TGIF Series: Dinosaurs, Revisited

Do dinosaurs make the best satirists?

It depends who you ask (Dani or Katie). Listen in for our thoughts as we rewatched and revisited the 1990's Jim-Henson created sitcom, Dinosaurs, part of the iconic TGIF primetime lineup. 

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Chapters

• 0:01 Welcome Back & Recording Fiasco
• 2:22 Why Dinosaurs Mattered On TGIF
• 4:42 Henson Vision: Tech, Puppets, And Cost
• 10:40 Creature Shop Secrets & Awards
• 16:55 Voices You Know, Controversies You Don’t
• 22:45 Merch, Disney Parks, And Missed Movie
• 27:10 The Unaired “New Plant” Drug Episode
• 30:20 Rewatch Starts: Pilot Impressions
• 34:20 Identity Metaphor: “I Never Ate For My Father”
• 38:40 Sexual Harassment Episode And 90s Parallels
• 43:10 Censorship Spiral In “Baby Talk”
• 47:45 Flat Earth Lesson And Classroom Control
• 52:10 Finale “Changing Nature” And Extinction
• 56:20 Star Ratings, TGIF Next: Boy Meets World
• 1:22:40 Cookies, Algorithms, And Sign-Off

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Generation in Between, a Xennial podcast where we talk about all kinds of things related to being 80s kids and 90s teens. My name is Danny. Hi, I'm Katie. And you are with us today for the next installment in our TGIF series. We're gonna talk about the show Dinosaurs. But before we do that, let me tell you guys what just happened to us. We were an hour into recording this episode and realized we weren't actually recording the episode. So we just sat here for a fucking hour with all this great episode fodder for nothing. Talking into mics, talking into nothing, into air, and uh having some great information that now we're going to restate while we are recording. I mean, so just to be fair, guys, we had a we had a practice run. Yeah, so maybe this will be the most perfect episode they've ever heard. No, let's not get their hopes up because it's still us. Oh, it's still us. I cannot even you, I'm not kidding. We were almost done. It was like we're the rap. Well, we were gonna talk about the episodes. We didn't do that yet. No. So our genuine reactions to the episodes have not happened yet. Correct. So there is that. But all my research and facts have already been said. So let's see. Do it again. All right, we're gonna do this again, but this is new info for y'all. I mean, to be fair, we've done this before where we had to re-record, especially the time we had Jamila and we had to re-record her whole episode. Remember that? Yeah. What a nightmare. I know. I felt so bad having to ask her to do that. It's one thing for like us to have to do, I know, but it's another thing when there's a guest. I mean, listen, she has her own business, she has several businesses and has five kids and homeschools them. And it's like, I am so so like to have her to have free time in her day. Twice. Twice. I felt so bad. Anyway, so at least it's just us and our day. Yeah. So who cares? Right. Um, all right, guys, so let's jump in. Dinosaurs. So if you do not know this show, let me tell you a little bit about it first. Dinosaurs was an ABC sitcom, it ran from 1991 to 1994, and it featured anthropomorphic puppet-based dinosaur characters, and they were created by Jim Henson Productions, Michael Jacobs Productions, and Disney. Michael. Yes, I was saying Marc Jacobs earlier, and I was like, Who's Marc Jacobs? And Katie was like, It's a fashion designer. And then we were like, but what was his name? And I thought it was William. All right, it's Michael, and we could have just not told anybody that because nobody was here, but that's fine. Uh, the show was set in 60 million BC and it focused on the working class Sinclair family tackling modern social issues with satirical humor. All right. So, Katie, did you watch the show when it was on air? Yes, but not religiously. I remember liking it, I remember it, but um, when we were re-watching, I didn't release the episodes we watched, I didn't remember much about. And new characters kept surprising me. I'm like, oh yeah, there's a grandma. Oh yeah, there's a bronzosaurus that lives next door. So I didn't remember much. I didn't retain much from this show, whatever I did watch of it. I was wondering because I was like, Katie, Katie could Katie's a hit or miss with with puppets, guys. Like she likes Muppets, but not all of them. Because you did not like Labyrinth. Oh. See? Yeah. And I don't think you're gonna like Dark Crystal when we when we watch that. Okay. Are we saving that for Halloween or is that an all-union? No, it's a whatever. It's a whatever. I mean, it's dark, but and I'm shocked now that I that I liked it when I was a kid as much as I did. Okay. And Cooper saw the preview and he was like, I am not watching that. It is creepy. Yeah. Anyway, we that's on our list. I will say a positive critique of this show was was the artistry, was the puppets, was the way that their faces were very nuanced, and even just like the set. Like, I because I'm watching it and had to keep reminding myself, this is all actually real stuff they built. I know. This is not like a green screen or a CGI or anything like that. This is like people in these outfits performing actual, not trees, but like a set. This is a set that they're on that someone built, right? Not a backdrop. And that part is kind of like, wow, yeah, that must have taken a lot. Yeah, and it did, and it cost a lot of money, and we'll talk about that. Uh, I know you would appreciate the creativity of it for sure. But I was like, let's see. Well, y'all know I love this show, and I do remember watching it. However, I don't remember it having such social commentary that it had, probably because it went over my head, I think a lot of it. Because I was like middle school age when this show was on. Um, but I did enjoy it because y'all know I love me, I love me some puppets, I love some animatronics, which this is kind of like a mix. Uh love it, love it, love it. But I know Katie's hit or miss. We never know. It yeah. Looks like a miss from her face, guys. This was not my favorite rewatch. I I think I was halfway through the episodes and I was like googling, is there a way to speed up playback on Disney Plus? Can I make these go faster? And right away it says, no. Unless you install a thing and another thing and you're on Chrome and I was like, never mind. I mean, to be fair, I did that for Full House. See? All right. There you go. Um, anyways, so we'll we'll talk more in detail about our opinions on it all when we get to our rewatched episodes. Uh, but for now, let me give you some more facts. So the show was inspired by dysfunctional TV families of the 50s, 60s, and 70s, like the honeymooners and All in the Family, which All in the Family has a fun connection to this show. A little bit later, we'll talk about. Uh, Jim Henson wanted to make something familiar to audiences, but also something that they had never seen before. Which, listen, Jim Henson is probably one of the most creative people of our time. Oh, definitely. Because I just love the way his brain worked. It is just fascinating to me. Um, fun fact, I have a lot of random fun facts thrown in my research. I tried so hard to be linear and cohesive with my research, but I don't know how well it went. I mean, we already read some of most of it. I can say pretty well listeners. It went pretty well. All right. Because sometimes I just throw shit in and we see what happens. It was highly organized. Okay. So I am organized chaos today. I feel like that is that is I need a shirt that says that. The the like research in the notes are organized. The actual recording of all the things chaotic. Are we still recording? Uh yes. Okay. We're gonna just keep checking every five seconds. Yes. Okay, so here's a fun fact: the Sinclair family was actually biologically impossible, not because they could talk and wear clothes and all these things, but because they were all different species of dinosaurs. So Earl Sinclair was a megalosaurus, which they talk about in one of the episodes. Um, his wife Fran uh was an Allosaurus, and the children are just completely made-up species that were made up just for the show. Um, which I kind of like the fun colors because nobody knows what colors the dinosaurs were. No. They could have been hot pink for all we know. Um, so I like that they kind of gave Charlene like some purple and like did you notice that? I love that. Like there were like little highlights in her horns or pins or whatever. Yeah. It was cute. So the grandma, Ethel, was originally going to be a pterodactyl that hung in a closet. Oh my god. Where they would just like open it every now and then and she'd say something like what was it? Um, but she became more of a core character who was in more scenes and more things. And plus, I think some of the animatronics are not animatronic, the puppetry stuff was a little more complicated. So they just had her be a different dinosaur. Yeah, and I mean she really is an integral part. I know, like even the ones we watched, yeah, particularly like rolling into the scene, like part of her comedic timing is when she rolls in, when she rolls out. Like she'll say like one thing and then disappear. I don't know, which I feel like the closet would be like everyone else in control of when she's talking and not her. Yeah. So that was just a little our first, our first fun fact of the day. Fun fact. Okay. Um, so Jim Henson actually passed away in 1990, and it was a year before the sitcom went into production and premiered on ABC. Um, but before he died, he was working on the show and he was working with designer Kirk Thatcher to develop all the characters and the ideas for the show and some of the episode ideas and all of that. But when he passed away, his son Brian Henson became the co-executive producer of the show. And then also he was a key figure in the Jim Henson company itself and in continuing the development of dinosaurs. So he kind of took over for his dad, which I think is kind of cool. Yeah, that is cool. Um, so Brian actually said this we talked about this already, but we're gonna talk about it again. It's actually kind of funny and also kind of question mark. Um, he speculated that his dad was originally inspired for the idea of this show about dinosaurs, partly because of some commercials he did in the late 60s and 70s for LaChoi Chow Main. Did you guys used to have that at your house? We did. Us too. Yeah, we totally did. So good. Uh he created Delbert, the La Choi Dragon. Delbert the dragon. I just love it. He was a full-bodied puppet character, meaning somebody was in it, um, who was kind of clumsy and he kind of gave that bull and a china shop vibes, just like Earl Sinclair does in this show. Okay. Frank Oz was actually the person inside the puppet suit, and Jim Henson was the voice of Delbert. Okay. And Frank Oz actually was quoted as saying he hated being inside that suit because he was used to puppeting outside of a suit. Yeah, right. So he did not enjoy that. I'm sure it was very hot. There was no technology like we have now with the fans and the AC and all the things. Um, Brian has said this the La Troy dragon just wrecked everything. And I think my dad always thought that was a hilarious character. I think maybe dinosaurs has roots in that, which you can kind of see with. Oh, definitely. Yeah, absolutely. And just the way those costumes are made and the the shapes, it's kind of geometric, yeah, you know, and spiky in a way, which I haven't seen Delbert the dragon, but I would imagine it's a similar video. Do a little Google image search real quick because I feel like we I should have put a picture of what he looks like. Yeah. But just put Delbert the La Choi dragon. And if you are um, listeners, if you are somewhere where you can Google not driving a car, go ahead and Google it car so you can see what he'd be looking like. I found his oh yeah, look at him. He tell everybody what he kind of looks like. Okay, that's not what I expected. Well, it was the 60s. True. Um, it almost looks like little pieces of felt that are scales, but they're red, pink, and white. It's like a Valentine's Day vibe, but I guess that's La Choice colors. And he's wearing a chef's hat and he's got like a very big, like goofy face and like one tooth in his mouth.

