History Series / Dinosaurs

The entire series was added to the [[Creator/DisneyPlus Disney+]] service on January 29, 2021.

Now with a [[Recap/{{Dinosaurs}} recap page]].

* LaughTrack: Employed against the wishes of the producers by ABC for the first few episodes, before (thankfully) being abandoned. The Netflix and DVD version of this show is thankfully laugh track-free.

* KidAppealCharacter: Baby Sinclair. According to the writers, Baby's nature as the trope gave them freedom from network interference and the ability to cover weightier topics.

* BittersweetEnding: For a family friendly show, a good number of episodes end on this note. Usually when the Sinclair start an upshake in their society that could actually make the lives of their species better, the WESAYSO corperation usually swoop in and undoes their effort in the name of greed or maintaining their power. At best, the family learn a good lesson and at least break even with a few small victories.

* BrokenAesop: "Earl's Big Jackpot" has Earl get injured after Mr. Richfield made him work unpaid overtime in the dark of night and he gets fired after he asks for some paid leave. This results in Earl reluctantly suing Richfield and gets $800 million dollars in damages. The story then turns against Earl as his court victory is the result of the jury being petty and bias against rich people, Earl's is portrayed as being incompetent and increasingly selfish with his newfound wealth, and Richfield fires all his employees and raises his prices sky high to recoup his losses. The overall moral of the episode is seemingly suing your corrupt, abusive boss and getting a big pay day from it is wrong and only hurts everyone else.

* FourFingeredHands: Earl acknowleges this fact in "A New Leaf", wondering why the numeric system goes to ten when dinosaurs only have eight fingers.

* InstantlyProvenWrong: When Earl's and Fran's marriage turns out to have expired and they can't get it renewed, Earl tells the children, who are complaining to him, that no one is happy with the situation. Que Ethyl coming through the door in her wheelchair and making victory laps on the floor while gleefully singing about how "happy days are here again - my daughter's free from Fat Boy!"

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Spike is generally considered to be a troublemaker and a bit of a delinquent. However, he is genuinely concerned for Robbie's well being, and has on several occassions gotten him out of serious trouble.

* StayInTheKitchen: All adult male dinosaurs (Earl included) have a very low and sexist opinion about females, as they always expect the latter to stay in the house raising kids, preparing the meal, and doing other ungrateful jobs, while they work in factories and whatnot. Indeed, the idea of a indepedent female having a real job sounds so foreign for them that it almost borders to heresy.

** The Sinclair family's name comes from the Sinclair gas station, which has a green dinosaur for a mascot. Earl is name after Earl Holding, the company's owner. Earl also wears a shirt of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Sinclair Sinclair clan's]] tartan.

** Earl himself is shown to be very conservative in his beliefs, belitting Robbie's iconoclasm and Monica's feminism as "left-wing".

* ThoughtCrime: Challenging accepted dinosaur wisdom is not only frowned upon, several episodes show that it punishable by death. A game show contestant is [[KillItWithFire sentenced to be burned at the stake]] for saying that the Earth revolves around the sun, and both Charlene and Robbie are nearly executed for doing it (extenuating circumstances spare their lives).

* WeatherSavesTheDay: On one episode, the Sinclairs are about to be burned at the stake for refusing to follow a new religion based on worshiping a potato. Just as they are about to be set on fire, it starts raining and the flames are put out. Not only does this save the Sinclairs, it also proves that the potato religion is false.

-->'''Earl:''' When I was your age we didn't have lawn mowers, we didn't have scissors, we had to get down on all fours and graze like a cow.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Almost every recurring character is a dinosaur.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: It's a given, considering that nearly every character on this show is a dinosaur.
* EvilLawyerJoke: In "Life in the Faust Lane", the devil retorts to Earl's remark about needing a lawyer that he is the king of lawyers.

* AnAesop: Many episodes have one. Some have a SpoofAesop (such as "A New Leaf", where the moral is [[spoiler: not so much "say no to drugs" as it is "say no to drugs or else there'll be more preachy sitcom episodes like this"]]) and some have AesopAmnesia (like in "Monster Under the Bed" where Earl decides that adults should believe what kids say no matter how unbelievable it is, only for Fran to dismiss it as a stupid lesson, and for Earl to decide she's right when [[spoiler: Baby looks out the window [[NotSoImaginaryFriend and sees]] [[NoPeripheralVision a giant squash]]).]]

