Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: My wife
Likes: Jim Henson, puppets
Dislikes: Most family-based sitcoms
Hates: "Not the Mama."

The Show
Me: "'Dinosaurs' is coming out on DVD."
Wife: "I loved that show. Are you going to get it to review?"
And thus we arrive at the present time.

Combine the puppet wizardry of Jim Henson Productions with the sitcom know-how of the creator of "My Two Dads," and you have "Dinosaurs," the four-season sitcom that recast the classic working-class dad premise with anthropomorphic dinosaurs. On the surface, it looks like a cutesy kid's show, with actors running around in big rubber suits. Beneath that, it's a rehashing of classic family sitcom plots. But dig even deeper, and there's a delicious core of smart and socially-aware nougat.

The show follows Earl Sinclair and his family of dinosaurs, made up of him, his wife Fran, their three kids, Robbie, Charlene and Baby, and his mother-in-law Ethyl. Their tales will be familiar to anyone who's ever watched a sitcom, whether it's the misadventures of Robbie and Charlene babysitting for the first time, Earl and Fran's marital strife or Earl's difficulties at work. There's precious little about the plots that's new to any TV-watching veteran.

On the other hand, the messages delivered during these plots were anything but standard. Subtly addressing social concerns like dwindling natural resources, generational conflicts, animal cruelty and many more, the show expressed a solid message without drifting into "Afterschool Special" territory. The fact that these animals were dealing with such important issues made the tone less preachy than it might have been. Thus, when Earl finds a baggie of broccoli in Robbie's room, the show's capable of addressing drugs and homosexuality, without actually saying it.

While Earl is the obvious focus of the show, he's not exactly the most enjoyable character. As a direct descendant of Fred Flinstone's "king of the castle" personality, he's gruff and overbearing and a real call-back to the misogyny that informs such characters. Though he's obviously doing what he can for his family, it's hard to enjoy yet another stupid fat father with a sense of entitlement.

More entertaining are Baby, the youngest of the Sinclair clan, and Grandma, the oldest. Thanks to the lowered expectations of people of their respective ages, they get away with murder, firing comments out left and right and getting plenty of laughs. Certainly, Baby's constant use of catchphrases can get to be annoying, but by externalizing his inner dialogue, he finds plenty of laughs, while Grandma's bitter comedy and verbal jabs at Earl are consistently funny.

After a first episode that struck me as bland and boring, the show picked up its game immediately, improving tremendously over the course of its short first go-round. The second season brought better stories and improved comedy, but the show seemed to lean a bit too much toward the realm of the "very special episode," even if it didn't bill itself as such. The two-part "Nuts to War" lays out a very heavy anti-war stance, but is good TV, while "A New Leaf" is an obvious anti-drug episode. It's a rare episode where the point is to just be funny.

Hey, Isn't That...
Jason Alexander, David Wohl, Christopher Meloni, Michael Dorn, Tony Shalhoub, Edie McClurg, Buddy Hackett, Tim Curry, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Michael Richards are among the guest stars in this set, though they are just voiceovers.

The DVDs
The 29 episodes that make up the first two seasons of "Dinosaurs" are spread out over four DVDs, with the five first-season episodes on the first disc, and eight on each of the remaining platters. The discs are packaged in a digipak folder that layers two discs per side, with the folder sitting inside of a case that covers it on top and bottom. It's a unique and well-designed package.

The DVDs have animated main menus, which have options to play all the episodes, select individual shows, set up the languages and view special features (on Disc One only). The episode selection menus have still previews and titles for each show, while language options include English subtitles and English closed captioning.

The Quality
The full-frame video on these episodes leaves something to be desired, but it's not clear whether it's an issue with the transfers or with the source material. The image tends to be soft and somewhat gauzy, and certainly not on par with other DVD releases of the time. This could have been done to make the rubber suits less obvious, but the overall effect isn't pleasing. On the other hand, the colors look good and there's no obvious dirt, damage or digital artifacts in the episodes.

The audio, presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, reproduces a TV presentation cleanly, but doesn't bring all that much to the table. On the plus side though, the sound effects used in the series sound very good and the dialogue comes across clear.

The Extras
There's a pair of extras included, both of which are found on the first disc. First up is the 13-minute "Pre-Hysterical Times: The Making of 'Dinosaurs'," which combines footage from the show and interviews with the creators to illustrate how the series came into existence. For fans of the series, it's a pretty good look behind the camera.

"Creating 'Dinosaurs': The Sketches That Started It All" is shorter, at just four minutes, but it's very informative, as designer Kirk Thatcher walks us through the series' visual development, via his sketches.

On the Hunt
As the intro available from the main menu on the first disc shows, there are plenty of "dino eggs" found throughout the set, which take the form of various video clips.

The Bottom Line
The series tried to do something very unique, and succeeded at that, as nothing similar was on TVs before, nothing like it has been on since, and nothing like it will likely ever be on again. Was it a good show though? In some ways, yes, as it was technologically advanced, but overall, it was uneven, and relied too much on sitcom conventions. As a result, it will most likely appeal to younger audiences, who will be wowed by the visuals. The DVDs look and sound decent, though not overwhelming, and the extras are good, but not plentiful. For fans of the series, it's a welcome release, but the curious should give it a rent first.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.