Dinosaurs

Our dinosaur family are as follows Earl, a megalosaurus. Earls name I'd always heard as Earl Sneath Sinclair (not Sneed as the trivia says). Fran (who we didn't know if she had a middle name), Robbie (Robert Mark Sinclair), Charlene (no, no middle name there either) and Baby Sinclair (who was originally named Argh, argh, I'm Dying you idiot Sinclair). Family friends Roy Hess a t-Rex, Monica Devertaborough (some sort of diplodocus or bronotsaurus). Other people included Ethel Phillips (Fran's mum) and B.P. Richfield (earl's boss, a triceratops who seems to be a carnivore). Howard Handupme (a TV presenter of news), Spike (school bully & friend to Robbie), Mister Lizard ( a science presenter) and Timmy (who Mister Lizard kills in every episode, WE LOVE IT!)

The family are like a Dinosaur version of The Simpsons only funnier and more entertaining with actual messages in their shows.

Jim Henson only created 65 episodes which was enough to put the show into syndication in the US.

The show was and is still well loved if you go by the amount of interest all Henson Dinosaurs ebay sales create. I own all the videos that were released in the Uk. I was annoyed to see there were holiday specials that never made it to VHS and will have to wait until there is ever an official DVD release.

This was an excellent show and provided me with many afternoons of entertainment and still does. I can still watch the video's and enjoy them on many levels especially "Ask Mister Lizard" which I love and think should have got it's own show.

RELEASE THE WHOLE THING ON DVD, PLEASE?

This show is hilarious! Whether it's Baby hitting Earl with a frying pan while saying, "Not the mama!" or Robbie accidentally becoming leader of a gang, or Charlene and Fran having another discussion about money... ...this is a show that was guaranteed to make me laugh out loud. People say it's a ripoff of the Simpsons. Well, in my view it's BETTER than the Simpsons.

And then the stupid TV execs decide to give it the axe. Grrrr! But it had one of the best and most heart-tugging final episodes of any TV series.

In fact, the time is right for a new series, in my view...

This show ran the gamut from really bad to really amazing. I for one never was a fan of the obnoxious baby (no, I don't gotta love you), but the rest of the characters were very well-done. Several episodes were hilariously spot-on.

Fran & Earl getting their marriage license renewed ("Earl, let's go upstairs and pretend it's Thursday" is a line I *still* quote to this day).

Robbie "coming out"...as a vegetarian. ("I can't be an herbivore! My dad's a carnivore, my mom's a carnivore..." "Well, it's not necessarily hereditary.").

Robbie's howling (featuring Robbie buying the "So You Want to Learn to Howl" 8-track).

The two-episode "Nuts to War" ("What happened to your eye?" "A pointed stick with my name on it." "Gee, what are the odds?").

And although the finale was extremely heavy-handed and depressing, I give them credit for doing a completely unexpected and serious one instead of the traditional "and they all lived happily ever after".

Best self-referential joke: Real watching sock puppets on TV. "Hey, Fran, you gotta see this. Sure, they're puppets, but they're really funny." To which Fran says, "Forget it - I'm not watching puppets." Probably the reason the show didn't make it.

I'm still wondering why they ever decided to cancel this great show. It had great production value (those dinosaurs look really great, and this is pre-CGI) and it's one of the funniest shows I've ever seen. I still enjoy watching the reruns on German TV.

Just like my favorite romance movie, the Princess Bride, or even Rocky and Bullwinkle for that matter, here's a show that's clearly written for two completely different audiences- the kids that love them, and the parents that watch with them. If you want the most cutting example of this, watch the Dinosaurs episode in which a Barney-like animal (a Hippo, if I remember right?)hosts a daytime TV kiddie show, but he's really a manipulative bad guy when the TV cameras are off. Throw in the French Resistance, complete with horrible Clouseau-like frrrrench accents, and, well, you get the idea. Absurdist humor at it's best. I guarantee you'll laugh at this one.

One other noteworthy episode is the last one- it appears that they knew that the show was cancelled, so they put together a parting shot; very different in tone from the rest of the series. Thank goodness this series FINALLY came out on DVD. Now I can throw all those videotapes away.

Watch this with your kids, if you have any. In the words of Baby dinosaur, "AGAIN!!!!!"