The SmarK DVD Rant for Dinosaurs – The Complete First and Second Seasons
As I’ve noted before, nostalgia can be a dangerous thing, as shows that you previously thought were hilariously edgy and off-beat were actually just a bit ahead of their time. Whether that makes them an annoyance or a trailblazer these days is up to the viewer, I guess. Either way, I was somewhat saddened that while Dinosaurs may have been as funny at times as I remembered it, it was also a show that succumbed often to the sitcom formulas that would become so tired in the years following its demise.
The Film
Devised by Jim Henson in the 80s as a kind of ecological lesson for us fossil-fuel consuming humans, the original show was going to be a group of puppet dinosaurs living in a hedonistic manner to show what would happen if we continued along the same lines. With Henson’s death in 1990, things went more high-tech, using animatronic dinosaurs developed out of the Ninja Turtle movies of the 80s, and the tone of the show was softened into a more “normal” sitcom setting. Under the new production of Jim’s son Brian, the show became a look at modern society through the eyes of prehistoric society, kind of like the Flintstones but with the main players reversed.
The setup was pretty standard for a sitcom — Earl Sinclair is a working slob with a demanding boss, married with two sassy kids and horrified to learn that a third one is now on the way. However, the twist is that everyone is a dinosaur, and humans are the quaint playthings for their amusement. This setup produces some surprisingly effective and hilarious gags in the first season, but it’s really the second season where the show finds an effective groove by becoming almost self-parody at times. It’s a fine line to walk, however, and it doesn’t always succeed.
The first season (a mere five episodes, as the show was a “summer special” in 1991) focuses more on standard sitcom plots — the mother-in-law moves in, the baby is born, Earl has to fight for his wife — while expanding them to ludicrous heights by having his nemesis for Fran’s affections be a 50-story tall dinosaur and having his boss literally threaten to rip his head off and eat him, for instance. However, once the show moves into the second season, it gained a sort of meta-consciousness about itself, which helped to elevate it above the standard sitcom fare it had been producing, and that was clogging up TV at the time on other networks. In fact, a running gag with TV parodies produced some of the biggest laughs in the show, like “Ask Dr. Lizard” (“We’re going to need another Timmy…”) or the various infomercials that ABC (The Antediluvian Broadcasting Company) subjected the family to on a regular basis. Episodes like “A New Leaf” took the anti-drug message craze of the 90s to a new high, as teenage son Robbie finds a leaf that makes you happy when you eat it, and soon the whole family’s lives are falling apart because of the evil plant. Just when you think that the episode can’t get any more heavy-handed and preachy, things abruptly stop and Robbie gives a hilarious “talking to the camera” lesson about not doing drugs, so that networks will stop producing shows like that one! It’s a great twist on the genre. The other major highlight of the season is “Nuts to War,” which is not only a hilarious take on “epic miniseries” on network TV, but also an eerily prescient look at George W.’s war with the media in recent years. In that one, Robbie gets drafted to “hiss and spit” at the four-legged dinosaurs who are preventing the flow of pistachio nuts (and causing a 50 cent per pound increase in the price…sound familiar? Remember, this was 15 years ago!) but soon things escalate to throwing sticks and stones, and CNN is constantly having to censor their news reports to keep the elder-in-chief’s approval rating high. Brilliant stuff.
However, while the show had many great moments, parodying sitcom conventions also means you have to run through your share of maudlin moments yourself. Stuff like “Charlene’s Tale,” with a look at girls’ troubles with tails growing in later than others and boys liking the bigger tailed girls is stuff that’s been covered endless times in sitcoms preceding and following this one. I suppose for kids watching it’s a positive message to convey, but for those of us watching out of fondness for what we remembered, it’s a tough climb to get through the message shows. Other stuff like “When Food Goes Bad,” which mixes a message about taking responsibility via babysitting with a bizarre storyline about General Chow, the demented leader of the food in the fridge, is just weird.
And then there’s the Baby. Probably the character most closely associated with the show over the years (heck, he’s on the DVD’s cover), he’s also the most irritating character on the show when viewed with some perspective. Although “I’m the baby, gotta love me” and “Not the Mama” might have been funny for the first few episodes with a week between them, when viewed in sequence as part of a set like this one, you just wanna strangle the little bastard. And the mother-in-law character is just unnecessary. That being said, the voiceover work is at least uniformly strong on the show, with veteran Stuart Pankin performing as Earl, Arrested Development’s Jessica Walter as Fran, Sally Struthers as whiny teenager Charlene, and most impressively Sherman Helmsley as Earl’s boss Mr. Richfield. Also of note: A young Christopher Meloni as Robbie’s punk friend Spike and Star Trek babe Suzy Plakson as various females on the show.
Episode listing:
Disc One / Season One:
– The Mighty Megalosaurus
– The Mating Dance
– Hurling Day
– High Noon
– The Howling
Disc Two / Season Two:
– The Golden Child
– Family Challenge
– I Never Ate For My Father
– Charlene’s Tale
– Endangered Species
– Employee of the Month
– When Food Goes Bad
– Career Opportunities
Disc Three:
– Unmarried…With Children
– How To Pick Up Girls
– Switched At Birth
– Refrigerator Day
– What “Sexual Harris” Meant
– Fran Live
– Power Erupts
– The Clip Show
Disc Four:
– A New Leaf
– The Last Temptation of Ethyl
– Nuts to War (part 1)
– Nuts to War (part 2)
– And the Winner Is…
– Slave to Fashion
– Leader of the Pack
– WESAYSO Knows Best
The Video
Pretty standard fare from the 90s, presented in full-screen format. The first season is a bit darker and murkier, but as things move to the second season it brightens up a lot. Either way, it makes me glad we live in the digital era where everything is pre-formatted for DVD release. This could have used some restoration, but it looks fine otherwise.
The Audio
Standard Dolby stereo. Dialogue is clear, if a bit quiet, and other than that it’s a standard TV mix.
The Extras
Not much here, sadly. You get a 13 minute featurette called “Pre-Hysterical Times: The Making of Dinosaurs” that gives a quick history of the show and shows how the big suits worked, as well as a quick feature on the original sketches for the characters and explanation of why they changed. There’s also dinosaur eggs scattered throughout the discs, generally five-second clips of the writers or performers giving trivia about the show. Some interesting, some not.
The Ratings
The Film: ***1/2
The Video: **1/2
The Audio: **
The Extras: **
