Talk:Dinosaurs (TV series)

What happened to the shows costumes?
What ever happened to the costumes? are they still around and if so, who owns them? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mdc19 (talk • contribs) 08:39, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

Are all the Citations Needed Requests necessary
Every single "topical issue" has had a "citation needed" added to it? Is this necessary... we are talking about a television show here. Anyone who has seen the show knows these issues were covered. Is it really necessary to have a episode name and/or broadcast date for everyone? How could we possibly get those? If no one objects I will delete the ridiculous and pedantic "citation needed", "citation needed", "citation needed" from the topical issues section.Grant Gussie (talk) 19:22, 21 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes. THE AMERICAN METROSEXUAL 16:50, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Cancelled
When was the show Cancelled? or was it? did they jsut stop making the show? I think this article needs some more 'behind the camera' info

Generic info leads nowhere
"There are many reused side characters in a full body suit with an articulated faces/head include an orange/brown Ceratosaurus, a generic green Theropod, a purple Stenonychosaurus, a tan, turtle-faced dinosaur, and two indistinct females."

Those where used but... Which goal in mind? (for example, there is aside character who operatesthe news, pretty much the same guy always)


 * The news anchor, Howard Handupme, is always the same character, and always in the same costume (actually, it's a hand puppet). But some costumes are used for more than one character.  For instance, there's one dinosaur named Sexual Harris who played a large role in one episode.  The same costume has been used for a different dinosaur, the one who works at the marriage licensing building.  I think the costume was also used for the job wizard.  It's easy to see that these dinosaurs all look the same; you're supposed to suspend your disbelief.  This allowed the creators of the show to not spend all the money on many different costumes.  I hope I answered your question.  --Brandon Dilbeck 22:53, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

naming
Wasn't the grandmother's name Ethyl, adding to the petroleum references in the show? Mike H 01:53, Mar 31, 2005 (UTC)
 * Worse than that&mdash;Ethyl Phillips! &mdash;Mulad (talk) July 2, 2005 12:13 (UTC)

I always remember being scared of the puppets whenever the show came on. &mdash; 172.156.116.111 11:04, 6 January 2006.
 * They were scary puppets indeed. They still give me nightmares. --Isequals 06:40, 11 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Is the upcoming DVD incomplete or were there less than 65 eps?
 * The upcoming DVD is only the first and second seasons (29 episodes total). Dinosaurs lasted 4 seasons. Season Three has 22 eps and Four has 14 eps.

There were also the 'grapdelites', a word play on 'graptolites'; organisms whose fossil remains are used as index fossils in paleontology. --108.248.164.111 (talk) 07:33, 23 January 2014 (UTC)

Roy Hess
Could Roy Hess be a reference to Harry_Hess the geologist that created the theory of sea floor spreading? This fact would be relevant reference to the setting of Pangaea. Blue Leopard 21:25, 16 March 2006 (UTC)


 * More probably it's a reference to Hess stations. Recury 00:45, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

What was the time slot of this show? Flyerhell 05:08, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Earl Sinclair
Isn't the name 'Earl' a pun on the southern pronunciation of 'oil'? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.122.29.211 (talk) 20:11, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Updated the Species section
I've added some of the extras and side-characters that appear from time to time in the Species list. Can anyone correct me on some of those? I'm just best-guessing on a lot of them.

English DVD release
Does anyone know if this will ever happen?

Dinosaurs on UK TV
The article states that

The show has also aired in the UK on Disney Channel.

However I remember watching it, so it must also have been on one of the four main channels can't remember which though so I can't edit the article to add it.

pjb007 21:47, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Whoever edited the Dinosaur Species thing, read this.
I edited the species listing. Whoever changed it before needs to consider this:

-Indosaurus, Giganotosaurus, and others are all recent finds and would not have been used in the design, since these dinosaurs were discovered either during or after the series.

-We can eliminate any of the lesser-known species, since (obviously) these guys didn't know much about dinosaurs. This can also explain Richfield not being a styracosaurus; because Styracosaurs didn't have three prominent horns. Richfield is a highly caricatured Triceratops. They also made a lot of the dinosaurs up, which is particularly evident in Robbie, Charline, and Baby, who are all "mixed breeds" of their parents. As crazy as it sounds, that's what the character designer said in an interview on the first DVD set.

