Reading Rainbow's "Digging Up Dinosaurs" (1983)
- J. Karson Key
- Jul 10, 2015
- 7 min read
“Coming face-to-face with one of those big ‘fellas; that’d be no joke.”
In the summer of 1983, Reading Rainbow and LeVar Burton had not quite hit their stride—they eventually do, to the tune of twenty-six Emmys and a Peabody—but six episodes in, it was still a bit clunky. Believe me, I fully understand and appreciate the impact that Reading Rainbow had on the lives of so many (including myself)—in fact, I had the privilege of hearing Mr. Burton speak in Chicago at the Printer’s Row Literary Festival back in early June and can attest, first-hand, how inspirational he is as an ambassador of literacy. During the resurgence of public interest in dinosaurs in the early 1980s, Reading Rainbow owed it to the children of the country to partake in some Mesozoic mayhem—and they do, but their efforts simply do not compare to some of the other kid-centric programs of that time like the Gary Owens and Eric Boardman-hosted More Dinosaurs or Will Vinton’s claymation short Dinosaur. Maybe I am being too hard on Geordi La Forge—but as a show that prides itself on talking “to” or “with” children as opposed to “down” to them, Rainbow seems to, unlike its dinosaur education contemporaries, skirt around the slightly more complex notions of the day.
After we “go twice as high” and “take a look”, we are transported into a dinosaur film festival—and treated to scenes from everyone’s favorite British fantasy film, One Million Years B.C. Lucky for us, they omit any cavemen scenes (not because we don’t love us some 26-year old Raquel Welch; but we don’t need to confuse children anymore about the timelines of dinosaurs and men)—however, having the one-horned theropod Ceratosaurus and frilled fan-favorite Triceratops battle it out is equally as horrific considering that they were separated by 70-80 million years. In fact, fewer years separated Triceratops and humans. The crowd “oooh’s” and “ahhh’s” as the stop-motion monsters duke it out until the dramatic conclusion. As the moviegoers exit, LeVar stops and tells us about his long-standing love affair with dinosaurs—but that “coming face-to-face with one of these big ‘fellas; that’d be no joke”. You don’t say, LeVar.
The show segues into an animated version of the children’s joke book—Tyrannosaurus Wrecks: A Book of Dinosaur Riddles (Noelle Sterne, 1979)—and this is where some of the problems begin. The jokes are fine, voiced by ageless comedian Jerry Stiller—ok, they are quite awful—but you are somewhat limited being that your target audience is a bunch of kindergarteners and you are pigeonholed into dinosaur-related material. However, the humorous choices left something to be desired as they advanced the notion of dinosaurs being only giant, scaly reptiles. A “rep-tool” punch line here, a “practice your scales” punch line there; it just seemed a bit irresponsible for a show designed to educate and inform. I know Reading Rainbow is not the appropriate arena for a complex taxonomical or phylogenetic debate and, technically, Dinosauria is part of Archosauria, which in turn, is part of the class Reptilia; however, the expansion of the outdated perception (even in 1983) of the “overly-reptilian” dinosaur into the minds of our young viewers was negligent. Three years earlier, Will Vinton—speaking to a similarly aged audience—highlighted the diversity across Dinosauria and addressed the “birds as dinosaurs” topic head-on. I was left a bit surprised that LeVar and Reading Rainbow didn’t do the same.
After some failed jokes from our animated Cretaceous comedian, we are back with LeVar at a construction site. The monstrous machinery makes Mr. Burton feel “small”—just as dinosaurs would have made him feel had he been around 65 million years ago (LeVar has obviously never met a Doberman-sized Velociraptoror the three-pound ceratopsian, Aquilops). He transitions seamlessly from watching a backhoe tractor dig up some dirt to the reading from this episode’s featured book, Digging Up Dinosaurs by Aliki. The Greek-American author, Aliki (formally Aliki Brandenberg) is a Jane Addams Children’s Book Award winner and has penned and illustrated dozens of children’s books—many dinosaur-themed including the critically acclaimed Dinosaurs are Different. The book itself is paced very well—engaging and it speaks to children on their level without a lowest common denominator approach.
Read by Jane Gilman, the book highlights the usual suspects: Triceratops, Apatosaurus (she does address the Brontosaurus name confusion), and Tyannosaurus—but throws a few appreciated curveballs with callouts to Iguanodon (mentions the “thumb”) and some visuals of Lambeosaurus and Centrosaurus (man, I miss the Monoclonius). The real treat is that Aliki doesn’t just give kids another “dinosaur book”, she enlightens readers about the fossilization process and the challenges of fossil hunters during excavation. Other than the severely expired depictions of the dinosaurs—very “upright” and “clumsy”—Digging Up Dinosaurs still carries relevance today and serves as a great primer for younger audiences interested in more than just the names of the dinosaurs.
