Recap / Dinosaurs

The following is a list of episodes and their summaries for the early 1990s sitcom Dinosaurs.

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Season One

1. "The Mighty Megalosaurus": In this flashback premiere episode, Earl (a bumbling father megalosaurus) tells his son, Baby (an annoying pink dinosaur) the story of how Baby was hatched and how Earl lost his job as a tree pusher with the WESAYSO Corportation.
2. "The Mating Dance": After a disastrous day in Fran's apron, Earl decides to revive his dead love life by relearning the mating dance.
3. "Hurling Day": Earl is excited to throw his annoying, abusive mother-in-law Ethyl into the tar pits on her 72nd birthday, an old dinosaur tradition, but Robbie tries to save Grandma Ethyl from being killed.
4. "High Noon": A 50 foot dilophosaurus has his eye on Fran and Earl must decide whether or not to fight for her honor.
5. "The Howling": Robbie's refusal to take part in a ritual for teenaged dinosaurs to howl at the moon when they turn fifteen leads to Earl and Roy breaking off their friendship.

Season Two

1. "The Golden Child": Baby grows a golden horn on his head, which is connected with an ancient prophecy in the Book of Dinosaurs.
2. "Family Challenge": The family goes on a game show after their TV gets wrecked, but spending time without television proves to be their downfall.
3. "I Never Ate for My Father": Robbie becomes an herbivore, prompting Earl to haul Robbie off to hunt in the wilderness to reinforce the carnivore ethic that bigger eats smaller.
4. "Charlene's Tale": Charlene is upset that she's the only girl dinosaur in her class who doesn't have a fully-developed tail, and Earl is upset that Charlene is turning into a tomato when her tail does become fully-developed.
5. "Endangered Species": Earl buys two grapdelites to eat on his wedding anniversary, only to learn that grapdelites are endangered and everyone wants them, including his boss, Mr. B.P. Richfield. Meanwhile, Robbie tries to save the grapdelites from extinction.
6. "Employee of the Month": Richfield institutes an Employee Suggestion Box, which has Earl and Roy racking their brains in an effort to impress the boss. At Earl's suggestion, the employee coming up with the best suggestion each month will receive dinner with Richfield and their name on a plaque—with Earl named the first "Employee of the Month".
7. "When Food Goes Bad": Charlene is left to babysit Baby Sinclair, who is teething, while Fran and Earl go out for a nice romantic dinner.
8. "Career Opportunities": The Job Wizard visits Robbie and gives him his ultimate vocation: tree pusher for WESAYSO.
9. "Unmarried...With Children": Earl's marriage license expires, and he fails his renewal test, prompting Earl and Fran to separate.
10. "How to Pick Up Girls": Robbie hires Spike, a rebellious classmate, to teach him how to pick-up a girl that he has a brutal crush on, but Spike's "unique" advice gets Robbie shunned by his dream girl and grounded for getting in trouble with the law.
11. "Switched at Birth": While planning for Baby's first birthday, Fran discovers that Baby isn't biologically a Sinclair and that another family has their real son.
12. "Refrigerator Day": In this Christmas Episode spoof, the Sinclairs prepare for Refrigerator Day, whose spiritual history and meaning has been drowned out by the commercial side of it, but money woes have the Sinclairs forced to learn the true meaning of the holiday.
13. "What Sexual Harris Meant": Monica DeVertebrae (a brontosaurus who moved next door to the Sinclairs after she divorced her husband as seen in "Unmarried...With Children") gets a job as a tree pusher while the real estate market is in a slump — and ends up suing WESAYSO for sexual harassment after her supervisor pesters her with suggestive come-ons and requests for a date.
14. "Fran Live": Fran gets a job as a phone-in TV advice show host after complaining that the original host does nothing to solve dinosaurs' problems, which becomes a problem at home for Earl and the kids who think Fran is better off as a housewife.
15. "Power Erupts": Robbie comes up with an idea for tapping the geothermal energy of volcanoes to heat the homes of all Pangaea, but Mr. Richfield and WESAYSO have plans to discredit Robbie's new discovery.
16. "The Clip Show": In this mockumentary, a self-important archaeologist sheds light on the mysterious world of dinosaurs (using clips from past episodes as evidence).
17. "A New Leaf": In this parody of very special episodes centered on drug abuse, Robbie runs away after fighting with Earl again, and comes across a plant that makes him giggly, stupid, and unnaturally happy when ingested — which he gives to Earl, Charlene, and Earl's coworkers.
18. "The Last Temptation of Ethyl": Ethyl has a near-death experience while Earl is forced to care for her — and her stories of how wonderful the afterlife is become fodder for a televangelist's power-hour telecast.
19. "Nuts to War" (two-part episode): Robbie is drafted to fight in a war over four-legged dinosaurs depleting the pistachio supply for two-legged dinosaurs. Meanwhile, Baby Sinclair does battle with a creature living in the walls who stole his caveman cookie.
20. "And the Winner Is...": When the Chief Elder dies in the process of naming Baby Sinclair (now "Aaah Aagh I'm Dying You Idiot Sinclair"), Earl becomes embroiled in an intense but unsurprisingly non-substantive campaign with B.P. Richfield for Chief Elder of Pangaea: first as Richfield's patsy, and later as a self-made, come-from-behind candidate bent on preventing a bleak homeland under what appears to be Richfield's imminent rule.
21. "Slave to Fashion": Feeling like a social outcast at school, Charlene begs her father for money to buy an expensive fur coat none of the other girls have, and her grandmother ends up giving it to her with money meant for Charlene's college education (which Ethyl gives to her for the coat because Charlene is more likely to get into college as a cake stripper rather than an actual student). The coat indeed makes Charlene the envy of her friends, but, unlike other status symbols, it's voiced by Tim Curry and urges Charlene to alienate her friends and family for the sake of popularity.
22. "Leader of the Pack": Robbie joins Spike's gang of leather-clad delinquents in order to fight back against some bullies at school.
23. "WESAYSO Knows Best": Earl's family is chosen to be the spokespeople for WESAYSO, but Earl is replaced with Earl's friend, Roy.

