Dinosaurs (TV series)

Dinosaurs
Format	Sitcom
Created by	Michael Jacobs Bob Young
Voices of	Stuart Pankin Jessica Walter Jason Willinger Sally Struthers Kevin Clash
Theme music composer	Bruce Broughton
Composer(s)	Bruce Broughton Ray Colcord
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	65 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Michael Jacobs Brian Henson
Producer(s)	Michael Jacobs
Running time	23:15
Production company(s)	Michael Jacobs Productions Jim Henson Television Walt Disney Television Disney-ABC Domestic Television
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC[1][2]
Original run	April 26, 1991 (1991-04-26) – July 20, 1994 (1994-07-20)

Dinosaurs is an American family 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 Television in association with Walt Disney Television and Buena Vista Television.^[3][4]

Dinosaurs initially utilized a laugh track: it was eventually dropped as the show grew in popularity. In addition, the show utilized voice actors for the characters, which are performed by different actors and puppeteers.

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.'"^[5]

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 The Natural History Project; 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."^[6]

The television division of the Walt Disney Company began working on the series in 1990 for CBS before the series landed on ABC.^[7]

Overview

Dinosaurs is initially set in 60,000,003 BC. The show centers on the Sinclair family: Earl Sinclair, the father; Fran Sinclair, the mother; Robbie Sinclair, the son; Charlene Sinclair, the daughter; Baby Sinclair; and Grandmother Sinclair (Ethyl Phillips).

Earl's job is to push over trees for the Wesayso Corporation with his friend and coworker Roy Hess. Earl and Roy's boss is named B.P. Richfield.

Characters

The focus of the show's plot is the Sinclair family: Earl, Fran, Robbie, Charlene and Baby.^[8][9]

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 most famous catchphrase is "Not the mama!", shouted while hitting Earl repeatedly over the head with a frying pan. 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".

In 1992, a full music CD titled "Dinosaurios: Big Songs" was released in Mexico containing 12 song tracks related to the show and the characters. The CD contained the Spanish cover version of "I'm the Baby" titled "Soy el nene". In 1995, this song was also covered in Brazil by Maria Leal, Brazilian Dinosaurs' version voice for Baby. The song was titled "Eu sou o Baby, tem que me amar".

Curiously, the Sinclair family members all appear to belong to wildly different species of dinosaurs. Humans have appeared in several episodes as cavemen, and the dinosaur characters often expressed the belief that humans could never develop intelligence. Earl's favorite show on T.V. features a talking caveman named "Mr. Ugh", a direct parody of Mr. Ed, further expressing the dinosaurs' belief that humans are stupid. 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.