* CensorshipBySpelling:

* HalfDressedCartoonAnimal: Most of the characters wear everything but pants, and it's not just the men. Fran and Charlene might wear a nightdress if they were going to sleep, otherwise the female characters all are pantsless too. Lampshaded in the [[InformedObscenity "smoo" episode]], when censorship goes amuck, Earl shows that, as part of the push for censorship, the pants that he suddenly is forced to wear, to Fran's horror.

* DysfunctionalFamily: The Sinclairs fit the trope description to a T. Earl is the classic [[BumblingDad incompetent father]], Fran is the [[WomenAreWiser long-suffering voice of reason]], Charlene is often [[BrattyTeenageDaughter selfish and demanding]], Baby is [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling spoiled and often bratty]], Ethyl is the [[ObnoxiousInLaws overbearing mother-in-law]] and episodes tend to focus on the many ways their personalities clash with each other. Robbie tends to be more of a SoapboxSadie than a DumbassTeenageSon, but only most of the time.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: "Charlene's Flat World" suggests that Copernicus theorized that the Earth is round, when he actually proposed the heliocentric system (the Earth and the other planets revolving around the sun). Then again, that never happens on the count of a mix-up so...

The show followed the adventures of the Sinclair family: Earl, the not-too-bright blue-collar dad who works as a tree pusher for the WESAYSO Corporation; his wife, long-suffering Fran; his grouchy grandmother, Ethyl; and their three kids: rebellious teenager Robbie; naïve middle daughter Charlene; and annoying younger sibling Baby. Many of the episodes were allegories of modern social issues, such as bullying, puberty, the environment (a major issue dealt with on the show, if the last episode is indicative of anything), war, sexual harassment/discrimination, government incompetence, corporate greed and corruption, indecency in the media, racism, cultural appropriation, animal rights, religion, and women's rights.

* AbsentAnimalCompanion: In the episode "And the Winner Is...", during a live-by-satellite interview with Earl, Earl reveals that the family now has a dog (in response to Roy's advice that for every question he's unsure of, just say something about children or puppies). It's an especially surprising case since its the one time an actual dog was used (as opposed to having cave people [[AllAnimalsAreDogs acting like dogs]]). Needless to say, this was a one-time gag and the dog never appeared again.

** In "The Family Challenge", after both television sets are destroyed, Earl gets the family to participate on a game show where the prize is a television set. But after spending a month preparing for the game show, they find that they don't really care about television any more. But after getting all the answers wrong, Earl is given the choice of battling the competing father (a mammal) in a sudden death round or answer a question he has no chance of getting right. While the rest of the family wanted the TV (except for Fran, who did not know that the television was the prize), Earl proves to Fran that he enjoyed the time he spent with his family by choosing the question. [[spoiler: He purposely gets it wrong by talking about how he himself learned that family is more important than TV, but then they win a consolation prize, a tiny TV, and soon the family is back to watching TV and ignoring Fran's desire to spend more time as a family.]]

* AnAesop: Many episodes have one. Some have a SpoofAesop (such as "A New Leaf", where the moral is [[spoiler:not so much "say no to drugs" as it is "say no to drugs or else there'll be more preachy sitcom episodes like this"]]) and some have AesopAmnesia (like in "Monster Under the Bed" where Earl decides that adults should believe what kids say no matter how unbelievable it is, only for Fran to dismiss it as a stupid lesson, and for Earl to decide she's right when [[spoiler: Baby looks out the window [[NotSoImaginaryFriend and sees]] [[NoPeripheralVision a giant squash]]).]]

* AssholeVictim: Francois the foreign exchange student in "Getting to Know You". He ends up eaten by Baby, but he was so rude to the family that it is hard to deny he had it coming.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Georgie the hippo in "Georgie Must Die", who acted like a friendly and playful ManChild that loves making children happy, but was really [[spoiler:a ManipulativeBastard who only uses the smiles of children for his own profits to make money and avoid taxes.]]

* BreakTheCutie: Robbie in "Career Opportunities". While getting a feel as a tree pusher, he incurs the wrath of Richfield, and is shown the entire time to be paralyzed in fear. Unlike most instances of the trope, it's PlayedForLaughs.

* CaughtWithYourPantsDown: Fran walking on on Robbie doing the mating dance in his room in "Dirty Dancin'", given that Robbie's habit of involuntarily doing the mating dance is treated as a metaphor for masturbation and sexual attraction and Fran attempts to calm down her startled son by assuring him that what he's doing is normal.