Season Three

1. "Nature Calls": Baby Sinclair runs away to the wilderness following Earl's unsuccessful attempts at civilizing him through toilet training.
2. "Baby Talk": When Baby Sinclair begins repeating a dirty word from a TV show ("smoo," which in dinosaur lingo, refers to the dirt found under a dinosaur's feet and is considered a very nasty word), Earl fights back against television's increasingly libertine programming — until his efforts inadvertently create a repressive governmental atmosphere responsive to the slightest complaint from the fellow citizens of Pangaea.
3. "Network Genius": Earl changes the face of television again (see previous episode); this time, as a network executive whose insipid programming is causing a brain drain in Pangaea, but his plans to make TV more intellectual threatens the future of television viewing.
4. 'The Discovery': Earl's discovery of a pristine world inhabited by cavemen is the mark he's been waiting to leave in the history books – until Robbie and Baby are kidnapped by the cavemen, intent on saving their land from the ruthless development of WESAYSO's "Sinclair City."
5. "Little Boy Boo": In this Halloween episode, Robbie scares Baby Sinclair with a story of a half-man, half-dinosaur creature.
6. "Germ Warfare": Baby Sinclair comes down with a dangerous viral infection, and the expensive experimental drugs that fail to cure as promised end up bankrupting Earl and Fran.
7. "Hungry for Love": Robbie falls for Mr. Richfield's daughter, who may be behind the mysterious disappearances of her previous boyfriends.
8. "License to Parent": After Earl is repeatedly ticketed by an overzealous officer of the Parent Patrol, he is sent to "Parents Ed", but fails miserably and is ordered not to parent for thirty days until he retakes the test, leaving Fran to care for the kids, until the stress causes her to be branded a bad parent.
9. "Charlene's Flat World": Charlene is branded a heretic after announcing in science class that the world is round, not flat.
10. "Wilderness Weekend": Traditional gender roles are reversed when Earl, Robbie and Roy go to the forest for a male-bonding ritual known as "The Great Hunt", but end up discovering their feminine sides while Fran and her girlfriends get drunk, watch sports (to ogle the players), and generally act like men.
11. "The Son Also Rises": Fed up with Earl's continuous nagging, Robbie challenges him for the title of "Supreme Male" of the house. During their physical battle at Pangaea's government office (the same one from "Unmarried...With Children"), Earl is caught off guard and Robbie emerges victorious. Robbie now assumes all the responsibilities that accompany his new position while Earl uses his newfound freedom to act like an irresponsible teenager.
12. "Getting to Know You": After Earl throws her a disastrous birthday party, Charlene feels totally alienated from her whole family and signs up for a Species Exchange Program at school, where she lives with a family of arrogant, French Jerk birds while a French Jerk bird lives with the Sinclairs (and gets eaten by Baby).
13. "Green Card": Pangaea gets hit by a recession and when the government blames four-legged dinosaurs for all of the continent's problems, Roy (Earl's friend) steps up and asks for Monica DeVertebrae's hand in marriage to keep her from being deported.
14. "Out of the Frying Pan": Baby Sinclair becomes an overnight sensation hawking frying pans in a commercial, with turns Fran into a pushy stage parent while Earl is treated like crap.
15. "Steroids to Heaven": Robbie gets hooked on thornoids (a steroid-type supplement) in order to bulk up and impress his latest crush, but the side effects turn him into a Jerk Jock.
16. "Honey, I Miss The Kids": Fran becomes a halfway house counselor in order to break the monotony of being a wife and mother.
17. "Swamp Music": Robbie gets into blues music (played by blue, furry mammals who sing about living in the swamps and being a disenfranchised species) and tries to get a blues singer a record deal, but finds that the dinosaur-run music business is very discriminatory and underhanded.
18. "Dirty Dancing": Having reached that awkward age where adolescent male dinosaurs find themselves breaking into the mating dance spontaneously and uncontrollably, Fran's open attempts at sexual education drive a confused and embarrassed Robbie to relieve his tension at the Best Little Dancehouse in Pangaea.
19. "If You Were a Tree": Grandma Ethyl tells Baby the story of how Earl switched personalities with a tree (voiced by David Warner) and learned how important trees are to the environment.
20. "We Are Not Alone": Earl is scared into becoming an environmentalist and fighting against his company's anti-green ways.
21. 'Charlene and Her Amazing Humans': Feeling ignored by her family, Charlene becomes an instant celebrity after winning her school talent show with trained cavelings (humans) she found in the forest.
22. 'The ClipShow II': Scenes from various episodes are interspersed with pitches by paleontologist Sir David Tushingham that try to lure customers into the glamorous, high-paying world of paleontology by getting them to buy the Famous Paleontologists' Home Study Course. In true informercial style, there's a deal-a-dinosaur wheel and comic testimonials from satisfied customers.

