Dino-Rama: The Mighty Megalosaurus (Dinosaurs Episode Review w/ Richb)

Moviefan12: Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and today for our Dino-Rama event, we head back to 1991 as we look at the very first episode of the sitcom that was dreamed up by one of the most creative minds of our generation, Jim Henson.  Now at the time of this show's release, it was compared to The Simpsons but with Dinosaurs but as I watched this pilot episode, I did get that comparsion but I think the other more obvious comparsion is that this show could be considered The Flintstones of the '90s.

And as Rowdy pointed out in his review of the show, this episode was heavy with the satire and that was rather apparent even in the first episode.  The setup in the pilot was good to get you into the show and to understand what the show is about.  Now, another big factor that I think that worked in helping the show is the writer of the pilot episode was the creator of another beloved sitcom that still holds up today.

Michael Jacobs of Boy Meets World was one of the writers for this show and while I'm pretty good with reviews like this, I felt the need to bring in the king of sitcoms here on Manic Expression, Richb to look at the pilot episode of this beloved sitcom with me.  Rich, thanks for joining me.

RichB: My pleasure my friend, this pilot holds a special place in my heart. Believe it or not, this was a big deal when it came around. A show about dinosaurs? And the fact that it had Jim Henson’s name on it meant we had to check it out. The ads were pretty clever too, before the pilot premiered, taking a note from monster movies by not showing us any real footage of the show. So we had no idea what to expect until we watched it. And we all tuned in (even my father which was a miracle) on April 26, 1991 to check it out. My brother and I recorded the episode, and yes i still have that tape to this day.

My god, has it really been twenty-five years?


Before, we get to the plot,  I'd like to a moment to look at the intro.


Intro






Moviefan12: I'll say this right now, I love this intro.  I think that it's easily one of the best intros for a sitcom ever.  The way it starts all big and serious by not showing Earl but then we see him enter the house with his line of "Honey, I'm Home"  and the music changes to fit the silly nature of the program. It works really well for the show and does a good job capturing the spirit of the show.  





RichB:Quite simply it’s a fantastic intro. The first part is so dramatic and intense, and when we pan up to see Earl it’s a totally different opening. It’s just about perfect, and memorable to by the way. By the way the very first time the pilot aired it began with a title card saying that it was dedicated to the memory of Jim Henson.

The Plot

Moviefan12:  Now, let's get into the plot. We open on Earl watching TV and Baby Sinclair wants him to tell a story as he turns off the TV and Earl tells him the story of how he came into this world. And he starts by telling him of a frustrating night coming home from work as dinner has escaped from the pot.  

We are introduced to the rest of the Sinclair family. First, Fran, and then Robbie & Charlene.  We learn that they all want something, Fran wants a new pot to keep dinner from escaping and Charlene wants a sweater.  Okay, I may have to retract on that as Robbie doesn't want much but we do learn that he is a bit philosophical and does question the things that he is being taught in school and at this, Fran suggests that they get their son, a tutor.  Earl doesn't want to do any of this as he is the king of the dinosaurs and he should be allowed to get what he wants and he wants a 90 Inch TV.  Though, Fran does get in a nice joke saying that the T. Rex is the king of the dinosaurs and she dated one in high school.  Rich, why don't you take the next part of the plot.  




RichB;You gotta love it when Robbie asks why their year’s are counting backwards. Earl doesn’t want to give up his TV. We cut to Earl’s work life. In typical sitcom fashion we don’t really see Earl work as much as watch talk to his friends. Including his best friend Roy, who seems more dimwitted than Earl. Maybe why Earl likes him. Earl decides to ask the boss for a raise. But Mr.Richfield is a triceratops with  an attitude and it doesn’t go very well.

Moviefan12: As Richb pointed out, Earl going in and asking his boss doesn't go well at all as he instead tricks the dimwitted dinosaur into quitting his job and Earl's day only gets better from there as when he gets home, his day is so lousy that he just wants a beer and to not think about what happened but Fran wants him to ask how her day was but  we get a line that sums up his feelings.

I mean this with all love and everything, but... I don't give a damn about your day.

Though that line was cut from syndicated airings of the episode. Makes sense, I remember watching this show on Disney Channel as a kid and they probably wouldn't want a line like on a show that they were airing on their channel.  Not  too surprising as damn was still considered a curse in the '90s.  I'm not sure if that's the case today but that isn't as egregious as when they aired Boy Meets World and they banned 3 episodes of the latter show from ever airing on Disney Channel.  Getting back to the plot at hand,  Fran reveals that there is something that happened in her day that will have a huge effect on her husband.  

To say that he doesn't take this well would be an understatement.  It's to the point in order to save money, he's hoping that the egg is a dud.  He says that it's happened before, they had 3 duds before that had Charlene.  Fran corrects him and says that they had 2 duds and then Robbie.  Wow, that is dark because Earl here is essentially hoping that his wife has a miscarriage.  WOW, I do not think a show on ABC would have the guts to go there today.  So yeah, Earl really isn't looking forward to being a father again.  