unknown: 11:43

I think.

SPEAKER_00: 11:44

I don't think you have one tooth. Is that a tooth? I don't yeah, I think it's just his bottom tooth. I don't know. I don't know either. Anyway, he's awfully cute. Yeah, he's just goofy. He's kind of a goofy dragon. Oh, yeah, he has upper teeth too. Yeah. Katie said he has one tooth. I guess you only need one tooth to eat Lechoi. I don't know. Oh, so I mean, the cultural appropriation there is yucky, but it was almost better now that I've seen him that he doesn't really look like a dragon. Right. Like an actual Chinese dragon. Right, like an actual symbolic one. He looks kind of like a big goofy stuffed animal. But is that better? I don't know. Anyway, moving on. Uh, it's also said that Jim Henson also got inspiration to finally make this show when he was working on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies, which came out right before Dinosaurs.

unknown: 12:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 12:34

Um, he he worked on the first one and the sequel. So, um or actually I don't know. Hey, I think he died before the sequel came out, but maybe it was already in production. Probably. So or at least the creative part had just started. Yeah. So they used in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles uh what is called the Henson Performance Control System, also known as Big One. So this is something they created in Jim Henson's creature shop, which was I won't give you. Do I not hold on? I thought I had, yes. Nope, just kidding. I thought I had a more detailed explanation, which I did have because we talked about it earlier. I'm just gonna give it to you in my words. Basically, the head and the costume were two parts. So an actor would wear the costume, like the body and the head, but the head could be controlled remotely all the facial features, like the eyebrows, the eyes, the mouth, and everything. A different person controlled that. Okay. So they had a body actor that was puppeting inside, then they had another puppeteer operating the performance control system with the face, and then there was a voice actor who had recorded the voice ahead of time. Got it. So then they put it all together. Okay. So they could kind of like play the voice that was pre-recorded and match that with what the body and the face was doing. Yes. Now I have no idea how they did that with sound editing, like while they were filming. Yeah. So I don't know. I didn't look into all that bit of it because I don't know. Um, actually, this puppeteering technology, which enabled um characters of any size or shape to have like more detailed and nuanced expressions and more realistic movement in their face, it won an Academy Award in 1992.

unknown: 14:27

Cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 14:28

One of the scientific and technical awards. Okay. Which I think is unfair that they don't ever publicize the, I mean, televised, not publicized. Right, right. They're listed somewhere. Yeah. But yeah. So they do get their, and they they aren't, they aren't even like at the same award ceremony. They have their own smaller one. Yeah. I noticed that for the Grammys. We watched the Grammys on Sunday, and and I'm not joking. I think they only gave out like five or six awards. I don't ever watch the Grammys, because I'm so out of it. Even some performers, they were like, oh, and this person won a Grammy earlier at our other ceremony. So like, and it was and it was like Lady Gaga or something. I was like, hello. But she also won one there, but like it was like it was like they only took like the top five or six really popular categories, and everything else had already been handed out earlier in the day. But there was tons of performances, so I wouldn't complain about that. But like this is the Grammys. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Another fun fact. Speaking of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, fun fact there is a poster in Teenage Son Robbie Sinclair's bedroom of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Cavemen.

SPEAKER_01: 15:34

Hello.

SPEAKER_00: 15:35

That is just a little Easter egg um referencing Jim Henson's work on that show. It's cute. On the movie, I mean. Um, so like I said, these advanced puppeteering techniques that were created and used on dinosaurs were actually really groundbreaking for the time because they were used on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and then they were kind of updated and they kept evolving with this show. And um, so like I explained, there was an actor who wore the costume and it was like a foam latex skin. So it's probably pretty heavy, if I had to guess, and probably pretty hot also. Oh my gosh. Yeah, and then there was another puppeteering with radio controlled mechanics for the face. Um, the full size, I I forgot to say this earlier when we were recording the first time. Round one, but y'all don't know. So the full-size dinosaur costumes had two parts. I said that already, the body and the head. Um hold on. Okay, this is the part I forgot. For close-ups, if it was just the head, they would just take the head off the body and film the head while they were puppeteering it. So why? I don't know. I guess because it's just easier not to have to get the actor all up in the shit if they just need you to have the face. That's true. Or maybe they did it post-editing when they're like, we just need a close-up in this, right? You know what I mean? Right. I see what you're saying. Like after the fact. Yeah, okay. Um, Creature Shop supervisor, a man by the name of John Stevenson, was actually given a super short window to build the first 10 characters for the show. He had 10 weeks. Yeah, and you think about the elaborate detail of each one, each character, you have 10 weeks. Yikes. Wild. Um, no one actually got to peek behind the curtains of Jem Henson's Creature Shop while the show's entire first season was being produced. Because co-creator Michael Jacob, Michael Jacobs, not Mark Jacobs, everyone, who is also a designer in his own right. Correct. Um, they didn't want to spoil the magic. So he said this. We said all along for the first season we would have no press on set because we didn't want to blow the integrity of the show for kids. I didn't want the press around because the angle would have been to take pictures of these creatures with their heads off. It's like Alf. Do you want to see pictures of Alf or somebody's hand up Alf? I mean, some people might. I wasn't going to have it. It's the kids who come first, and I didn't want to blow the fantasy for kids. Yeah. So let me let me clarify that there were still some puppets that were the typical hand puppets, like the news anchor whose name was whatever hand up me. Hand up me. Like the smaller guys were still hand puppets. And like the ones that they would like be ready to eat a couple times in the floor. Like in the fridge and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So some of the smaller, smaller ones were still hand puppets. Um, so Brian Henson actually hired the best puppeteers in the business to perform on this show, and some you will know by name. So let's talk about some of the all-stars. The first one is Steve Whitmeyer, who was Kermit the Frog and Ernie. Then we had Gonzo performer Dave Goals and Kevin Clash, who was, of course, Elmo, and also voice Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He was the voice of Baby Sinclair, which sounds just like Elmo. Yeah, so Elmo, okay. So Elmo obviously got super popular at the end of the 90s. He already existed. He was in the he was on Sesame Street at this time. So they it was like the exact same voice. I know. Why? I don't know. Because this man can because at first I thought, well, maybe it's this voice actor that can only do this voice, but you just said he did Splinter. Splinter, right. I mean, I guess it matches a baby voice, but like the second one. I heard it sounds just like Elmo. I was like, and I'm wondering, like, when it first came out, if I if I would have heard Elmo as much as I hear Elmo now. Do you know what I mean? Well, Elmo, when he first the only reason I know this guy is because both my kids went through an Elmo obsessed phase, of course. Caden was like hella, hella obsessed. Um when Elmo first came out, he was not a featured character on Sesame Street. Right. He was just there sometimes, and then he grew in popularity, and then he was got to be huge. Well, that's what I'm wondering. Yeah. Because this might have been a good thing. So he was on Sesame Street there, but not like the phenomenon that Elmo later became. I think that's correct. Okay. But here we go. I have a not fun fact to share. Oh no. So Kevin Clash, uh, you said earlier you did not know about the controversy associated with him at all. Um, I was aware of this. Um, he became a subject of significant controversy and was deemed problematic in 2012 due to multiple allegations of sexual relationships with underage males. I know. It's disgusting and horrible. Uh he denied the allegations, and lawsuits actually were eventually dismissed, some for some reasons and some due to the statute of limitations, which I think is a gross law. I don't like it. Especially when it comes to children. I know. Because you have to give them literally all the time in the world to be able to come forward with that stuff. I know, I know. Um, and the scandal actually led to him resigning from Sesame Street. Well, he would have probably gotten fired. Yeah. But he quit before they could fire him, pretty much. And it wasn't necessarily underage males associated with Sesame Street. I don't know. It was I didn't dig into the details. I'm just curious. I don't know. So we're gonna just I had to say that. Just gonna and now we're gonna move on. Move on. Okay. Um, okay, so the let's talk about the puppetry on this show. Creature shop supervisor creative supervisor Dave Barrington told Holt, Dave Barrington Holt. He has two last names. Gotta have that. Sorry. For some reason that was really important. Listen, I mean, y'all better say my whole name when I give it to you. You have two names. Well, if I had three, I think you better say them all.

