Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Looking at my collection of “sit-com” TVD’s I have to laugh. I watched The Cosby Show way back when, Family Ties, Sanford & Son (one of the few I’ll still stop to watch if I catch it on), and others, but for the most part I’ve grown bored with that type of show. Currently there aren’t any I watch on TV, and what I have in my collection can barely be considered Sit-Com genre: Simpsons, ALF, and now Dinosaurs. Now that you have some idea of my tastes I’ll fill you in on why Dinosaurs is worth my time.

In some ways this show is very much the stereotypical sit-com family. In a lot of ways the Sinclairs are very similar to the Simpsons, and with some variation the Tanners and other TV families. There’s the middle-aged father, a not-too-bright blue collar worker with more than his share of weight on his bones who, despite what flaws he may have such as being a bit gruff around the edges, is unquestioningly devoted to his family. Then there’s the attractive (used relatively in the case of dinosaur puppets, of course), self-assured wife who is the voice of reason and brains of the collective parental unit. Two kids, a boy and a girl, who face the challenges of school and whose driving ambitions are to hang out with friends. The baby, who in this case is pretty much the star of the show, the father’s bachelor best friend, the father’s overbearing boss, and Grandma who doesn’t approve of her daughter’s choice in husbands.

In the Simpsons they’re all cartoons, in ALF they’re housing an alien, and in Dinosaurs they’re all… yep, you guessed it futuristic ectoplasm… just kidding! They’re dinosaurs living in prehistoric times. Think Flintstones with the roles of Fred and Dino reversed. OK, maybe that’s not the best analogy since Earl only has a pet human for 1 episode, however, humans are kept as zoo animals and used in TV shows in the same way Mr. Ed was. Plus there are creatures living in the fridge and garbage can, pterodactyls dropping the morning paper from the sky, and that sort of thing. Much of the humor is from the same kind of thinking as Flintstones: modern concepts presented in ancient context. The Mr. Ed as a human joke is a perfect example. We also get to see the prehistoric version of Funniest Home Videos, crazy TV salesmen, wrestling, zoos, and even Ninja Turtles (just a poster, not actual turtles - or cavemen in this case).

While the prehistoric parodies are probably the main reason I like the show as much as I do, the comedy is not limited to that. There are plenty of laughs coming from the situations as well such as Earl’s clash with Baby (not the mama!), Earl’s clash with Fran, Earl’s clash with the kids, Earl’s clash with his boss… hmm, I think a pattern is forming here… How about Baby trying to eat his own tail or playing with fire.

The show is loads of fun although the actions often feel more staged than natural. Many of the bits parts are played by dinos that look and act pretty much the same although I suppose that’s forgivable in the grander scheme of the laughter. You do have to get past the fact that you are watching puppets rather than people. It’s kind of cartoonish even though it’s technically live-action. If you like cartoons that’s not a problem, if you’re not so keen on them you may not enjoy the show that much.

I do think that the show gets old after a while. As much as I laughed I couldn't watch the whole season non-stop. I needed breaks to watch some real humans and some more gripping stories.

Content:
We’re dealing with dinosaur puppets so revealing clothing is a non-issue (nobody wears pants). Sexual innuendo is so tame it’s bland though some dino issues can be metaphorical for human sexuality. The show does deal with drugs on a couple of occasions, but again it’s veiled by being put into dino terms. The language is probably the most questionable thing. It’s not terrible, probably not anywhere close to the Simpsons, but there are a couple of words in most of the episodes.

DVD:
Some aspects of the TVD are terrific, some are painfully annoying. I’ll start with the packaging as usual.
The art motif is creative. The box cover is Baby in his shell. The box comes apart to reveal Baby’s head sticking out of the shell, then the rest of him as the picture on the disc case is revealed when you remove it from the box.

The disc case is the first annoyance. I’ve seen a few releases do this, and I’m stunned because it is such a terrible design. There are 4 discs. When you open the case there are 2 on the left 2 on the right each pair stacked on top of each other. So to remove disc 2 you first have to remove disc 1 then replace it only to have to remove and replace it again when disc 2 goes back into the case. Who came up with this design? You’re fired!