RichB: Isn’t it funny how changing a word suddenly makes it PC? If they said miscarriage the show wouldn’t have aired! But saying dud is perfectly OK. And it's not a problem anyway since Earl sees the adorable silhouette wave to him when he looks inside. So this is where we get our moral dilemma. Earl wasn’t happy as it was the last thing he needs is to be a parent again. By the way Earl is 43 in this episode, almost my age. Anyway, Earl wanders in he forest to do some thinking. After being miserable in the outdoors and getting some perspective from a small animal about how important family is, Fran appears to take him home. At work Earl gets that raise and at home Earl talks to his family and is happy they are all together. Everything is great…..

Until he hears a crack in the egg……

Moviefan12: Something to note is that the small creature that Earl comes across in the woods is actually the creature was supposed to be his dinner, the previous night. Oh, and he's performed by Brian Henson.  And we learn that that his creature, Arthur Rizzic is Richfield's new assistant and put Earl down for a raise after they shared the heart to heart in the wild.  

As my colleague mentioned, the egg cracks and the breakout character of this show is hatched.   

Seriously, Baby Sinclair was everywhere in the '90s. Kids ate this character up, I remember having a tank up that featured him and Robbie.  And I also had a Happy Meal toy of Baby Sinclair. Yeah, this show had Happy Meal toys.  Somehow, if this show aired today, I don't think it would have toys like that.

I think I also had the Earl Happy Meal toy but I vividly remember the Baby Sinclair Happy Meal toy. Anyways, when he hatches, we see that he is quite smart and even at a young age can already form full sentence.  We don't get a full scope of how big of a breakout star, this little guy is going to be but needless to say that his catchphrase "Not the Mama" and "I'm the baby, gotta love me" were as big as Michelle Tanner's "You Got It Dude".   The episode comes full circle as the episode ends with Earl telling his youngest child that dinosaurs are going to rule the world forever as they look at two cavepeople that appear to be building a wheel but yeah,  cavemen shown as kinda of moronic in this show. 

In all, this was a pretty great start to what I think in my opinion was a staple of '90s ABC and it was easily, a great look back at what was a rather decent series.  

RichB:Oh my friend I can top that. Thanks to my baby sister I had the talking doll. Well she had it really. It was awesome it looked just like Baby Sinclair and all the catchphrases were there. It was great! Baby Sinclair was such a huge hit that Disney crammed into every Disney related special they could after that. Even if his being there made no sense. It should be noted he was played by Kevin Clash, who would go on to play Elmo.

Of course he appears for about two minutes in the end, not counting the framing device, but they milk every second and it’s no wonder he became such a sensation. It was a great start and I can ignore the details that aren’t accurate, for instance  cave men did not actually exist in that era. It got my attention and made me want to keep watching, like any good pilot is supposed to.While it went on a season too long, this show was a major hit when it first premiered.

Moviefan12: Let's now move onto characters.

Characters


Earl Sinclair performed by Dave Golez (Face), Bill Barretta (Body) and Stuart Parkin (Voice)

Moviefan12: Perhaps because I wasn't allowed to watch The Simpsons as kid, I didn't see the Homer comparisons.  However, another sitcom dad came to my mind while watching the pilot episode of Dinosaurs. Dan Conner from Roseanne.  Both of them are middle class, well lower middle class fathers that are just trying to get by in the world.  And while Dan's struggles may have been more realistic than Earl's, with the latter being a dinosaur and all, I don't think it's hard to come to that conclusion. Although Earl does fall more into the dumb dad archetype that was prevalent in a lot of '90s sitcoms more  than Dan ever did but underneath it all, you see that he truly cares for his family.



RichB:The thing I like about Earl is that while he was dumb, he didn’t act like he was dumb. In other words he really did try his best and he really did love his family. We see in so many sitcoms the dumb husband is just dumb, that’s it. Homer is a perfect example of this. With Earl that was not his whole character.

Baby Sinclair performed by Kevin Clash  (voice),  John Kennedy (eyes),  & Terri Harden (arms)

Moviefan12: As Richb & I talked about uptop, Baby Sinclair was the breakout star of this show.  It's hard to pinpoint down exactly why that was and the pilot episode doesn't give you any indication as to that being the case but boy, he was everywhere.  Also, I have to mention I love The Muppet Wiki's description of how Kevin Clash played Baby Sinclair.

Clash's voice for Baby at times resembled a more gleefully destructive Elmo

Something about that just makes me chuckle because this character couldn't be any more different than Clash's most famous role.  Also something that is rather sad to note is that of 2014, Baby is the only puppet from Dinosaurs that still exists.


