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Dinosaurs is an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on ABC from April 26, 1991 to July 20, 1994. The show, about a family of anthropomorphic dinosaurs, was produced by Michael Jacobs Productions and Jim Henson Productions in association with Walt Disney Television.
Dinosaurs was often used as a vehicle for humorously addressing contemporary issues such as environmentalism, women's rights, sexual harassment, the objectification of women, censorship, civil rights, drug abuse, racism, peer pressure, and corporate crime.
stories written at the time of the show's premiere highlighted Dinosaurs connection to Jim Henson, who had died the year before.
Discussion
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Quotations
B.P. Richfield - Earl's intimidating boss, whom Earl fears and will not stand up to.
Baby Sinclair - The youngest child, Baby is his actual name.
Charlene Sinclair - The middle child (12 years old) and very materialistic.
Earl Sinclair - The father (aka The Mighty Megalosaurus), a tree-pusher for the WeSaySo Corporation.
Ethyl Phillips - Fran's mother and Earl's nemisis.
Robbie Sinclair - The eldest child (15 years old) and someone who often questions established traditions.
Encyclopedia
Dinosaurs is an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on ABC from April 26, 1991 to July 20, 1994. The show, about a family of anthropomorphic dinosaurs, was produced by Michael Jacobs Productions and Jim Henson Productions in association with Walt Disney Television.
Dinosaurs was often used as a vehicle for humorously addressing contemporary issues such as environmentalism, women's rights, sexual harassment, the objectification of women, censorship, civil rights, drug abuse, racism, peer pressure, and corporate crime.
Origins
News stories written at the time of the show's premiere highlighted Dinosaurs connection to Jim Henson, who had died the year before. "Jim Henson dreamed up the show's basic concept about three years ago," said a New York Times article in April 1991. "'He wanted it to be a sitcom with a pretty standard structure, with the biggest differences being that it's a family of dinosaurs and their society has this strange toxic life style,' said [his son] Brian Henson. But until The Simpsons took off, said Alex Rockwell, a vice president of the Henson organization, 'people thought it was a crazy idea.'"
In the late 1980s, Jim Henson had worked with illustrator/designer William Stout on a feature film starring animatronic dinosaurs with the working title of ; a 1993 article in The New Yorker said that Henson continued to work on a dinosaur project (presumably the Dinosaurs concept) until the "last months of his life."
The television division of the Walt Disney Company began working on the series in 1990 for CBS before the series landed on ABC.
Overview
Dinosaurs is initially set in 60,000,003 BC with the years, months and days counting toward zero. (In the first episode, Robbie asks his father if he ever questions what they are counting down to.) The show centers on the Sinclair family (a reference to Sinclair Oil Corporation which uses a dinosaur as its logo) - the father (Earl Sinclair, a reference to Earl Holding, Sinclair Oil's principal owner), the mother (Fran Sinclair), the son (Robbie Sinclair), the daughter (Charlene Sinclair), the baby (Baby Sinclair), and the grandmother (Ethyl Phillips, a reference to Phillips Petroleum and ethyl gasoline).
Earl's job is to push over trees for the Wesayso ("We Say So") Corporation (alluding to the fact that petroleum comes from compressed trees and other organic matter, keeping with the petroleum theme of the show) with his friend and coworker Roy Hess (Hess Corporation is another regional petroleum chain). Another reference to petroleum companies is Earl's boss, named B.P. Richfield. Earl's employer, the Wesayso Corporation's logo also is a reference to DuPont Chemical's traditional oval logo.
Characters
The focus of the show's plot is the Sinclair family: Earl, Fran, Robbie, Charlene and Baby.
One of the show's most popular characters is the mischievous Baby (occasionally referred to as "Junior" until the second season, where he was officially named "Baby Sinclair"). Baby's mannerisms were loosely based on writer and producer Bob Young's youngest child Ethan.
