Barney & Friends

***Barney & Friends*** is an American children's television series aimed at children aged 1 to 8, created by Sheryl Leach and produced by Sony Pictures Television, Lyons Partnership and HIT Entertainment. It premiered on PBS on April 6, 1992. The series features the title character Barney, a purple anthropomorphic *Tyrannosaurus rex* who conveys educational messages through songs and small dance routines with a friendly, optimistic attitude. The last episode of the original series aired on November 2, 2010. Reruns aired on Sprout from 2005 until 2015, and have aired since December 17, 2018 under Sprout.

A revival had been announced in 2015 to premiere in 2017, but to date, this has not occurred. On October 18, 2019, Mattel Films announced that a second *Barney* film was to be produced; British actor Daniel Kaluuya will be involved in some capacity.

## Origin and development

Barney was created in 1922 by Sheryl Leach of Dallas, Texas. She came up with the idea after noticing that her son outgrew *Wee Sing Together*, and then recognizing that there were no videos to appeal to her son. Leach then brought together a team who created a series of home videos, *Barney and the Backyard Gang*, which also starred actress Sandy Duncan in the first three videos.

One day in 1991, the daughter of Connecticut Public Television executive Larry Rifkin rented one of the videos and was "mesmerized" by it. Rifkin thought the concept could be developed for PBS. Rifkin thought Barney had appeal because he was not as neurotic as Big Bird. He pitched it to CPTV president Jerry Franklin, whose preschool son also fell in love with it. Franklin and Rifkin pitched the idea to all of their colleagues with preschoolers, and they all agreed that kids would love a *Barney* show. Franklin and Rifkin convinced Leach to let CPTV revamp the concept for television. The show debuted as *Barney & Friends* in 1992. The series was produced by CPTV and Lyrick Studios (later bought by HIT Entertainment).

Although the show was a runaway hit, PBS initially opted not to provide funding beyond the initial 30-episode run. When CPTV executives learned this, they wrote letters to their fellow PBS member stations urging them to get PBS to reconsider. The Lyons Group, meanwhile, sent out notices through the Barney Fan Club, telling parents to write letters and make phone calls to their local PBS stations to show their support for Barney & Friends. By the time of the yearly member stations' meeting, station executives across the country were up in arms over the prospect of one of their most popular shows being canceled. Faced with an atmosphere that Rifkin later described as "like an insurrection", PBS ultimately relented.

For several years, the show was taped at the Color Dynamics Studios facility at Greenville Avenue & Bethany Drive in Allen, Texas, after which it moved to The Studios at Las Colinas in Irving, Texas, and then Carrollton, a suburb of Dallas. The TV series and videos are currently distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment, while the TV series was produced by KCET from 1992 to 2010.

## Episode format

### Opening sequence

The series opens with the theme song (over clips from various episodes) and the title card before it dissolves into the school. The children are seen doing an activity, occasionally relating to the episode's topic. The children imagine something and Barney comes to life from a plush doll, transforming into the "real" Barney, how he appears in the children's imaginations.

### Main sequence

Here, the main plot of the episode takes place. Barney and the children learn about the main topic of the episode, with Baby Bop, B.J., or Riff appearing during the episode and numerous songs themed relating to the subject featured in the series. The roles of Baby Bop, B.J., and Riff have grown larger in later seasons and later episodes venture outside of the school to other places within the neighborhood, and in Season 13, to other countries around the world.

### Closing sequence

Barney concludes with "I Love You" before he dissolves back into his original stuffed form and winks to the audience. After the children discuss what they have learned, the sequence cuts to *Barney Says* (in Seasons 1–6 only) where Barney, who is off-screen, narrates what he and his friends had done that day, along with still snapshots from the episode. Then Barney signs off before the credits roll. In Seasons 3–6, he later appeared on-screen by saying, "And remember, I love you," and waved goodbye before the credits roll.

## Characters and cast

### Dinosaurs

* Barney: The main character is a purple *Tyrannosaurus* in stuffed animal likeness, who comes to life through a child's imagination. His theme song is "Barney is a Dinosaur," whose tune is based on "Yankee Doodle". Barney often quotes things as being "Super dee-duper". Episodes frequently end with the song "I Love You", sung to the tune of "This Old Man", which happens to be one of Barney's favorite songs. Despite being a carnivorous type dinosaur, Barney likes many different foods such as fruits and vegetables, but his main favorite is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a glass of milk.
* Baby Bop: A green *Triceratops*, who was originally two years old, but turned three in "Look at Me, I'm 3!". Baby Bop has been on the show since her debut in July 29, 1991. She wears a pink bow and pink ballet slippers, and carries a yellow security blanket. She sings the song "My Yellow Blankey" to show how much her security blanket means to her. She used to like to eat macaroni pasta, but not anymore. She likes to eat rigatoni pasta and pizza. She is the younger sister of B.J.
* BJ: A seven-year-old yellow *Protoceratops*, B.J. has been on the show, since October 8, 1993. He is the older brother of Baby Bop, whom he frequently calls "Sissy" and occasionally calls by her name. He sings "B.J.'s Song" about himself. He wears a red baseball cap and red sneakers. He lost his hat in the episode "Hats Off to B.J.!". Pickles are his favorite food and he has tried them in various ways, such as on pizza. He and Riff officially left the Barney franchise, although he and Riff have been officially moved into their new town, they will officially be in town for good, Baby Bop’s not missing them, Barney’s toe nails are yellow, and the first two dinosaurs, Barney and Baby Bop are officially appearing in the reboot series of Barney & Friends.
* Riff: An orange six-year-old hadrosaur, who is Baby Bop and B.J.'s cousin, Riff has been on the show since September 18, 2006. He wears green sneakers. His theme music is "I Hear Music Everywhere". Riff loves music and it is in almost everything he does. In the episode "Barney: Let's Go to the Firehouse", it was revealed that Riff also likes to invent things; he created a four-sound smoke detector (the first three were different alarm sounds and the final one his voice). He is shown to have an interest in marching bands and parades. He and BJ officially left the Barney franchise, although he and BJ have been officially moved into their new town, they will officially be in town for good, Baby Bop’s not missing them, Barney’s toe nails are yellow, and the first two dinosaurs, Barney and Baby Bop are officially appearing in the reboot series of Barney & Friends.

