Walking with Dinosaurs

***Walking with Dinosaurs*** is a British six-part nature documentary television miniseries created by Tim Haines and produced by the BBC Natural History Unit in association with the Discovery Channel. The program explores ancient life in the Mesozoic era, portraying dinosaurs and their contemporaries in the style of a traditional nature documentary. The miniseries first aired in the United Kingdom in 1999 with narration by Kenneth Branagh, before subsequently airing in the United States in 2000.

The series proved to be a huge hit, winning several awards and ranking as the Discovery Channel's most widely viewed program upon its premiere. It later spawned its own franchise, with four additional miniseries, three specials, a live arena show, and a feature film, and also proved influential with its style of presenting dinosaurs and other extinct animals in a natural way. Discovery would later try to replicate this success by producing several other documentaries in a similar manner.

## Episodes

*This is the series as it was originally presented in the United Kingdom, prior to its North American broadcast*.

### American version

*Walking with Dinosaurs* premiered in North America on the Discovery Channel on April 16, 2000. For this version, all six episodes were presented in a single three-hour format, and with Avery Brooks replacing Branagh as narrator; Brooks was added as his deep and authoritive voice would demand viewers' attention. The "Making of..." featurette aired the following day, with Brooks also providing narration. Additionally, this broadcast included newly filmed scenes of interviews with paleontologists explaining the science behind the programs; these segments generally occurred around commercial breaks. Reruns of the program saw it split into three parts, each one containing two episodes.

On March 23, 2008, Discovery aired a new remastered version of the series titled *Walking with Dinosaurs: The Next Chapter*. For this version, new text and narration was presented new scientific discoveries and conclusions that had been made since the original premiere.

#### *Prehistoric Planet*

The series was later revised as a new series called *Prehistoric Planet*, produced by Discovery and Stonehouse Productions for the Discovery Kids network. It was narrated by Ben Stiller, featured new text and music, and was made more appropriate for children by removing most of the graphic content, such as dinosaurs eating each other or mating, and trimming other scenes down to fit the new runtime. Additionally, it featured quizzes to act as bumpers around commercial breaks. It aired as a part of Discovery Kids on NBC from October to November 2002.

#### Episodes:

1. Dawn of the Dinosaurs (October 5, 2002)
2. Jurassic Giants (October 12, 2002)
3. Jurassic Beach (October 19, 2002)
4. Sky King (October 26, 2002)
5. Dinosaurs of the Ice Forest (November 8, 2002)
6. Death of the Dinosaurs (November 15, 2002)

## Reception

*Walking with Dinosaurs* received critical acclaim following its initial broadcast. The British Film Institute placed the series at 72nd in a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes, and was reported in *The Guinness Book of World Records* as being the most expensive documentary series per minute ever produced. General praise came from scientists for its use of scientific research and portraying the dinosaurs as animals rather than movie monsters, though some criticism has accused it of trying to present speculation as fact and a handful of scientific errors.

The series' American premiere was the Discovery Channel's highest-rated programming event, making an 8.0 household rating on an average of 10.7 million viewers, and becoming the most watched documentary on cable, topping the ratings the network had made with *Raising the Mammoth* the previous month.

### Legacy

*Walking with Dinosaurs* is often labeled as making a watershed in television imagery, and a scientifically and technologically significant benchmark in television history. It is also credited for inspiring modern interest in the geological past and has been credited in several scientific papers alongside *Jurassic Park* as one of the two major productions to increase public interest in dinosaurs and other Mesozoic life in the 1990s and 2000s. The series' success style of presenting dinosaurs and other extinct animals in the style of a nature documentary proved very influential, and launched a new genre of documentaries to be produced in a similar manner in an attempt to recreate that success, with Discovery's own *When Dinosaurs Roamed America*, *Dinosaur Planet*, *Animal Armageddon*, and *Dinosaur Revolution* being prime examples; however, these programs, while successful, were not as big of a hit in comparison. Additionally, the BBC and Discovery would produce several follow-up programs that helped to make up the *Walking with...* franchise, including three specials, and four additional miniseries: *Walking with Beasts* (2001), *Walking with Cavemen* (2003), *Sea Monsters* (2003), and *Walking with Monsters* (2005).

## Home media

Main article: *Walking with... (videography)*