Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs is an American family sitcom that was originally broadcast on ABC from April 26, 1991 to July 20, 1994. The show, about a family of anthropomorphic dinosaurs, was produced by Michael Jacobs Productions and Jim Henson Television in association with Walt Disney Television and Buena Vista Television. Dinosaurs is initially set in 60,000,003 BC with the years, months and days counting toward zero. (In the first episode, Robbie asks his father if he ever questions what they are counting down to). The show centers on the Sinclair family (a reference to Sinclair Oil Corporation which uses a dinosaur as its logo) – the father (Earl Sinclair, a reference to Earl Holding, Sinclair Oil’s principal owner), the mother (Fran Sinclair), the son (Robbie Sinclair), the daughter (Charlene Sinclair), the baby (Baby Sinclair), and the grandmother (Ethyl Phillips, a reference to Phillips Petroleum and ethyl gasoline).

Earl’s job is to push over trees for the Wesayso (“We Say So”) Corporation (alluding to the fact that petroleum comes from compressed trees and other organic matter, keeping with the petroleum theme of the show) with his friend and coworker Roy Hess (Hess Corporation is another regional petroleum chain). Another reference to petroleum companies is Earl’s boss, named B.P. Richfield (alluding to British Petroleum and Atlantic Richfield, the original name of ARCO). Earl’s employer, the Wesayso Corporation, uses a logo similar to DuPont Chemical’s traditional oval logo. In the episode “Changing Nature” B.P. Richfield is seen talking to his boss on the phone and refers to him as “Mr. Getty”, a reference to Getty Oil.

 

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