Watching The Muppet Show on DVD drums up some astonishing memories from inside me. The show debuted just around the time I was born - I literally grew up with Frank Oz's voice rattling around inside my head (I've been told more than once that I both resemble and act like a certain Fozzie Bear we all know) - and watching episodes from the show's first few seasons as an adult has proven to be a continually staggering experience.

The way Jim Henson and company were able to balance decidedly child-like entertainment with exemplary vocabulary and a noticeably holistic aesthetic aim. Kermit the Frog at one point says "indefatigable." When was the last time you heard "indefatigable" on Spongebob Squarepants? Unlike Sesame Street, whose aim was specifically educational, the stuff kids learned from The Muppet Show was more subliminal - and more fun.

Fraggle Rock is an equally mesmerizing achievement. And this final season of the series - arriving on DVD for the first time in a standalone capacity - again proves that Fraggle Rock is an earnest show about how to bring peace to the world. I'm not kidding.

See, Jim Henson wanted to use the template of Fraggle Rock to show younger viewers how to integrate peacefully with members of society (or, in Fraggle Rock's case, species) who were unlike your own. Yes, there are songs, and yes, there are goofy storylines, but the overreaching aim of Fraggle Rock is one of tolerance and open-mindedness.

However, one of many facets of Henson's genius approach to entertainment is that he knows that any show is an implicit failure if one beats her or his audience over the head with any kind of overbearing concept. So in submerging the ethical imperative of Fraggle Rock in the kind of goofy fun and delirium that Henson was able to concoct with ease, we get a show that does what Pixar does in the mainstream movie world; it appeals to both entertainment-loving kids and thinking adults.

In ways unlike either The Muppet Show or Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock is smart. Deadly smart. As characters interact with one another and learn about the intricacies and unique qualities of both the outside world and the one they occupy, Fraggle Rock ebbs and flows, its narrative core projecting unmitigated confidence and swagger. Honestly, it's the James Dean of the Muppet universe.

And over the course of four all-too-short seasons, Fraggle Rock continued both to entertain and to inspire. It may not have the legacy of The Muppet Show or the importance of Sesame Street, but it's just as striking and lovely an achievement.

In terms of this DVD release, specifically, though, the question must be asked: Is it worth it to take your first three season-long DVD box sets to a used record store and buy Fraggle Rock: The Complete Series or simply add this standalone box set to your DVD shelf? Let's sift through the evidence....