Never mind the Flintstones; the Sinclairs are the modern Jurassic Age family you&#;d most want to meet. Thirty years after ABC introduced viewers to the &#;60s caveman clan Fred, Wilma, and Pebbles, the network launched the ambitious family sitcom Dinosaurs in , and invited family audiences into the home of dinosaur husband and wife, Earl and Fran, and their three kids: Robbie, Charlene, and Baby. Unlike their animated forebearers, the Sinclairs were live-action, life-sized puppets, built by the ace crew at Jim Henson Productions. These days, the same characters would probably be rendered with CGI. But in the early &#;90s, the family was brought to life purely through the magic of puppetry, with teams of actors donning beautifully designed latex costumes and cracking wise in classic sitcom fashion. That&#;s why it made our list of the 30 Best Bad Shows of the Last 30 Years.
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One of these actors was Leif Tilden, who wore the latex body of the eldest Sinclair child, teenage dino Robbie. (The character was voiced by Jason Willinger, and puppeteer Steve Whitmire &#; who assumed the role of Kermit after Jim Henson passed away in &#; manipulated Robbie&#;s facial expressions.) It was Tilden&#;s second tour of duty in a Henson-built suit, previously playing Donatello in the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles feature film and its sequel, The Secret of the Ooze. Now a filmmaker, Tilden spoke with Yahoo TV about bringing Robbie to life, dancing with Michael Jackson, and the show&#;s famously dark series finale where the Sinclair family literally faced their own extinction.
Before Dinosaurs, you wore a Henson-designed suit for the first two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies. How did that experience prepare you for the series?
It prepared me for the process more than anything. The process of preparing the way the character moved, conveying emotion through the body, working in sync with the other puppeteers, pacing yourself in the heat, keeping hydrated. The audition process for Dinosaurs was very engaging. It&#;s a little like Andy Serkis playing Gollum, only instead of wearing white balls for the motion capture artists, you&#;re wearing a costume that&#;s a combination of latex and fabrics, and people can&#;t see your face and facial expressions. It&#;s not amusement park performing; there&#;s comic timing and hitting emotional beats. I went in as if I was playing Robbie, saying his lines and physicalizing him. I know I&#;m talking esoterically about a show like Dinosaurs! But I defend Dinosaurs. It&#;s a family show that has an innocent spirit to it. It&#;s really funny, and somewhat dark at times. I just think it was kind of a startling concept for some people.
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Maybe they were thrown by the idea of watching a traditional family sitcom starring full-sized puppets.
It&#;s a hard one. It was experimental in a lot of ways. We weren&#;t The Dark Crystal [Jim Henson&#;s fantasy adventure], where the characters are sort of magical and exist in a different world. I don&#;t know why it wasn&#;t successful, really. I&#;ve met a lot of people since who love that show. I think it takes someone with an eccentric personality to dig it. Did you ever see that Saturday Night Live skit [&#;First Got Horny 2 U&#;], where Aidy Bryant had a crush on Robbie and then he takes off his head and it&#;s a balding middle-aged man in there? That was funny, but it shows a certain cynicism. And if you&#;re a cynical person, you&#;re not going to like Dinosaurs.
How long did it take to put on Robbie&#;s suit?
It took about an hour in total; the average shooting day was 12 hours. It wasn&#;t cumbersome to move around in. It was designed to be actor-friendly so the performer could instill life into the suit. And I want to emphasize that it wasn&#;t just me playing the character. I was one of a group of people who played Robbie. The people who made the costume made a big contribution to how that character is portrayed, as well as the puppeteers doing the mouth and eyeballs. It&#;s just like a motion capture character; Gollum isn&#;t all Andy Serkis&#;s work &#; he builds the foundation and they tweak his performance in the computer. It&#;s the same thing with Robbie. I don&#;t stake a claim that this is my work &#; it&#;s our work.
Tilden out of Robbie&#;s costume (Photo: Alamy)
Steve Whitmire provided Robbie&#;s facial and head movements, while Jason Willinger voiced the character. How did you all work together to bring him to life?