Baby's favorite pastime is to hit Earl repeatedly over the head with a frying pan while shouting, "Not the mama!" Frequently, when Baby should be hurt (such as after having been hurled through the air), he will throw his arms up enthusiastically and exclaim, "Again!" A music video was produced for a song based on another of Baby's catchphrases, "I'm the Baby, Gotta Love Me".
Curiously, the Sinclair family members all appear to belong to wildly different species: while Earl identifies himself as a carnivorous megalosaurus and Robbie is similar in appearance (albeit much slimmer), Fran most closely resembles a hadrosaur (a herbivore), and Charlene resembles a ceratopsian (another herbivore). Baby Sinclair (who is revealed in the series to not be Earl and Fran's biological offspring) looks vaguely ankylosaurid, but is much more human-looking than any real dinosaur.
Other supporting characters are Ethyl Phillips, Roy Hess, B.P. Richfield, Monica Devertebrae and Spike. Humans have appeared in several episodes as cavemen, and the dinosaur characters often expressed the belief that humans could never develop intelligence. A recurring joke is that the dinosaurs do not know how to tell male and female humans apart and usually switch them in conversation, or as shown in one episode ("The Mating Dance") in which zookeepers unknowingly pair two obviously male humans together and cannot figure out why they will not produce offspring. There are also other recurring characters, typically Earl's Wesayso Corporation co-workers.
Topical issues
Topical issues featured in Dinosaurs include environmentalism, women's rights, sexual harassment, objectification of women, censorship, civil rights, body image, steroid use, allusions to masturbation (in the form of Robbie getting caught doing a mating dance by himself), drug abuse, racism, peer pressure, rights of indigenous peoples, corporate crime, government interference of parenting, and allusions to homosexuality and communism (in the guise of herbivorism).
The two-part episode "Nuts to War," in which the two-legged dinosaurs go to war with the four-legged dinosaurs over rights to pistachio trees, aired in February and March of 1992, and was almost certainly in response to the Persian Gulf War. Dialogue in the episode addresses war profiteering (by the Wesayso Corporation of B.P. Richfield, Earl's boss, which sells weaponry to both sides), the casualties of war (limited to one two-legger, which the Sinclair family thought for a time was Robbie), the war's use as a distraction from domestic issues during an election year, government suppression of information, and the harassment of the antiwar movement. The (politically) hawkish dinosaurs created a catchphrase for their political party: "We Are Right" (W.A.R.) Earl, originally a hawk but later disillusioned, takes to protesting the war with a sign reading "Pistachio Eaters Against the Chief Elder" (P.E.A.C.E.), a backronym.
In the episode "I Never Ate For My Father," in lieu of carnivorism, Robbie chooses to eat vegetables, and the other characters liken this to homosexuality, irreverence, communism, and drug abuse.
In the final season, "The Greatest Story Ever Sold" (a take off of The Greatest Story Ever Told) even references religion when the Sinclair family becomes eager to learn the meaning of their existence. The Elders dictate a new system of beliefs, and the entire cast (with the exception of Robbie) abandons science to blindly following the newly popular "Potato-ism." The religion arbitrarily brings about a set of strange and pointless rules that they decree all dinosaurs must adhere to, possibly a parody of the Ten Commandments. Robbie and a reluctant Earl refuse to follow the rules leading to their punishment of being burned at the stake. Just as they are about to be executed, the fire mysteriously goes out. It is considered a sign, and the two are allowed to go free. The episode ends with them speculating as to whether there really is a god who created and watches over them.
In another episode, Earl switches bodies with a tree and raises the issue of conservation. This is more dramatically explored in the series finale.
Series finale
The series finale of Dinosaurs concerns the irresponsible actions of the dinosaurs toward their environment, and the ensuing Ice Age which leads to their demise. The episode begins with the failure of a beetle swarm to show up and devour a form of creeper vine. It is shown that the Wesayso Corporation has constructed a wax fruit factory on the swampland that serves as the beetles' breeding grounds, causing the extinction of the species. Fearing a public relations fiasco more than any environmental threat, Wesayso quickly puts Earl in charge of an attempt to destroy the vines, which have grown out of control without the beetles to keep them in check. Earl proposes spraying the plant with defoliant, which works only too well; not only does the defoliant eradicate all the vines, but all other plant life on the planet as well.
