Dinosaurs was a show created by Jim Henson (or at least his production company, since he died when the show was still in pre-production) that aired on ABC in the early '90s. Basically it's The FlintstonesmeetsThe Simpsons, and yeah, they're dinosaurs! It followed the adventures of the Sinclair family: Earl, the not-too-bright blue collar dad; his wife, long-suffering Fran; and their three kids, typical teenager Robbie; naive middle daughter Charlene; and catch-phrase spouting Baby. Many of the episodes parodied modern society and issues, like the environment and family problems.
This show features examples of:
Adam and Eve Plot - A cute but delicious species of furry animal has been reduced to a single breeding pair.
All Animals Are Dogs - In at least two episodes, the family has one or more cavemen as their pets. Guess how they act.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Georgie the hippo in "Georgie Must Die", who acted like a friendly and playful Man Child that loves making children happy, but was really a Manipulative Bastard who only uses the smiles of children for his own profits to make money and avoid taxes.
Breaking the Fourth Wall - In the "How to Pick Up Girls" episode, Earl and Baby are watching a puppet show on TV. Fran wonders why they're watching a "kids show." Earl defends his choice of entertainment by citing the concept of Parental Bonus, doing an Aside Glance at the camera while doing so.
There are many examples. One episode features Earl making the same argument with Fran, ending with Fran scoffing and saying "It'll last a season. Another episode features Ethyl complaining about a sexual harassment trial by stating "Don't they know children are watching?" Still another episode cites its constant comparison to the Simpsons by having the baby exclaim "Don't have a cow, Man!"
Break the Cutie: Robbie in "Career Opportunities." While getting a feel as a tree pusher, he incurs the wrath of Richfield, and is shown the entire time to be paralyzed in fear. Unlike most instances of the trope, it's Played for Laughs.
Cane Fu: Ethyl's preferred method of dealing with Earl.
Carnivore Confusion - Mr. Richfield is a ceratopsian (horned dinosaur) that eats meat (specifically the two mammals mentioned above, and his daughter's boyfriends). Possibly Hilarious in Hindsight with the new discoveries that Triceratops may have been omnivorous.
Catch Phrase - The Baby's "Gotta Love Me!" and "Not The Mama", among others.
An odd instance - "We're going to need another Timmy!" was only used in 3 episodes, yet it sticks out in people's minds. (This one doubles as an in-universe example as the it's part of a Show Within a Show and it sticks in the characters' minds.
Fran: I don't want to argue in front of the B-A-B-Y. Earl: Well I'm not changing another D-A-I... no wait... D-I-A...
Baby used some blocks to write "They think I can't spell".
Check Please: Robbie invented a device that'd allow people to draw energy from a volcano. Fearing the financial loss Wesayso Corporation would suffer, Mr. Richfield invited the Sinclairs for dinner and tried to buy all rights to the device. When Earl unwittingly gave Richfield the idea to buy the volcano instead, Richfield quickly left the scene and Earl asked for the check.
Clip Show: Two are done in the series. The first is done in a mock-documentary style where an paleontologist talks about dinosaurs and fossil hunting. The second one features the same guy, and done in a more infomercial type with him trying to sell books on paleontology.
The Complainer Is Always Wrong - Earl, even in the episodes where his complaints seemed to have a certain degree of validity, was always proved 100% wrong by the coda.
Construction Catcalls: While on break, Roy begins leering at a young dino lady with a fully-developed tail.
Mr. Ashland, Wesayso's CEO, is even worse. He detests butt kissers, mounting their heads on a wall, and he keeps a pet "lawyer" named Elliot in his desk, always ready to eat Ashland's enemies.
Crapsack World - It's a world where the biggest, strongest, or oldest are the only ones that get a say in matters, and the decisions made are usually terrible. If you are not the absolute apex predator, you always have to watch your back from being eaten by aformentioned biggest and stongest. And don't get us started on what life is like for small mammals.
Earl: It doesn't take a genius to figure that out.
Ethyl: Then you're the guy for the job.
Or upon learning that Earl will be challenged to a duel to the death.
