
- Episode 210: A Friend in Need
- Episode 211: The Wizard of Fraggle Rock
- Episode 212: The Doozer Contest
- Episode 213: Red's Club
- Episode 214: The Secret of Convincing John
- Episode 215: Manny's Land of Carpets
- Episode 218: The Day the Music Died
- Episode 219: Doomsday Soup
- Episode 220: A Cave of One's Own
- Episode 221: Wembley and the Great Race
- Episode 222: Doozer Is As Doozer Does
- Episode 223: Boober's Quiet Day
- Episode 224: The Invasion of the Toe Ticklers
- Episode 301: The Bells of Fraggle Rock
- Episode 302: Red-Handed and the Invisible Thief
- Episode 303: Boober and the Glob
- Episode 304: The Grapes of Generosity
- Episode 305: Blanket of Snow, Blanket of Woe
- Episode 306: Pebble Pox Blues
- Episode 307: Home Is Where the Trash Is
- Episode 308: Believe It or Not
- Episode 309: Wembley and the Mean Genie
- Episode 311: The Beanbarrow, the Burden and the Bright Bouquet
- Episode 312: Gobo's School for Explorers
- Episode 313: Scared Silly
- Episode 314: The Great Radish Caper
- Episode 315: Born to Wander
- Episode 316: The Battle of Leaking Roof
- Episode 317: Playing Till It Hurts
- Episode 318: Bored Stiff
- Episode 319: The Cavern of Lost Dreams
- Episode 320: The Incredible Shrinking Mokey
- Episode 321: A Dark and Stormy Night
- Episode 322: Gunge the Great and Glorious
- Episode 403: Sidebottom Blues
- Episode 404: Uncle Matt's Discovery
- Episode 406: A Tune for Two
- Episode 407: The Perfect Blue Rollie
- Episode 408: A Brush with Jealousy
- Episode 409: Wembley's Flight
- Episode 410: Red's Blue Dragon
- Episode 412: Space Frog Follies
- Episode 502: The Riddle of Rhyming Rock
- Episode 504: The Trial of Cotterpin Doozer
- Episode 505: The River of Life
- Episode 509: Ring Around the Rock
- Episode 510: Inspector Red
- Episode 513: Change of Address
- Night of 100 Stars
- The Muppets Take Manhattan (Wedding finale)
- The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years
- A Muppet Family Christmas
- Today
- Do It Anyway
See also
- Uncle Traveling Matt (animated)
Sources
- ↑ Disney twenty-three, Winter 2011 issue, page 51
External links
- Postcards from Traveling Matt - Traveling Matt Postcard Transcriptions
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