Dinosaurs (TV series)

Did You Know?

• The show is initially set in 60,000,000 BC in Pangaea.
• In the United Kingdom, the show was screened on ITV in 1992 and in reruns from 1995 to 2002 on Disney Channel.

Origins and development

Jim Henson conceived the show in 1988, wanting it to be a sitcom about a family of dinosaurs. Until the success of The Simpsons, according to Alex Rockwell, a vice president of the Henson organization, people thought it was a crazy idea. In the late 1980s, Henson worked with fantasy artist William Stout on a feature film with animatronic dinosaurs under the working title The Natural History Project; a 1993 article in The New Yorker said Henson continued working on a dinosaur project 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 it landed on ABC, which Disney eventually acquired. Upon premiere the show was a hit, and Michael Jacobs stated this was why the network did not interfere much in production. Ratings suffered from the show being moved to different time slots. The animatronics made the show relatively expensive, with cast member Stuart Pankin recalling it was the most expensive half-hour TV show at that point, contributing to the cancellation.

Characters

The focus of the show's plot is the Sinclair family: Earl, Fran, Robbie, Charlene, Baby, and Ethyl. The family name references the Sinclair Oil Corporation, which had prominently featured a dinosaur as its logo and mascot for decades. Other character and family names throughout the series often referred to rival petroleum companies: Phillips, Hess, B.P., Richfield, and Ethyl, among others. Earl Sneed Sinclair is a Megalosaurus and the patriarch, depicted as thick-headed and suggestible, working as a tree pusher at the Wesayso Development Corporation. Fran Phillips-Sinclair is an Allosaurus who is the mother and homemaker; Earl affectionately calls her Frannie. Robbie Sinclair is a Hypsilophodon, the oldest child, who stands out with his red varsity jacket and bright red sneakers. Charlene Sinclair is a Protoceratops, the only daughter and middle child, who stands out by wearing sweaters, necklaces, and earrings. Baby Sinclair is a Megalosaurus, the youngest child, who is sarcastic and wisecracking; his favorite thing is to hit Earl on the head with a frying pan. Jacobs stated that Baby's popularity contributed to the network allowing the creators to run the show as they saw fit.

Topical issues

Despite its family-friendly label, Dinosaurs tackled a surprising number of serious subjects. These included environmentalism, endangered species, women's rights, sexual harassment, LGBT rights, the objectification of women, censorship, civil rights, body image, steroid use, drug abuse, racism (depicted as a conflict between two-legged and four-legged dinosaurs), peer pressure, indigenous peoples' rights (shown through dinosaur-caveman interactions), corporate crime, government overreach in parenting, and pacifism. In the episode "I Never Ate for My Father," Robbie's choice to eat vegetables served as a metaphor for homosexuality, communism, drug abuse, and counterculture. The two-part "Nuts to War" satirized the Gulf War, with dinosaurs fighting over pistachios instead of oil. The final season's "The Greatest Story Ever Sold" saw the Sinclair family abandon science for a new faith called Potato-ism. Another religious episode, "The Last Temptation of Ethyl," had Ethyl nearly exploited by a televangelist. The show also frequently mocked television itself, with jokes accusing it of making the population lazy and less intelligent.

Home media

The first three volumes were released on VHS on December 6, 1991. On May 2, 2006, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released Dinosaurs: The Complete First and Second Seasons as a four-disc DVD box set with 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 on May 1, 2007, with special features including episodes not aired on U.S. television. Both sets are currently available only in Region 1. On September 29, 2017, Hulu acquired the streaming rights. Dinosaurs was made available for streaming on Disney+ on January 29, 2021, for the United States, with the exception of the episode A New Leaf.