Dino Babies


Dino Babies is a 1994–1996 children's animated television series about six baby dinosaurs who share stories and adventures.

Production and airings

Originally produced between 1991 and 1994, Dino Babies first aired in the United Kingdom on the BBC's Children's BBC programming strand from 1994 to 1996. It comprised 26 20-minute double episodes. Dino Babies was broadcast in many countries around the world, but the show had little success in the United States. In 1996, however, the series was syndicated across the country by The Program Exchange; it also aired for a short time on what was then the Fox Family Channel in 1999.
The show had somewhat better success in Canada, where it aired on YTV from 1994 to 1999. It also aired in Ireland on RTÉ2, in Australia on both Max and Nickelodeon, in New Zealand on TVNZ 2, in the United Arab Emirates on Dubai 33 and the pan-regional STAR Plus, in Israel on Israeli Educational Television, in India on Zee TV and in Taiwan on STAR Chinese Channel.

Overview

In every episode, the Dino Babies put their own imaginative spin on a classic tale, from "Dak and the Beanstalk" to "The Abominable Snowbaby". As fun as these flights of fancy were, they always had something important to say about the dinosaurs themselves and the world around them. By acting out classic tales, the dinosaurs learned valuable moral lessons.

Characters

  • Truman – The group's unofficial leader and storyteller, a bespectacled blue brainiac with a tuft of orange fur/feathers on his head.
  • Franklin – A timid, hesitant purple dinosaur. He occasionally shows signs of bravery.
  • Marshall – Franklin's little brother. A brown, diaper-wearing daredevil dinosaur. He sometimes gets upset due to being the smallest of the group, also known by the nickname "Marshy". He also likes using the phrase; "Oakie Dokie".
  • LaBrea – Marshall's best friend, and the only female Dino Baby. She is a headstrong purple dinosaur with blonde hair, wearing a hair accessory shaped like a bone. LaBrea often challenges Truman's authority, but is a good friend at heart, though occasionally gets grumpy and short-tempered. Her catchphrases are the more famous "I told you so", used whenever something goes wrong, and the less frequent "Would you evolve?" used whenever someone suggests something very silly.
  • Stanley – A green dinosaur with red spots. He is a bragger who often runs into trouble. He also likes collecting rocks.
  • Dak – A blue, attention-starved pterosaur. While he often plays tricks on the group, they remain friends all the same. He usually calls the rest of the group "Groundlings".

    Episodes

Season 1 (1994)

In Season 1, each episode followed the same pattern: the first segment featured a story, while the second segment did not, with the exceptions being episodes four and five, where both segments featured a story, and episodes six, seven and nine, where the segments without a story came first, and the segments with a story came second.
Starting with the fourth episode, and continuing on for the remainder of the run of the series, most of the segments with a story and some of the segments without a story included one or two songs.
All transmission data is from the BBC Genome project.
This season was repeated on Fridays from 7 April through to 12 May 1995, except for Good Friday 14 April. It then began Monday and Friday repeats from Monday, 15 to Friday, 26 May 1995. It then switched to a reversal of the previous format from Friday 2 to Monday, 5 June 1995, before finishing its repeat run on two consecutive Fridays, 9 and 16 June 1995. All repeat transmissions were on BBC1 at 3:45 pm.

Season 2 (1996)

In Season 2, each episode followed the same pattern; both segments featured a story, with the exceptions of episodes sixteen and seventeen, where the first segments featured a story, and the second segments did not. During the original run of the season, the twenty-second episode was aired two weeks after the twenty-first instead of one week, due to coverage of the Grand National on 28 March 1996.
All transmission data is from the BBC Genome project.