Michael Wermuth, Jr. returns with a different kind of Weekly Muppet spotlight... This week, we focus on Baby Sinclair from the acclaimed Henson/Disney puppet sitcom, Dinosaurs. This is the first time we've featured a Dinosaurs character on The Muppet Mindset!
BABY SINCLAIR
Performed by...
Kevin Clash (body and voice) First appearance...
Dinosaurs Episode 101 "The Mighty Megalosaurus" (1991)
Most recent appearance...
Dinosaurs Episode 407 "Changing Nature" (1994)
Memorable quotes...
“Not the mama!”
“Again!”
“I’m the baby, gotta love me!”
“I’m gonna bite you now!”
“This pan is pretty good!”
Memorable songs...
“I’m the Baby”
“I Can Do Whatever I Want!”
Memorable moments...
His birth sequence in the first episode, “The Mighty Megalosauras,” is quite memorable. He hatches out of his egg and then falls onto the floor, before meeting his family and being introduced to Earl (and no, his first meeting with Earl wasn’t destructive).
In “I Never Ate for My Father,” he mistakes his tail for something to eat, and screams after biting it and stabbing it with a fork.In “Getting to Know You,” Baby has an argument with the Sinclair’s foreign exchange guest, telling the guest that he has a present for him (in his diaper) and then eating him.
In “Baby Talk,” Baby constantly repeats a dirty word ("smoo") that he hears on TV. In an attempt to clean his mouth of the word, Fran washes his mouth out with soap. Then Baby hiccups bubbles out of his mouth, and when the bubbles pop the popping sound sounds like somebody saying “smoo!”
WHO IS BABY SINCLAIR?
Baby Sinclair is the baby in the Sinclair household on the Henson/Disney TV series Dinosaurs. He can talk and likes to hit his father, Earl, on the head with a frying pan. Unlike the rest of his family, who are green, Baby is pink. Over the course of the series, the Baby has grown a golden horn which made him king of the dinosaurs (until it broke off), had his own war against a “cookie creature,” had to deal with potty training (though he stayed in diapers up until the last episode), and lived to be three years old (though technically two… the family tricked him out of his “terrible twos” by celebrating his birthday early).At first he didn’t have a name. Then, in “And the Winner Is…" Earl and Fran went to the Chief Elder to give him a name. The chief elder died right when he was about to name the baby (causing dinosaurs to think he intended on naming him “Ugh Ugh I’m Dying You Idiot"), but at the end of the episode they took the baby to the new Chief Elder, who chose to name him “Baby”.
The Baby’s favorite TV shows include “Ask Mister Lizard” and “Captain Action Figure”.
The Baby is to Dinosaurs what Bart Simpson is to The Simpsons: Good for marketing! Though not many episodes starred him, Baby is perhaps the show’s signature character (though Earl is really the star). Baby was on most of the home video covers, and was in the majority of Dinosaurs merchandise. He also had many memorable quotes (most of the quotes I listed are his catch phrases, though some were limited to only one episode). He spoke so many quotable lines... it’s a wonder that there aren’t any t-shirts with these phrases. And I suppose his popularity during the show’s run helped prepare performer Kevin Clash for when Elmo became super popular!
The Muppet Mindset b Ryan Dosier