I never met Jason. It was mostly the same approach as any other show. Steve and I were given scripts, and we&#;d go to the table reads before each episode. The challenge was when we started rehearsing on stage with all the characters and puppeteers and trying to make it look seamless. Steve and I memorized the dialogue and then rehearsed out of costume. Then we&#;d start playing with the suit. I always wore the head, but the facial features were manipulated by remote control by Steve. The mechanics that controlled his face were buried deep in the latex, so it would have been impossible for me to manipulate them myself. It was a total collaboration, putting the character together physically. Steve and I had to be completely in sync and connected emotionally. We also did the character of Earl&#;s boss, B.P. Richfield, together. I loved that character more than Robbie!
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Baby Sinclair is probably the character viewers remember the most. He had the show&#;s signature catchphrase: &#;Not the Mama!&#;
The baby was an amazing puppet. And you know you played that character? Kevin Clash! He also performed Splinter and Elmo. Apart from what anyone might think of him politically, Kevin Clash is an amazing puppeteer, one of the few in my mind that had the spirit of Frank Oz and Jim Henson. He&#;s a genius and can bring anything to life. And there aren&#;t a lot of those performers. Jim and Frank were very special people, who had a very special chemistry together. Just because you&#;re a talented puppeteer doesn&#;t mean that you have that magic.
Jim Henson passed away the year before Dinosaurs premiered. Did he have any input with the series prior to his death?
I think he was privy to the design of the characters and the concept of the series, but he died before we started filming. He was on set for the first Ninja Turtles movie, and he was an amazing guy. He was like a big kid &#; he loved to play and demanded collaboration. That&#;s getting lost now; when the pressure is on, everyone&#;s ego rises to the surface. My one brutally honest remark about Dinosaurs is that there was a spirit lacking. Jim and Frank were our heroes, and were the spirit of The Muppet Show. Their spirit was unique, and Dinosaurs needed it. To me, Bill Barretta [who played Earl], is the closest thing we have to Jim Henson today. I recently went to the set of ABC&#;s The Muppets [which Barretta executive-produces and voices Rowlf and Dr. Teeth for, among others] to hang out, and saw that Bill is instilling that same spirit. I think great things are going to happen with Bill if they give him the opportunity.
The series finale of Dinosaurs has become legendary for its dark ending. How do you feel about the way the show wrapped up?
It&#;s a fitting end. They&#;re ending the show &#; kill &#;em! It&#;s dark, but darkness is a part of life. Joy and sorrow come from the same place within our bodies. The reason it gets pegged as being dark is because Dinosaurs was a TV sitcom. But why should that matter? Darkness can happen anywhere, to anyone, at any time. When people say, &#;It&#;s dark!&#; that&#;s a reflection of that person. That person has issues with darkness. We all have nightmares and darkness, it&#;s part of who we are. The studio really held back the show &#; it couldn&#;t be too dark or too adult. But for the series finale, we were really set free and shook up the rules. That last episode was the most fun episode, and it&#;s the one everyone remembers because of that dark ending! Because the show was ending, [the studio] was just like, &#;Go for it.&#; To me, they should have been saying that the whole time!
What was a signature moment for you making the series?
One day stands out above the rest: when Robbie got to dance with Michael Jackson for an ABC promo. Michael Jackson was one of my heroes. They made a white glove for Robbie, and I learned this whole routine. I remember seeing Michael in his trailer, and he spoke with me and give me a big hug. That, to me, was the most epic moment.
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Do you think Dinosaurs is due for a re-evaluation?
It got a second life when it was on Netflix for a while. If you liked it then, it&#;s worth a second look. It was a very expensive show, and a process that was really hard to do. There&#;s a lot of integrity to the show; we all tried to be authentic. I&#;m proud of Robbie, and feel he really comes to life. I&#;m not trying to pat myself on the back when I say this, but it&#;s true.
Read more about the 30 Best Bad Shows of The Last 30 Years.
&#;It should be in a museum!&#; &#; Professor Indiana Jones on the antiquity of the original Baby Sinclair from Disney&#;s Dinosaurs.