Season Four

1. "Monster Under the Bed": Baby Sinclair complains of a monster under his bed, but the family doesn't believe him.
2. "Earl, Don't Be a Hero": Earl's accidental exposure to toxic waste transforms him into "Captain Impressive", a mysterious super hero committed to fighting crime and righting wrongs. Earl also sees his chance to outshine Captain Action Figure, Baby's current hero, by using his newly acquired superpowers against the forces of evil – until B.P. Richfield discovers Earl's hidden talents.
3. "The Greatest Story Ever Sold": When Baby begins asking questions like "Where did we come from?" and "Why are we here?", Pangaea begins scrambling to find the answer, and come up with a new religion known as Potatoism, which everyone (but Robbie) accepts into their lives.
4. "Driving Miss Ethyl": Fran forces Earl to drive Ethyl to her 60th year high-school reunion, while Fran and the kids hire a photographer to take a family photo.
5. "Earl's Big Jackpot": When Earl is injured on the job and asks for a few days off, B.P. Richfield refuses and fires him instead. Robbie and Fran trick Earl into suing the WESAYSO Corporation for workman's compensation.
6. "Terrible Twos": In this parody of The Exorcist, Baby turns two years old and becomes more of a hellion than usual. Desperate times require desperate measures, and the Sinclairs enlist the aid of "The Babysitter" to exorcise Baby's demons.
7. "Changing Nature": In this Drama Bomb Finale, WESAYSO's newest fruit wax factory causes an ecological imbalance that turns into an impending Ice Age that could mean the end of all dinosaur life.

"Lost" Episodes

These episodes didn't air when ABC first ran the show, but did appear when The Disney Channel and syndication aired the show. The episodes are also available on DVD and on Netflix. In production order, all of these episodes come before the finale "Changing Nature."

1. "Scent of a Reptile": Fran is thrilled when Charlene's scent gland comes in, as that means she'll be able to attract the one male who finds her acrid stench alluring — but Charlene freaks out when that "one male" is the school janitor, Ray and sets out to change it by searching for The MacGuffin Lily.
2. "Earl and Pearl": Earl's estranged sister, Pearl, returns after 20 years apart, and reveals that she's made a living as a country singer and Roy is strangely attracted to Pearl.
3. "Life in the Faust Lane": Envious of all the TV shows about people living in the fast line and the excesses of being rich, Earl sells his soul for a collectible mug that becomes more important to him than his job, family, or friends.
4. "Variations on a Theme Park": To combat the increase in on-the-job deaths, WESAYSO creates a theme park, which turns out to be an overpriced, run-down death trap and prompts the Sinclairs to stay in their hotel and bond.
5. "Working Girl": Under pressure from the government to hire women at WESAYSO (and after plans for Earl and his friends to dress as women in order to bypass the new order fall through), B.P. Richfield hires the first female who walks through the door to be the new supervisor, who turns out to be Charlene, who needs money for a wilderness trip.
6. "Into the Woods": Baby Sinclair is taken into the forest for the dinosaurs' traditional Wilderness Rite of Passage, which teaches the value of the family.
7. "Georgie Must Die": In this episode-long Take That! against Barney the Dinosaur, Earl dresses up as a goofy, orange hippo named Georgie to cheer up Baby Sinclair, and ends up in jail for copyright infringement.

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