Nothing puts one in the Christmas Spirit like carols about the refrigerator. Or so Dinosaurs would have you believe. Not that Christmas is actually mentioned at all in today’s special because it takes place in a setting on Earth millions of years before the Christ in Christmas was born. Back then, the sentient beings of the world celebrated a different sort of holiday and it was one centered around the refrigerator. Think about it for a second – the refrigerator really is an amazingly transformative invention. Prior to its creation, there was no way to keep food from spoiling when the outside temperature was above 50 degrees or so. People would have root cellars where they would store things like apples and cheese in the winter because they were hearty. Apples could be turned into apple sauce or pie while cheese would spoil from the outside in. Those moldy parts could be discarded, or consumed if you like that sort of thing. That’s why in a society that apparently doesn’t really worship a god a refrigerator can seem like a truly miraculous thing.

On this blog, I tend to stick with cartoons when it comes to the daily Christmas post, but it’s not a hard and fast rule. And Dinosaurs is kind of like a live-action cartoon. It was often compared (sometimes negatively) to The Simpsons during its heyday and it’s fairly apt. Both shows are sitcoms that just go about the whole medium thing different. Where as The Simpsons is a bonafide animated production, Dinosaurs is a costumed one with advanced puppetry. The show was created by Mike Jacobs and Bob Young and receiving a “developed by” credit is the infamous Jim Henson. Henson died before the show’s premiere, but it’s he who is credited with the idea of doing a sitcom about a family of dinosaurs. The costumes for much of the cast are very similar to what the company made for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films. You basically have an actor in a big, rubber, suit, with animatronics built into the face that are then operated by a puppeteer. I can’t imagine how miserable these costumes must have been to wear, but the technology on display is truly amazing. These characters are as alive and expressive as most sitcom stars and the show became an overnight success when it debuted in 1991.

Dinosaurs was considered an expensive production, but despite that it ran for four seasons totaling 65 episodes, an important number if syndication was going to be in its future. It’s also a show that has become infamous since it left the air because the final episode basically kills everybody off. I mean, it’s a show about dinosaurs – how else could it have ended? The Sinclair family doesn’t literally die, but the ice age is essentially about to begin and it’s pretty bleak. Their doom was brought about by their own society’s ills and in that regard it’s even less of a surprise the show ended in such a fashion. Dinosaurs is a sitcom and a funny one at that, but it’s also a pretty biting satire of 90s culture. The show was very critical of war during a time when most of the country was consumed by Gulf War patriotism and the show even tackled religion in a pretty savage way for network television. In my experience, the show burned bright and faded quickly with most only remembering it for the baby and his infamous “Not the mama,” routine, but once the show hit Disney+ I gave it a complete rewatch and was kind of blown away by how well it holds up.

If you are new to the show, Dinosaurs is about the Sinclair family. Earl (Bill Barretta as the suit actor, Stuart Pankin the voice) is a typical sitcom dad in that he’s a blue collar worker with a mean boss who just wants to be left alone when he’s not on the job. He’s not stupid, but he is pretty ignorant which leads to some stupid decisions. His wife, Fran (Mitchel Young-Evans, Jessica Walter) is the typical moral center of the family and a stay-at-home mother to a pair of teenagers, Robbie (Leif Tilden, Jason Willinger) and Charlene (Michelan Sisti, Sally Struthers). Both kids have pretty typical teenaged problems dealing with popularity, the opposite sex, puberty, and so on. In the very first episode, Fran lays a surprise egg which hatches into Baby Sinclair (a more conventional puppet operated by Terri Harden and Kevin Clash with Clash providing the voice) who basically throws their world for a loop. Earl and Fran, already having teenaged children, certainly weren’t looking to start over with another baby, but life is funny like that.

“Refrigerator Day” is the 12th episode of the show’s second season. It originally aired on the ABC network on December 11, 1991. The episode begins with everyone in the Sinclair household decorating for Refrigerator Day. Basically, it looks like Christmas with a different name. Fran has just finished baking a traditional mold pie while Baby asks his grandmother Ethyl (Brian Henson, Florence Stanley) what Refrigerator Day is. She dryly informs him she already told him, but he asks if he was listening. The humor in this show is very much in-line with The Muppets. Ethyl explains that before there were refrigerators life basically sucked. Fran chimes in as well, but the whole thing is lost on Baby who doesn’t understand their explanation, but does perk up when Charlene mentions it includes lots of presents.

