Written by TheChoujinVirus
Note: this review may contain spoilers to the series, so do not read if you don’t want to be spoiled
The 90s were an impressive time of sitcoms that folks liked watching, from 3rd Rock to Seinfeld to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. However, things changed when The Simpsons came around and changed sitcoms as we know it. Though a new show was brainstormed as far back as 1988 by the late Jim Henson. It wasn’t until the 1990s when Micheal Jacobs and Brian Henson with the Walt Disney Company. This show aired on April 26th, 1991, through October 19th, 1994, and has been a part of ya boy’s nostalgia when he was a kid. That show was called Dinosaurs.
Summary of the show
Dinosaurs take place in a fictional depiction of the supercontinent Pangea, portrayed as a 90s America but with dinosaurs instead of people. The focus of the show is on the Sinclair Family, a family of dinosaurs living in Pangea. You have Earl, the dimwitted but lovable dad, Fran the housewife and mother, Robbie the intellectual rebel, Charline the materialistic middle child, Ethyl the mother-in-law, and of course the baby called Baby. You also have several side characters like Earl’s friend Roy Hess, Monica Devertibrae, and Earl’s boss B.P. Richfield. Throughout each episode, it themes around one or more of the Sinclair family, most of the time focusing around Earl, in this bizarre world of Pangea. Sometimes focusing on a significant problem that got them into a mess either leaves them learning a lesson or introducing a new concept to dinosaur society, such as refunds or freedom of speech.
Dino-Mite!: What makes it great!
There are plenty of good examples that make the show good; one prominent example that I like is the practical effects of the suit puppets. You can thank the Jim Henson Creature Workshop‘s work for the impressive detail (they used the same technology once seen in the TMNT movies). You also have voice talents like Stuart Pankin (Who’s the Boss?, Arachnophobia), Jessica Walter (Archer), Sally Struthers (Tailspin), and Kevin Clash (Sesame Street). Each of them lends their talent to the series. Even the guest voices are impressive such as Micheal Dorn (Star Trek: TNG), Dan Castanella (The Simpsons), and even Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) as well as Tim Curry. It shows that the people they brought on to voice the various talking dinosaurs weren’t just a list of nobodies. The second thing that makes the series great is that each episode focuses on topical issues of the 90s. Sure, many sitcoms concentrate on this, it would focus around a story, and that’s it. Each episode in Dinosaurs had a theme that focused on topical issues. Examples like Drug Abuse (A New Leaf, Steroids to Heaven), Sexual Harassment (What “Sexual” Harris Meant), Freedom of Speech and Censorship (Baby Talk, Charlene’s Flat World), and even down to things like racism (Nuts to War, Green Card) where you have a bit of issue between “two-legged dinosaurs” and “four-legged dinosaurs.” The episodes also have a bit of a moral lesson at the end of the story, so you at least get a good part afterward (even the characters learn that lesson as well.) Finally, the series has many catchy sayings, like Baby’s “Not the Mama” quip (even the song that the baby sings in Little Boy Boo). The show also has moments where they take jabs at television (especially ABC at the time) or shows and tropes found in other shows. You can say that it was meta for an early 90s show.
Not the mama! What the show lacks
Though the show was impressive and had plenty of good things, there are some problems the show has. One such is that though that some of the suits and puppets are reused as other characters. It’s not uncommon to see one puppet being the school science teacher in one scene than in a different episode. It reminds you that though impressive, it does have to cut corners around some of it. Another is that though the episodes do become good, some of the first season’s earlier episodes didn’t have much of any significant story to set up the characters. Some episodes like Little Boy Boo is just a Halloween episode. The obvious The Clip Show and The Clip Show II are clips from previous episodes just repeated (another trope, but that’ll be another story). Lastly, the finale of the show was BLEAK! The final episode Changing Nature, in which the whole episode involves environmentalism, climate change and leads up to the climax with the extinction of all life on the earth. Not in a “ha-ha” comedic death thing but more of a grim version of them, inevitably knowing they’ll all die. It can be a bit of a major downer for such a comedic series. Lastly, suppose you’re expecting a 90s show about it being scientifically accurate. In that case, you’re going to be disappointed. However, some inaccuracies are used in the messages, such as Cavemen being a stand-in for indigenous people and animal rights in some episodes(The Discovery, Charlene and her Amazing Humans) so that’s not a total loss.
Finale
Though the series does show its age, Dinosaurs is a series that I’m sure the late Jim Henson himself would be proud of if he was still around. If you want to watch the series, it’s currently on Disney+ for the time being, so it would be best to take a look. Oh, and before I leave, here’s some behind-the-scenes describing more about the show and some funny stuff here.
References
Youtube clips recorded by the following youtubers
Information about the show and episodes provided by The Disney Wiki
Absolution's Archive 