The Volcano Show, and other Mysterious Gary and Eric Adventures

Remember when I mentioned Gary and Eric had more shows in production besides ones about dinosaurs? No? Well they did! And one will be included on the DVD release of More Dinosaurs and Son of Dinosaurs as "The Volcano Show"!

Producer Richard Jones explains...
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Here’s the deal with “The Volcano Show”, and other unfinished specials that were in various stages of production:

Despite our first home video distributor going out of business in the early 90s, we knew our audience enjoyed the “Dinosaur Shows”, and we enjoyed making them, so Midwich Entertainment plunged ahead trying to finish more specials starring Gary Owens and Eric Boardman. We finished “The Wondrous World of Weird Animals” and “Return of Dinosaurs” so that our new video distributor would have new product to promote while also trying to sell “The Dinosaur Shows” that had already been available on home video. At this point, The Disney Channel was still interested in licensing our shows.

So, we began production on:

The Space Show – segments were shot at the Smithsonian and Space Camp (some of which will be seen on the upcoming “More Dinosaurs” DVD release)

The Bug Show – we shot segments with Gary at The L.A. Natural History Museum’s Insect Zoo, Eric at the Smithsonian’s and The Cincinnati Zoo’s insect exhibits, Gary’s odd encounter with a crabby ladybug (Bill Saluga) and a ditzy bee (Patti Deutsch), and Gary and Eric poking around the Los Angeles County Insect Fair. (This show’s field shooting was pretty close to completion, some segments were edited, and we even had titles!)

The Fish Show – we shot some field segments with Eric at the aquariums in Chicago, Baltimore, and New Orleans. (We may put some of the rough cuts of the segments on the next DVD release)

The Volcano Show – will be making its debut soon on the “More Dinosaurs” DVD. We had shot all the segments over a few years including Eric’s trips to Hawaii and Yellowstone, and Gary’s meeting with Mr. Magma – the talking lava flow (built and operated by Chiodo Brothers Productions). In the mid-1990s, we finished the edit, David Spear scored it, and we did final audio post production… just as our deal with the second video distributor was becoming a problem (after the person who had acquired our shows left the company, they had second thoughts about getting into the kid-vid market) and The Disney Channel was shifting its focus to sit-com type series and no longer was interested in educational specials. Without home video and a cable outlet, production had to cease.

So now, 16 years later, after investing in a little final post production, The Volcano Show is finally going to see the light of day. We think the fans of the “Dinosaur Shows” will enjoy it as both a fascinating look at the spectacle of volcanic activity, and a chance to see Gary and Eric together again after all these years.

Richard Jones-Producer