Robbie asks his dad if he’s basically going nuts on gifts this year and Earl is happy to tell his son that he indeed is. He gets in a dig at his own expense when he points out that it’s easy to blow all of their money on presents with his salary, but he’s in a very jovial mood so his dead-end job as a tree pusher isn’t going to bother him. He does bring up the dreaded Refrigerator Bonus, so you know he’s either not going to get one or its going to be miniscule. He reaches into that holiest of appliances, the refrigerator, to pull out a snack. It’s a living, small, mammal which gives the show an almost Flinstones vibe as most of their food is seen alive first and is often sarcastic. Fran comes over to lecture him about the true meaning of the holiday. And wouldn’t you know, it’s basically all of the same stuff as Christmas with the noted exception that this holiday is preceded by two days of fasting. Fran snatches the little vermin away from Earl who also gets to make a fat joke at the expense of the megalosaurus.

We jump to later in the day and Earl is on the job. His friend and co-worker, Roy (Pons Mar and Julianne Buescher as puppeteers, Sam McMurray voice) is puzzled by Earl’s lack of lunch who is then forced to explain the whole fasting ritual. Roy, being a bachelor, doesn’t have a wife to enforce such things. Earl isn’t too bummed though, because he soon hears the summons of his boss B.P. Richfield (Leif Tilden and Steve Whitmire, Sherman Hemsley) which can only mean one thing: bonus!

Earl heads into his boss’s trailer in a very good mood which is unusual for him as heading into the boss’s trailer is usually a terrifying experience for Earl. Richfield is apparently in the Refrigerator Spirit as he’s decorated his trailer with lights and tinsel and even installed a fireplace so his workers could come in out of the cold. He offers Earl a hot toddy and even takes time to remark what a funny word “toddy” is. Earl is very much enjoying this as his boss produces three envelopes. They each contain a Christmas bonus and when he asks Earl to guess which one is his he surprises him by saying “All of them!”

If this all seems too good to be true it’s because it is. Earl is having a pretty sad fantasy about getting love and respect from his boss, which is shattered by the screams of said boss to get in his trailer. The actual trailer is just as cold and miserable as usual. No fireplace, no hot toddy, no offers of an embrace, and perhaps not unexpectedly, no bonus. Earl actually gets handed four pencils, not to keep, but to sharpen. When he prods his boss about a bonus he’s met with an angry stare and confirmation that there is none. They do a little Looney Tunes bit where Earl tries to say there will be one, while Richfield says otherwise, but Earl being a dinosaur and all has never seen a Bugs Bunny cartoon so he doesn’t know how to turn the argument around in his favor. When Earl protests that he depends on the bonus, Richfield tells him that’s why he isn’t getting one. When you expect a bonus, it’s just salary. When Earl tries to tell him that he isn’t expecting one now, Richfield just remarks, “Good! Now you won’t be disappointed!” As Earl leaves dragging his tail behind, Richfield tells him not to tell anybody else about the no bonuses this year. He wants to tell them himself and describes it as a little holiday treat. I love Sherman Helmsley as Richfield, he is just so damn good at being a terrible boss.

If you’re worried that this means we’re about to embark on an A Christmas Carol like plot involving Richfield then worry not. He’s beyond hope. Instead, Earl heads home with the bad news. We first find Charlene and Robbie preparing more decorations while watching TV. There’s a commercial about celebrating Refrigerator Day by giving paint which Robbie finds distasteful, but Charlene seems more open to Refrigerator Day commercialism. It’s followed up with a holiday greeting from the We Say So corporation about deregulation and corporate freedom. Wow, does it ring true in 2024. Following that is when Earl enters to summon the family to share the bad news. At first, Baby won’t let him share the bad news as he keeps interrupting to talk about his new found love of Refrigerator Day which involves drawing a refrigerator, drawing on the refrigerator, drawing on the walls, etc. Earl is finally able to get it out that he’s not getting a bonus and that they’re broke. Charlene sees no problems here because Earl already bought the presents. When her mother points out that they have no money to pay the bills she still fails to see a problem. Earl tries to reassure everyone that they’ll be okay. It’s the holiday season and everyone is more charitable at this time of year and more willing to wait for their money.