Main characters

Character	Voice	Body	Face/Head	Comments
Earl Sneed Sinclair	Stuart Pankin	Bill Barretta	Dave Goelz (season 1), Mak Wilson (seasons 2-4)	The 43-year-old patriarch of the Sinclair family proudly refers to himself as "The Mighty Megalosaurus". Earl is the series' lead protagonist. He is employed as a tree pusher for the WESAYSO Corporation. He is somewhat thick-headed, and is very suggestible, usually opting to do what gives the largest immediate benefit to himself or his family. He has a decent relationship with his children, often giving somewhat misguided fatherly advice to Robbie and Charlene, and going to great lengths to impress his family and placate Baby.
Frances "Fran" Sinclair née Phillips	Jessica Walter	Tony Sabin Prince	Allan Trautman	The 38-year-old mother and homemaker of the Sinclair family, she does nearly all of the housework in the home, especially in the kitchen. She often feels unappreciated and wishes the family would spend more time talking together. Fran is mentioned on the show and a number of merchandise packaging as being an Allosaurus. Her four fins and wrists make her resemble a Dilophosaurus as well.
Robert "Robbie" Mark Sinclair	Jason Willinger	Leif Tilden	Steve Whitmire	The 15-year-old (He is 14 years old in the first 4 episodes) and the eldest of the Sinclair children, he is a Hypsilophodon, he often questions old dinosaur traditions for which he sees no reason, usually to Earl's dismay.(See episodes "The Howling", "I Never Ate For My Father" and "Endangered Species"). He attends Bob La Brea High School, the "Home of the Rampaging Trilobites". He is very intelligent and often is the voice of wisdom when other dinosaurs show ignorance. Unlike any of the other dinosaurs in the show he wears shoes.
Charlene Sinclair	Sally Struthers	Michelan Sisti	Bruce Lanoil	The 13-year-old middle child is designed as a generic-looking dinosaur (although her neck frill and snout somewhat resembles a Protoceratops). She is seen at school in at least three episodes (episode 38, "Charlene's Flat World", episode 41, "Getting to Know You," and episode 59 "Scent of a Reptile") but she is never seen at school with Robbie. She is fashionable and very materialistic.
Baby Sinclair	Kevin Clash	Kevin Clash (body), Terri Harden and Julianne Buescher (arms)	Kevin Clash (mouth), John Kennedy (eyes)	Baby is the youngest of the Sinclair children (being hatched in the first episode) and is a megalosaurus stated by Earl in the episode "Germ Warfare". He loves Fran, whom he calls "The Mama", but gives Earl (whom he refers to as "Not the Mama") a hard time and will usually hit him (often with a frying pan) and refuse to declare his love for him, even though he does genuinely love his father. An example of his lack of manners towards his father is heavily shown in "License to Parent", where Baby's antics drove Earl and Fran into losing their parenting licenses. One reason why Baby may prefer Fran over Earl is because Fran is a more caring parent, as Earl can be short-tempered and at once fed him only olives for breakfast. In the second-season episode "Switched at Birth", we learn that he probably may not be the Sinclairs' biological child, but the DNA machine's results were erroneous and it is revealed that he was in fact their actual son. His legal name is in fact Baby, given to him by the Chief Elder in the episode "And the Winner Is...", but was temporarily known as "Aaah Aagh I'm Dying You Idiot," as he was being named just as the previous Elder had a fatal heart attack. Baby was voiced and puppeteered by Kevin Clash, best known as Elmo on Sesame Street.

Supporting characters

Character	Voice	Body	Face/Head	Comments
Ethyl Phillips née Hinkleman	Florence Stanley	Brian Henson (seasons 1-2), Rickey Boyd (seasons 3-4)		The 72-year-old Edmontonia, wheelchair-using mother of Fran moved in with the Sinclair's after the episode "Hurling Day". After being persuaded by Robbie and Fran that she does not have to go through with Hurling Day, and tantalized by the prospect of making Earl's life a continual misery, Grandma Ethyl becomes a permanent member of the Sinclair household, becoming a regular guest star. She regularly takes swipes at Earl with her cane and often calls him "Fat Boy". "Hurling Day" was Ethyl's first (chronologically) episode, but her first-taped appearance was "Employee of the Month," in which she comes to visit the Sinclair home. In one of the episodes we learn that she also has a son, Stan, Fran's elder brother.
Roy Hess	Sam McMurray	Pons Maar	David Greenaway	Roy is Earl's closest friend at work and outside of work. Roy refers to Earl as his "pally boy", and is a dull-witted Tyrannosaurus Rex. He also has a brother named Roy.[10] He is also shown to have a fetish for long necks, and is blown away when he gets his first look at Monica Devertebrae, instantly smitten. He also briefly fell in love with Earl's twin sister Pearl, but broke it off in the end because she looked too much like him. He somewhat resembles Rex from Disney and Pixar's Toy Story.
B.P. (Bradley P.) Richfield[11]	Sherman Hemsley	Steve Whitmire	Steve Whitmire	42-year-old Bradley P. Richfield is Earl's large, intimidating, tyrannical and vehement boss. He is the executive supervisor of the WESAYSO Tree Pusher's Division and is a carnivorous Triceratops.[12] He seems to possess intelligence far surpassing that of most of the males in the series, though he uses it most often for purely selfish and malicious reasons. His behavior is akin to that of a sociopath, and has no regard for the long-term consequences of his actions. He is however very protective of his daughter, going so far as to track her with a global positioning system, and eating the boys she dates without her knowledge. He enjoys terrorizing his employees, especially Earl. In almost every episode that shows the WESAYSO real estate development site, he calls in Earl Sinclair to come in to his trailer.
Monica Devertebrae	Suzie Plakson	n/a	Julianne Buescher	A semi-regular character who debuted as a neighbor in the episode "Unmarried with Children". She is identified by Charlene as "Brontosaurus lady". She fills the role of a strong, independent female in a "male's world," with a career and active social life, and this is very intimidating and unnerving to many males. She is also the only known friend of "housewife" Fran.
Spike	Christopher Meloni	David Greenaway		Robbie's friend who debuted in "How to Pick Up Girls" as Robbie's rival. He is a semi-regular character who resembles a Polacanthus with a black leather jacket. He usually refers to Robbie as "Scooter". He has an accent and uses slang reminiscent of Andrew "Dice" Clay, and is often depicted as the "bad influence" character of the series. He displays delinquent qualities, like getting arrested for trespassing and showing knowledge of how to hot-wire a car, and generally having "a problem with authority." Despite this however, he never acts out of malice, and is genuinely concerned for Robbie's well being and despite his rebellious nature is actually a positive influence to the show. For instance, he gets Robbie to quit using Thornoids (a parody of Steroids), and attempts to get Robbie a date with his crush. He also tried to convince Robbie not to date Mr. Richfield's daughter, who he mistakenly believed to be eating her boyfriends. He often makes wisecracks about Robbie's father but shows respect to his mother to a degree.