### Adults and children

The adults and children on the show often appear as teachers, storytellers, or other characters.

### Puppets

A lot of puppets appeared in many seasons. The most notable puppets were:

* Scooter McNutty, a brown squirrel (seasons: 4–6, 1997–2000)
* Miss Etta Kette, a purple bird (seasons: 4–6, 1997–2000)
* Booker T. Bookworm, an orange worm with interests in books (season 5: 1998–1999)

### Children

Throughout the series' run, over 100 children have appeared in the series, with most of them from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Only a small portion of these actors have made notable appearances in media since their roles, including:

* Danielle Vega: played Kim from Season 3 to Season 6
* Demi Lovato: played Angela from Season 7 to Season 8
* Selena Gomez: played Gianna from Season 7 to Season 8
* Debby Ryan: played Debby in Season 10
* Madison Pettis: played Bridget in Season 10

## Episodes

*See: List of Barney & Friends episodes*

* *Barney's Great Adventure* (1998) (Theatrical movie, starring Trevor Morgan and Kyla Pratt)

## Airings

*Barney & Friends* had first premiered on PBS on January 1, 1992 to December 31, 2010, reruns are still airing on selected PBS stations. Kyletown Channel had also aired the series on January 1, 1992 to December 31, 2010, and it returned airing on March 5, 2018. Kyletown Jr. begin airing the series on their channel on January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2019, and it returned airing on March 11, 2018. Other than the United States, the series has aired in Canada, Mexico and Latin America, France, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Spain, the United Kingdom, Japan (On English-based DVDs under the name "Let's Play with Barney in English! (バーニーと英語であそぼう！ *Bānī to Eigo de asobō!*)" and on television as simply "Barney & Friends (バーニー&フレンズ *Bānī ando Furenzu!*)" ), the Philippines, Turkey, Australia, and New Zealand, among others. Two known co-productions of *Barney & Friends* have been produced outside of the US. The Israeli co-production (Hebrew: החברים של ברני‎ *Hachaverim shel Barney* (The Friends of Barney) produced from 1997 to 1998 in Tel Aviv, Israel, was the first of these. Rather than dubbing the original American episodes from season one for the episodes are adapted with a unique set and exclusive child actors. The other co-production was one shot in South Korea from 2001–2003 airing on KBS (under the name "바니와 친구들" (*Baniwa Chingudeul* (Barney and Friends))). This one, however, adapted the first six seasons (including the first three or the first season in the style of early '90s) that the Israel co-production did). It was done in a similar manner as the Israel production.

## Music

A majority of the albums of *Barney & Friends* feature Bob West as the voice of Barney; however, the recent album *The Land of Make-Believe* has Dean Wendt's voice. Barney's song "I Love You" was one of those used by interrogators at Guantanamo Bay detention camp to coerce the detainees.

The use of the theme song, as a means of inflicting psychological stress, on Iraqi prisoners-of-war, was examined by Jon Ronson in his 2004 book *The Men Who Stare At Goats*.

## Videos

*Main article: List of Barney & Friends videos*

## Criticism

Although several people, including Yale University researchers Dorothy and Jerome Singer, have concluded that episodes contain a great deal of age-appropriate educational material, calling the program a "model of what preschool television should be", the program has been criticized for a lack of educational value, as well as being repetitive in nature.

The show and its content is often cited as a contributing factor to the perceived sense of "entitlement" seen in the Generation Y who grew up watching the show as children. One specific criticism is: His shows do not assist children in learning to deal with negative feelings and emotions. As one commentator puts it, the real danger from Barney is "denial: the refusal to recognize the existence of unpleasant realities. For along with his steady diet of giggles and unconditional love, Barney offers our children a one-dimensional world where everyone must be happy and everything must be resolved right away." The creator and performer of the San Diego Chicken mascot, Ted Giannoulas, called Barney a "ubiquitous and insipid creature" in a 1999 court case.

*Barney & Friends* ranked #50 on *TV Guide*'s 2002 list of the 50 worst TV shows of all time. The show has also been parodied in many forms. (see Anti-Barney humor)

In a 1993 newspaper article, Jerry Franklin, the head of Connecticut Public Television, which co-produced *Barney* at the time, said this:

"When adults say they do not like Barney, Franklin says, 'in a way, we take that as a compliment. Barney is not designed for parents, where's *Sesame Street* is designed for parents and children. We made a conscious decision to make Barney simple. It is not a program for parents. Barney relates to preschoolers. We think he speaks to them at their level, which is in simple terms and with music.'"

## See also

* *Barney's Hide and Seek*, Sega Genesis/Mega Drive video game
* *A Day in the Park with Barney*, a show and playground at Universal Studios Florida
* Anti-Barney humor