Dinosaurs (TV series)
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Dinosaurs was an American television sitcom on ABC, produced by Michael Jacobs Productions and Jim Henson Productions in association with Walt Disney Television and Sunbow Productions about a family of talking dinosaurs that ran for 65 episodes from April 1991 to July 1994. The show has also aired in the UK on Disney Channel, and was screened on ITV during the 1990s. The world of Dinosaurs is a parody of our own society.
Overview
The show is set, initially, in 60,000,003 BC with the years, months and days counting to zero. In one episode, Robbie asks his father whether he ever questions what they are counting down to. The show centers around the Sinclair family (a reference to Sinclair Oil Corporation which uses a dinosaur as its logo): the father (Earl), the mother (Fran), the son (Robbie), the daughter (Charlene), the baby (Baby), and the grandmother (Ethyl Phillips). (Curiously, they all appear to belong to wildly different species: Earl and Robbie look like carnivorous dinosaurs, while Fran and Charlene resemble herbivores.) Earl's job is to push over trees for the WeSaySo Corporation with his friend and coworker Roy Hess (who would sometimes wear a hat much like The Honeymooners Ed Norton, whom he resembled). Another reference to petroleum companies is Earl's boss, named B.P. Richfield.One of the most popular characters on the show is the mischievous Baby (occasionally referred to as Junior). Baby is voiced by Kevin Clash, best known as the voice of Elmo on Sesame Street. His favorite pastime is to hit Earl repeatedly over the head with a frying pan while shouting, "Not the mama!" Frequently, when Baby is hurt, 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".
Management and cast
Management
- Creators Michael Jacobs and Bob Young
- Executive Producer Michael Jacobs
- Producer Michael Jacobs
- Director of Photography, second unit Robert Schoenhut
- Performance Coordinator Pons Maar
- Camera Operator Robert Schoenhut
- Staff Writers included Mark Drop
Cast
Most of the dinosaurs are played by three people credited in the order of the actor inside the costume, the operator of the facial animatronics, and the voice supplier. Those in charge of operating the faces of the characters used remote controls to adjust the characters' eyes, eyelids, eyebrows, mouths, and the spikes on top of Robbie's head. The dinosaur costumes, including the articulated heads, were created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop.
| Role | Body | Face/Head | Voice | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Earl Sneed Sinclair | Bill Barretta | Stuart Pankin | The 43-year-old patriarch of the Sinclair family proudly refers to himself as "The Mighty Megalosaurus". He is employed as a tree pusher for the WeSaySo Corporation. | |
| Fran Sinclair | Alan Trautman | Jessica Walter | Mother and homemaker of the Sinclair family, 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. Her age is 38. | |
| Robbie Sinclair | Leif Tilden | Steve Whitmire | Jason Willinger | The eldest of the Sinclair children, Robbie was designed as a non-specific dinosaur. He often questions old dinosaur traditions that he sees no reason for. He attends Bob La Brea High School, "Home of the Rampaging Trilobites" and is 15 years old. |
| Charlene Sinclair | Michelan Sisti | Sally Struthers | Charlene is the middle child and is also designed as a generic-looking dinosaur. She is never seen at school, but she supposedly attends the same school as Robbie. She is 12 years old, very materialistic, and fashionable. She also attends Bob La Brea High School. | |
| Baby Sinclair | Kevin Clash | Baby is the youngest of the Sinclair children and is of a non-specific species. 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 and refuse to declare his love for him. His legal name is in fact Baby, given to him by the Chief Elder in the episode "And the Winner Is...". | ||
| Ethyl Phillips | Brian Henson | Florence Stanley | Ethyl is Fran's mother who moved in with the Sinclair's after the episode "Hurling Day" to make Earl's life miserable. She is a regular guest star and a non-specific dinosaur in an electric wheelchair. | |
| Roy Hess | Sam McMurray | 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. | ||
| B.P. Richfield | Steve Whitmire | Sherman Hemsley | Mr. Richfield is Earl's intimidating and vehement boss. He is the executive supervisor of the WeSaySo Tree Pusher's Division and is a carnivorous Ceratopsia. | |
| Monica Devertebrae | Suzie Plakson | A semi-regular character who debuted in the episode "Unmarried with Children". She is identified by Charlene as a "brontosaurus lady". | ||
| Spike | Christopher Meloni | Robbie's friend who debuted in "How to Pick Up Girls". He is a semi-regular character who resembles a Polacanthus with a black leather jacket. He usually refers to Robbie as "Scooter". |
Other regular cast members are listed in the credits. They play other side characters like:
- "Aubrey Molehill", briefly thought to be the real son of the Sinclairs, is identical in appearance to Baby except that he is green in color. It was thought that he was switched before hatching from his egg, but at the end of the episode the scientist discovered that the test results had been switched.