RichB:I think I already said enough about Baby the character was a monster hit and put the show on the map.
Supporting Characters


Fran Sinclair performed by Jessica Walter (voice),  Tony Sabin Prince (body),  & Allan Trautman (face)

Moviefan12: I know that I've already compared this show to Flintstones numerous times but I think that also really comes through with Fran as she is very much a Wilma Flintstone character.  A smart stay-at-home wife that is married to a big lug that she loves, even if he does get under her skin but as the end of the pilot proves, she loves even with all of his boneheaded decisions.


RichB:As with Earl while Fran was the doting housewife ala Wilma Flintstone she was also allowed to be tough. Just take that example you mentioned before about telling Earl he didn’t care about his whining. You’d never have seen that in the old days. She was a good wife and good mother and there was no need to make her a witch half the time either. She loved her husband and put up with his less than stellar moments without acting nuts.
Robbie Sinclair performed by Steve Whitmire (face),  Leif Tilden (body),  & Jason Willinger (voice)

Moviefan12: We really don't get to know much about Robbie or Charlene for that matter in this pilot episode but from the little bit that we do see of Robbie, we do see that he is smart and doesn't take what adults tell him at face value and is willing to question things and see if that perhaps the olds ways aren't what meant for him as he doesn't consider them the right thing to do.

RichB:Robbie was the rebel always questioning everything and always going against the rules whatever they may be. There isn’t much to say, he may have been the most ”normal” of all the characters.
Charlene Sinclair performed by Sally Struthers (voice),  Bruce Lanoil (face), & Michelan Sisti (body)

Moviefan12: The first episode doesn't really give you a good idea of who Charlene is as a character.   As the series goes on, however you see that she loves fashion and that there really on the surface isn't all that much to her.  To steal a phrase from Rowdy C. Moore, she's basically a teenage girl but with scales.

RichB:Charlene was sadly underused and I never got to know much about her (remember I didn’t see every episode).

Roy Hess performed by Sam McMurray (voice),  Pons Maar (body), & David Greenway (face)

Moviefan12: I remember as a kid that Roy was my favorite character.  He just seemed so likable and approachable.  And even through the brief interaction that we saw of him with Earl in the pilot, it was clear that he has had Earl's back for a long time and will always look for his pally boy as he calls Earl.

RichB:There’ always gotta be the best friend., and as I said before Roy seems to be a step lower on the IQ scale than Earl is.

Arthur Rizzic performed by Brian Henson

Moviefan12: Rizzic only appeared in the pilot episode but as The Muppet Wiki points out, the puppet was used again in other episodes.  And in a lot of ways, it was nice having Brian Henson play a character in the pilot because along with some of the other seasoned veterans, having Jim Henson's son play a character just add a sense of legitimacy to this being a Henson production.  And yeah, sure his character was minor but the reveal that he's Richfield's new assistant after Earl almost ate him is pretty funny.

RichB:He was funny in the pilot I guess, always good to hear Brian Henson


Antagonist

B.P. Richfield performed by Sherman Hemsley (voice) & Steve Whitmire (body)

Moviefan12: B.P. Richfield the head of WESAYSO is just cruel and vindictive and always looking out for numero uno and trying to find ways to make his business better.  I mean as stated,  he tricked Earl into quitting his job.  Granted, Earl got it back at the end of the episode but still.  B.P. Richfield is perhaps the most vile character in the show and that puts him up there with evil bosses alongside the likes of Mr. Spacely.  


RichB:This character was awesome. He was the only one, in the pilot, that sort of kind of was what a dinosaur would have been like if this happened. He's almost scary, sitting behind that desk which was clearly to small for him. Sherman Hemsley was George Jefferson, but I swear he was born for this role. That character was all Hemsley and he rocked every single scene he was in. Aside from Baby that was the character I loved when I first saw this show.

Our Final Thoughts

Moviefan12: All in all, this was a great episode and it highlights how much fun, this show could be.  Sure,  you may not get much of a sense of how good this show will become from this pilot episode but it does a good job of showing what the show could be capable of. 


RichB:This pilot was simply fantastic. A lot of times creators are in such a rush to get the pilot that they don’t make sure the product is truly good. I definitely don’t get that here. Honestly, if I wasn’t told it was the pilot I would think it was just another episode And usually I can smell a pilot a mile away! The characters are all in character, and little to nothing was changed. The one thing may have been the Baby’s personality getting fleshed out more, but that's certainly forgivable. Another thing missing is characters that would later be added like the kickass grandma..but that’s a story for another day. Bottom line, fantastic pilot to a fantastic series.

Moviefan12: I'd like to thank Richb for joining me for this look at the pilot of this classic '90s sitcom.  Join me tomorrow as we continue the Dino-Rama as we travel to Reefside as I do something different as I look at the first two episodes of...

Power Rangers: Dino Thunder