Ethyl:(to Fran) Congratulations. You're a widow.
Deal with the Devil - Earl once traded his soul for a mug with a devil. Fortunately, the mug came with a guarantee of refund for unsatisfied customers which Earl found when the devil was about to collect. Earl's refund came as a Reset Button Ending that made time come back at the moment the devil showed up to offer the deal in the first place.
Dinner with the Boss - Done of course. In 'Power Erupts', WESAYSO exec, Earl's boss Mr. Richfield invites the Sinclaire family to dinner at a fancy restaurant in order to convince Robbie to sell his volcano-powered generator designs...after WESAYSO has discredited the idea with some mass-media mudslinging.
When Earl was made Employee Of The Month, Mr. Richfield said he'd invite Earl and his family to dinner at his place but, since he was doing some alterations in the bathroom (or so he said), he invited himself to diner at Earl's place. With an overinflated ego, Earl had his family ready for this and even invited his mother-in-law to rub it in her face. Richfield didn't show up.
Does This Remind You of Anything? - Multiple, including Robbie's stint with vegetarianism being treated like homosexuality (or having a drug addict in the family or someone in the family getting involved in an unconventional religion or political party), Robbie doing "The Mating Dance" around a girl he likes, Robbie bulking up on "Thornoids," Charlene's tail growing being an obvious reference to breast development, the Green Card episode refers to anti-immigration sentiment, and blue-furred mammals standing in for African American people.
Also a "war-time" episode ("Nuts to War"), where the four-legged dinos waged war with the two-legged over pistachio nuts.
And there was the episode The Greatest Story Ever Sold, which covered philosophy and organized religion, particularly the use of religion as a pacifier for the masses.
There was also an episode where the dinosaurs purchased a huge amount of land from cavemen for a fistful of glass pearls.
Charlene's muse accidentally giving her the round-earth theory instead of a great brownies recipe, sparking a science versus religion debate.
And the finale where dinosaur-made climate change causes the species' extinction.
Economy Cast - One shot characters are played by the same seven or eight puppets every episode, known as "Unisaurs". That meant a character could be male in one episode and female in another. This got a little awkward when the puppets usually used as Earl's coworkers played females. In one disturbing episode, the usually-male puppets are used as not just females, but exotic dancers.
Employee Of The Month - When Mr. Richfield placed a suggestion box, Earl suggested the EOTM prize would motivate the employees. Mr. Richfield then made Earl the first EOTM just because he didn't want to take his time evaluating other employees.
Escalating War - the two-parter Nuts To War miniseries, made in response to the Persian Gulf War, where a petty territorial dispute over the rights to pistachio trees escalates into a full-blown war between the two-legged dinosaurs and the four-legged ones. In the end, there was only one two-legged casualty, but it turns out Robbie is okay.
Exact Words - Turns out Earl's Meteor insurance is no good because his house was hit by a meteorite.
Exploding Calendar: Made fun of in one episode where Earl frantically tries to stick the previous day back on.
Expy - The Simpsons has lampshaded in one episode (the episode where Sideshow Bob returns to marry Selma Bouvier) in which Bart is watching a Springfield version of Dinosaurs and he remarks that its just like someone watched their family and copied it.
Fantastic Racism - A few episodes dealt with tensions between two-legged and four-legged dinosaurs.
A bit of Fridge Logic when you realize B.P. Richfield himself, being a triceratops, is also a four-legged dinosaur.
Mammals being treated poorly, particularly when they get shafted on a music deal in one episode. The dinosaur producers like the music and lyrics, but they don't like the idea of a mammal having created it so they co-opt it for themselves, and release the music and lyrics, but as sung by a dinosaur singer.
Flying Brick: When Earl takes a swim in a toxic waste-infected lake he gets flight, heat vision, and the ability to guess a person's weight to within a pound.
Foreshadowing: In the first episode, Robbie notes that Pangea's dating system goes in reverse, and wonders what they're supposed to be counting down to.
Free the Frogs - When Robbie's class are called on to dissect cavepeople, Robbie smuggles his out of the class, takes it home as a pet, and eventually releases it into the wild.