SPEAKER_01: 21:38

All right.

SPEAKER_00: 21:39

Okay. So he told the Chicago Tribune in '94 that each episode of Dinosaurs, one episode, guys, took 65 hours to produce. One 22 minute episode. I mean, that seems like a lot. I also have no like comparison point. I have no idea how long like a normal TV show. Well, I mean, it's still a lot. 65 hours and what does that mean? 65 hours is is that collective of people? Because that's not that many. Girl, I don't know. Or is it like what do you mean? Like 65 hours dispersed amongst a hundred people. Well, well, I don't know, because it said at its peak there were 90 people working on onset to meet the deadlines. Yeah. I don't I'm I'm maybe they're just like it's actively in production by however number of people for 65 hours. You think too hard about numbers. I know. It takes me 55 to produce one of these. That isn't over. Just today. We don't have 90 people helping us. We have us and Brandt. Right. I don't know. I mean, he must have said it because it's a very high number. Right. He said this though. I mean, he said we would work pretty long hours. We'd start at 5 a.m. and last till 2 or 3 a.m. Wow. We pretty well worked around the clock. The shooting side of things can get pretty intense, and at night we'd make repairs and then get ready for the next day. Dang. Okay. Yeah. So listen, that's a lot. I don't know. All right. So we're talking about the costuming and the puppetry. This is a little fun fact in regards to that. So you know how Earl Sinclair does a lot of deep sighing.

SPEAKER_01: 23:16

Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 23:17

Well, that's not just for character development of him being an exasperated dinosaur dad. Um, Bill Baretta was the performer inside the suit. He said that he needed to open Earl's mouth constantly because that was the only way he could see where he was going. Oh my god. So he the head of the costume um sat above his own head and it didn't have eye holes. So he had to look through the mouth while he was talking, or he had to let out a sigh whenever he needed to move around. Now, I don't know how he translated that to the person operating the doohickey, yeah, or the voice actor. It was probably yeah, it was probably just predetermined. Yeah, sure. Like, hey, and here we're gonna sigh, and here we're gonna whatever. And this is when you've got to walk over to the couch while you're sighing. And that's why also why he was kind of clumsy is because he couldn't fucking see. Okay. And as somebody who's worn a mascot outfit, guys, who is short and can't see, and I don't feel like telling that whole story again, but she's been a mascot. I I wore the Falcon costume for my kids' school last was it last year and the year before? They didn't call me often because I so short. And the the poor falcon had like no legs, it was just like body and feet. When it was you when it was supposed to have legs, it was supposed to have like long yellow what um yeah, little little stems there, and uh it just had feet and a body because that was so short. Torso and feet. And I could not see it was so hard, and I had a handler, and they'd be like, There's a kid by you, because I couldn't, like you have no like you have no depth perception, you can't see below. You I could barely see anything. And those things are hot. Are they? Oh man, man. They I'd be I would be dr you know, I'm a big sweater anyway. I would wear like a tank top and running shorts underneath. I'd take it off and it would I'd be drenched. Oh, disgusting. Yeah, it was gross. The things you do for the children. Well, not much. I gotta be in a costume. So anyway, um, that was my little fun fact. So even though dinosaurs was targeted at a family audience, and we're gonna talk more in detail when we do our rewatch chat, the show touched upon a lot of topical issues, which include, and this is not all of them, uh, things like this environmentalism, which we said is addressed a lot, obviously, um, endangered species, women's rights, sexual harassment, LGBTQIA rights, objectification of women, censorship, civil rights, body image, steroid use, allusions to masturbation in the form of Robbie doing a solo mating dance, drug abuse, racism in the form of a dispute between two-legged dinosaurs and four-legged ones, peer pressure, rights of indigenous people in the form of dinosaurs interacting with cave people, corporate crime, government interference and parenting, and pacifism. Wow. That's just a short list. Yeah. And I mean, like I said, when I was a kid, I don't like distinctly remember, but maybe that was the point. Is so they just taught you without you knowing. Right. I think so. Yeah, and we talked about that a little bit in our TGIF kickoff too, right? Where when I was like, when dinosaurs say it, people listen. And they're like, What? What? I yeah, yeah. There's something about that. And I don't know, maybe I was just thinking while I was reading that, maybe I didn't notice it is because I grew up in a pretty progressive house where it was talked about anyway. Right. Like nobody I was not shielded from current events. Like when the sexual harassment episode, which was one we rewatched, it was during the Anita Hill trial. I looked it up to see. Yeah, and it was it was, it was the same time. And I remember my parents talking to me. I mean, like, they didn't shield me from things. We talked about it, and my parents were pretty liberal, so like it was I mean, I don't know. Like, that wasn't unusual for me to hear about those things. I also feel like there I just remember hearing a lot of rhetoric around that time around those things still. Um, that was direct, you know, things about um not so much um the LGBTQ, all of that yet necessarily, but definitely like women's rights and environmentalism and all of that. I remember just kind of being around that age and hearing it more in in media, in schools, in our public schools that we went to or whatever. Yeah. I mean, I I was also very lucky in that. I mean, I would say my parents had very diverse friend groups and people that were in our lives to where these issues were relevant and real because we knew people in the LGBTQ, you know, um world and we knew people who were working in the scientific field for I mean, my dad was um an oceanographer that studied climate change. So like right, right, you know, right. So that was like his job. So anyway, I was just thinking about that. That popped in my brain while I was like, maybe that's why it didn't feel so like yeah, like heavy-handed. Like I'd already been talking, I don't know. Anyway, so like I said, this was a very um did I miss something? No, okay. I'm using the touch screen on Katie's computer, guys. You guys, she's doing it. Evolution, like she's doing it successfully. Well, you shouldn't have said that because excuse me, now I mean you know who's not a dinosaur? You're so proud of that. I've made Congress in my life, you know? Okay, so okay, because Dinosaurs was one of the most ambitious projects on TV, the cost was super high. Oh wow. I mean, you think about the intricacies for one character's costume, that's it. And then the set. Oh, fun fact about the set, I forgot to write down. Um, none of the furniture had actual um seats, they just had handles because they just it was just an illusion that they were sitting, they were just kind of crouched, the actors. Really? Yeah, because I think it couldn't, they couldn't sit with the tail and all that. Yeah, and you can't tell when you're watching, but that they weren't okay isn't that funny? That is funny. Okay, so it just had um I said handles, I meant armrests.

