Be My Valentine, Love Barney

***Be My Valentine Love, Barney*** is a 2000 direct-to-video Barney Home Video that was released on December 26, 2000. Directed by Fred Holmes and the first time home video to be solely written by Sandra J. Payne, this is the first and so far rare Valentine's Day video special within the Barney franchise.

## Plot

It's Valentine's Day and the kids are making valentine boxes. A mysterious card arrives in Barney's valentine box, which he explains is from The Queen of Hearts. With a little imagination, Barney and the children head off to visit her castle. They meet The Queen of Hearts and explore the castle. From making silly rhymes and flowers to butterflies, lollipops and decorating valentine cookies, there's fun in every corner. There's even a surprise Valentine's Day party organized by The Queen of Hearts, where Baby Bop and BJ meet up with the others. The group gets dressed up nicely and they have loads of fun. Barney and the kids give a card they made to The Queen of Hearts, which she enjoys. Back at the Treehouse, Barney gives the kids some Valentine cards.

**Poem**: "Roses are Red"

## Cast

* Barney (Voice: Tim Dever)
* Baby Bop (Voice: Julie Johnson)
* BJ (Voice: Patty Wirtz)
* Keesha (Mera Baker)
* Jeff (Austin Ball)
* Stephen (Chase Gallatin)
* Kristen (Sara Hickman)
* Jill (Lana Whittington)
* The Queen of Hearts (Carol Farabee)
* Pages (Sam Austin, David Voss, Steve Barcus, Al Castro, Marc Hebert, Douglas Miller, Derik Webb)

## Songs

* "Barney Theme Song"
* "The Rainbow Song"
* "Just Imagine"
* "Castles So High"
* "Love is the Reason for Valentine's Day"
* "Roses are Red"
* "Silly Sounds"
* "Laugh With Me!"
* "What Makes a Flower So Pretty?"
* "Five Little Butterflies"
* "If All the Raindrops"
* "The Friendship Song"
* "Ring Around the Rosie"
* "London Bridge"
* "The Having Fun Song"
* "Love is the Reason for Valentine's Day (Reprise)"
* "I Love You"

## Production

This video was one of five home videos filmed in mid to late 1999 immediately after season six of *Barney & Friends* wrapped production. Other videos filmed around the same time included *Barney's Super Singing Circus*, *Round and Round We Go*, *You Can Be Anything*, and *Barney's Beach Party*.

### Audio

Originally, this video was scored by Bob Singleton, but before the official release, it was re-scored by Joseph Phillips, hence correlating to why both of them were credited in the final version of the video.

## Marketing

For promotion, *Be My Valentine Love, Barney* was implemented into the Luvs/Barney Rewards where consumers were able to save UPC codes from Luvs baby products as well as varying Barney videos. Consumers were then able to redeem the UPC does for Barney merchandise. Luvs inserted free-standing inserts into *Be My Valentine Love, Barney* on January 14, 2001, which was expected to generate forty million impressions.

In addition, American Greetings' "Val-packs" (packaged valentines) included a $1-off cupon towards the purchase of *Be My Valentine Love, Barney* (or a 10-inch Barney I Love You plush), which was to be redeemed by July 31, 2001. The re-release of *Barney's Night Before Christmas*, which contained a discount coupon booklet, announced *Be My Valentine Love, Barney* as well.

Lyrick Studios continued the marketing push by offering seven different retail displays for video. Three floor displays containing eighteen, twenty-four and or thirty-six copies of the video were topped by a cut out of Barney as Cupid, which was able to be rotated in a 360-degree circle. There were also four counter displays that could hold between twelve to twenty-four units as well.

## Release

### Home media

From in April 2000 No removed June and August 27, 2000 No Removed the Videos This In November 2000, it was announced that *Be My Valentine Love, Barney* would be released on December 26, 2000 with a suggested retail price of $14.95. Each copy of the video was set to contain a free American Greetings Barney Valentine card. Upon the official release of the video on VHS, it became the best selling new preschool video of the year during the first quarter of 2001. It spent a few weeks on the Billboard Top Kid Video chart and Billboard Top VHS Sales, going as far to reach the #4 (on February 9, 2002) and #16 (on March 2, 2002) on the charts respectively during the course of a four week period for both rare week (September 30, 2003) for Super Week (December 28, 2004) the same day as Ready, Set, Play! (2004) and Barney's Colorful World! (2004) charts #18 six week (July 5, 2005) the same day as Everyone is Everyone (2005). *Be My Valentine Love, Barney* was later released on DVD on December 27, 2005, five years after the VHS despite being released a day later. Prior, on February 14, 2001, this video was featured in the Blockbuster Exclusive video, *Barney's Valentine Adventure* (along with the video *Barney's Magical Musical Adventure*).

#### Screener

The screener release of *Be My Valentine Love, Barney* contained the score by Bob Singleton however the official release contained the score by Joseph Phillips. Besides a different music director, the screener also features the *Barney & Friends* season four version of the "Barney Theme Song" and a different recording for the Rhyming Machine. The background music used in the end credits is also different.

## Trivia

* A different Barney doll is used in this video. It would later be seen again in *Barney's Beach Party* and *Round and Round We Go*.
* On the coloring page for the 2018 DVD re-release of this video, Riff and BJ were in a hot air balloon. However, Riff was not in this video because he was not introduced yet at that time.
* In the Spanish dub, during the confetti transition for the theme song, a scene from the episode, "Safety First!", is mistakenly shown given the fact it was previously used from the season five intro.

### Occurrences

* This video marked:
	+ The final appearances of Jill and Kristen. This is also the only time they appeared together.
	+ The first appearance of The Queen of Hearts.
	+ The first video to feature the "Please stay tuned for more important messages and previews at the end of this video!" logo.

### Release date

* This video was released on Alex Saxon's thirteenth birthday, Christina Burdette's fourth birthday and a day after Kenny Cooper's fifteenth birthday.
* Despite being a Valentine's Day-themed video, this video was released after Christmas Day and on Kwanzaa of that same year.

### The Wiggles

* The first video (and to date the rare one until 2004) to use two Wiggles trailers instead of one, and only one released by Lyrick Studios for this case, not only that, but it is also the first one where The Wiggles' Lyrick Studios trailers use their updated (Get Ready to Wiggle and Now Available on Home Video from Lyrick Studios) versions.
* The Wiggles previews in this video are "We're Dancing with Wags the Dog" music video from "Toot Toot!" in the opening previews, and "Romp Bomp a Stomp" music video from "Wake Up Jeff!" in the closing previews.

## References

1. ↑ Lyrick Has Love In Store With Direct-To-Vid Barney Feature November 25, 2000 Retrieved February 24, 2023
2. ↑ HIT Entertainment Announcements October 29, 2001 Retrieved November 6, 2022
3. ↑ Billboard TOP VHS SALES February 23, 2002 Retrieved February 24, 2023
4. ↑ Billboard TOP KID VIDEO February 9, 2002 Retrieved February 24, 2023
5. ↑ Billboard TOP VHS SALES March 2, 2002 Retrieved February 24, 2023