Dinosaurs Dinosaurs was a half - hour sitcom which aired on ABC . The series , conceived just before Jim Henson ' s death , focused on a family of dinosaurs , the Sinclairs , and used ground - breaking full body , animatronic puppets . The show was a joint venture that merged the talents and resources of Michael Jacobs Productions , The Jim Henson Company , and Disney ' s Touchstone Entertainment . Dinosaurs made use of a system known as animatronics to express and alter the dinosaurs ' facial movements , a process developed by Brian Henson and his team at the London Creature Shop . The show was an effective parody of human life and the American sitcom . " Dinosaurs " was set in the year 60 , 000 , 003 BC . Just a million years earlier , the dinosaurs behaved like animals , eating their offspring and living in swamps . But now they had evolved , raising families , living in houses , working , and paying taxes . Earl Sinclair , a megalosaurus , works for the WESAYSO Development Corporation , under the direction of triceratops B . P . Richfield , leveling forests to make way for housing developments . Earl ' s wife Fran , an allosaurus , runs the house and family . The Sinclairs have three children : 14 - year - old son Robbie ; 12 - year - old daughter Charlene ; and 1 - year - old Baby Sinclair , whose birth is recounted in the pilot . The series has been released on DVD by Buena Vista Home Entertainment . The first box set , " " , was released in May 2006 . The second set , " " , was released in May 2007 . Origins . News articles written at the time of the premiere highlighted the show ' s connection to Jim Henson , who had died the year before . " Jim Henson dreamed up the show ' s basic concept about three years ago , " said a " New York Times " article in April , 1991 . " ' He wanted it to be a sitcom with a pretty standard structure , with the biggest differences being that it ' s a family of dinosaurs and their society has this strange toxic life style , ' said Brian Henson . But until " The Simpsons " took off , said Alex Rockwell , a vice president of the Henson organization , ' people thought it was a crazy idea . ' " A 1993 article in " The New Yorker " said that Henson continued to work on a dinosaur project until the " last months of his life . " Henson was working with designer William Stout in the late 80s on a feature film with animatronic dinosaurs , with the working title of " The Natural History Project " ; Henson contacted Stout about the project again in the last months of his life . That project may have been the inspiration for " Dinosaurs " . The television division of The Walt Disney Company had begun working on the series in 1990 for CBS , before the series landed on ABC . Cast . Puppeteers : Dave Goelz , Steve Whitmire , Kevin Clash , Bill Barretta , Rickey Boyd , Julianne Buescher , Kevin Carlson , Mitchell Young Evans , Tom Fisher , David Greenaway , Terri Hardin , Brian Henson , John Kennedy , Bruce Lanoil , Arlene Lorre , Pons Maar , Noel MacNeal , Drew Massey , Rob Mills , James Murray , David Rudman , Tony Sabin Prince , Michelan Sisti , Jodi St . Michael , Jack Tate , Leif Tilden , Allan Trautman , Mak Wilson Regular Voices : Guest Voices : Jason Alexander , Shaun Baker , Jason Bernard , Pat Crawford Brown , Stephen Caffrey , Ken Hudson Campbell , Tim Curry , Michael Dorn , Conchata Ferrell , Joe Flaherty , George Gaynes , John Glover , Buddy Hackett , Jack Harrell , Sally Kellerman , Mimi Kennedy , Joyce Kurtz , David Leisure , Julia Louis - Dreyfus , Jessica Lundy , Edie McClurg , Kate McGregor - Stewart , Michael McKean , Susan Norfleet , Gary Owens , Robert Picardo , Glenn Shadix , Thom Sharp , Richard Simmons , Jeffrey Tambor , Fred Travalena , John Vernon , Paxton Whitehead , David Wohl