Dinosaurs: The Nostalgic Show’s 10 Best Episodes, According To IMDb

Its been nearly 30 years since Jim Henson’s lovable sitcom about a family of dinosaurs living in the modern age aired. But the show has lost little of its relevance and charm over the years due to relatable storylines that take on family matters and world issues. With 4 seasons and 65 episodes, it’s clear to see that Season 2 and Season 4 are the best two seasons from the show, with only episodes from these two seasons making the top ten list from IMDB.

Dinosaurs is a show with many layers that explores the realities of humanity through the eyes of dinosaurs. The series finale still haunts us to this day, ending on a warning that we may have ignored.

10 When Good Food Goes Bad – Season 2, Episode 2 (8.1)

This episode features a teething Baby Sinclair left with a distracted Charlene. He is lured to open the fridge from alive and talking food inside. He is then kidnapped to teach the Sinclairs a lesson about forgetting food.

The decaying fridge creatures are a big reminder you are watching something from the mind who brought you Labyrinth and Dark Crystal. Charlene convinces them to pinch the baby’s cheeks which makes him go berserk and they give in, returning the baby and agreeing to return to the fridge.

9 The Golden Child- Season 2, Episode 1 (8.1)

In another episode with Baby Sinclair being left alone, he manages to eat everything with sugar in the house, becoming overly hyper and bouncing around only to fall. He develops a large bump on his head that soon grows into a horn. This somehow leads to Baby Sinclair being declared king and then taken to rule over the land. The family misses him so Earl goes to get him back and makes the horn fall off, meaning the baby is no longer King but Earl has learned to appreciate his son and treasure him.

8 Georgie Must Die- Season 4, Episode 14  (8.1)

It’s easy to see why this lost episode was originally pulled from the air as it seems to target a certain purple dinosaur of the time. Earl tries to take down the corrupt children’s show character, Georgie the Hippo by impersonating him on-air and out him for the fraud he is. But it gets ruined when the real Georgie escapes and the two fight on live television but this leads to Georgie’s incarceration and Earl gets a key to the city which he finds useless due to the fact that the “city has no doors.”

7 Nuts to War: Part 1 – Season 2, Episode 19 (8.2)

Weirdly enough Part 1  of this two-part special made this list, but part 2 rated many spots lower. In part 1, two kinds of dinosaurs go to war over the shortage of pistachios. Of course, since they are dinosaurs, they are hurling spit sticks and dirt-clods at each other instead of bullets and bombs. But the episode is a smart satire based on the prejudice seen during the red scare.

6 Switched at Birth, Season 2, Episode 11 (8.2)

In this episode, the Sinclairs find out that Baby Sinclair was actually switched at birth, much to the delight of Earl who is the target of the baby’s abuse. Earl is the only one who likes the new baby and soon the family feuds with each other and the other family over who should keep Baby Sinclair which leads to an expert by the name of Solomon being brought in. By his name you can guess where this leads.

5 The Terrible Twos- Season 4, Episode 6 (8.2)

This episode of the show pays homage to The Exorcist. This is one of a dozen parodies of the iconic horror movie and in 2020 it is definitely overdone and expected by this point.

The iconic horror movie came out in 1973 and had already been parodied by Saturday Night Live in 1975 and there was even a parody movie, Repossessed, 3 years prior to this episode. But this episode, where the terrible twos are compared to being possessed, holds up, with some funny one-liners.

4 The Last Temptation Of Ethyl- Season 2, Episode 8 (8.2)

Granma Ethyl appears to “kick the bucket” and sees the afterlife, but she was only unconscious so she is sent back. Earl, who thinks she’s dead, buries her 8 feet under (6 not being enough). She digs her way free and tells her story of the afterlife. It spreads and a greedy dinosaur uses her to literally sell spots in the afterlife. Ethyl is then warned by her late husband to stop spreading information about the afterlife or she won’t have a place there herself. It’s a fun episode about what the beginning of religion could have looked like.

3 Family Challenge- Season 2, Episode 2 (8.3)

This episode finds Earl in an ironic situation where he, after his TV is destroyed by a meteor, enlists his family to train for a game show aptly called the Family Challenge to win the grand prize of a 40-inch TV.

The family spends weeks studying only for all the questions so be about all the TV shows that were on while they were studying. In the end, they win a consolation prize of a small TV the size they started with and the family goes back to ignoring the mother to watch TV. It’s irony and insurance jokes are still relevant and relatable today.

2 New Leaf- Season 2, Episode 17 (8.4)

The family discovers a new plant that makes you happy and giddy but also unfocused and lazy (Yes, it’s what you think it is). Receiving pressure from the network to produce their own version of the cheesy anti-drug episodes of the time, Dinosaurs decided to go a different way, using the episode to focus on some of the fun qualities of the leaf but also showing some of the negative repercussions persistent use has.

Thankfully the leaf in question is legal in most places today so the obligatory “drugs are bad” episodes are less and less annoying and geared towards the drugs that can actually kill you.

1 Changing Nature- Series Finale (8.5)

This poignant episode is about what happens when we mess with nature. When the bunch beetles don’t show up, the poppies they usually eat take over and the dinosaurs panic. A lone beetle leads to the discovery that  Earls’ company paved over the mating swamp with a Wax Fruit Factory and that’s why the beetles never came. Earl finds himself pulled into a plan to fix the negative PR of his company. Things quickly escalate, with his boss doing everything from spraying the planet in defoliant to throwing bombs into volcanoes. This results in essentially an ice age, with the planet rapidly losing heat due to the sun being blocked out. The episode, and show, end with the family snuggled together in the living room, wondering what is to come of them.

About The Author