After the reading ends, “Safari LeVar” greets us and explains how zoos are really living museums and we can visit relatives of dinosaurs today. This is where Rainbow loses me—and it really taints any modern application of this episode. In rhyming verse, the narrator suggests that a rhinoceros has a horn because of its close biological relationship to Triceratops. Yikes. He mentions lizards, snakes, and tortoises—and I get that, I guess—but throwing out elephants and rhinoceroses is plain reckless. Also, this would have been a perfect time to mention our modern day theropods—birds. But, alas, we are left featherless.
Thankfully, the poetic garbage ends fairly quickly and we get back to LeVar in his “Jeep-asaurus Wreck” (his words, not mine—please don’t think they are mine). Amidst some wonderful questing music, LeVar heads to Jensen, Utah and Dinosaur National Monument. LeVar provides some background on the 140 million year old “Wall O’ Dinosaurs” as he enters. Our host is greeted by Ranger Linda and Paleontologist Tobe; Tobe doesn’t look like he gets many human visitors. He appears as if he is the genetic hybrid of Marvel’s Toad and unusually-faced actor, Bill Byrge. Linda does all of the talking and she provides us with some nice stats about the Monument—and proceeds to show us the lower bag leg and thighbone of an Apatosaurus. We head into the lab with Linda and Tobe; and our enigmatic scientist is working away on an Allosaurus skull like the rockstar that he is. Ranger Linda educates us on how the bones ended up being deposited at the site—but reminds us that there are still things, like skin color, that we can’t determine from the fossils.
Unfortunately, we cut back to the animated “Jerry Stiller-asaurus” to sell us on the joke book in which he gets his material and cue in the reviews of other dinosaur tomes. He delivers that famous line, “but you don’t have to take my word for it”. I feel dirty hearing someone other than Mr. Burton utter those universally recognizable words. Another big strike against this episode. Not even Tobe can save it now. We cut to an excited Ahmed talk about Dinosaurs! A Drawing Book; he is super stoked that the book doesn’t just teach him how to draw Ichthyosaurus (not a dinosaur) but helps him pronounce their names—like Dimetrodon (not a dinosaur). A very well-spoken Terri follows him and talks about her favorite book – If You Are a Hunter of Fossils; she loves the poetic approach to these “terrible lizards”. Lastly, eccentric juvenile Kevin tells us about Dinosaur Time and the all of the “fat” and “ugly” dinosaurs. He is also a big fan of the art in the book of said “fat” and “ugly” dinosaurs—really big fan.
LeVar concludes the program by getting all quasi-existential on us as “we stand on layers and layers of time”. He then has the grand idea to bury a time capsule so that the future alpha species that inherit the planet after we screw it up know how much we loved carbonated soda and environment-destroying aerosol sprays. In a true hidden gem, LeVar goes to the children to ask what they would leave in a time capsule—and we get some amazing answers. Let’s recap:
Baseball Card Collection – you can tell this is 1983, otherwise, you can replace baseball cards with NFL prison mug shots. Rob Manfred hopes that baseball has this type of longevity.
Dirty Sneakers – oh, you little trickster.
TV – I don’t think he quite understands how television works.
Wheelchair – because maybe in the future they have a cure for handicap disabilities; really a truly poignant moment in between bouts of blatant adolescent consumerism and immature humor.
Baseball Bat – probably should include a ball in there, otherwise, the future Earthians are going to be really bored—or evolve rapidly into a violent race of 1950’s mobsters.
Dirty Clothes – what is it with these kids and only wanting to leave future generations unwashed garments?
Turkey – a live one…or lunchmeat? Future stewards of our fair planet, Happy Thanksgiving!
Cassette Player and Tape—with a recording about “peace”; a good closer. Let’s hope no one recorded over it making a mix tape for some hot blonde in homeroom.
As we exit, the horrible dinosaur comic is back telling us that his brethren became extinct because they “died laughing”. Not so much, my friend, not so much.
Reading Rainbow is one of the pillars of the educational and moral advancement of numerous generations of children; along with Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, it forms a triumvirate of teaching royalty. The “Digging Up Dinosaurs” episode has an excellent featured book and some unintentional humorous moments; however, the shockingly “dumbed down” and inaccurate portrayals of dinosaurs really hurt its modern usage. A rare swing and miss for LeVar and Reading Rainbow. Maybe more Tobe would have helped. And you do have to take my word for it.
The Super Official “Of A Mesozoic Mind” Rating (out of a possible 5 Public Domain Triceratops Heads)
Reading Rainbow’s “Digging Up Dinosaurs” (Season 1, Episode 6; air date 6/13/1983) can be purchased on iTunes. VHS copies can be found on Amazon.com.
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