-STOP GUESSING. If the show doesn't tell you, and it's not obvious, don't guess. The DVD answers many of these, but the ones that are not answered should not be replaced with arbitrary guesses.

The Greatest Story Ever Told
It says in the article under the Adult Themes section that "Potatoism", featured in this episode, is a reference to Christianity. The rest of the paragraph makes it sound as if it were in a way mocking religion At the end of the episode however, after Earl and Robbie have been freed from their punishment for not believing in Potatoism, they wonder out loud whether their is a god who created them and cared about them. Maybe the episode was more of a parody of cults than mainstream religions? I'm not sure, but I'm going to add something in to the paragraph about the speculation at the end of the episode. 71.31.145.245 17:10, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't know, the title of the episode seemed to set the agenda. But it seemed mostly to be a dig at the credulous, of which the religious minion was portrayed as the archetype. Being an American production, the obvious model would be Christian.

I agree that the episode seems less a condemnation of any religion but more a condemnation of religious zealots, namely televangelists (parodied in the Chief Elder's ranting style of speech during the condemnation of Robbie) and theocracies (the "government slash religious leaders" argue that such actions as giving the government extra money on their tax forms are pleasing to the Great Potato).
 * Hmm, didn't think about that. Actually, I haven't seen this episode for awhile, so all I could remember was the ending.  Somebody can go ahead and change it back if they want. 69.40.246.235 02:27, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Allusions to homosexuality?
Does anyone have actual sources to back up the claims that the show is alluding to homosexuality in the guise of herbivorism? This could refer to any number of things. It should be removed if there is no proof. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.229.189.123 (talk • contribs)


 * I disagee. Whether or not anyone has any proof that the references to herbivorism were allusions to homosexuality, say for example in a recorded interview with a writer or producer saying so, the referenced passage should remain in place in my opinion. The entire tone of the "herbivorism" references on the show, as well as those to "cross eating," are so highly reminiscent of how unconventional sexual practices were discussed in the trashy current events programming of that time that the intended connection is obvious. -- Grant Gussie 10:44, 21 May 2007


 * I think I was the one who initially added this to the article. The controversy of herbivorism in the show is VERY similar to the controversy in our society concerning homosexuality, or at least at the time the show aired. -- WiccaIrish 18:48, 31 May 2007 (UTC)


 * imo it was meant as an allusion to drug use as well as homosexuality; like when Earl and Fran find the celery in the zip up bag hidden in Robbie's sock draw. --86.146.162.73 (talk) 21:26, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

It obviously has a relation to drug use and arguably homosexuality, but what on earth does it have to do with “communism”? I will edit that out... --GiantIsopod (talk) 00:03, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Inappropriate Link
In the paragraph about the episode "I Never Ate For My Father" the link for "irreverence" links to Reverence / Irreverence Mullhawk (talk) 02:33, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

List of TV Shows
Is such a gigantic list necessary? Couldn't you just use a few examples? Such a large list just so...unattractive. -Sukecchi (talk) 13:45, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Earl's boss, named B.P. Richfield
The bosses name is British Petroleum Richards? I know the show was meant to have a petrol theme, but naming a character "British Richards" just to fit with the theme sounds a bit off to me. Is there anyway to verify that the characters name really was British? JayKeaton (talk) 16:09, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

His name is B.P. Richfield, only alluding to the British Petroleum corporation. I don't believe his name was ever explained beyond the B.P. initials. --66.30.193.254 (talk) 19:55, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Actually, in one episode his first name is stated as "Bradley" ("Earl's Big Jackpot") 80.192.232.123 (talk) 21:36, 3 October 2013 (UTC)

Richfield was marked here as a triceratops, clearly an error as he has far more than 3 horns. I have changed it to Styracosaurus, the most popular and well-known of the ceratopsians which has lots of horns in its frill, like Richfield has. 2A02:8084:C84:7980:C882:D119:472D:B6E8 (talk) 15:44, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