B.P. Richfield assumes that the creation of clouds will bring rain, allowing the plants to grow back, and so decides to create clouds by dropping bombs in the planet's volcanoes to cause eruptions and cloud cover. The dark clouds instead instigate global cooling, in the form of a gigantic cloudcover (simulating the effects of what the viewer would recognize as nuclear winter) that scientists estimate would take "tens of thousands of years" to dissipate; viewers are thus left in no doubt as to the final fate of the dinosaurs.
The final scene of the series depicts a color-warped broadcast from newscaster Howard Handupme, eerily staring into the camera in a slowly freezing studio, and droning, "And, taking a look at the long-range forecast, continued snow, darkness, and extreme cold. This is Howard Handupme. Goodnight. (pause) Goodbye." The credits then roll over a shot of the Sinclairs' house, slowly disappearing beneath a snowdrift, while a melancholy string instrumental plays. The episode contains a clear, dark message of environmental responsibility and, while not overt in its portrayal of the extinction of the dinosaurs (their fate is only implied, not depicted), the episode was still a marked change from the series' normal humor. "Changing Nature" merited a special parental warning in TV Guides listings the week it aired, cautioning that its subject matter might frighten or disturb younger viewers.
The shows within the show
While Dinosaurs was a TV show, several jokes in the series were at the expense of television shows in general. Earl often wants to watch TV rather than do something more practical, and several jokes accuse television of "dumbing down" the population and making it lazy. Four episodes had themes related to television. In "Family Challenge", Earl gets the family to go on a game show in order to win a new TV when both of the household's televisions are destroyed. In "Fran Live", Fran gets a call-in show when she suggests that the host of the show "Just Listening With Frank" should give advice rather than just listen. In "Network Genius", Earl starts working for ABC (the Antediluvian Broadcasting Company) and recommends several "stupid" shows for the network; when these shows drastically reduce the IQ of the population, he recommends "smart" shows to save the world. In "Georgie Must Die", Earl attempts to thwart the evil plans of an orange hippo reminiscent of Barney from Barney & Friends.
A few characters in the shows within Dinosaurs made repeat appearances. Howard Handupme, whose name was a reference to the fact that he was a hand puppet, was the standard news anchor for the Dinosaur News Network (DNN). Mr. Lizard, a parody of Mr. Wizard, was a scientist demonstrating several dangerous aspects of nature and science for his child assistant, who inevitably died in each episode (by such methods as watching the effects of what happens when you put an open flame next to a mixture of sulfur, phosphorus, and gasoline; having Timmy see how a rocket engine works by sticking his head into the exhaust while Mr. Lizard turns it on; and the effects of putting nitroglycerine in a blender), prompting Mr. Lizard to quip, "We're going to need another Timmy!" Captain Action Figure shows up in children's programming that Fran mistakes for a commercial. Whenever Captain Action Figure mentions a product, the screen flashes "Tell Mommy I WANT THAT!". Before the appearance of Georgie, Dinosaurs used a puppet highly reminiscent of Barney named "Blarney" in two episodes. During his appearances, members of the Sinclair family commented on his annoying characteristics and failure to teach anything to children. As the powers behind Barney & Friends have threatened legal action to subdue Anti-Barney Humor, it is possible that Dinosaurs received a legal warning, resulting in the creation of the Georgie character.
Other fictional shows that have appeared on Dinosaurs:
- Tricera-Cops: appeared in two episodes as a parody of fictional dramas about unconventional police officers.
- Mr. Ugh: a parody of Mr. Ed featuring a talking caveman.
- Info 411: a parody of Rescue 911 featuring actual calls to Information.
- Totally Ineffectual Dad: a show about a father who neglects the needs of his son, who is on fire in the episode featured.
- Raptile: a tabloid newsmagazine.
- Don't Lift That Heavy Object: a show that captures real-life dinosaurs in the act of trying to lift heavy things.
