Paleoworld

Paleoworld is an American documentary television series that aired on The Learning Channel from 1994 to 1997. The series focuses on paleontology and comprised 50 half-hour episodes. It was the first television series dedicated to paleontology that spanned multiple seasons.^[1] The series is now owned by the Discovery Channel, along with other documentaries such as Beyond T. rex (1997), When Dinosaurs Roamed America (2001), Valley of the T. rex (2001), and Dinosaur Planet (2003).

Spin-off

Paleoworld never returned for a fifth season. However, TLC released a new series about dinosaurs the following year (1998) as a spin-off to the series, When Dinosaurs Ruled (called Jurassica in some countries).

Reception

Season 1 (1994) featured a smooth style and was narrated by Ben Gazzara. This series had lots of musical scenes, and some consider it to be an extremely calm and relaxing show. It also uses much 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 being musical and calm, to full-on and repetitive. Consequently, Season 4 was cancelled mid-season. The show never returned for a fifth season.

Release

Many DVDs and VHS tapes have been made with episodes from the series; however, most have been discontinued and are no longer available to purchase. Three DVDs of Paleoworld with five episodes on each were released in Australia in 2002, and a five-disc set with 15 episodes from the series was released in the US and Canada. The three-disc set was also re-released in 2010.

List of episodes

Season 1 (1994)

Season 2 (1995)

Season 3 (1996)

Season 4 (1997)

Related programs

References