* ChildNamingRequest: Parents can ask a local elder to name a child. In baby Sinclair's case, they unfortunately asked the elder just as the elder was having a heart attack, and the baby's name is officially recorded as: "Augh Argh I'm Dying You Idiot Sinclair".

* ClipShow: Two are done in the series. The first is done in a mock-documentary style where a paleontologist talks about dinosaurs and fossil hunting. The second one features the same guy, and done in a more infomercial type with him trying to sell books on paleontology.

* CrapsackWorld: It's a world where the biggest, strongest, or oldest are the only ones that get a say in matters, and the decisions made are usually terrible. If you are not the absolute apex predator, you always have to watch your back from being eaten by aforementioned biggest and strongest. And don't get us started on what life is like for small mammals.
* DarkHorseVictory: The episode "And the Winner Is..." revolves around the dinosaur equivalent of a Presidential election, with Earl running as an everyman candidate against CorruptCorporateExecutive B.P. Richfield. The winner is [[spoiler:the political correspondent who anchored the election coverage, by a landslide write-in vote]].

* DealWithTheDevil: Earl once traded his soul for a mug with a devil. Fortunately, [[spoiler:the mug came with a guarantee of refund for unsatisfied customers which Earl found when the devil was about to collect. Earl's refund came as a ResetButtonEnding that made time come back at the moment the devil showed up to offer the deal in the first place]].

** When Earl was made employee of the month in "Employee of the Month", Mr. Richfield said he'd invite Earl and his family to dinner at his place but, since he was doing some alterations in the bathroom (or so he said), he invited himself to diner at Earl's place. With an overinflated ego, Earl had his family ready for this and even invited his [[ObnoxiousInLaws mother-in-law]] to rub it in her face. Richfield didn't show up.
* TheDinosaursHadItComing: [[spoiler:In the last episode, the dinosaurs go extinct due to a chain of events that started with them [[GreenAesop destroying the breeding grounds of a specific species of bug]]. When they try to fix the damage to the ecosystem, [[FromBadToWorse they just make things worse.]]]]

* DumbDinos: The dinosaurs, especially the main cast, are generally well-meaning but tend to be slow on the uptake. [[spoiler:They end up responsible for their own extinction.]] Ironically, one of the show's aversions of this trope is a ''Brontosaurus'', a common victim of this stereotype.

* EscalatingWar: The two-parter "Nuts to War" miniseries, made in response to the Persian Gulf War, where a petty territorial dispute over the rights to pistachio trees escalates into a full-blown war between the two-legged dinosaurs and the four-legged ones. In the end, there was only one two-legged casualty, [[spoiler:but it turns out Robbie is okay]].

* ExactWords: The house gets hit by a '''meteorite'''. Earl says it's okay, since they have '''meteor''' insurance. Guess what the insurance guy says? This is a spectacular demonstration of lay people not doing the research. Or possibly an {{Anvilicious}} TakeThat against perceived semantic hair-splitting by insurance agents.

* {{Expy}}: ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has lampshaded in one episode (the episode where Sideshow Bob returns to marry Selma Bouvier) in which Bart is watching a Springfield version of ''Dinosaurs'' and he remarks that its just like someone watched their family and copied it.

RealMenEatMeat: Earl seems to think this is the case in “I Never Ate For My Father”, since he is aghast at the possibility of Robbie becoming a vegetarian. He also forces Robbie to attend the YMCA (Young Male Carnivore’s Association).

The show followed the adventures of the Sinclair family: Earl, the not-too-bright blue-collar dad who works as a tree pusher for the WESAYSO Company; his wife, long-suffering Fran; his grouchy grandmother, Ethyl; and their three kids: rebellious teenager Robbie; naïve middle daughter Charlene; and annoying younger sibling Baby. Many of the episodes were allegories of modern social issues, such as bullying, puberty, the environment (a major issue dealt with on the show, if the last episode is indicative of anything), war, sexual harassment/discrimination, government incompetence, corporate greed and corruption, indecency in the media, racism, cultural appropriation, animal rights, religion, and women's rights.

** Additionally, "Getting to Know You" suggests that birds aren't held in very high regard by non-avian dinosaurs (granted, the bird family in question ''were'' pretty colossal [[Jerkass Jerkasses]]).

* PteroSoarer: One delivers the newspaper. Another showed up in a pet store, and the Scavengers base had one that kept annoying the pack leader and getting knocked around.