Paleoworld
Encyclopedia
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:
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 shark
s, 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 DVD
s 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.
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)
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
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
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
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
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
Ben Gazzara
-Early life:Gazzara was born Biagio Anthony Gazzara in New York City, the son of Italian immigrants Angelina and Antonio Gazzara, who was a laborer and carpenter. Gazzara grew up on New York's tough Lower East Side. He actually lived on E. 29th Street and participated in the drama program at...
. 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. CryolophosaurusCryolophosaurusCryolophosaurus was a large theropod dinosaur, with a crest on its head that looked like a Spanish comb. Due to the resemblance of this feature to Elvis Presley's pompadour haircut from the 1950s, this dinosaur was at one point informally known as "Elvisaurus".Cryolophosaurus was excavated from...
) 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. BakkerRobert T. BakkerRobert T. Bakker is an American paleontologist who helped reshape modern theories about dinosaurs, particularly by adding support to the theory that some dinosaurs were endothermic...
, Phil CurriePhil CurriePhilip John Currie, AOE is a Canadian palaeontologist and museum curator who helped found the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta and is now a professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton...
and Paul SerenoPaul SerenoPaul Callistus Sereno is an American paleontologist from the University of Chicago who discovered several new dinosaur species on several continents. He has conducted excavations at sites as varied as Inner Mongolia, Argentina, Morocco, and Niger...
.
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
Andalgalornis
Andalgalornis was a genus of flightless predatory birds of the family Phorusrhacidae that lived in Argentina. The type and only species is A. steulleti....
and uses a model of the creature numerous times to show it attacking a horse-like mammal called Diadiaphorus
Diadiaphorus
Diadiaphorus is an extinct genus of litoptern mammal from the Miocene of South America.Diadiaphorus closely resembled a horse, but was only around in body length, similar to a modern sheep. It had three toes, only one of which touched the ground. This toe had a large hoof; the two outer toes were...
. Each episode is normally about a certain group of creatures like carnosaurs or prehistoric shark
Shark
Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....
s, however there are certain episodes dedicated entirely to Tyrannosaurus rex and Troodon
Troodon
Troodon is a genus of relatively small, bird-like dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period . Discovered in 1855, it was among the first dinosaurs found in North America...
.
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
Ben Gazzara
-Early life:Gazzara was born Biagio Anthony Gazzara in New York City, the son of Italian immigrants Angelina and Antonio Gazzara, who was a laborer and carpenter. Gazzara grew up on New York's tough Lower East Side. He actually lived on E. 29th Street and participated in the drama program at...
in 1994, Nick Schatzki in 1995/1996 and Ted Maynard in 1997.
The series is now owned by the Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
, along with other documentaries such as Beyond T-rex, Valley Of The T-rex
Valley Of The T-rex
Valley of the T-Rex is a Discovery Channel documentary, featuring leading paleontologist Jack Horner as he travels to Hell Creek Formation for digging after fossils. Horner wants to find the truth about the most famous of all dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus Rex. The main debate in the program is whether...
, Dinosaur Planet
Dinosaur Planet
Dinosaur Planet may refer to:* Dinosaur Planet , a science fiction novel by Anne McCaffrey* Dinosaur Planet, a science fiction novel by Stephen Leigh, book 1 of 6 in his Dinosaur World series...
and When Dinosaurs Roamed America
When Dinosaurs Roamed America
When Dinosaurs Roamed America is a two-hour American television program that first aired on Discovery Channel in 2001. It was directed by Pierre de Lespinois and narrated by actor John Goodman...
.
Many DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s and VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
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
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
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.
Season 2 Episodes (order unknown)
1. The Earthshakers2. 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 Cats2. 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 Raptors2. 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 EarthBefore We Ruled The EarthBefore We Ruled the Earth is a two-part documentary television miniseries that premiered on February 9, 2003 on the Discovery Channel. The program featured early human history and the challenges human beings faced thousands of years ago...
- The Ultimate Guide: T-Rex
- Beyond T-Rex
- Valley of the T-RexValley Of The T-rexValley of the T-Rex is a Discovery Channel documentary, featuring leading paleontologist Jack Horner as he travels to Hell Creek Formation for digging after fossils. Horner wants to find the truth about the most famous of all dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus Rex. The main debate in the program is whether...
- Dinosaur Planet
- When Dinosaurs Roamed AmericaWhen Dinosaurs Roamed AmericaWhen Dinosaurs Roamed America is a two-hour American television program that first aired on Discovery Channel in 2001. It was directed by Pierre de Lespinois and narrated by actor John Goodman...
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