''Paleoworld'' (''Jurassica'' in Europe) is an American

documentary television series Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. * Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

that aired on

The Learning Channel TLC is an American multinational cable television, cable and satellite television, satellite television network owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks, Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established in 1980 as The Learn ...

from 1994 to 1999. The series focused on

paleontology Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure ge ...

and comprised 50 half-hour episodes spread over four seasons. It was the first multi-season television series dedicated to paleontology. Clips from the series were frequently used within other paleontology programs aired by the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

and other channels owned by the Discovery Network.

Reception

Season 1 (1994) featured a smooth style and was narrated by Ben Gazzara. This series had many musical scenes, and some considered the show calm and relaxing; it also used much more paleoart than later series. Season 2 (1995) and Season 3 (1996) lost the musical element (as well as changing the narrator to Nick Schatzki), 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 (this time to Ted Maynard), and viewers felt that 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, and the series was ended.

Spin-offs

In July 1997, a kid-friendly version of the show called ''Bonehead Detectives of the Paleoworld'', hosted by Rebecca Budig and Danny Tamberelli, aired as a part of Discovery Channel's "Discovery Kids" slot on Sunday mornings. It lasted for only one season (July 1997 to May 1998), and it consisted of just 18 episodes. In August 1999, TLC aired the 6-episode mini-series ''When Dinosaurs Ruled'', hosted by Jeff Goldblum. This was a ''Paleoworld'' spin-off which combined clips from older ''Paleoworld'' episodes along with segments describing new discoveries.

Release

Currently, the entire series is not available for purchase. Many DVDs and VHS tapes have been made with episodes from the series; however, most of them have been discontinued and are no longer available to purchase. Three DVDs of ''Paleoworld'' with five episodes on each were released in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in 2002, and a five-disc set with only 15 episodes from the series was released in the US and Canada. The three-disc set was re-released in 2010.

List of episodes

Season 1 (1994-1995)

Season 2 (1995-1996)

Season 3 (1996-1997)

Season 4 (1997-1999)

References

{{Former TLC Programming Documentary films about prehistoric life TLC (TV network) original programming 1994 American television series debuts 1999 American television series endings Documentary television series about dinosaurs