unknown: 29:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 29:41

I thought like sorry, I got you now. So armrest. It just had arms. It's like the shape of the couch, it had the back and the arms, but nothing else. Oh wow, isn't that hilarious? Yeah, that's funny. So, anyway, okay, so the cost was high to the point where they had to early release the first six episodes on VHS. Wow. So you remember how a show would be out for a while and then you could buy like the first season or whatever. This was before streaming, youngins, all right? You had to wait. Um, they released it ahead of schedule in 1991. So that is pretty early. That was like in its first season. Yeah. It wasn't even done yet. Oh my gosh. Um so what did we say his name was? Michael Jacobs. Michael. Okay. Michael Jacobs. He said this. Uh, we never dreamed the show would be as expensive as it is. The video cassette release is very early. He said this in '91 because based on getting some of the money defrayed. Yeah. So it probably worked too. Probably. They also use the characters as promotional tools at Walt Disney World in Orlando and at Disney MGM Studios. So smart. I mean, it's owned by Disney, so why not? Um, also Disney MGM back then in the 90s had um very interesting characters that weren't necessarily related to Disney. Right. Like they had Roger Rabbit, who was not Disney, or he was and then he wasn't, or something like that. It's like Warner Brothers or something. Yeah, and then they had Ninja Turtles. Um, and then they had something uh Dick Tracy was there. I remember the Dick Tracy stuff. It's like so fun. So anyway, which honestly actually wasn't very kid friendly either. Dick Tracy? Yeah, was it not? It was, I'm pretty sure it was PG 13. Oh. Anyway. Scandalous. It was the 90s. What are you gonna say? All right, so um, speaking of money, ironically, there wasn't a whole lot of merch made for this show. That's so surprising. I know. They did have um some McDonald's Happy Meal little plastic figurines during this time. They had a baby Sinclair doll, of course, that talked and said, not to mama, and gotta love me. A plus. A plus. You sound great. I know. I did not like this baby on the rewatch. She can't stand it anymore. She has to say it. I I can't hold it within. I can't wait for when we talk about the rewatch. I was so annoyed by this baby doll. I know, I know. He is kind of annoying. And like, and like the scenes would go on forever, like the one where he bites his tail. And then I'm like, at the end of the show, it I see the tail creeping up on the back of the high chair. I was like, I said out loud, oh no, not again. Please end this bit now. But anyway, sorry everyone. I'm I will recompose it. She had to get that out. She'd been waiting for two hours. I feel so much better. I feel so much better. Okay. Um, uh, but Milton Bradley did make um a board game based on the show in 1991 called Dinosaurs Gotta Love Me. So I don't know what the premise is. That would be really fun to do. That'd be fun to get our hands on that. Patrick and Dina, if y'all ever see that, snatch it out. That and Girl Talk. Oh, girl talk. We need it. We need them. We need them both. That that game's gonna piss me off. Girl Talk. Oh my god. I want the little zits, the little. Well, I don't need those. I have plenty on my own face. I don't need to wear fake zits, okay? All right. Anyway, a video game for Super Nintendo was in negotiations in 1993, towards like the third season, I guess. Um, but it never got made. Uh, several games based on TV shows were developed during that time, but they got really crappy reviews and they didn't sell a lot because the games they made had nothing to do with the TV show. Like it was they they weren't like connected. So people would buy the game and be like, what the hell? This has nothing to do with the show. So the fad kind of wore off, and then they never made the dinosaurs game. I see. It would have been cool though. I think that would have been a cool one. Yeah. Yeah. Um, there's also talks of a movie during this time, during the fourth and final season. Disney was considering a feature film spinoff. I don't know. They never said if it was gonna be like a TV special or a straight to theaters or straight to VHS or whatever. Um, but since the series had declining ratings uh and it got cancelled, they never made the movie. So it was only in talks. There was never like a script or anything. I just feel like all this time and money that we're already talking about that went into the puppets and the set. It's already there. Do it. It's already there. You know? And I I I get that there's like a zillion cards that go into a movie, and you have to pay the actors to be there more and the puppeteers and all the things, but you're sort of like halfway there already. Like just make the movie. I I'm not saying I would have wanted to watch this movie, nor would I have wanted to re-watch it. But from a purely business perspective, I'm like, it would have been a terrible movie. However, how are you should I? Oh, speaking of, so my sister um did not my sister did not listen to a lot of our Christmas episodes during Christmas season because we were going through it, and I told her like it might be hard for you to hear like the Christmas memories. So she was just catching up. She had shoul shoulder surgery, so she was watching us instead of bench washing. I love it, I love it so much. Uh, and she said, yes, she did take me to the movie theater to watch Muppet Christmas Carol. She did. She did. Cute. So because remember, I couldn't remember. You were like, I think I saw in the theaters. Was it with my sister? And like I said, we didn't have a lot of shared interest because we were seven years apart. But the Muppets were a binding factor. Speaking of your sister, you never showed me that pink leap leech on her. Never her dog. Okay, my sister got a new baby dog. I was re-listening to her episode and I was like, She didn't show me the dog. I will show you pictures of the baby dog. Sorry. Thank you. All right. I'm so sorry. I've been holding on to that for a whole week as well. She's like, show me the fucking puppy. Okay. So let's get on to um some of the people who did the voices. Uh, there were several voice actors for each dinosaur, so I'm just gonna hit one for each character. Like the main one. The main one. Okay. Um that well, one ones that had a lot of episodes. I'll just put it that way. So we'll start with Earl Sinclair. This was voiced mostly by Stuart Pankin, who you would know if you saw him. Uh, he was a popular comic actor and voice actor. Uh, he guest starred on over 300 TV shows. Dang. And he voiced characters on cartoons like Animaniacs, Hey Arnold, Lelo and Stitch, Aladdin, Darkwinged Duck, and Cow and Chicken, to say a few. Dang. Okay. Um, he was also a star on the HBO political current event satire show, not necessarily the news. It came out in 1983 and it was on until 1990. And I remember the show because I remember the first time we got cable and we got a subscription to HBO. And my dad used to watch this because he was really into um SNL and like satire comedy stuff. So I remember him watching this and I recognized this guy from not necessarily the news. And of course, it was the 80s, so I watched lots of things I probably should have. That he was probably in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 36:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 36:46