Genre Savvy: When Earl gets his Flying Brick powers, Roy tells him he has to become a superhero and not tell his family, because that's how they do it in comic books.
Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: When Earl starts freaking out after Robbie misses his howl, thereby dooming all dinosaurs, Ethyl whacks him with her cane and tells him to get a hold of himself.
One of the greatest example is in "The Howling" when Ethel informs us that male dinosaurs tend to get cranky around the time of a full moon because of Pre-Howling Syndrome... PHS.
Charlene: I'm so happy I'm a girl.
The News Anchorsaur Howard Handupme (though that's a reference to the fact that he's a puppet).
The mating dance, anyone? There's also a mating dance instructor Earl visits called "Mel Luster".
Glamorous Wartime Singer - When the dinosaurs went to war over pistachios, Charlene, Earl, and Roy (all in dresses) performed for the soldiers, as it was the only way to get to the front lines and bring Robbie home.
Green Aesop - The abovementioned environmental crisis, and many earlier episodes.
Lampshaded in the "smoo" episode, when censorship goes amuck, Earl shows that, as part of the push for censorship, the pants that he suddenly is forced to wear, to Fran's horror.
It's not just the men. Fran and Charlene might wear a nightdress if they were going to sleep, otherwise the female characters all are pantsless.
I Love Nuclear Power: In one episode Earl gets superpowers from a dip in a toxic waste dump. When he finally showers it off he loses them.
Impossible Insurance: In one episode, the Sinclair's house (and TV) gets struck by a falling meteor. Earl actually had bought meteor insurance but is denied coverage since he's only covered for meteors and once a meteor passes through the atmosphere it becomes a meteorite. When the insurance company employee told Earl he'd only get coverage if his house had been floating in space when the meteor hit the TV, Earl claimed it was and that the neighbors would confirm it.
Informed Obscenity - In one episode, a great controversy erupted over the word "smoo".
And thanks the the publicity, the same channel then started showing "The Flark Show"
Innocent Swearing: Baby learns one such word, "smoo". (In the dinosaur lingo, this is a dirty word because it describes debris that accumulates on the sole of a dinosaur's foot.)
Insane Troll Logic: In "Family Challenge," Earl preps his family for their upcoming game show appearance with a lesson. On his blackboard, he has classified everything on Earth into three categories - "Animal", "Vegetable" and "Rocks."
Robby: What about fire? Earl: Vegetable. Charlene: What about water? Earl: Water is the opposite of fire, which we have previously established as a vegetable. What's the opposite of a vegetable? Fruit! So, water is a fruit. Fruit is not a vegetable, so it has to be an animal or a rock. We know it's not an animal, so therefore, fruit is a rock.
It Is Not Your Time: Ethyl once went to the afterlife only to be told it wasn't her time yet and she woke up with earth on her face since Earl buried her. She missed her late husband so much she didn't want to wait for her time any longer until he warned her to live her life to her full extent otherwise she'd spent her afterlife at a "not so nice place". (In her case, a Sinclair household full of Earls, resulting in a Big "NO!")
Ironic Echo - At the very end of the first episode, Earl tells Baby while standing at the window that he and his brother and sister were born dinosaurs, "and dinosaurs rule the world... and we're gonna rule the world forever." In the final episode, he admits to Baby that he's screwed up the world to the point where there isn't much of a world left for his children. He also says desperately, "And hey, I'm sure it will all turn out OK. After all, dinosaurs have been on this earth for 150 million years. It's not like we're going to just...disappear." One of the final scenes is Earl at the same window, watching the encroaching Ice Age that will doom the dinosaurs.
Judgment of Solomon: In one episode where the baby was believed to have gotten switched with a green clone of himself from another family, he was cut in half and then put together in a weird cross between this trope and Vegas-style stage magic.
When the bipeds declared war against 4-Leggers, the biped President announced the young and the poor would be drafted.
In a debate on whether rich people should eat poor people, the proposition's supporters claimed being food was the only thing poor people were useful for and those opposed claimed the poor could contaminate whoever ate them.