Put in disc one and you’re immediately treated to the set’s second major annoyance: 30 minutes of previews, warnings, and such. I want to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2, I really do. I’m already talking to friends about when we might be able to catch it, and if it’s as good as the first I’ll definitely buy it on DVD when the times comes. But despite my interest I DO NOT want to have to sit through the preview every time I want to watch a Dinosaurs episode! Sure you can use chapter skip to get by, but then there are just more previews. If I can skip it anyway how detrimental to sales is it to just put a link on a menu and let me decide for myself if I want to watch it or not?? All this does is aggravate me. And when the movie has come and gone, it’s still going to play and say “Coming soon to theatres!” on my TVD. Thank goodness this is only on disc 1. The others have only a logo and a warning so it’s not so bad.

After the crapidity of all that at least there are some amusing interface elements. The screen looks like a cave wall. You’re holding a torch (with an animated flame) and looking at “ancient” paintings of the shows characters.

Are you like me? I tend to skip past the opening credit sequences when watching a TVD show. Dinosaurs makes that easy, just skip to chapter 2, you won’t miss a moment of the show. I don’t know why ALL TVD’s don’t do this, and I love this set for it. In addition, each episode is divided in half and a 4th chapter is the end credits.

To add to the whole archeology theme there are dinosaur eggs scattered liberally throughout the set. They are short clips of various types. Some are behind the scenes things, some are trivia segments, and others are Earl interviews. Since you may want to hunt them (and they don’t seem to be hard to find) I’ll group them together in a list so you can skip it if you want to.

**MINOR EGG SPOILERS**
Here’s how many I found on each disc:
1: 3
2: 2
3: 3
4: 2

**MAJOR EGG SPOILERS**
Here what I found and where:
1
Collection intro by Brian Henson: main menu: the egg in the title
Inside The Suit: main menu: by Earl’s neck
Name Origin Trivia: bonus features: Baby’s chin
2
Earl’s Favorite Dinosaur: set up: Richfield’s watch
Record Trivia: Episode page 2: between 5 & 7
3
Earl’s Take On Life: main menu: in the flames
Pants Trivia: set up: Roy’s stomach (very funny)
Baby Puppet: Episodes page 1: Baby’s hand
4
Name Trivia: Episodes page 2: o in episode
Scrapbook: set up: by Earl’s neck (hosted by the man in the Earl suit)

**END EGG SPOILERS**

Other Extras:
-There’s a behind the scenes feature that deals with the origins and making the show.
-A concept gallery is hosted by the artist and shows the creative process behind designing the characters.
-There’s also a few previews and a DVD registration that will let you replace damaged discs and get mail from Disney.

Episodes:
Most shows have a pilot episode. Dinosaurs evidently had a pilot season. Season 1 is all of 5 episodes long which is why this set covers 2 seasons. This is disc 1.
Season 2 is a more standard 24 episodes and makes up the rest of the set. You may not get boocoodles of extras, but you get a whopping 29 episodes to watch!

Season 1:
1: The Mighty Megalosaurus: Earl tells Baby about domesticated dinos and the struggles of family life.
This one is stiff and dry. As far as quality it’s the worst of the set though still worth watching.

2: The Mating Dance: Fran is tired from being up with Baby. She’s about to snap, and Earl tries to figure out how to make her happy again.
This starts to pick up with better sound, and better flowing of story and action. While the comedy is good the quality is still not at the same level as other episodes.

3: Hurling Day: Old dinos are thrown into a tar pit and it’s Fran’s mother’s time to go. Earl is ecstatic but the family doesn’t want Ethyl to go. The show
starts hitting stride pretty good here.

4: High Noon: A huge dino has his eye on Fran and challenges Earl to a fight to the death. Earl prepares to die as the old ways and domestication clash.

5: The Howling: It’s time for Robbie to become a man by howling. He doesn’t understand the meaning behind it so he can’t do it. When he refuses everyone thinks the world will end since that’s what they been taught. It doesn’t, of course, but trouble begins brewing in the tempers of all male dinos.
This is one of my favorite episodes. It has a great story and some of the best jokes. That ends season 1.

Season 2:
1: The Golden Child: Baby grows a horn which legend says makes him king of the dinos. The attention goes to Earl’s head until the elders take Baby away. Earl realizes how much the boy really means to him.

2: Family Challenge: Fran is tired of TV keeping her family from talking. Shortly thereafter the TV is destroyed by a meteorite. To win a new TV the family enters a game show, but the teamwork threatens to pull them closer together as a family.

3: I Never Ate For My Father: Robbie doesn’t think he’s cut out to be a carnivore, but being an herbivore is taboo. Earl takes him out to teach him about the food chain. He learns the hard way when a giant swamp creature eats him.

4: Charlene’s Tale: Charlene is self-conscious about her yet-to-develop tail. She gets a prosthetic, but it doesn’t help. Earl has a hard time with his little girl growing up.

5: Endangered Species: Earl buys an endangered species (still alive) to eat for his anniversary dinner. Robbie realizes that these are the last 2 of their kind and sets out to save them.

6: Employee Of The Month: Robbie doesn’t want to dissect a caveman at school and brings it home. Earl is named employee of the month and honored by his boss coming to his house for dinner.

7: When Food Goes Bad: Baby lets the spoiled food out of the fridge. They haunt the house like gremlins and threaten to eat the kids.

8: Career Opportunities: Robbie is told by a job counselor that he’s meant to be a tree pusher. How does everyone express their disappointment without making Earl feel bad?

9: Unmarried With Children: Fran meets a divorced woman then finds out her own marriage license is expired. Earl’s poor memory prevents a renewal so he moves out. Fran turns to her divorced friend for help coping while Earl searches for a way to salvage the relationship.

10: How To Pick Up Girls: Robbie wants a girl but doesn’t know how to go about winning one over. He meets Spike who teaches him all the wrong ways to get female attention.

11: Switched At Birth: It’s Baby’s birthday, and Fran realizes she has the wrong nest. Could she have the wrong egg, too? Baby looks more like Mr. Molehill and his kid looks like Earl.

12: Refrigerator Day: A Christmas-like holiday brings a likewise similar bonus which Earl is looking forward to. Even Richfield is in the spirit, or so it would seem. The Sinclairs are about to learn the true meaning of the season.

13: What Sexual Harris Meant: Monica applies for a tree pushing job. Harris makes veiled advances and fires her when she doesn’t reciprocate. She decides to fight back in court.

14: Fran Live: Fran has an idea for an advice show and ends up on TV. The family is not so sure they like her being gone, but the money is good. They must all decide what their priorities are.

15: Power Erupts: Robbie comes up with an idea that could revolutionize the generation of heat and power. Now he’s in a battle against big corporations who want to retain control of the industry.

16: The Clip Show: An archaeologist looks for clues about dinosaurs with clips of the show punctuating his findings.

17: A New Leaf: Robbie leaves home after fighting with Earl and finds a plant that makes him feel better… way better. Now everyone is centering their lives around the plant, and it’s destroying their lives.

18: The Last Temptation Of Ethyl: Ethyl is dead and in the afterlife. So Earl buries her only to find out she’s not dead afterall. Ethyl becomes a celebrity talking about her experiences.

19: Nuts To War I: Pistachios are running low because sauropods encroach on the area where they grow. Now an army is put together to face them down. Robbie wants to negotiate, but aggression is the answer most want. Meanwhile Baby carries on his own battle against the cookie creature.
Set up as a melodramatic mini-series, it has it’s own credits and bumpers.

20: Nuts To War II: Fran has sent Earl and Roy to the front lines to find Robbie. The government is publishing propaganda, but Earl is no longer buying into it.

21: And The Winner Is: Baby is to be named "Ugh Ugh I’m Dying You Idiot Sinclair." The naming elder dies and Richfield is running for the position. He chooses Earl to run against him for an easy win.

22: Slave To Fashion: Charlene and her friend want desperately to fit in with the popular crowd and think an expensive coat will do the trick. The coat is intelligent and begins helping Charlene become a socialite at the expense of her old friends. Charlene is reduced to stealing to remain fashionable.

23: Leader Of The Pack: A dino gang has whipped Robbie. Spike offers to help and lets Robbie join a rival gang. In a twist of fate he ends up the leader. Now death is the only way out.

24: WESAYSO Knows Best: The company wants a family image and the Sinclairs become the spokes family. The photographer, though, likes Roy’s look better and swaps him out for Earl. The company responds by forcing Earl to move out. How can Earl keep both his family and his job?

Final Thoughts:
Overall I think that ALF is a better show. The writing, comedy, and acting are all better. If I were going to get one show and not the other that would be my choice. However, I think most fans of ALF would like Dinosaurs. If you can catch it in syndication that’s your best test of interest. The set shows some creativity, and the extras are nice. I still feel like the set is a little over-priced, though. So many TVD sets are dropping in price many of which have longer episodes and more extras. The one thing that helps justify the cost is that there are more episodes than you’ll find in most other sets. For that I’ll give it 4*.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older