"Children's television"?
The introduction to the article describes this series as "one of the most popular children's television programs of the mid-90s", but the article cited to back up this claim seems to compare it to The Simpsons, which is arguably not a children's show, and nowhere in the cited article can I find the series described as a children's show. The show's satirical nature, and Baby's relationship to his father, suggest to me that it wasn't intended as a children's show. B7T (talk) 11:09, 10 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Agreed. 174.18.5.2 (talk) 18:29, 12 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Americans are so unsophisticated (that's the polite way of putting it), they think animated cartoons and puppet shows are kiddie entertainment. This unquestionably hurt Jim Henson's attempts to produce programming intelligent adults would appreciate. WilliamSommerwerck (talk) 09:42, 30 October 2016 (UTC)

Secondary characters and Unisaurs-related
I have been noticing that the sections for the secondary characters of this show as well as the section for the Unisaurs have been removed when they are important to the show. The Unisaurs for example are customizable like the Whatnots from The Muppet Show and the Anything Muppets from Sesame Street. Rtkat3 (talk) 8:59, March 2 2013 (UTC)
 * if they were important to the show, there would be third party sources discussing them in encyclopedic manner and context showing that they were important. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom  04:18, 3 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Then how can we make them important? Rtkat3 (talk) 10:26, March 3 2013 (UTC)
 * we dont "make things important". we follow what the reliably published sources say. If you find reliably published sources talking about specific characters in an encyclopedic manner, then that content can be added. 17:47, 3 April 2013 (UTC)-- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom
 * It has been four months since this article started and nobody has found anyway to have the supporting characters and Unisaurs be readded in an encyclopedic manner. If anyone can find a way to pull this off, go right ahead and add them like TRPoD wants it to be. Rtkat3 (talk) 3:51, July 23 2013 (UTC)

References to war
"racism (in the form of a dispute between the two-legged dinosaurs and the four-legged dinosaurs)"

Having literally just watched this episode, I thought it was more a commentary on going to war for oil. What with the We Are Right logo and the repeated references to "fighting for pistachios" 80.192.232.123 (talk) 22:35, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

Changing Nature
"Richfield dismisses this as a cold snap and states that WESAYSO is currently producing blankets, heaters, and hot cocoa to help guarantee the dinosaurs' survival"

Actually, I'd say he seems more interested in the profit he is making from selling those things, rather than displaying any interest in helping dinosaurs survive. I realise it is a just a little thing, but the first version makes Richfield sound like a philanthropist who is doing it out of the goodness of his heart, where as he is just happy he is making lots and lots of money.

Which fits in with the theme of the episode - big business screwing everyone over for profit.

80.192.232.123 (talk) 21:33, 4 October 2013 (UTC)

The Mating Dance
While I get the reference to masturbation in regard to Robbie doing The Mating Dance, I got the idea that the episode was more related to the way sex education was taught in schools - safe-sex vs abstinence, the fact it is done in "the confines of a safe, monogamous relationship" and so forth.

80.192.232.123 (talk) 22:37, 4 October 2013 (UTC)

Jason Alexander?
Is Jason Alexander the voice of Mr. Molehill in "Switched At Birth" (Season 2, Episode 4)? It sounds (to me anyway) like Jason Alexander. Is there anyway to prove/disprove this? Vyselink (talk) 02:58, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

Would like to see a section about the costumes\puppets
How about some info about them? Methods of creation and modeling, materials along with the artisans of them. Possible sources Rippey574 (talk) 12:14, 13 January 2018 (UTC)
 * http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Dinosaurs
 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2k5RvUnMTc
 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=junSMExfOTY
 * That would be a good idea, but we would need official sources either from the company websites, or published books, or other official canon sources.--Mr Fink (talk) 15:52, 13 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Not really. The best sources are independent reliable sources.


 * "Independent" means not from the companies and individuals involved. This helps prevent biases from sneaking in, but also reduces trivia.


 * Reliable sources are those with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy. This weeds out blogs and user-generated sites (Wikia, Wikipedia, IMDb, etc.). You're probably going to want to look for magazines and newspapers from when the series was being produced and, to the extent they exist, books from major publishing houses.


 * Be careful with youtube. We cannot use copyright violations. Unless the source gives a credible claim of a release from the copyright holder, you will need videos posted by the copyright holder. - Sum mer PhD v2.0 17:52, 13 January 2018 (UTC)