Never mind the Flintstones; the Sinclairs are the modern Jurassic Age family you’d most want to meet. Thirty years after ABC introduced viewers to the ‘60s caveman clan Fred, Wilma, and Pebbles, the network launched the ambitious family sitcom Dinosaurs in 1991, and invited family audiences into the home of dinosaur husband and wife, Earl and Fran, and their three kids: Robbie, Charlene, and Baby. Unlike their animated forebearers, the Sinclairs were live-action, life-sized puppets, built by the ace crew at Jim Henson Productions. These days, the same characters would probably be rendered with CGI. But in the early ‘90s, the family was brought to life purely through the magic of puppetry, with teams of actors donning beautifully designed latex costumes and cracking wise in classic sitcom fashion. That’s why it made our list of the 30 Best Bad Shows of the Last 30 Years.



One of these actors was Leif Tilden, who wore the latex body of the eldest Sinclair child, teenage dino Robbie. (The character was voiced by Jason Willinger, and puppeteer Steve Whitmire — who assumed the role of Kermit after Jim Henson passed away in 1990 — manipulated Robbie’s facial expressions.) It was Tilden’s second tour of duty in a Henson-built suit, previously playing Donatello in the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles feature film and its sequel, The Secret of the Ooze. Now a filmmaker, Tilden spoke with Yahoo TV about bringing Robbie to life, dancing with Michael Jackson, and the show’s famously dark series finale where the Sinclair family literally faced their own extinction.

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Before Dinosaurs, you wore a Henson-designed suit for the first two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies. How did that experience prepare you for the series?

It prepared me for the process more than anything. The process of preparing the way the character moved, conveying emotion through the body, working in sync with the other puppeteers, pacing yourself in the heat, keeping hydrated. The audition process for Dinosaurs was very engaging. It’s a little like Andy Serkis playing Gollum, only instead of wearing white balls for the motion capture artists, you’re wearing a costume that’s a combination of latex and fabrics, and people can’t see your face and facial expressions. It’s not amusement park performing; there’s comic timing and hitting emotional beats. I went in as if I was playing Robbie, saying his lines and physicalizing him. I know I’m talking esoterically about a show like Dinosaurs! But I defend Dinosaurs. It’s a family show that has an innocent spirit to it. It’s really funny, and somewhat dark at times. I just think it was kind of a startling concept for some people.

Maybe they were thrown by the idea of watching a traditional family sitcom starring full-sized puppets.

It’s a hard one. It was experimental in a lot of ways. We weren’t The Dark Crystal [Jim Henson’s 1982 fantasy adventure], where the characters are sort of magical and exist in a different world. I don’t know why it wasn’t successful, really. I’ve met a lot of people since who love that show. I think it takes someone with an eccentric personality to dig it. Did you ever see that Saturday Night Live skit [“First Got Horny 2 U”], where Aidy Bryant had a crush on Robbie and then he takes off his head and it’s a balding middle-aged man in there? That was funny, but it shows a certain cynicism. And if you’re a cynical person, you’re not going to like Dinosaurs.

How long did it take to put on Robbie’s suit?

It took about an hour in total; the average shooting day was 12 hours. It wasn’t cumbersome to move around in. It was designed to be actor-friendly so the performer could instill life into the suit. And I want to emphasize that it wasn’t just me playing the character. I was one of a group of people who played Robbie. The people who made the costume made a big contribution to how that character is portrayed, as well as the puppeteers doing the mouth and eyeballs. It’s just like a motion capture character; Gollum isn’t all Andy Serkis’s work — he builds the foundation and they tweak his performance in the computer. It’s the same thing with Robbie. I don’t stake a claim that this is my work — it’s our work.