Do you remember Baby Sinclair, the adorable and mischievous star of the ABC show Dinosaurs? The show, which aired from to , was a hilarious and innovative sitcom that used animatronic puppets to bring to life a family of dinosaurs living in the modern world. Baby Sinclair was the youngest and cutest member of the Sinclair family, who loved to hit his dad Earl with a frying pan and say, &#;Not the mama!&#; He was performed by Kevin Clash. The puppet was designed by Kirk Thatcher and built by the Jim Henson Creature Shop.
Baby Sinclair was a huge hit with fans of the show, and became a pop culture icon. He appeared in assorted toys, Happy Meal prizes, and a music video. But what happened to Baby Sinclair after the show ended? Where did he go? And how did he end up being found again after all these years?
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For a long time, no one knew what happened to Baby Sinclair or the other puppets from Dinosaurs. They were stored in a warehouse along with other props and costumes from the show, where they suffered from neglect and deterioration. The puppets&#; latex skin began to crack and peel, exposing the foam and wires underneath. The puppets&#; eyes also became cloudy and discolored.
In , Buzzfeed writer Louis Peitzman toured the Jim Henson Creature Shop and reported that Baby Sinclair was the only surviving puppet from Dinosaurs, and that he was in the possession of Brian Henson, Jim Henson&#;s son and one of the executive producers of the show. However, the puppet was still in very poor condition, and it was unclear if it could be restored or preserved. This news sparked a wave of nostalgia and concern among fans of the show, who wondered why Baby Sinclair was not taken better care of or donated to a museum. Many fans expressed their sadness and anger over the state of the puppet, and called for Disney to save him or give him a proper home.
Baby Sinclair was created by Jim Henson&#;s Creature Shop, the legendary studio that brought to life iconic characters like Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Yoda, and many more. The Creature Shop was founded by Jim Henson in , and after his death in , his son Brian Henson took over as president.
Brian Henson was one of the executive producers of Dinosaurs, a show that he described as &#;a sitcom with a message&#;. The show was set in a prehistoric world where dinosaurs lived like humans, with jobs, families, and social issues. The show was inspired by the work of cartoonist Gary Larson and an idea by Jim Henson.
The show&#;s main characters were the Sinclair family, a typical suburban clan of dinosaurs. The father, Earl Sinclair, was a megalosaurus who worked as a tree pusher for the Wesayso Corporation. The mother, Fran Sinclair, was an allosaurus who stayed at home and took care of the kids. The eldest son, Robbie Sinclair, was a hypsilophodon who rebelled against his father&#;s conservative views. The daughter, Charlene Sinclair, was a protoceratops who cared about fashion and popularity. And then there was the baby.
Baby Sinclair was born in the first episode of the show. He was voiced by Kevin Clash, who also voiced Elmo on Sesame Street. Clash gave Baby Sinclair a high-pitched voice and a sassy attitude that contrasted with his cute appearance. Baby Sinclair also had a signature phrase he would say whenever he hit his father with a frying pan: &#;Not the mama!&#;
Baby Sinclair quickly became the most popular character on the show, and also the most merchandised. He appeared on T-shirts, toys, books, video games, and even a rap album. He also spawned several catchphrases besides &#;Not the mama!&#;, such as &#;I&#;m the baby, gotta love me!&#;, &#;Again!&#;, and &#;Gotta go!&#;
Baby Sinclair was loved by millions of fans, young and old, who tuned in every week to watch his antics and adventures. He was a star in his own right.
Dinosaurs was a successful show for its first three seasons but faced some challenges. The production costs were high; each episode required dozens of puppeteers, animatronics, costumes, and sets. The show also tackled controversial topics, such as environmentalism, feminism, racism, drugs, religion, and war. Some critics praised the show&#;s satire and social commentary, while others found it too preachy or inappropriate for children.
The show&#;s ratings declined in its fourth season, and ABC canceled it in . The show&#;s final episode was titled &#;Changing Nature&#;, and it featured a dark and depressing ending that shocked many viewers.