Knight Templar Parent: Richfield. He's eaten every ex-boyfriend his daughter has dated after they broke her heart. Naturally, this raises problems for the Sinclair family once Robbie starts dating her.
Not after, while they were dating his daughter.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: During the "Sexual" Harris Hearings on TV, Monica gets called a prostitute by one of the workers. Ethyl complains about the language used on TV these days and how it's bad for kids. Fran argues that it makes them think, with Ethyl saying that she doesn't want kids to think, and instead would rather have them watch "safe little situational comedies with time-tested repetitive storylines".
"You might think that because they're puppets, the show seems to have a children's aesthetic. (Aside Glance) Yet the dialogue is unquestionable sharp-edged, witty, and thematically skewed to adults."
Laugh Track: Employed against the wishes of the producers by ABC for the first few episodes before (thankfully) being abandoned.
Let's Meet the Meat - The furry little mammals often stored and used as food. They may not be happy about their ultimate fate, but oftentimes treat being eaten as a matter of course, and go along with it dutifully.
Literal Genie - The house gets hit by a meteorite. Earl says it's okay, since they have meteor insurance. Guess what the insurance guy says?
This is , a spectacular demonstration of lay people not doing the research. Or possibly an AnviliciousTake That against perceived semantic hair-splitting by insurance agents.
MacGuffin - Parodied. In the episode "Scent of a Reptile", Charlene gets her "scent", which will attract one male dinosaur, who will be her mate for life. Because her destined mate is a slobbish janitor, her grandmother tells her the only way to change her scent is with a very rare flower found on the other side of the world - the MacGuffin Lily.
Meaningful Name: The episode "Family Challenge" had the Sinclairs competing on a game show against the Nielson family, who have an extensive knowledge of television.
Merchandise Driven: Parodied with "Captain Action Figure", which blatantly plugs its toys in the show, causing impressionable viewers like Baby to demand it.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Earl as he was made VP of communications to help clear up the vines that were plauging the dinosaurs (due to WESAYSO building a wax factory over the bugs that ate them and kept them at bay). Robbie and Charlene both tried to get him to use alternate, less damaging methods but he wouldn't listen and when came time for the final volcano exploding plan. When he had the opportunity to object it and save his species, he caved. In the end, the plan formed a new Ice Age which will no doubt kill off the dinosaur civilization.
Only Six Faces - Because of how elaborate and complex the (remote-operated) faces were, expect to see the same few used for the one-shot, unnamed, and background dinosaur characters.
Out of Order: Even though Charlene grew a bigger tail in "Charlene's Tale", certain episodes filmed prior showing her shorter tail such as "Employee of the Month" and "Unmarried... With Children" aired after it. There's also the seven episodes filmed prior to the series finale that were shown afterwards when the show moved to syndication.
Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud- "And let me conclude by saying Foreman Harris is a great guy. Monica's been a troublemaker as long as I've known her and I'm pretty sure she cheats on her taxes. Stop here, look up, smile◊."
Repeat After Me: The Chief Elder has, among other responsibilities, the duty to name babies. When Earl and Fran brought Baby to be named, the Chief Elder started feeling pain and moaned. As the scribe in charge of writing the names on a certificate wrote the moans, the Chief Elder explained he was dying. Until a new Chief Elder was elected so the Sinclairs could take Baby to be renamed, Baby Sinclair's official name was "Ouch Ouch I'm Dying You Idiot Sinclair".
Another victim of the trope was Fran's cousin "Atchoo".
Retroactive Wish - Baby Sinclair was whining about wanting his facifier. After it fell of the fireplace, Earl shouted that he wanted a big screen tv and cable. As nothing happened, he said he wanted a bigger fireplace.
Rule of Funny - The only reason dinosaurs are involved at all.
Self-Deprecation: One episode where Earl was a TV executive had him see a pilot episode of Dr. Kirk Marcus, M.D. which featured a minor character called "Baby Cuddlebunny", who is essentially a parody of Baby Sinclair himself. Earl liked him and demanded that he be the doctor, changing the name to Baby Cuddlebunny, M.D.. He later spouts his catch phrase ("Not the pajamas!"), wears T-shirts of his likeness, and the execs even make a talking pullstring doll (similar to the real doll made of Baby Sinclair).
