Although
Dinosaurs is targeted at a family audience, the show touched upon multiple topical issues, which include
environmentalism,
endangered species,
women's rights,
sexual harassment,
LGBT rights,
objectification of
women,
censorship,
civil rights,
body image,
steroid use,
allusions to
masturbation (in the form of Robbie doing the solo mating dance),
drug abuse,
racism (in the form of a dispute between the two-legged dinosaurs and the four-legged dinosaurs),
peer pressure, rights of
indigenous peoples (in the form of the dinosaurs interacting with
cavepeople),
corporate crime,
government interference in
parenting, and
pacifism. In the episode "I Never Ate for My Father," in lieu of carnivorism, Robbie chooses to eat vegetables, which the show uses as a metaphor for homosexuality,
communism,
drug abuse and counter culture. The 2-part episode "Nuts to War" was a satire of American involvement in the
Gulf War, with two-legged dinosaurs going to war with four-legged dinosaurs over
pistachios instead of
oil. In the final season, "The Greatest Story Ever Sold" (a take-off of
The Greatest Story Ever Told) references
religion when the Sinclair family becomes eager to learn the meaning of their existence. The Elders dictate a new system of beliefs, and the entire cast (with the exception of Robbie) abandons science to blindly follow the newly popular "
Potato-ism". Another religious-themed episode was "The Last Temptation of Ethyl", in which Ethyl willingly allows a
televangelist to exploit her
near-death experience to extort money from followers. She backs out after having a second such experience, where instead of
heaven, she experiences a "
place not so nice": an existence surrounded by nothing but multiple Earl Sneed Sinclairs. Several jokes in the series were at the expense of television shows in general. Earl often wants to watch TV rather than do something more practical, and several jokes accuse television of "
dumbing down" the population and making it lazy. Captain Action Figure shows up in children's programming that Fran mistakes for a commercial. Whenever Captain Action Figure mentions a product, the screen flashes "Tell Mommy I WANT THAT!". Before the appearance of Georgie,
Dinosaurs used a puppet reminiscent of
Barney the Dinosaur named "Blarney" in two episodes. During his appearances, members of the Sinclair family commented on his annoying characteristics and failure to teach anything to children. The characters will sometimes break the
fourth wall as well, especially Baby. An example of such is seen in the episode "Nature Calls" (Season 3, Episode 1) when Fran and Earl spell out words in front of Baby during an argument, who, after looking at the camera and saying "This could get ugly", proceeds to spell out "They think I can't spell" with his
alphabet blocks.
Series finale The final episode of
Dinosaurs produced and aired on ABC was intended as the
series finale and depicts the irresponsible actions of the dinosaurs toward their environment, and the ensuing
Ice Age which leads to their demise.
Stuart Pankin, the voice of Earl, stated that the ending "was a simplistic and heartfelt social comment, yet it was very powerful" with "subtlety" being a defining aspect. Brian Galindo of
BuzzFeed described it as being shocking for children. ==International screening==