Cro

A brilliant educational/informative show about mechanical engineering and technology. It was based on an excellent children's technology book called "The Way Things Work" by David Macaulay. The show run from September, 1993 to October, 1994. A total of 20 episodes.

The premise: A mammoth from the ice age is frozen in a glacier, and thawed out by a scientist and her kid Sidekick. The mammoth, named Phil, can speak perfect English and comes from a surprisingly sophisticated tribe of mammoth scientist/engineers. Each episode, Dr C. and Mike would, in a cold open, encounter a tricky engineering problem with some device, and Phil would tell a story about solving the same problem years ago. Cue titles, then a Flash Back.

The titular Cro was a young human boy (presumably a Cro-Magnon man), whose adopted Neanderthal family was assimilated into the mammoth community. Although the humans were, for the most part, pretty stupid, the mammoths found their opposable thumbs useful.

Each Flash Back would have the mammoths coach Cro and his Neanderthal family through the solving of a problem with some type of simple machine. It differed from the typical Bamboo Technology in that all the devices were built on a foundation of good solid science.

All in all, an entertaining and educational show that taught valuable lessons about mechanics and physics in an easy-to-understand way.

Tropes used in Cro include:

Animated Series
Downer Opening Sequence: The opening sequence starts off with the main family of cavemen being saved from reoccurring villain, a purple sabertooth tiger, by Phil the Mammoth. Then the ground underneath Phil's feet collapses and he seemingly dies before the eyes of his friends when he plummets to his "death". This Troper, at least, always found this to be unsettling, at the best of times.
- This is made all the more depressing by that Phil would not be found for thousands of years, so Cro and company never found out that Phil survived and ended their lives never knowing. Then by the time said Mammoth would be reanimated, everything he knew and loved had long since died, though this never is brought up in the actual series. Whether that is a good or bad thing is left in the eyes of the beholder. And given the light-hearted nature of the series, some viewers found to be very jarring...
- Not enough for you? The opening theme song is done to the tune of Paul Simon's "Mother and Child Reunion"!
Expository Theme Tune
Flash Back
Framing Device
Hot Scientist: I swear it was this show, but among the cast is a rather attractive scientist. At the start of one episode she's in a bikini much to a blushing Phil's embarrassment.
Hulk Speak: most of the neanderthal characters would talk like this. Complete with the Mongo Pawn In Game Of Life moments: