Dinosaurs | |
---|---|
Genre |
Family comedy-drama Puppetry |
Created by |
Michael Jacobs Bob Young |
Voices of |
Stuart Pankin Jessica Walter Jason Willinger Sally Struthers Kevin Clash Sherman Hemsley Florence Stanley Sam McMurray Suzie Plakson Christopher Meloni |
Narrated by | Gary Owens (Nuts to War: Part 1 & 2) |
Theme music composer | Bruce Broughton |
Opening theme | Bruce Broughton |
Composer(s) |
Bruce Broughton Ray Colcord |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 4 |
No. of episodes | 65 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) |
Michael Jacobs Brian Henson |
Producer(s) | Michael Jacobs |
Running time | 23 minutes |
Production company(s) |
Michael Jacobs Productions Jim Henson Productions Walt Disney Television Buena Vista International |
Distributor |
Buena Vista Television (USA) Buena Vista International (non-USA) |
Release | |
Original network | ABC |
Original release | April 26, 1991 | – July 20, 1994
Dinosaurs is an American family sitcom comedy television series that was originally broadcast on ABC from April 26, 1991 to July 20, 1994. The show, about a family of anthropomorphic dinosaurs (portrayed by puppets), was produced by Michael Jacobs Productions and Jim Henson Productions in association with Walt Disney Television and distributed by Buena Vista International, Inc.. The characters were designed by Henson team member Kirk Thatcher.
News stories written at the time of the show's premiere highlighted Dinosaurs' connection to Jim Henson, an American puppeteer who died the year before. "Jim Henson dreamed up the show's basic concept about three years ago," said a New York Times article in April 1991. "'He wanted it to be a sitcom with a pretty standard structure, with the biggest differences being that it's a family of dinosaurs and their society has this strange toxic life style,' said [his son] Brian Henson. But until The Simpsons took off, said Alex Rockwell, a vice president of the Henson organization, 'people thought it was a crazy idea.'"
In the late 1980s, Henson worked with William Stout, a fantasy artist, illustrator and designer, on a feature film starring animatronic dinosaurs with the working title of The Natural History Project; a 1993 article in The New Yorker said that Henson continued to work on a dinosaur project (presumably the Dinosaurs concept) until the "last months of his life."
The television division of the Walt Disney Company began working on the series in 1990 for CBS before the series landed on ABC, which Disney eventually acquired.
Dinosaurs is initially set in 60,000,003 BC in Pangaea. The show centers on the Sinclair family: Earl Sinclair (the father), Fran Sinclair (née Phillips - the mother and Earl's wife), their three children (son Robbie, daughter Charlene, and Baby Sinclair) and Fran's mother, Ethyl.