We smash cut to the family’s refrigerator getting repossessed in front of a distraught Earl. Larry the repo dinosaur informs him he’s half a day late with his payment so the fridge has got to go. Earl tries appealing to the guy by pointing out his children and that it’s Refrigerator Day. Baby has even latched into his leg, but his mother pulls him away. Larry informs the family that his boss demands that they take the appliance that leaves the biggest mark and puts them under the most pressure, hence why the fridge goes. Earl refers to the guy’s boss as an evil man, which Larry confirms also while adding that he did give them all a nice holiday bonus. With the fridge gone, Earl is left to confront his own failure. He declares himself lower than dirt and despite his family trying to console him he announces that this will be the worst Refrigerator Day ever!

Earl rises the next morning and, out of habit, saunters over to where the refrigerator would normally be. When he discovers it gone, he becomes delirious and basically starts sobbing. The rest of the family retreat to the living room where Fran shares an idea she has with her kids: they take the presents back to the store, get their money back, and use it to buy back their fridge! Charlene is so disgusted by the suggestion that she can’t even form a proper analogy to describe what it would be like to have no presents on Refrigerator Day, but one look at their father singing to himself while holding ice trays is enough to convince the others. It’s here we find out that the concept of returning purchased goods to a store is a completely foreign concept in dinosaur society. Fran acknowledges it’s an odd thing to do, but thinks they have to try. Meanwhile, Earl seems to be getting even more delirious and cries out that they’re starving. Fran reminds him that they’re fasting, but Earl points out that fasting is a choice. They have no food and therefore are starving. He’s pretty logical when he wants to be.

We next find the family at Kave Mart, a pun that is generic enough to still work today, but is obviously a pun on K-Mart which no longer exists or barely does. Fran and the kids carry in their wrapped gifts and approach a clerk about returning them. He seems puzzled, but says okay and tells them to just put them whereever. When Fran explains that she also wants her money back he gets real confused. He calls in his co-worker Hank to try and figure this out. It’s basically a very straight-forward discussion on logic: why would a store, which already has enough product, buy back its own merchandise? And why would someone like Fran try to sell something without making a profit? This is what it’s like to have a discussion with a libertarian. The two clerks get a bit angry with Fran thinking she’s trying to pull a fast one before declaring that the only way they would be willing to buy merchandise would be if they paid wholesale. Fran reluctantly accepts despite the protests of Robbie who rightly points out that they’ll get practically nothing for these items. What kind of fridge could they possibly get selling these items back to the store for far less than what they paid?

A Styrofoam cooler, that’s what. We smash cut to the not-fridge while Ethyl takes a gander as Fran informs her mother it was all they could afford. Earl enters to wish everyone a happy Refrigerator Day, but in a very gloomy manner. He informs them he wanted to give them the presents he bought, but it seems they’ve been stolen so he’s going to head to the garage to hang himself. Fran intercepts Earl’s suicide march to tell him the gifts weren’t stolen and they returned them to the store to buy back their fridge. Earl can hardly believe it and nearly becomes overwhelmed with emotion, until he sees the new fridge. He’s back to feeling suicidal as he apologizes to Baby for ruining his first fridge day and implores him to take a whack at his dome with a pot as he so often does. Baby declines which makes Earl feel like an even bigger failure. Ethyl is there for him though as she strikes him across the belly with her cane reminding him that she’ll always be here for him, “Fat boy.”

It’s at this point that Fran feels inclined to remind everyone what Refrigerator Day is all about. She reminds them all the day is for them to reflect back on their ancestors who have nothing and appreciate all that they have today. She tries to throw it back at Earl by declaring them blessed, but he’d still rather head to the garage and hang himself. Fran stops Earl to inform him that they are going to do the annual Refrigerator Day pageant. Earl replies, “At the risk of sounding immature – I don’t want to!” and stamps his feet. Fran pushes past him to say then they’ll do it without him as the kids follow along behind her. I’m finding it hard to believe that teenagers would go along with a family pageant, but they are a different breed from me.