- Gary, a gigantic dinosaur that competes for Fran's affections, and whose eye and legs are the only body parts revealed to the viewer, is identified by Fran as a "50-foot-tall Dilophosaurus," which in actuality only grow to be 5 feet tall (at the hip), and 20 feet long. However, upon close inspection the suit used for Gary when he looks into a hole in the ceiling is the same one used for Roy; it is more likely that he is a giant Tyrannosaurus.
- There are many reused side characters in a full body suit with an articulated faces/head include an orange/brown Ceratosaurus, a generic green Theropod, a purple Stenonychosaurus, a tan, turtle-faced dinosaur, and two indistinct females.
- Hand Controlled puppets include Howard Handupme, a type of Pachycephalosaur; a blue Protoceratops, a green Ceratopsian, a green, wrinkled theropod with an underbite, a red theropod with a prominent chin, a brown-striped Ornithomimid.
- Mammals (food to dinosaurs), pterodactyls, and cavemen are also featured.
Adult themes
Dinosaurs has several episodes with adult themes or references. At the end of the episode "A New Leaf", Robbie makes a short public service announcement asking people to stop doing drugs to help put an end to sitcoms with preachy anti-drug messages. In his message, he describes the show as "adult-themed". Writers used Robbie because he is a younger character, and the younger viewers would presumably listen to him rather than Earl. In "How to Pick Up Girls", Earl asks Fran to watch a puppet show on TV. Fran dismisses it with, "Earl, that's for kids," to which Earl replies, "Because they're puppets, it seems to have a children's aesthetic," and he turns toward the camera, "yet the dialogue is unquestionably sharp-edged, witty, and unquestionably skewed to adults."Indeed, despite the cartoonish violence that often occur in the series, many jokes are aimed under the radar at adults. Sometimes these jokes are in the form of references to events or people children would likely not know of. For example, at the end of "When Food Goes Bad", the defeated General Chow (a refrigerator creature and source of food to the dinosaurs) states that "Old food never dies, it just goes bad", a reference to General Douglas MacArthur's famous speech in which he stated that "Old soldiers never die. They just fade away."
Other themes featured in Dinosaurs include environmentalism, women's rights, sexual harassment, censorship, civil rights, drug abuse, racism, peer pressure, rights of indigenous peoples, and corporate crime. Several of the episodes have liberal themes or morals. 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 world of Dinosaurs is a parody of our own society. The dinosaurs are "intelligent" enough to talk, trade, build things, have traditions, go to war, and so forth. It is an advanced, yet thoroughly ridiculous and absurd civilization. For example, in the two part episode about the two legs fighting the four legs, the (politically) hawkish dinosaurs create a catchphrase for their political party: "We Are Right" (W.A.R.) An episode where Earl switches bodies with a tree raises the issue of conservation, more dramatically explored in the 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 check the spread of a form of creeper vine. The reason is later shown to be the destruction of the beetle's breeding ground to create a wax fruit factory. The WeSaySo Corporation takes charge of the attempt to destroy the vine, which it does by spraying the planet with defoliant. The operation destroys the vine, but kills off all 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, and viewers are left in no doubt as to the fate of the dinosaurs. The episode contains a clear message of environmental responsibility, and, while not overt in its portrayal of the extinction of the dinosaurs, the episode was still a marked change from its normal humor and merited a parental warning in the TV listings.
