In the early to mid-1990s, there was a small window of time when billionaires and famous creators clung to environmentalism like a scared child at night. And, it showed in the way that TV was geared toward kids.

It was a time when Rocko’s Modern Life talked about why it’s good to R-E-C-Y-C-L-E, recycle. It was a time when Captain Planet had a diverse group of kids help save the earth with classic elements like wind, fire, water, earth, and…heart? (Why heart? Who cares, it was now an “element,” because fuck you.)

Perhaps the most surprising of all environmental productions was a show that never really seemed environmental at first: Dinosaurs. Made by master puppeteer Jim Henson, Dinosaurs followed a Flintstone-like family of dinosaurs called the Sinclairs.

Lately, I’ve been doing a deep dive on the Dinosaurs show. What I found was an eerily prescient show that regularly highlighted the very issues that are now affecting Americans and the world beyond.

It followed blue-collar Earl Sinclair as he navigated family life with a teenage son, a daughter, and a baby. The baby, known as “Baby Sinclair,” was the star of the show. He had catchlines, looked kinda weirdly cute, and was generally funny. His whole shtick was hitting his dad with a pot or a pan, but that’s just 90s slapstick humor.

Earl was a good husband and a decent earner. He worked at a plant where he plowed over trees for his boss. For three years or so, most young kids ate this show up. I still remember hearing kids in middle school singing, “I’m the baby! Gotta love me!” as part of my childhood.

At the time, I had no idea about the show. I just assumed it was a song kids sang on playgrounds. I didn’t see it until later, when I discovered it on a list of the most disturbing TV show endings.

Basically, Earl works for WeSaySo Corporation. That corporation (and his job) paved over the ecosystem of a group of insects known as Bunch Beetles. Bunch Beetles were crucial to the earth in their universe, because they’d eat all the highly invasive cider poppies.

After Earl and the rest notice that there are no more bunch beetles, the cider poppies grow out of control. He decides to treat them with poison, which in turn, kills all the plant life out there. The government decides to send explosives to volcanoes to make it rain, hopefully to wash away the poison.

It backfires badly.

The volcano ash cause a nuclear winter of sorts, which is explained by the news team. The end shows Earl admitting to his family that he didn’t take care of the planet and that there wouldn’t be a planet for his kids. Then, it cuts to the start of snowfall—a cue that the Sinclair family realized they’d all die that winter.

Just like that, they all die. It’s cannon that everyone, even Baby Sinclair, dies. To say it shocked audiences was an understatement. You can still find people online who talk about how they were emotionally traumatized by it.

Oh, and if you were wondering? Yes, the WeSaySo Corporation was celebrating record profits as a result of Earl’s ideas up until he quite literally killed the world and killed everyone on it. While ABC’s Tim Hartford was uncomfortable with it, he still greenlit it.

It still remains one of the most striking social commentaries on environmentalism since The Lorax and Captain Planet—though it may not have been quite as famous as either.

Contrary to the Disney of today, the Disney (erm, Henson) of yesteryear had no problem trying its hand at tackling tough topics. The show also had several episodes that discussed things like the futility of war (“Nuts to War!”), counterculture movements, teenage rebellion, and the growing threat of abandoning science for religious grifts.

No, I’m not making that last one up.

Religion was a major topic of discussion through multiple episodes—and they mirror what I’m seeing go on

At one point, grandmotherly Ethel Sinclair has a Near Death Experience. She allows a religious grifter to capitalize on it until she has a second NDE which involves her going to a “not nice place.”

That’s not all, though it’s shocking to see that religious grifters were already getting skewered in shows back then. There was another episode that involved religious grifters urging people to abandon science in favor of a cult.

In that episode, the Sinclair family starts wondering about their meaning of being. This eventually leads to the local Elders telling them to abandon science in favor of Potatoism. (Yes, they worshipped potatoes.)

One thing I’ve noticed about Hollywood and tastemaker circles is that they often seem to “know” where things are headed far before we mere mortals do. Part of it is because they’re the ones who are often in backrooms, doing deals that push trends. The other part of it is because they hear the gossip surrounding everyone.

They, much like certain politicians, tried to warn us of what was starting to show its face: Christian nationalism and climate change. Henson was also close to the end of his life when he made Dinosaurs, if I remember correctly.

As a person who one day hopes to reach Henson-level fame (but likely won’t), I could see myself giving quick warnings of what society shouldn’t do. It would be one of my last gifts to humanity, per se.

The more I look around, the more it feels like the ending of Dinosaurs was both a product of the time as well as a dire warning of the future. This was around the time the second Golden Age of Disney was coming to a close—and someone like Henson would undoubtedly have noticed the start of it.

At the end of the show, the message was one around the destruction corporations can bring—creativity getting crushed, profits being put before all, and perhaps, something far darker on the horizon.