- The Smoo Show: a show that appeared to be musical/variety, created in response to positive reaction to the use of a swear word on network television. Similar shows were mentioned but not shown, called "The Flark Show" and "Kiss My Glick."
- Totally Hidden Predator: a parody of Totally Hidden Video (a Candid Camera-like show from the 1990s) in which a camera captures the reactions of dinosaurs to a huge hidden monster that devours them.
- The Book "Blue Eggs and Toast", a parody of Green Eggs and Ham.
- DNN: parody of CNN.
- DSPN: parody of ESPN.
- DSN: Dinosaur Shopping Network: a parody of HSN.
- DTV: Dinomusic Television: a parody of MTV.
- Dirty Dare: a parody of Double Dare.
- Love Confession: a parody of Love Connection.
- Good Morning Pangaea: a parody of ABC's Good Morning America.
- Pangaea's Funniest Home Injuries and Pangaea's 2nd Funniest Home Injuries: a parody of America's Funniest Home Videos. In one episode, the host of the show said that here's a father and son playing catch near an active volcano with a new way of the expression "Go Deep."
- The Hat Channel: 24 hours a day of hat news, hat features, and hat happenings. Later in the broadcast, a news anchor reports "The fire swept through two square city blocks. Miraculously, no hats were damaged." Earl replies, "Yippee, there's a piece of good news."
- Box Full o' Puppies: A show in which people were surprised by receiving a cardboard box full of puppies.
- The Happy Colors Show: One of Earl's "dumb" shows, it appears to be little more than a grid of flashing colors. The theme song goes, "It's the Happy Colors Show / It's the happiest show we know / With red and green and aquamarine / And blue like the sky above / But our favorite color is love!"
- Economics Hoedown: One of Earl's "smart" shows, it features dinosaurs popping up from a cornfield to give riddles involving complex economic patterns. A parody of Hee Haw.
- We're Not Even Related But Somehow We're All Living Together: A show which teaches valuable lessons. Likely a parody of Three's Company.
- House Full of Dads: A sitcom in which a girl is raised by at least a dozen fathers. Another likely parody of Full House and/or My Two Dads in which Florence Stanley, the voice of Grandma Ethyl, had a recurring role.
- Mysteries that Haven't Been Solved Yet: A parody of Unsolved Mysteries, except that the program features the same set of stories in every episode, which no one notices. One of the mysteries is eventually solved though, so after her near-death experience, Ethyl is approached to tell her story for the show.
- Pangaea Hills, DINO210: a parody of Beverly Hills, 90210.
- Lifestyles of Those We Envy: is a parody of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.
- "Way Too Complicated", a parody of the Brady Bunch, with 14 kids that are either ghosts or dinosaurs.
- A parody of a Richard Simmons-type workout show appears at the beginning of the episode Nature Calls. Richard Simmons does a guest voice over for his Richard Simmons Dinosaur character.
- In the episode "Honey, I Miss the Kids," the movie "The Little Underwater Girl" is a parody of Disney's The Little Mermaid.
- In the background of an episode, a crowd on TV can be heard saying "Wheel! Of!" in the manner of Wheel of Fortune, though the last word is not heard.
International screening
The show was screened on ITV in 1992 and in reruns from 1995 to 2002 in the UK on Disney Channel.In Mexico was aired three times on Televisa Canal 5, first on 1993-94, 1999-2001 and 2005.
DVD releases
On May 2, 2006 Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released Dinosaurs: The Complete First And Second Seasons as a four-disc DVD box set. The DVD set includes "exclusive bonus features including a never-before-seen look at the making of Dinosaurs" The complete third and fourth seasons were released May 1, 2007 with special features, including the episodes not aired on TV. Both sets are currently available only on Region 1. A Region 2 release of the four seasons has yet to be released.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date |
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| The Complete 1st & 2nd Seasons | 29 | May 2, 2006 | | The Complete 3rd & 4th Seasons | 36 | May 1, 2007 |
Credits
See also
External links
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