Episode 203: I Never Ate for My Father

Robbie refuses to join a Young Male Carnivores Association and considers becoming a herbivore. Earl is appalled and hauls Robbie off to hunt in the wilderness, to reinforce the carnivore ethic: bigger eats smaller. When Robbie is eaten by an enormous swamp monster, Earl is forced to reconsider his philosophy. When he, too, is eaten, the father and son continue their argument inside the belly of the beast.
==Story==
Robbie Sinclair has had a bad first day in the YMCA, the Young Male Carnivores Association. One of his friends suggests that maybe he is not cut out to be a carnivore, but Robbie disagrees, since the rest of his family members are carnivores, but his friend Dave, who is known for eating meat, confesses that he sometimes eats vegetables, and tells him of The Salad Bar, a place that serves them. At home, Earl becomes furious when he learns of what happened at the Young Male Carnivores Association. When Robbie asks why they always eat meat, Earl demands that he go to his room.
Earl and Fran go to Robbie's room and find that he has snuck out of the house. Earl snoops around Robbie's room, and finds a back of broccoli in his lunchbox, fearing that he's become an herbivore. Earl finds him at an herbivore restaurant, and drags him home.
Earl takes Robbie to the swamp to hunt some food. While there, they encounter a mammal who tells them that his son wanted to be an herbivore, too, so he ate him. This mammal warns them about a swamp monster who lives nearby, but only comes out when he's hungry. Just then, the swamp monster comes up and eats Robbie.
Earl comes home to break the bad news to Fran, but she knows that it takes a week for swamp monsters to digest their food, and she demands that they go out to rescue Robbie. They go to the swamp and find the monster, who eats Earl. He finds Robbie, and they continue to argue. Earl complains because Robbie doesn't always agree with him, and when Robbie asks if Earl disagreed with his father, he at first denies that he and his father had any arguments, but then admits that they did argue a lot. He says that when he was a kid, his father wanted him to live in dirt, and he wanted a better life. He then forgives Robbie for wanting to be an herbivore, and when they make up, they hear the swamp monster telling them not to be so mushy, because it makes him sick, so they express their love for each other until he throws them up. Afterwards, Fran serves meat and vegetables for dinner.
==Guest Stars==
* Steven Banks - Folk Singer (voice)
** Michelan Sisti - Folk Singer
** John Kennedy - Folk Singer
* Tom Fisher - Additional Dinosaur Performer
* David Greenaway - Additional Dinosaur Performer
* Terri Hardin - Additional Dinosaur Performer
* Arlene Lorre - Additional Dinosaur Performer
* Jack Tate - Additional Dinosaur Performer
==Notes==
*Taped on July 9, 1991.
==Video releases==
*Dinosaurs: The Complete First and Second Seasons
==Script pages==
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