Topical issues

Main article: List of Dinosaurs episodes

Topical issues featured in Dinosaurs include environmentalism, endangered species, 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).^[13]

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 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, vegetarianism, 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.^{[citation needed]} 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. The dinosaurs realize they have been lied to, and the two are allowed to go free. The episode ends with Robbie asking where stars come from and Earl replies he had never thought about it but that he would now. Another religious-themed episode was "The Last Temptation of Ethyl," in which Ethyl willingly allows a televangelist to exploit her near-death experience to extort money from followers; she backs out after having a second such experience, where instead of heaven, she experiences a "place not so nice:" an existence surrounded by nothing but multiple Earl Sinclairs.

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 depicts the irresponsible actions of the dinosaurs toward their environment, and the ensuing Ice Age which leads to their demise. The episode "Changing Nature" begins with the failure of a swarm of beetles to show up and devour a form of creeper vine. Charlene discovers that Wesayso has constructed a wax fruit factory on the swampland that serves as the beetles' breeding grounds, causing the extinction of the species (saved for one male named Stan). 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 planet with defoliant, which causes the destruction of the vines, but also kills off all plant life on the planet.

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 cause 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. Later, Earl apologizes to his family for his actions. The episode ends with Howard Handupme as he finishes his broadcast, grimly saying "Goodbye" to the audience.

The episode was a marked change from the series' normal humor. "Changing Nature" merited a special parental warning in TV Guide's listings during the week that it aired, cautioning that its subject matter might frighten or disturb younger viewers.

The shows within the show

The Sinclair family watches TV.

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. "The Last Temptation of Ethyl" is a double spoof of Unsolved Mysteries and TV evangelists.

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). DNN's news commentator, Edward R. Hero, is an obvious reference to legendary CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow. 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, potassium nitrate, and charcoal (black powder); 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.

International screening

In the United Kingdom, the show was screened on ITV in 1992 and in reruns from 1995 to 2002 on Disney Channel.

In Canada the show started airing reruns in 1992 and aired them until the late 1990s.

In Mexico, Dinosaurs aired on Televisa's Canal 5 from 1993 until 1994. The series has been broadcasted again in the late 1990s.

In Germany, a dubbed version titled Die Dinos (lit. The Dinos) ran on ARD from 1993 to 1995, with later reruns on some of the network's regional stations and between 2001 and 2005 on Super RTL.^[14] Last rerun was on Disney XD Germany.

In the Netherlands, Dinosaurs ran with subtitles on the commercial TV network RTL, in 1992.

In Belgium (northern half, Flanders), Dinosaurs ran with subtitles on Ketnet, a children's channel that plays on Canvas during the morning and late afternoon.

In Malaysia, the series aired in English with Malay subtitles on TV3 on weekday afternoons in the early 90s through the mid-90s.

In France and Belgium (Wallonia), the series was aired under the name "Dinosaures" dubbed in French on the RTL network in the 90's.

In New Zealand the series began screening on TV3 at the start of 1992 originally in prime time. Re-runs of the show screened in 1993-94 during weekday afternoons. The final series screened on Saturday mornings in 1995-96.

