Paleoworld

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Paleoworld was a documentary television series that was produced for The Learning Channel, and has had a total of 50 episodes. Some consider it to be the largest and most comprehensive paleontology series ever made. The series began in late September 1994 and, after 4 seasons, ended in 1997. Each episode is approximately 24 minutes long.

Season 1 (1994) featured a smooth style to it and was narrated by Ben Gazzara. This series had lots of musical scenes, which resulted in what some consider to be an extremely calm and relaxing show. It also uses a lot more Paleoart than later series. Season 2 (1995) and Season 3 (1996) lost the musical element (as well as changing narrators), which resulted in a more conventional style nature documentary. Even so, seasons 2 and 3 were still perceived as maintaining the quality standard. For season 4 (1997), the series changed narrators again, and viewers felt the show suffered a drop in quality, shifting from musical and calm, to full-on and repetitive. Consequently, season 4 was cancelled mid-season. The show never returned for a fifth season. However, TLC released a new series about dinosaurs the following year (1998) as a spin off to the Paleoworld series. It was called "When Dinosaurs Ruled" ("Jurassica" in some countries).

Many scenes show still photos (Paleo-Art) of the prehistoric creatures being featured and in the background are various styles of music. Some of the shows' features are:

• Season 2-4: A time-travel effect, in which the screen goes through a tunnel of rings and on each ring are the various time periods in earths history, starting at the present and gradually going further back in time. The screen eventually stops at one of the rings, depending on what era/creature is being featured.

• Mostly Season 1: The screen moves slowly around an image (usually Paleo-art).

• Mostly Season 1: Instead of CGI animation, it uses animatronics of the creature being talked about, in a realistic environment (although the amount of eerie mist and fog used in these scenes is not natural).

• Season 1: Shows a picture of a creature (e.g. Cryolophosaurus) and morphs it into another different species to show how creatures evolve.

• Season 1-4: Interviews many famous paleontologists on certain questions, such as Robert T. Bakker, Phil Currie and Paul Sereno.

Paleoworld uses a lot of model prehistoric creatures, one e.g. is in the episode "Killer Birds". It talks about a 2m tall flightless meat eating bird called Andalgalornis and uses a model of the creature numerous times to show it attacking a horse-like mammal called Diadiaphorus. Each episode is normally about a certain group of creatures like carnosaurs or prehistoric sharks, however there are certain episodes dedicated entirely to Tyrannosaurus rex and Troodon.

Paleoworld rarely used animation. It mostly showed still photos while playing music in the background (giving it a slideshow effect). Stock footage of living animals is also used.

Paleoworld was narrated by Ben Gazzara in 1994, Nick Schatzki in 1995/1996 and Ted Maynard in 1997.

The series is now owned by the Discovery Channel, along with other documentaries such as Beyond T-rex, Valley Of The T-rex, Dinosaur Planet and When Dinosaurs Roamed America.

Many DVDs and VHS tapes have been made with episodes from the series, however most have been discontinued and are no longer available to buy anymore. 3 DVD's of Paleoworld with 5 episodes on each were released in Australia in 2002 and a 5 disc set with 15 episodes from the series was released in the US and Canada. A link can be found below to a site where you can still buy a copy of this 5 disc set. However, a 3 disc set containing the same 15 episodes from the 3 dvds at the top of this paragraph is now being released again as a 3 disc set on 13/1/10.

Paleoworld currently airs on Science.

Season 1 Episodes (in original order)

1. Rise Of The Predators (First Broadcast- Sep 28 1994 at 8 pm)
2. Flight Of The Pterosaurs (First Broadcast- Oct 2 1994 at 9 pm)
3. Back To The Seas (First Broadcast- Oct 9 1994 at 9 pm)
4. Carnosaurs (First Broadcast- Oct 16 1994 at 9 pm)
5. Missing Links (First Broadcast- Oct 23 1994 at 9 pm)
6. Seamonsters (First Broadcast- Oct 30 1994 at 9 pm)
7. Tale Of A Sail (First Broadcast- Nov 6 1994 at 9 pm)
8. Dino Doctors (First Broadcast- Nov 13 1994 at 9 pm)
9. Attack Of The Killer Kangaroos (First Broadcast- Nov 20 1994 at 9 pm)
10. The Legendary T-rex (First Broadcast- Nov 27 1994 at 9 pm)
11. Dino Sex (First Broadcast- Dec 4 1994 at 9 pm)
12. Mistaken Identity (First Broadcast- Dec 11 1994 at 9 pm)
13. Mysteries Of Extinction (First Broadcast- Dec 18 1994 at 9 pm)

• In 1995, Discovery Channel ran "Prehistoric Predators" which was an hour long consolidation of certain episodes.^{[1][unreliable source?]}

Season 2 Episodes (order unknown)

1. The Earthshakers
2. Dinos In The Air
3. Killer Birds
4. Island Of The Giant Rats
5. African Graveyard 1: Hunting Dinosaurs
6. African Graveyard 2: Discovering Dinosaurs
7. Monsters On The Move
8. Trail Of The Neanderthal
9. Are Rhinos Dinos
10. Mammoths
11. The Land That Time Forgot
12. Troodon: Dinosaur Genius
13. Mystery Of Dinosaur Cove
14. Amber Hunters

Season 3 Episodes (order unknown)

1. Dawn Of The Cats
2. Ancient Crocodiles
3. Dinos In The Snow
4. Boneheads
5. Armoured Dinos
6. Ape Man
7. Dwarf Dinos
8. Flesh On The Bones
9. Treasure Island
10. Horns And Herds
11. Valley Of Venom
12. Early Birds
13. Troodon: Portrait Of A Killer

Season 4 Episodes (order unknown)

1. Killer Raptors
2. Loch Ness Secrets
3. Prehistoric Sharks
4. Dinosaur Doomsday
5. Dawn Of The Dinos
6. Baby Monsters
7. Secrets Of The Brontosaurus
8. Clash Of The Titans
9. Valley Of The Uglies
10. Dino Diet

Related Discovery Channel programs

• Before We Ruled the Earth
• The Ultimate Guide: T-Rex
• Beyond T-Rex
• Valley of the T-Rex
• Dinosaur Planet
• When Dinosaurs Roamed America

References

External links

• Paleoworld 5 Disc Set- http://www.documentary-video.com/items.cfm?id=1021
• http://tv.nytimes.com/show/158731/Paleoworld/overview
• http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/Discs/Disc.asp?ID=5623
• http://www.fancast.com/tv/Paleoworld/10263/episodes/season/-1?sortby=descending&page=1&num=50