Re: when dinos ruled

[MKIRKALDY@aol.com]

(posted for Dan Varner)

In a message dated 8/30/99 8:46:26 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
tholmes@dolphinsoft.com writes:

<< Which brings me to another question that might help others on the list. 
What
 television documentaries covering dinosaurs HAVE done a respectable job, in
 your opinion? >>

  By and large, I think the _NOVA_ series on PBS has been a cut above the 
others. The first in their series, done about 20 or so years ago, would be 
rather fun to see today with a youthful Bob Bakker sketching away on his 
drawing pad.
  Attenborough's series was also well-done, especially the episode about 
ichthyosaurs.
  One of the larger problems with these documentaries as time has gone by is 
a kind of cult of personality that has developed. Perhaps the old Rolodex is 
getting worn out. I think more time should be spent in informed and intimate 
study of the fossils themselves, using all the technical tools and marvelous 
photographic techniques available.
  I would like to see more scenes like those of a great veteran 
paleontologist like John Ostrom lovingly do a show-and-tell of one of his 
great finds. Please, less shots of guys getting into trucks, driving trucks, 
getting out of trucks, walking, walking and looking cool, etc. A program of 
paleolife artists like Greg Paul, Brian Franczak, Doug Henderson etc., etc, 
discussing their art and research and the reseachers they work with would be 
FABULOUS! And inexpensive to produce! Good God, there's a world of things one 
could put into a documentary. That's why it's depressing to see the same 
imagry, sound effects,and same people over and over again. Get Jeff Hecht or 
Jane Davidson to come up with something different for cryin' out loud.
  On a historical note...I wish I could see again the first dinosaur 
documentary I ever saw-maybe the first ever on television. With some digging, 
I can find the name of the series. It was on CBS back in the fifties and was 
produced at the American Museum of Natural History. It was like a dusty ZOO 
PARADE, if you old-timers remember that Marlin Perkins chestnut (sponsored by 
Friskies). Anyhoo...the episode dealt with dinosaurs at the AMNH and Edwin H. 
Colbert was the man with the answers. The best part of the show to me were 
the clips shown from the new movie soon to be released, _The Animal World_, 
with animation sequences designed by Willis O'Brien and animated by Ray 
Harryhausen. I'll have to give CBS a call about their archives. That was one 
of the older, unscathed brain cells. Dan Varner.