In the episode, Earl Sinclair causes an ecological disaster. This triggers a chain reaction that leads to global cooling and an impending ice age. The Sinclair family tries to cope with the situation as they watch the news reports of the world falling apart. In the last scene, they huddle together in their home as snow covers their windows. The finale was intended to be a powerful statement about humanity&#;s impact on the environment and the fate of the dinosaurs. However, many fans felt it was too bleak and depressing for a comedy show. Some even thought that it was a cruel joke or a mistake.
After Dinosaurs ended, Baby Sinclair disappeared from the public eye. His puppets were stored in warehouses or sold to private owners or museums. His merchandise became collectors&#; items or faded away in thrift stores or landfills.
Baby Sinclair became a forgotten child star.
For years after Dinosaurs ended, Baby Sinclair remained a cult favorite among fans of the show and nostalgic collectors. Some of his original puppets were sold or auctioned off to private owners or museums. He resurfaced again in a auction on prop store and apparently that buyer has apparently decide to put him up for sale because of his condition.
Someone has listed Baby Sinclair on eBay for $25,000. The seller actually claims the &#;condition wasn&#;t as they stated,&#; but let&#;s remember, there were articles about their poor condition in Buzzfeed, so buyer be aware. The seller also says that It needs restoration and master restorer Tom Spina had messaged to me that it can be done as he has restored some ninja turtle props.&#; One of those turtle props is also listed for sale.
You might be wondering why the Baby Sinclair puppet and the other puppets from Dinosaurs have decayed so much over the years. The answer lies in the material they were made of: foam latex. Foam latex is a type of rubber that is used to create realistic skin and flesh for puppets, masks, prosthetics and special effects. It is flexible, lightweight and easy to paint and sculpt. However, it also has a major drawback: it does not last very long.
As explained by some experts from the Jim Henson Creature Shop, foam latex is very sensitive to light, which causes it to dry out and crumble over time. In an interview with Buzzfeed, Julie Zobel of the Henson Creature Shop said: &#;Keep in mind, Dinosaurs ended production in , so it&#;s amazing that there&#;s anything left. The thing that breaks down foam latex is light.&#; Peter Brooke, the creative supervisor, added: &#;You&#;re dealing with a rubber. It&#;s based off of natural latex, which deteriorates over time, but you&#;ve whisked it into such a fine cell structure. The cell structure eventually over time, with light, dehydrates and gets to the point where it literally just turns to dust. And you can&#;t save it. You can&#;t reconstitute it.&#;
This means that foam latex puppets have a very limited lifespan, and require careful storage and maintenance to preserve them as long as possible. Unfortunately, this was not the case for the Dinosaurs puppets, which were left in a warehouse without proper care or protection. As a result, they suffered from severe damage and decay, and became almost unrecognizable.
If you want to get your hands on a Baby Sinclair that isn&#;t falling apart, NECA can help you relive your memories with their Ultimate Earl Sinclair and Ultimate Baby Sinclair action figures. These 7-inch scale figures are based on the original designs by Kirk Thatcher, a Henson team member who also worked on The Muppets and Fraggle Rock.
The Earl figure features a realistic sculpt and paint job that captures his scaly skin, yellow eyes, and blue shirt. He has over 25 points of articulation, including a hinged jaw and swivel neck. He also comes with four interchangeable heads that show different expressions: happy, angry, surprised, and bored. Additionally, he has a pair of glasses, a remote control, and a newspaper as accessories.
The Baby figure is equally impressive, with a detailed sculpt and paint job that recreates his cute features, such as his big eyes, chubby cheeks, and diaper. He has over 15 points of articulation, including a ball-jointed head and tail. He also comes with three interchangeable heads that show different expressions: happy, laughing, and crying. Moreover, he has a bottle, a cookie, and a frying pan as accessories.
So are you in favor of getting Baby Sinclair into a Museum? Let us know what you think about Dinosaurs and its controversial below or tag us on Twitter @insidethemagic and on Instagram @itmnews. Don&#;t forget to follow us on TikTok @insidethemagic.com
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