The shows within the show
While Dinosaurs was, of course, 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 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, 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.
- 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.
- 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 expresion "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 of Puppies: A show in which people were surprised by receiving a cardboard box full of puppies.
- Ask Mister Lizard: A children's science show spoof that always ends with Timmy (the child assistant) being blown up, with the catch phrase: "We're gonna need another Timmy!".
- The Happy Colors Show: One of Earl's "dumb" shows, it appears to be little more than a display of flashing lights. 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 Full House.
- 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.
Trivia
- Gunge, a small rodent-like creature from Fraggle Rock, appeared in a dinosaur's stomach in one episode.
- A running gag involved the calendars. They ran backward--the month of October ended with the 1st--in line with the idea that the years were counting down "B.C." In one episode, Robbie asks his father whether he ever questions what they are counting down to.
- Roy Hess has a brother who is also named Roy.
- In one episode, Earl runs around screaming, "Oh God! Oh God!" In another episode, Charlene prays, "Oh, Lord! Oh, Lord!" Yet in another episode, it is said that the dinosaurs do not worship any supreme being.
- In the first-season episode "Hurling Day", Earl is excited to throw Ethyl into the tar pits on her 72nd birthday, an old dinosaur tradition. Ethyl mentions that the tradition was started by an old dinosaur named Bob La Brea, who is the namesake for the school Robbie and Charlene attend: Bob La Brea High School. The real La Brea Tar Pits are located in Los Angeles, California, but no dinosaurs have actually been found there.
- The plaid on Earl's shirt was the Sinclair tartan, in line with the family's surname.
- Humans appeared in several episodes as cavemen, and the dinosaur characters often expressed the belief that humans could never develop intelligence. In three episodes, humans figure prominently in the plot: "Employee of the Month", in which the Sinclairs acquire a human woman as a pet; "The Discovery", in which dinosaurs buy newly discovered land from the indigenous humans at an unfair price; and "Charlene and Her Amazing Humans", in which Charlene trains three human children to do tricks. A recurring joke is that the dinosaurs do not know how to tell male and female humans apart and usually switch them in conversation.
- In the episode "Earl's Big Jackpot", the court's Great Seal has the phrase "Ultio Mea Est", which is Latin for "Revenge is mine". The judge, who solved all the issues of the episode with one verdict, was named D.X. Machina, for deus ex machina.
- After Baby becomes a television celebrity in one episode, Fran becomes deeply worried about her son's future. She imagines him thirty years later, expressing his resentment toward his mother on a daytime television show that exposes the lives of former child stars. In the flashback, Baby (voiced by Seinfeld star Jason Alexander) is still in diapers, but considerably larger and far less cheerful.
- In the 1992 The Simpsons episode "Black Widower", the Simpson family watches a show very similar to Dinosaurs. A father dinosaur asks his son to turn down some music, to which the son replies, "Don't have a stegosaurus, man!" Then a baby dinosaur hits the father on the head, causing the father to shout "D'oh!" Lisa states that the dinosaurs on the show behave more realistically than real families on TV, and Bart makes a veiled accusation that the family characters on the show were copied from the Simpson family. Bart even exclaims, "It's like they saw our lives and put it right up on screen!" [link]
- In one episode Earl points this out by saying they've made one big successful show now others are making cheap rip-offs of it, to which Baby replies, "Don't have a cow, man," a regular catch phrase used by Bart Simpson.
See also
External links
- [] at TV.com
- ["I'm the Baby, Gotta Love Me" Music Video]
- [Muppet Wiki: Dinosaurs]
- [Disney's Dinosaurs official DVD site]
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