A Favorite Spinosaurus (vinyl model) appears in the NHK drama "Single Mothers," currently airing. It's an item cherished by the protagonist Yuko Sawaguchi's son, given to him by his estranged father. He loves spinosaurus and even draws them.
That's fine, but the drama is set in 1999. Favorite's Spinosaurus didn't exist back then. It seems no dinosaur enthusiasts have yet complained about "inaccurate historical details."

Why a Spinosaurus and not the usual Tyrannosaurus in such cases?
Is NHK a fan of Spinosaurus?
In fact, the second episode of NHK's 2006 Saturday drama "Machiben" also featured a middle school teacher and fossil enthusiast who had discovered a Spinosaurus tooth, and was accused of a crime he didn't commit. There's a scene where a replica of the tooth and a newspaper clipping reporting its discovery are casually placed on the teacher's desk, and to my surprise, if you pause the image and look closely, the text is quite well-written. Photo 1

Is it the drama production's policy not to cut corners, even on a newspaper article that appears on screen for only an instant and which perhaps no one but me would ever pause to read?
In NHK's 2007 morning drama "Chiritotechin," set in Fukui, the protagonist discovers a carnivorous dinosaur tooth as a girl (modeled after the Kagaryu discovery episode). Later, the girl's best friend is mistakenly believed to be the discoverer, and it once again becomes the subject of a meticulously crafted newspaper article. Photo 2 (Tooth immediately after discovery and the article)

Furthermore, it is displayed at the Katsuyama Dinosaur Museum with a photo of the discoverer (who remains the best friend due to a belated correction).

Commercial broadcasters are not to be outdone. In 2003, TV Asahi's Saturday Wide "Hot Spring Young Innkeeper's Murder Mystery - Ashihara Onsen Chapter" featured a murder case related to dinosaur excavation in Katsuyama. It tells the story of paleontologists and suspicious fossil hunters who appear and are killed, but an Allosaurus skull is excavated and appears in the newspaper. Photo 3
While the skull itself is poorly made, the article is meticulously written. Still, 200 million yen for an Allosaurus skull is ridiculously expensive... or rather, don't put a price tag on a newly discovered fossil! This drama is quite enjoyable, with a dinosaur goods corner in the hotel gift shop.

Enough with "newspaper articles"; let me introduce you to an artistic drama. Going back to 1993, the year of Jurassic Park, NHK produced "Seishun Botan Doro" starring Rie Miyazawa and Etsushi Toyokawa. The original work is by Shuji Terayama. Based on the ghost story "Botan Doro," the setting is the Edo period, but a mysterious space reminiscent of underground theater is created, and astonishingly, a full Tyrannosaurus skeleton is excavated underground. The skull is very well-made, with intricate details such as the lower jaw detaching and separating into two halves. Photo 4

But most of all, Rie Miyazawa is incredibly beautiful. A must-see! Unfortunately, it seems that no DVDs have been released.

Speaking of Rie Miyazawa, in her 1990 starring drama "Itsuka Dareka to Asagaeri" (Fuji TV), her room was decorated with dinosaur merchandise. While all were commercially available items, there also seemed to be a painting by Charles Knight on the wall.

Episode 58 of "Hadaka no Taisho" (Fuji TV) in 1993, titled "Kiyoshi's Dream of Fishing in the Lake," tells the story of Kiyoshi Yamashita (Gannosuke Ashiya) visiting Katsurazawa Lake in Mikasa, Hokkaido. In the play, the problematic Ezomikasasaurus is described as "a large carnivorous reptile, unknown whether it's a dinosaur or a marine reptile," which is honest enough. However, the figure shown to Kiyoshi by a dinosaur-loving boy, who claims he made it himself, is a disappointment, being a British Natural History Museum figure covered in something like plaster to make it look like a clay model. Finally, Kokoro's animated Tyrannosaurus also appears.

The 1994 episode "Where Did the Dinosaurs Go?" from Tamori's "Yo ni mo Kimyō na Monogatari - Tanabata Special" (Fuji TV) unfortunately used the actual dinosaurs from the now-defunct UNESCO Village Great Dinosaur Expedition Hall for filming. However, Shiro Sano's performance, where his head is eaten alive after discovering dinosaurs that escaped extinction by evacuating to another dimension and still exist there, is intense.

Well, what I've introduced here comes from my extensive collection of videotaped TV shows, which I've been diligently checking the TV guide and recording for quite some time. These are treasures to me. I took the opportunity to convert the ones introduced this time to DVD, but I've been meaning to convert all the tapes to DVD and make a list for years now, and I wonder how many years have passed...

Incidentally, my oldest dinosaur program is "Dinosaurs Were Warm-Blooded!?", broadcast as part one and two of "Toyota Sunday Documentary: Unknown World" (Nippon TV Network). There's no broadcast date, but it was probably in the early 1980s, not long after I bought my VCR. The program features Professor Ostrom introducing Deinonychus and comparing Haversian canals under a microscope, presenting the nostalgic warm-blooded theory. The second part explains the evolution to birds. It was probably the first program in Japan to comprehensively introduce the warm-blooded theory?

If I actually owned the dinosaur props used in such TV shows, I would boast about it, but unfortunately, I don't... However, I do have one non-dinosaur item. It's a "Tree Drummer," a stop-motion animation model actually used in "After Man: A Zoology of the Future" (TV Asahi), which aired in 1990. I got it when I appeared on "Kaiun! Nandemo Kanteidan" in '96. The production company happened to be the same one that made "After Man," and a staff member gave it to me, saying it had been "rolling around in a corner of the office." The elephant-like nose and tusks are missing, but the internal armature (movable metal skeleton) still works. However, the latex material has deteriorated and is crumbling, so it takes courage to move it. Photo 5 shows it in its prime, and Photo 6 is a recent photo.

Being able to display a miniature model actually used in filming in my room, though on a different scale, makes me involuntarily grin, feeling as if I'm standing shoulder to shoulder with great SF collectors like Forrest J. Ackerman and the ultimate dinosaur collector, Don Glut. I recently acquired some dinosaurs from Ackerman's collection (with a certificate signed by him) on Sekaimon.
Allosaurus Photo 7

Styracosaurus (the horn on its nose is missing) Photo 8

Anachronistic confrontation scene Photo 9

They are made of latex but don't contain armatures. I don't know what they were used for, but their animation-model-like presence makes me happy.

Do you remember the Cup Noodle TV commercials that used model animation? Those where primitive humans chased or were scattered by extinct mammals. Photo 10 shows novelty goods from when it aired: plush toys of Synthetoceras and Brontotherium. I haven't seen them elsewhere, so they might be quite rare. The Cup Noodle at their feet is from the "Last Dinosaur Kingdom" exhibition in 1992, and alarmingly, it's unopened.