Uh he was also um in Fatal Attraction. He played Michael Douglas' character's best friend and he played the sheriff in arachnophobia. Okay. Which is a movie I shall never watch again. I don't know that I've ever seen that movie. Oh my god. Are you scared of spiders? I'm not watching it. No, ma'am. I'm not scared of spiders. Then you can handle it. Okay. It is John Goodman plays the uh pest control guy. Okay. But oh my god, if you if you have any kind of creature creep out bug-wise, bugs, bugs are okay. I I I don't think I could watch like Anaconda or anything like that. Snakes freaking. I ain't watching that neither, guys. Uh but go ahead. You you you can watch that. I ain't doing it. Nope, nope, nope, nope. Maybe moving on. Uh Fran Sinclair, you know this one. Yeah, Jessica Walter. Jessica Walter. As soon as I heard her start talking, I was like, it's Lucille from uh Arrested Development. Yeah. Lucille Bluth. Yes. And that's where a lot of Zenials know her from. Uh, but she was also in Babylon 5 in the early 90s, the TV series, and she starred in Clint Eastwood's directorial debut in the 1971 movie Play Misty for Me. Okay. So she was around a while. She actually died in 2021. I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah. When you said that earlier, I was very sad. She um she's I've seen her guest star on a lot of things. Yeah, she's been in. Like I've seen her on like a law and order once. I was like, isn't that Lucille? And then like she was on an NCIS um just from a couple of years. Well, I guess it was obviously before she passed away. So not like our super old one. And and she kind of has that same as she got older, she kind of got typecast into the kind of attractive, sexy older woman who likes to drink a lot. Let's go. Yeah, that was that was her. Cast me. Every time you'd see her, that was the role she was in. And she was great at it. She was great at it. Love that, love that, love that. I love it when actresses have a very long career. Me too. That's really I me too. Because it's hard to do that. And and like in the case of Arrested Development, she was playing someone her age who was like hilarious and beautiful and wonderful and just so good. Love it. I and notice I say actresses because males act forever, but women get discarded sometimes way too earlier than we need to be. Yeah. Anyway, okay, so let's move on to Robbie Sinclair. I really couldn't find a lot about anybody who did his voice, but the main guy who did his voice was a guy named Jason Willinger. Uh I there wasn't much about him except he did some voices in a goofy movie in 1995. His voice was so familiar to me. I I was like, it's gotta be somebody I know. Well, and we I said this to you earlier was he reminded me of Michael J. Fox. And it maybe I think he sounded like him to me to the point where I thought it was him. Yeah, he does sound like him. And he does like all like the Alex Keaton and not Alex, well, Alex Keaton also from Family Ties, but also Back to the Future, Marty with the pockets, and the like Letterman jacket and and just the way he kind of like walks. Saunters. Saunters, yeah. I I I okay, that makes sense because I was like, surely this is this has gotta be somebody I know. Nope. Nope. Sure wasn't. Sure wasn't. Um, so the one you probably do know is the voice of Charlene Sinclair, the teenage daughter, because that was Sally Struthers. Yes, Sally Struthers. Most of us know her, most of us Zennials recognize her from the tearful commercial she made in the 80s and 90s for the Christian Children's Fund. Um, but her claim to fame was playing um Gloria, Archie Bunker's daughter, in the TV show All in the Family in the 70s. There it is. Which is funny because she was a daughter on that show, and then she's a daughter on this show, which was modeled after that show. And Earl, you know, is correct, modeled after Archie Bunker. Correct. A hundred percent. Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure. He's a little less. I mean, he's still a chauvinist, but he's a little less than Archie Bunker, was well, yeah. Archie Bunker was like top problematic of all time. Yeah, yeah. Um, anyway, and also he was a dinosaur, so like the chauvinistic stuff. I know also he was a dinosaur, but my point is if you look at that from a symbolic standpoint, right? That these are like archaic ideas that Earl represented. And they fought against him, even the mom and the daughters and all the things. So, all right. So let's move on to grandma, Ethel. Ethel Sinclair. Um, actually, she wouldn't have been Sinclair. She wasn't Sinclair because it was Fran's mom. Yes. So whatever. Ethel something. Ethel somebody, um, was voiced by Florence Stanley, who you know as the judge from My Two Dads. Yeah. That voice man, that's distinct. I love it. I thought it was the person who voiced Roz in Monsters Inc., yeah. It does sound like that. And she kind of looks like her too. I know. Oh, yeah, for real. Doesn't she? Yes. But it's not the same person. No, it's not. It's not. Um, then we have BP Richfield, which was the voice that you probably knew it was Sherman Hensley, who was George Jefferson on the Jeffersons and played Ernest Fry on Amen. Yeah. So he was very identifiable by his voice. Um, and then you have Roy Hess, also somebody you're gonna know once I tell you. Obviously. Once I tell you, the information will you know once I tell you. So that was voiced by the actor Sam McMurray. He was on tons of TV shows and movies from the 80s and 90s, but I always remember him from Christmas vacation as Clark's co-worker Bill. I'm thinking of him standing there with his little coffee mug. A Merry Christmas. Yeah. Wasn't it like a Tasmanian Devil Cup? Or is that the one Clark had? I think Clark had the Tasmanian Devil Cup. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My favorite that's the scene where they're walking by and he's like, Merry Christmas, kiss his ass, kiss my ass, kiss your ass. Yeah. Happy Hanukkah. So good. That's on our Christmas list for next year for our. Oh, we have to. We have to. Okay. Uh, but he, this actor, Sam McMurray, was also in Raising Arizona. He was on empty, he had guest roles on Empty Nest, head of the class, Mattlock, Golden Girls, The Simpsons, Tracy Ullman Show, Who's the Boss, Home Improvement, Blossom, etc., etc., etc. You've seen this guy if you grew up in the 90s and 90s. Yeah, definitely. Um, so that's all about the voice, the voices. Are we still recording? We are. Okay, we're still we didn't jack this up yet. Yes. So now I just have some random facts we're gonna get into uh before we talk about a rewatch. Okay. Katie can't wait. She's got a lot of hate to spew. No, no, I mean, I'm kidding. A minor amount. It's okay. You don't have to like it. I mean, I had plenty of hate about lots of things we've watched. It's okay. True. So the show originally had a laugh track, but it was dropped as the show grew in popularity. And it when you're streaming it, it doesn't have the laugh track. Oh, okay. I was like, wait, okay. But if you watched that first episode, you could probably Figure out where they had it because of like pauses and stuff. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But they dropped it because it is kind of weird. Like, right, yeah. Um, while developing the personalities for each of the characters, co-creator and writer Bob Young actually used his third son for inspiration for baby Sinclair. Now, I don't know if that's positive or negative, guys. Sorry to the son for what I said about the baby. Oh. So speaking of the baby, and you have to look this up later. Actually, while I'm talking, here I go. I want you to. Well, let me tell you this first. So I'm the baby, gotta love me was a huge catchphrase for the show. All right. So they made a song because they had an album, a dinosaur's album, come out called Big Songs. What? In 1992, I swear. They even made an MTV style video for the final episode of season three for this song that it's called I'm the Baby Gotta Love Me. So go ahead and Google that video. So the video for I'm the Baby Gotta Love Me. Yeah, the song was written by the voice actor for Earl Sinclair, so Stuart Pankin, who was a singer and a Broadway actor, also, by the way. Oh my god. He wrote the song. And um just watch it for a second. Oh, and it says DTV. Yeah. You don't have to, you don't have to. But anyway, I just wanted you to see fast forward it so you could see the baby. But basically, they made a music video for the baby and the song that um they wrote just for the show.

unknown: 45:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 45:45

And it was on their little big song soundtrack. So that's hilarious. I know. That is just such a like 1992 thing to do. Well, it was 90, yeah. 92. Like I know. Like we have this hit question mark. Do you remember the Save by the Bell ones they would always do? Those are so good. Those pop up on my feed from here here and there. Um weren't they called like Cherry Sunday or something? Yeah, no, that was not right. No, I think it was Cherry Sunday. That's wrong. It was something with a Sunday. I think it was, but maybe not. But it was, it was um, those pop up a lot. We're gonna have to probably watch some of that too. Yeah, we're gonna have to do a save by the bell. Um, all right, so um baby Sinclair, we're gonna talk about him because Katie loves him so much. But there was a lot of info about him that was fun. He was called Junior or Baby during the first two seasons, but then there was an episode called And the Winner Is, uh, where they take Baby to the Cave of the Elders, which we saw in one of these episodes, yeah. Um, where he receives an official name. Oh god. And the reason it his official name was Ooh Ooh Ah, I'm dying, you idiot Sinclair, which is because one of them was dying while they were giving him a name. But then they were like, but that's what he said, that has to be his name. Oh my god. Uh but anyway, the name later got discarded in favor of baby Sinclair, which became his official name. Okay, so there you go. Um, other names they were can they considered um the dinosaurs considered were Philip for the baby? Because that was his mother's maiden name. Oh, okay. Oh my god, that's funny. Yeah. So his name was Baby. Baby Sinclair. Baby Sinclair. Yeah. Um, another random fact. Uh, when the show was not renewed after the fourth season, the 35 people who worked on the show uh did not want to leave LA and head back to the creature shop's base in London. So the 35 people who were the base of the creature shop in LA, they didn't want to go back to London, probably because they're like, it's cold there. Like hello. LA's nice. LA's, yeah. Um, Brian Henson said the crew were saying that they didn't want to leave. So in the end, we decided we'd have a core of six to eight people there all the time, and then have a full crew on a project to project project-to-project basis. So the LA shop um got assigned to work primarily on TV commercials in the early years, while the London shop continued to do like big movie productions and kind of thing. Um, and then Steven Spielberg hired the LA shop to help them make a little movie called Jurassic Park. Oh, dang. I know. So that kind of elevated their creature shop in LA. And then several more people out of the six to eight had to work there, yeah. So I just thought that was an interesting fact um of the evolution of how that happened. Um let me see. Okay. So we'll live with a few more little facts. The ending of the pilot episode uh begins with the Sinclair's uh window, the the like the panning out of the window, and the very last episode also ends the same way, and it's covered in snow. I see it now. They did that on purpose. Uh-huh. Yeah. The beginning and the end. Oh. Yeah. I mean, the last episode is pretty heavy. It's bleak. Yeah. But I mean, they wanted to do it that way on purpose. Okay. Um, and then there are there were seven episodes that did not air in prime time. Um, because they I don't know why, but they did air them when they were in syndication. Okay. So I don't know which ones are on Disney Plus and which ones are not, but I do know of one that's not on Disney Plus that we were going to watch. And we're gonna chat about that right now. And then we'll talk about a rewatch. So, one episode I know you can't find on Disney Plus because they don't want it there. I couldn't even find a good version on YouTube. I looked and looked and looked and looked. It's really hard to find. I could not find one. Um, was an episode titled A New Plant, which was season two, episode 17. If y'all can find it somewhere, I've seen clips, like I can find clips of it. But not the whole thing. But I don't want to like watch 6,000 clips of each part of the episode. No. So um here basically the plot of the of the episode um centers on the characters pretty much getting high from eating a certain type of leaf that Robbie finds. And yes, it's exactly the one you think it is. They don't say it, but they just like it, and you know that's what it is. Um, and but the whole show centered around uh like metaphors for drug addiction. Um, the episode was made because the neck network was pushing for an anti-drug episode, and they didn't want to make one. They were like, we don't want to do that, and but they kept pushing because that's what you did in the 90s. You sure had to have an anti-drug episode or just say no. Um, the funny thing is they they took a different spin on it. So they showed them like getting high and it being kind of silly, and then it took a more serious turn where they like couldn't stop taking it, etc. But what made it controversial was the ending. At the end of the episode, uh Robbie breaks the fourth wall and he talks directly to the camera and says, Drugs ruin lives, divide families, and lead to preachy, heavy-handed sitcom episodes like this one. Oh damn. And then he says, Stop doing drugs so we can stop making episodes like this. I mean, so they don't stop forcing us to do this. That's what I kept trying to find, and I couldn't find it. So man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I just had to say that's one I really wanted us to watch just for that. Oh, I wonder if we could find it. I tried. I know. We had that one person who told us where to find the original Dawson's Creek on the old TV watcher. I wonder if we could find it on the maybe. We'll have to look. We'll look. So anyway, we just had to dress up. But now let's talk about our rewatch. Katie, if y'all finger case. Okay. I'm grabbing my notes. I don't have many. I have many thoughts. I don't have many notes. I have to say, I still enjoy this show, mostly because I think it's I think it was a good spin. I thought it was a creative way to look at it. It still had the standard sitcom tropes, but it's so stupid because it's dinosaurs in 60 million BC with mod like Troy was like, it's funny because they're still like in 90s clothes. And I'm like, Yeah, well, that's the joke. That's the joke. Like, that's the joke, and it's refrigerators and like modern day issues. But I think also the deeper joke was oh, look, they built this whole civilization and then they destroyed it all. Right. And it went away. And it's taken this long to build it back up, basically. And I think that's the whole message of the show. Sure. As we see in the last episode. I think my biggest issue with it was that it was so slow. What? Yeah, it just didn't move quickly enough for me. I felt like two minutes. Oh, they were so long. Like the bits lasted forever. Like, I just it was like something would not be funny, and it would not be funny for like three minutes. So I watched a couple. Okay. My husband watched a couple with me, and then I said, I wonder if Teague, and that's my 11-year-old would like this because she loves Muppets, she loves all things like this. So last night I tried to watch one with her, and she kept asking how much is left. She's like, How much is left? And I'd be like, Oh, 15 minutes. She's like, Okay. And then we keep watching. I I'm trying to think which one it was. It was toward the end, so one of the later ones. It wasn't the last one, thankfully. She would have probably been upset about that one. Um, and then finally, and then when it was done, we I had told I had to and made her a deal. I was like, when we're done watching this together, we can watch the new Muppet show that has Sabrina Carpenter because it just came out yesterday. Oh, I thought it came out today. It was on Disney Plus yesterday. Okay, I'm gonna watch it today. We got to the end of it and she goes, I think I'm just gonna go to bed. Can we watch Sabrina Carpenter tomorrow? She said no more Muppets. I was like, sure. Let's take it, let's take a hard break. But anyway, that was my biggest thing that it just drugged. Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 54:14

I don't think it drug.

SPEAKER_00: 54:15

But and then I didn't think it was that fun and funny when something was delivered. There were a few times I did laugh out loud. Wow. Yeah. But especially the pilot, I just I the pilot wasn't my favorite. No. I didn't enjoy the pilot as much as I liked the rest of them. Yeah. But I feel like that about a lot of shows. And I know they have to establish who and like how we got to this place. But anyway, okay, so let's talk about the pilot. Okay. I I already said this, but I wrote Robbie Reminds Me of Michael J. Fox. Like, and he did the whole series. And the only other thing I wrote for that I said, oh, look, even dinosaurs can be chauvinists. Oh, big time. I said that on here too. That Earl I said Earl is a chauvinist? Yeah. Question mark. But I feel like it got lesser as episodes went on. It didn't stay as strong. I think they decided to change it. Well, and I guess maybe they're trying to show that as life is happening, his views are changing. Oh, yeah. Probably. You know what I mean? Probably, probably. Um, as you're as your views are challenged, maybe they change. But um, I said, is this newscaster just Sam Eagle? Yeah. Same voice for pretty much. And then um, I already said this earlier. Oh, maybe I didn't say it this time. It was probably when we weren't recording. That the guy who was his friend who was the Rex T-Rex, reminded me of Rex on Toy Story. Yeah. Similar. Oh, did we talk about that on this episode or the other one? I think it was the other one. Well, what I said was Rex, though, in Toy Story was just kind of like goofy and silly, but this guy was just kind of like a derpy. Like, yeah, that's true. It's true. Um, and I just said Elma voice for baby. And the little food guy is cute. The one that he was supposed to eat that then becomes the assistant to his boss. I was like, he's so cute. Except his nose totally looked like a penis. I didn't think about that, but you're right. Now that I no, now I can't unsee it in my brain. I was like, that is so penis-like looking. Yes. Uh, but look, I live in a house of males, guys. They're everywhere. They're everywhere.

SPEAKER_01: 56:13

They're everywhere.

SPEAKER_00: 56:14

All right. So season one, episode eight. Um, so I guess I'll tell say the titles. So the first episode, well, that was a pilot. Season one, episode eight was I never ate for my father. This one was supposed to be a metaphor for sexuality. Yes. You mean like sexual identity? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Isn't that the same? Well, yeah, I guess it is. Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was supposed to be a metaphor. So the whole episode is Robbie saying he's not sure if he's a carnivore. Like maybe he wants to be an herbivore. And his friend, I just I liked the spin on it. His friend was like, hey, you can be both. Like, I go sometimes to the carnivore bar. Yeah. I mean, that the um herbivore bar. And he's like, You do? He's like, Yeah, come with me. And I was like, okay. Like, I like their kind of spin on it. And he's like, gonna try it and see. And then I liked at the end, I mean, we don't, it doesn't matter if we go in order here, but I liked at the end how they decide you don't have to choose. Just she had a plate of meat and vegetables, and she was like, just take what you want, whatever you're in the mood for. And I was like, I love that. Yes. And they kept saying, kept calling um herbivores herbos. I know you're an herbo, and I was like, okay. Um, no, I I I did Herbophobic. Yeah, they're herbophobic. And it was called the salad bar, where they were like hanging out, and he'd like threw a bunch of cucumbers in his mouth. I don't know, it's just really funny. Um, I I I didn't mind it. I like the metaphor. Oh, that was the one I said Tegan asked when it was over. So I guess I watched that one with her. But anyway. Um, oh, when he says uh the when they're in the salad bar. You know why I bet she didn't like that one? Why? Because they were being mean to him. They're being mean and he was sneaking around and stuff like that. She hates anytime someone's gonna get in trouble. I bet that's I bet that was it. It made her uncle. But they had like Bob Dylan type. Oh, I wrote that. I love they had the Bob Dylan dino. And I wrote down he sings this land is your land, this land is my land. So let's pass the thousand island. That was what I laughed at. I was like, okay. I love that. That was a good one. That was a good one. I thought it was, I just like that message because then you see Earl like make a whole like come around. Yeah. Yeah. Where he's like, no son of mine is gonna be. They find the broccoli in his room. Yeah. How long has this been? It's because I didn't cook well enough. So funny. How long has this been in here? I I thought it was funny because they're talking about something without really talking about it. Right, right, yeah. Yeah, that one was that one wasn't. Okay, I but yeah, I bet that's why Tegan didn't like it. Yeah, you're probably right. Too much, too stressful, too stressful for her. Like, oh my god, what's gonna happen? Yeah, right. All right, so then we go on to season two, episode six. This one was a big controversial episode at the time because, like I said, it came out during the Neita Hill Clarence Thomas trial. Uh, what sexual Harris meant. Yes, there is a character that they call sexual Harris. And then all the like news headlines are like, what sexual Harris meant? Yeah. And I mean, this one was very direct. This one was very like, what were you wearing? You're obviously attractive, da-da-da-da-da. Which I guess from a 2026 lens to me was like, okay, this is a little much. But they said those things to her right in the trial. I mean, some of it was like straight from the transcript. Yeah, I mean, they it was absolutely ridiculous. And and I and I mean, through a 2026 lens, girl, people still say that stuff. I know they do. I know they do. I have heard it with my own ears. I think it's the 2026 lens of like a show showing it. It just seemed and also they were trying to source. I don't know. But it was 1991. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But also, like, um, I wrote down when they say uh like how long I don't remember if it was Fran or Charlene or what was the neighbor at the Bronas? Monica. I don't know who said it, but it was at the end of the episode where Charlene was like, she she's like, Oh, you inspired me to like redo my project or whatever. And um, they she said, How long will it take to be seen as equal as men? And I was like, Fuck, we're still right, and this is 60 million BC or whatever it was. We're in 2026 and a show that was made in 1991. Yeah, interesting. Her name's Monica, right? Because that's years before Monica Lewinsky. Yeah, interesting. Well I loved like her like styling, the Bronnosaurus. I know, and and it's clear they only have like a head for her, which is funny how they did. They only had a few shots where they show the outside of the house and they show her body. Yeah. But I liked how she had like the the neck scarf. Yeah, like she really did look like a realtor from the 90s. I know for a dinosaur. A dinosaur. Yeah. I liked her. But what did you think of the map like how they how they did this one? I don't know. I didn't love it. I I don't know. I I guess you know what it was. I think, and I just it's just now clicked in my brain, the character who was played by Jason Alexander, who's kind of the per sexual Harris, that guy. I don't know look, listeners are gonna write us and be like, you're wrong, but like I don't know how direct sometimes, sometimes that is. Like he was like overly like gross. Right. I think sometimes that stuff is way more subtle. Well, I think it's both. Yeah, so maybe there's examples of both. I mean, I think I think it's both. It almost felt unbelievable. Obviously, they're dinosaurs talking to each other, so there's that. I mean, I will I've been on both sides of it in certain situations where people have made me uncomfortable overtly in a workplace or like a whatever kind of setting, even not a workplace setting. Just in general, yeah. Overtly or not overtly. Yeah. I feel like people have gotten smarter these, and I'm saying smarter in a bad way, right, in how to say things so they can't be used against them. That's what I think I mean. But I think it still happens, yeah. And people are more careful now because we have videos and audio, we can record you at any time. Right, right. And that didn't that wasn't a thing then. It was it was your word as a woman or whoever against theirs. Against the person. And guess what? Yeah, women weren't believed, and um not even just women, men weren't either. Yeah, yeah. Anyone in that situation, yeah. I don't know. Okay, that's what she said. That's what I said. Oh, I didn't mean it like that, guys. That's what I said. Didn't mean it on the sexual harassment episode. Like, I did not mean it like that. Okay. So then we move on to the I already know what she's gonna hate this episode. Season three, episode two was called baby talk. Um, and this is when they it this was about censorship, yeah. And the baby hears a smooth a quote unquote bad word that is the word smoo on TV and he keeps saying it. Yeah. And the parents are all up in a tizzy clutching their dinosaur pearls about it. Yeah. And it it just it it goes. What I think this episode did was it shows how quickly censorship um like can become a problem. Yeah, it's a slippery slip. It's a s that's what I meant. Yeah. As soon as you out like when they went to the cave of the elders, that's what I like. They're like, also, like it started with I'm using air quotes, a legit complaint about something that was said on TV. Uh-huh. But then as soon as like they were like, You're right, we're not gonna allow that. Then like also, I'm just annoyed when this happens. And I don't think this is right when this happens, and it's all these opinions all of a sudden that they're then outlawing. I mean, actually that scene I didn't I didn't dislike that much. I was like, that is, and I I wondered like how much of this is a commentary on like anything maybe the show itself had faced. Oh, probably. But also they talk about like, well, that's really they were talking about like, well, it's too hard to be a parent. Like, I just want to stick my kid in front of the TV and not worry. But there's they say, like Fran even says, like, it's our job, yeah. Like, as parents, it's not the the TV networks to decide what we want our kids to see, it's our job. A hundred percent. Which is so true. It's a and that can be said with books, with what you watch. If you don't want your kids seeing it, that's your business. But if I want my I don't care if my kid sees it, that's my business. It ain't my job, it ain't the TV's job or the library's job to censor for you. I agree with that. Unless, and I mean, I don't know the exact unless there is some damaging I mean, uh what I don't even know what what is the free speech exact wording. Yeah, I don't know either, but it is a fine line. I mean, and it is, uh, and it and it's and I think it's always good to question it. And you should always know what your kids are consuming, just not for a moral value, but just because you need to know that's your job as a parent. Yeah, yeah. And and you need to be able to talk to them about it. And honestly, I would much rather my kid read a book about whatever than go on fucking YouTube and pull up. You know what they can pull up on YouTube? Oh my gosh, anything, anything. That is the thing. I'd rather you read books and have art. Like, I took Coop Cooper and a friend of his with us when we install Book of Mormon. Your daughter was with uh I mean, she's almost 18, but anyway, like one of my friends we ran into there, and she's like, I can't believe you're really like Cooper's here. And I'm like, I mean, I'd rather him see this in a like it's it's with his parents and it's performance art. Right. And it's satire. Sure. And so I'd rather him see this than go on YouTube and pull up some dumb crap. Like, right. It's like well written. It's well, it's funny. It's not yeah. And that's me. And if there's another parent who doesn't agree, that's that's fine. Then don't buy the ticket. Right. You don't go. But you don't get to say I can't bring my kid. Right. Even some of the things we do through my studio, I just clearly mark it. Oh shit. And I will say, like, if I post about it personally, like I'm we try to be super clear about the stuff that is not for kids. Right. Now, do you want to do you want to bring your 14 or 15 year olds? We'll let you. Right. But like, this is not like we have youth programs. This is not it. Right. And even when I like personally post about that stuff, I will say, if you have questions about this, message me. Yeah. Call me. And I will, I've had conversations. They're like, well, what about this or that? And I'm like, this is what we talk about. These are the words that are said. There's sexual innuendos or whatever it may be. And and then it's on their plate. And I am not offended if they're like, oh yeah, I don't think we can do that. That's for everybody. That's your choice. That's your family's choice. But like, I want you to have the information, but we're not gonna not do it because it is art and there is space for all art, right? Absolutely. So I liked the messaging of this one. I think what I didn't love, it was just the baby just drove me crazy. But I guess it happened. But then it was like relatable because we have all had those moments where our kids or our toddlers oh god say the wrong thing. Whether it's a bad word, whether it's like mommy did this or that, or you know, like um a friend of mine who's a kindergarten teacher had posted before out like in her Instagram. She's like, if you have a kid in kindergarten, your teacher knows literally everything about you. Like, not all every bad thing, every good thing your teacher knows. And so, I mean, that part was relatable, but I was just like, this baby. I know. Well, and I always say, like, everybody has a different like category categorization for words. So I don't think there's bad or good words. I just like speaking of curse words, okay? Yeah, obviously, uh, I don't control my mouth anymore like I used to have to when my kids were smaller, but I do say to my kids, there are some words that are just not for kids. And for us, our family. I do have friends that never censor language from the time their kids are babies, and they don't do it with their speech or with their kids' speech or music, and that's their business. They do explain though, like maybe don't say that at school, or like I always just said, because because one of my kids who is my youngest likes to challenge me and be like, he would be like, Well, how come you can say that word and I can't? I'm like, Well, I'm an adult and you are not. Like when you're older, like some words are for me and they're not for you. Sure. So this is the same kid who heard the F-word on the bus in kindergarten and went to his art class and said, Guess what, everybody? I know the F word and it is fuck, and here's how you spell it. I love it. So I was like, Oh good. I wish And then he didn't hear it from me, shockingly, because I used to control my voice, my words a lot better. And of course, when I was like in the evangelical church, like, yeah, oh, God help me by a son. Um, but uh anyway, now I don't worry about it. Our rule was always like say what you want at home. Yeah. But there's a reason you can't say it here or there. And you society, if you say it, your teacher will get upset with you, your friends' parents will get upset with you, will have you know, and so we will have to talk to you about it if that happens. Yes. But if it slips out here or you're frustrated and you say it, now my youngest is 11 now, so at this point, it's like whatever. But um, that worked pretty good. I got a call from a teacher once on my son, and she even said, like, he's not in trouble. I just heard it like it was in a moment of frustration. I think it was the F word, but it might have been the S word. And I don't remember. And she was super nice about it, and that was when I had to say to him, Remember what I'm sure she's he was in like fourth or fifth grade. Um, and I was like, But your teacher's saying if she hears it again, then and so like we can't pret like protect you. I that might be too strong of a term, but like you'll you're gonna get in trouble. Well, certain places have consequences, absolutely, you know, and that's kind of what we always just kind of said was like you if you feel safe at home to say whatever, then go ahead. And and you couldn't direct it, you couldn't call someone a B-bird, and wouldn't say F kind of a nice but if it's just like a like a exclamation because of something going on, then that's okay. Like I heard my oldest say something to his brother, and I was like, Don't you should never curse at people. Like, don't just like obviously I have no business like saying don't curse because but but yeah, but like people is different, don't curse at people because that takes on a whole different totally different you know, like but anyway, all that to say, it is not the TV's job to uh teach my kid, right? Right, so yeah, that part was interesting. And if you don't like something, don't watch it. And I mean, adults, same goes to you. You don't like it, change the fucking channel. Or you don't like what you see online, scroll, go away. Like block it. Scroll. Do you know how often I do that? Ooh, me too. So much. Thankfully, at least online, our algorithms kind of adapt to what we are doing. I don't my algorithms, y'all. I don't know what's going on with yours, but I mostly shows me things I want. Can I tell you? I got this ad, I almost sent it to you. I was like, what from the things we look for for a podcast, and then like just other random, I don't know. We know a lot of performer people who do a lot of different things, and I will click to see what's up. I have the weirdest, and my my Amazon, because I buy costume stuff. Yeah, y'all, the things it recommends to me. So crazy. Me too. I'm sure you're safe. It's like, here are these feather sunglasses and also a microphone. Like, what? Am I Elton John? I don't know. All right, so we're almost done. Okay. Season um, oh, did you all did you laugh in Earl in pants, by the way, in that episode? Oh my god, that was so funny. And the way he was walking. And he was like, You think this is funny? Look what you have to wear in his fucking pantyhose. Oh my god. And she's like, what man designed this? I was like, yeah, bitch. Yeah, she's right. She's okay. Season three, episode nine, is called Charlene's Flat World. Yeah. Again, challenging what can be taught in schools and what can be said in schools. She had to come up with an original idea. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's her assignment? And which, first of all, she was so upset about. She's like, just tell me what I need to know. Yeah. Um, and so then her she had a dream. She had a muse. That's right. And the muse had wings. I know. I was like, are muse'an angels? I don't think so. And but it was also like the Bob Dylan guy from the bar. They reuse a lot of the puppets that are fine characters. I understand that. But I I just laughed because he was like, oh no, I'm at the wrong per person. Like he was supposed to be Copernicus. Yeah, Copernicus. And I'm like, oh, that'd be me if I was a muse. I'd be like, oh shit, I'm at the wrong place, the wrong time. I'm supposed to be at the philosophy. The wrong species. And then they show Copernicus eating like peanut butter brownies or something. Which, first of all, that sounds good. I know I'm hungry. We need a brownie. Starving. I I know when we messed up our episode, I was like, Do you have any candy? And I don't, and I had all these dang Girl Scout cookies that I had at rehearsal the other day because I was trying to get because I bought them to be nice, like I don't really I don't really like cookies in general. I know I'm not this is not that surprising. I didn't know you didn't like cookies. I don't really like cookies. So, but I of course want to support the Girl Scouts and my family likes cookies, but I bought like four or five boxes, so I opened them at a rehearsal the other day and I was like, whoever wants to take a cookie, and people took a few cookies. I would take a whole box. But we were also like singing, so people are like meh. So I ended up taking the rest of them home because I didn't want to eat them here. I should have kept them for you. Shh. I love, love cookies. Anything with chocolate, those coconut ones are the best. The caramel delights. Oh yeah. I actually do like those. I will eat liter Troy is so good with Girl Scout cookies, he will only let himself eat two a day. That's smart. What? That is lunacy. Two a day? Get out of here. When there's a box, I kind of want to hide a whole box for myself because I will eat that in a couple days. Oh yeah. Which I'm not saying that's a smart choice, guys. It's not a good choice. It just is. But I that's like Oreos. I love them. I can't keep them in my house on a regular basis. Yeah. I can't stop myself. And they'll be like, nobody else likes them in my house. Like they'll eat them, but they don't love them like I do. Right. Like I love Oreos. They are a man-made- I always say they're my favorite man-made food product. Yes. There's nothing. And Skittles are my favorite. Yeah. All chemical. Yeah, all chemical. Just love them. We would have done anything for an Oreo and a Skittles after we realized we weren't recording. Oh well. Here we go. Then she had the gumption to tell me she had Girl Scout cookies here and left them somewhere else. And then I was like, wait, I don't have them. That was terrible. That was the worst. Okay, anyway. I I was laughing at a lot of the quotes in this episode. Uh-huh. Like when they're in the courtroom, and I think it was the doctor or the lawyer, and he's like, disagreeing with the majority in a democracy. I was like, that was really funny. And also, this is unrelated to anything important. I love how they had the earrings on the dinosaur's head. Me too. Because dinosaurs, like they just had a lot of them had just like the hole, like and they just stuck it in their head. And they changed them up. I know. It was so cute. I thought it was like I thought it was a good costuming choice. Um, also, I wrote this big brother theme for this episode hits way too close. Where they're like in the classroom and they're being recorded, and yeah, especially right now. And the government is deciding what can be said and done. And it's just so guys, it was another censorship one for sure. It was a lot, and I was like, wow, how things change, and yet don't. And then don't. Yes, then don't they slide backward. I did have to laugh when it was like 80 days later. I know. And they walked around the entire world. The entire world. She's like, Well, I'm back. And they're like, Yay, you were right. It wasn't flat. Because that was gonna be her punishment, right? She's gonna have to jump off the end of the world. They couldn't find it. Only took them 80 days. 80 days is that giant dinosaur clodding across the whole earth. Also, aren't there oceans? Like, what? Isn't clodding? It's Pangea. Wait a minute. Oh, right, because it's all connected. But also, you said clotting around like blooding. No, like clod. Clod. I thought you said clotting. No. It was like gross. No, clotting. Like, like, you know, clod hoppers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a D, not a T. Yeah. I just heard a T. I feel you. All right. So now we're on the last episode. Yes. Bleak as bleak. And this was actually like a super controv, it's called Changing Nature, and you can imagine what happens in the end. Uh, this was a very controversial episode. Not really in a bad way, but people were like, that that's like they people have said it's the most depressing way to end a show. Oh, for sure. But I think it I think that they said they wanted to do that the whole time. They obviously didn't know when the show was gonna be done. Like I'm sure they hoped for more than four seasons, but they said that was the plan the whole time was that was to end it with their extinction and to have them being the ones whose fault it is. Wow. It is powerful. I mean, like the climate changes, they can't find food, and like you said, they're just kind of in their home, and they zoom out from the window, and everything's like frozen and like yeah, bleak. Uh I said, what a metaphor. And then I put, well, even male beetles can be creeps because he was like super creepy, that little beetle. That beetle, yeah. It's like hitting on the teenage girl, yeah. Gross. Um, and she smacks him at one point. Yeah, I there was some good quotes in this one too. Like they said um they were declaring war on nature, yeah. And then they said it's so easy to take nature for granted, and technology is so shiny and new. Yeah. Yikes. It was almost kind of like a Twilight Zony Black Mirror vibe episode. Like they go to find like where this the bees or the beetles are, the beetles, and it's like a corporation. It's a corporation making fake fruit, making fake fruit, ironically, yeah. And then the last scene of the episode, they show that sign where it's still there, it's still there, but like covered in snow and like frozen. Yeah, it was definitely bleak. Yeah, I thought it was a good way to end it though. It really was. And it I mean, it was like, and again, it continued with their social messaging, their metaphors for humans, like we're destroying our own planet. We still are against nature. Yeah, we're like we don't appreciate nature, we take it for granted. And they said, like, we take it for granted until it's not there anymore. So you can't go outside, or you have no fresh air, or you right, you know, and it's true. And we're so true, so true. Yeah. Yeah, I thought that was a pretty good, pretty strong way to end it for sure. But you still don't like the show. Not really. Are we giving stars? Oh, we can't. I think we forgot to do that last time. Well, okay, so what would you give step by step then? That's not a star. That's what I give it. Give it a one. A one. Wow. I hate that show. It was not good. I would probably give it like a three. Right in the middle. Oh, yeah, I didn't I didn't mind. Giving it a five. No, a three for step by step. Oh. This one? I'd give it a one. I'd give it a one. Crazy. I you know what? I would give it a two because I the puppets. And I do like I did like the last episode. I thought that was very brave. Giving it a five. Five.

unknown: 1:20:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:20:16

It still entertains me. Hey, listen. I was still entertained. I love, I love Jim Henson's creations. Yeah. I love even now his company's product. I mean, I love what they do. I think it's I will watch it. It's so creative to me. I still think it's fascinating that there's somebody in there and somebody else is controlling the thing. And I love it. That that automatically will give you lots of stars in my book. And also, I thought it was creative writing. Is it perfect? No. But was it as annoying as the other shows? No, because they're puppet dinosaurs. Okay. So at least it was fun to look at. That's true. That part is true. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Probably my favorite part of the dinosaurs was watching when they would open the refrigerator. I know. Every time I would laugh. I like all these little games coming out. I liked a lot of the camera angles they did too. Like where they had they were in the fridge. Yeah, that was a few. Or they like had it, you know, from a different perspective. Yeah. I did like a lot of that. Yeah. But um I five for me. Okay. One for me. We are gonna do Boy Mate's World next time. Yes. And I think that might be it. And then we're gonna do a sum up episode. Uh-huh. Where we just chit-chat through all the things, through it all, maybe like some resummarize our star ratings. But we're not gonna remember. Oh, I can re-listen and write it down. She's in all her free time, everybody. I think for Boy Mates World, what I'm gonna send you are some episodes and also some of the podcast episodes. Oh, okay. Since they have like their own little remote where they have people on. Because I think that informs some of the history of the show too, through the words of the people that did it. And they have a really good podcast. Um, but we didn't do that for step by step. I know, I didn't know until I was already researching it. It was towards the end of my research. True. Okay. Maybe just one or two episodes. We'll see.

unknown: 1:22:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 1:22:10

All right. Well, thanks for listening, guys. And um, we'll see you next time for TGIF and uh Generation in Between. And we recorded this whole time. We don't have to do it. If we had to record this a third time, we'd have to just wait. I'd quit for today. I'd wait till we had Girl Scout cookies and Skittles to refuel, and we'd have to start over. And we have, or it may have been one where we record at night, and when we record at night, we drink wine. We may have just had to come back at night for that exact reason. Yes. All right. Well, thanks guys, and uh, we'll see you next time. Bye. I'm waving even though it's vodka.