Shout Out / Stealth Pun - the Sinclair family's name comes from the Sinclair gas station, which has a green dinosaur for a mascot. Earl is name after Earl Holding, the company's owner. Earl also wears a shirt of the Sinclair clan's tartan.
Earl's boss, B.P. Richfield, is named after both British Petroleum (BP) and the Richfield Oil Company (which coincidentally absorbed the Sinclair chain in the late 1960s, and both companies were later absorbed by BP many years later!).
In "Charlene's Flat World", after being convicted of heresy for thinking the Earth wasn't flat, Charlene requests her sentence be death by being thrown off the earth. She and Robbie return from the other side...80 days later.
In one episode, Earl and Roy are dumping toxic waste in a swamp called "Silent Spring Recreation Area."
Soap Punishment: Used when Baby learns rude words off the television. When Fran washes his mouth out, every time a bubble from his mouth pops it echoes the word.
Strawman Political - In the election episode, Earl's already-strawmanned evil big-business boss became a Republican-expy strawman, who among other things described trickle-down economics as stuffing the pockets of rich people so full of money that the change would fall out and roll downhill to poor people.
Sudden Downer Ending - Earl accidentally brings about the extinction of the dinosaurs. A series of environmental crises brings on the Ice Age, and everybody dies. No, really.
They don't die in the episode, but the implication is that they'll all meet their demise sometime after the episode ends.
Switched at Birth: There's an episode called this trope where the Sinclair family finds out that Baby's egg got switched with the egg of the Molehill family.
Terra Deforming: In the last episode, Earl ends up destroying all plant life on the planet to get rid of these vines that were growing everywhere as a result of the bugs that would normally eat them having gone extinct (Wesayso built a wax fruit factory on their breeding grounds, thus killing all the bugs).
That Old Time Prescription: Baby gets seriously ill and the family spends lots of money on fancy new medicines. When those fail, they go to a healer who lives in the woods, who cures the baby with moldy bread.
Theme Naming - The names of the main characters are based on oil and/or gas companies (Sinclair, Roy Hess, EthylPhillips, B.P.Richfield). Petroleum is a fossil fuel. Since dinosaurs are the best-known fossil animals, they have become associated with oil.
Too Dumb to Live - Each and every Timmy. Well, maybe not at first, when the experiments weren't as obviously deadly, but after how many Timmies bit the dust, and after Mr. Lizard started hiding behind lead shielding before Timmy did what he did, this was clearly in effect.
Trauma Induced Amnesia: Earl and Fran suffered so much from their experiences with their two oldest kids while they are two, that they had blocked out the entire year.
Unishment - Being tossed across the kitchen by daddy is this to Baby, who enjoys it.
Very Special Episode - Spoofed in an early episode, then played straight with nearly every other episode.
The particular episode which spoofed this was "A New Leaf" where the "happy plant" is like a drug. At the end of the episode, Robbie implores the viewing audience to not do drugs so that an end can be put to "preachy [TV] sitcom endings".
Possibly the WeSaySo Corporation as well. They do some pretty bad things in the show, but no one ever really stands up to them, nor do they protest stuff they do, such as when they bad-mouth Robbie because he created a dome over a volcano which could give everyone free energy.
Wasn't That Fun?: Turned into a Running Gag. Whenever Baby endured any kind of physical punishment, ranging from being hit to being thrown across the room, and one time, even falling out of a tree, one of the first words out of his mouth was an enthusiastic, "Again!"
We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: In the episode where Earl becomes a TV executive and creates programming that makes most of Pangaea's population stupid, the cameraman in the newsroom fails to focus on Howard Handupme's anchoring, bringing up a "PLEEZE STAND BIE" card.
Earl: "When I was your age we didn't have lawn mowers, we didn't have scissors, we had to get down on all fours and graze like a cow."
Wham Line: "Considering the thickness of the cloud cover, scientists predict it may be tens of thousands of years before the sun shines over Pangaea again."
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