In Brazil, the series was dubbed in Portuguese and called Família dinossauro (Dinosaur family). The name Sinclair was changed to "da Silva Sauro" (Silva being a common surname in Brazil) and Ethyl and Earl's names were changed to Zilda and Dino respectively, as those names would be difficult to properly pronounce in portuguese. Earl Sinclair became Dino da Silva Sauro, and commonly referred in the show as "Dino Sauro", a pun on the portuguese word for dinosaur (dinossauro).

In Japan, the series began airing on NHK on April 8, 1995 as Kyōryū kazoku (恐竜家族^?, lit. "Dinosaur Family"). Its final episode aired on July 6, 1996.

In Ireland, in the mid-90s, it was shown on a Sunday evening on RTÉ Two (known as network 2 back then).

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, also a four-disc DVD set, were released May 1, 2007 with special features, including the episodes not aired on US TV. Both sets are currently available only in Region 1.

Popular culture

Earl Sinclair appeared occasionally in the video game Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero as a dinosaur with a plaid shirt and a metal lunchbox that would walk by at times in a specific screen.

• The Simpsons episode "Black Widower" references the similarity of family structure between the two shows.

Lisa: These talking dinosaurs are more real than most real families on TV.

Homer: Look Maggie, they have a baby too.

Bart: It's like they saw our lives and put it right up on screen.^[15]

Dinosaurs also references the similarity to The Simpsons in the episode Dirty Dancing. After viewing a TV schedule filled with shows centered on incompetent fathers:

Earl: This is why TV stinks. One show's a hit - they make fifty more like it with the same characters and the same premise.

Baby: Don't have a cow man!

References

1. ^ "Brian Henson's Goal - Bringing 'Dinosaurs' To Tv'". Orlando Sentinel. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1991-04-20/news/9104200616_1_jim-henson-henson-productions-muppets. Retrieved 2010-10-18. 
2. ^ "Television: The ratings success of CBS' Ed Sullivan, Mary Tyler Moore and 'All in the Family' retrospectives may doom innovative entries in the 'Twin Peaks' mode.". The Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1991-02-23/entertainment/ca-1385_1_twin-peaks/2. Retrieved 2010-10-18. 
3. ^ "`Dinosaurs' Takes Puppetry Into The Electronic Age". Chicago Tribune. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1994-02-03/features/9402030146_1_brian-henson-dinosaurs-david-barrington-holt. Retrieved 2010-10-18. 
4. ^ "Primal Secrets From the World of 'Dinosaurs'". The Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1991-11-17/entertainment/ca-492_1_prime-time-comedy. Retrieved 2010-10-18. 
5. ^ Kahn, Eve M. "All in the Modern Stone Age Family", The New York Times (Apr. 14, 1991). Accessed Feb. 20, 2009.
6. ^ Owen, David. "Looking Out for Kermit", The New Yorker (Aug. 16, 1993.)
7. ^ Grover, Ron. The Disney Touch. Homewood, IL: Business One Irwin, 1991. pp. 167-168.
8. ^ "Dinosaurs Still Rule The Land Of The Vcr". Chicago Tribune. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-01-10/entertainment/9201030696_1_grandma-ethyl-earl-sinclair-dinosaurs. Retrieved 2010-10-18. 
9. ^ "Toss These 'Dinosaurs' Into Tar Pit". Orlando Sentinel. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1991-04-26/lifestyle/9104250220_1_family-of-dinosaurs-dinosaurs-were-wiped-michael-jacobs. Retrieved 2010-10-18. 
10. ^ Dinosaurs episode "Fran Live"
11. ^ http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/B.P._Richfield
12. ^ "The Clip Show", episode 21
13. ^ "Television: ABC series sinks its teeth into witty social commentary a la 'The Simpsons' and finds its metier.". The Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1992-02-19/entertainment/ca-2281_1_social-commentary. Retrieved 2010-10-18. 
14. ^ "Die Dinos". Fernsehlexikon.de. 18 August 2009. http://www.fernsehlexikon.de/6895/die-dinos/. Retrieved 2009-10-05. 
15. ^ Silverman, David (2003). The Simpsons season 3 DVD commentary for the episode "Black Widower" (DVD). 20th Century Fox. 

External links

• Muppet Wiki: Dinosaurs
• Disney's Dinosaurs official DVD site
• Dinosaurs at the Internet Movie Database
• Dinosaurs at TV.com