We cut to Ethyl reading from a book, “And now it can be told…the True Story of Refrigerator Day.” It’s essentially a parody of A Visit From Saint Nicholas/Twas the Night Before Christmas. Come to think of it, that’s what this holiday is lacking. A cosmic being who spreads presents and good cheer. Actually, the story is more like the first Thanksgiving complete with pilgrim-like costumes. Earl reluctantly takes part while the rest are fairly enthusiastic. We learn the story of the holiday is that the patriarch of this story heard a voice demanding he build a box that’s cold inside. The dinosaurs stopped migrating and constructed their box. They do, and the family has a little, prop, fridge for their story. As its told, to make it cold they were going to toss it in a lake, until the daughter discovered it had an electrical plug. The play ends with the family singing a “Fridge Carol” that sounds like “The Feast of Stephen.” It’s a crazy holiday, but when you get right down to it, Christmas is pretty wacky too. And don’t get me started on Easter!

Performing in the pageant has done wonders for Earl’s mood. He declares his love for the pageant while someone is at the door. It’s the guys from Kave Mart! They’ve brought back their fridge and all the presents from before. Refrigerator Day hadn’t been stolen, it came just as before! Actually, there was no change of heart or visit from three ghosts. The store just figured out that a return policy like the one Fran proposed is a huge, money-making, idea and to buy off the Sinclair family from claiming credit for it they’re being bribed with their old refrigerator and gifts. Earl even gets his bonus and the store also installed snow machines on the roof for ambience. All they have to do is sign away all rights to the return policy idea which Earl is happy to do.

With everything all wrapped up in a neat, Refrigerator Day, package, there’s nothing left to do but celebrate. The children gather around the refrigerator while Earl and Fran reflect on what they have. The image is framed like a greeting card with the cast and crew of Dinosaurs wishing us all the happiest of Refrigerator Days!

It’s not exactly Christmas, but it’s just Christmas with a different name. Dinosaurs took a conventional plot, oddly one also utilized by The Simpsons which Dinosaurs was sometimes accused of ripping off, but they found a way to turn it on its head. The concept of a return policy is completely off the wall in this consumerist society. The world of Dinosaurs is one dominated by We Say So which basically has a monopoly on everything. Do they own Kave Mart? Probably. The bit at the store is great and the show has several expertly crafted cuts to drive home its own brand of satirical, sometimes dark, humor.

It’s that dark humor that can possibly rub some the wrong way. We have multiple suicide jokes and the Richfield character is truly detestable. I find it all pretty damn hilarious, but that’s just me. The characters emote really well and this episode contains a rare additional set in the form of the department store. The one criticism I have of the show is it often takes place in very familiar locations, but that’s because new sets are really expensive. The extras, like the clerks and repo man, are basically stock costumes that get used and reused constantly throughout the show. Sometimes they change up the voices and sometimes they stick with the same ones. It’s almost like a fourth wall situation where the dinosaurs are just actors in this show we’re watching and they play the roles expected of them.

Dinosaurs is a terrific little 90s gem of a series. If you remember it somewhat negatively as “The Baby Show” then know that your memories are inaccurate. While Baby was a breakout star, he wasn’t relied upon to do a lot of heavy lifting outside of an episode here and there. It really is a family sitcom, but one that’s not at all sweet or mild and it really leans into the satire. It has a lot of Muppets-styled timing with some of the jokes, but it’s far more focused and lacks that intentional corn of its more famous predecessor. If you have never watched it definitely give it a try especially if you’re a fan of other Jim Henson productions. It’s a pretty unique show and it’s all available on Disney+ so it’s pretty accessible by today’s standards. And remember, while you’re drinking down your nogg and opening presents, think about those who made our refrigerator possible and thank them. If you want to know their names, go check Wikipedia or something. I’m busy decorating for Refrigerator Day.