Barney & Friends

*The topic of this page has a wiki of its own: Barney Wiki.*

"*Super-dee-Duper!*"
―one of Barney's catchphrases
*This article is about the show. For the character, see here.*

***Barney & Friends*** is an American children's television series aimed at children aged 1 to 4, created by Sheryl Leach and produced by HIT Entertainment. Based on "Barney and the Backyard Gang," a video series which ran from 1988 to 1991, the series stars the titular purple dinosaur and other dinosaurs and puppet characters who teach values, sing, dance, tell stories, and play games with a cast of real kids. Because both PBS and HiT Entertainment co-owned Sprout when the channel was launched, they aired a variety of shows from both their archive libraries on Sprout, including reruns of Barney.

## Plot

*"Purple, fun-loving and happy, Barney is not your typical dinosaur. He's a huggable, lovable 200 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex. Barney, and his DINO-mite friends BJ and Baby Bop, help parents give their children the range of skills they need to grow, and always do it with lots of fun, music and laughs."* (link)
### For Parents

*"Kids feel important when they are encouraged to take responsibility for their actions."*
## History on Sprout

The show premiered on September 26, 2005, along with several other shows, to celebrate the launch of the Sprout network. Prior to that, they released it on Comcast On-Demand. Sprout aired episodes from seasons 4-8.

The show aired at 7AM, 1:30PM, 4:30PM, 1:30AM, and 4:30AM ET when Sprout launched. It later aired at 9:30AM when *The Sunny Side Up Show* launched and 6AM ET when *Sprout's Wiggly Waffle* launched. The show was removed from its 1:30PM timeslot once *The Super Sproutlet Show* premiered. Additionally, the series aired at 6:30AM on weekend mornings and 12:30PM during the early afternoon block.

On September 27th, 2007, Season 1-3 episodes were added.

On April 2nd, 2008, Season 9 episodes were added.

Episodes of the show were also on both Let's Grow volumes. "Litterbot" was included in Lend a Helping Hand, while "Home Safe Home" was included in Safety First.

On March 21st, 2011, Season 10 episodes were added.

On August 7th, 2011, Season 1-6 episodes were removed from the channel.

On October 3rd, 2011, Season 11 and 12 episodes were added.

On May 21, 2012, Season 13 episodes were added.

The show had a Sprout Diner snack, **Barney's Purple Hummus Dip**. After Sprout Diner was pulled, Kelly, Chica, and Barney made the recipe, and it was also featured on a Universal Kids social media video. The recipe was also inducted into the Alfalfa's Bike Delivery online game. The show got another snack that year called "Barney's Super-dee-Duper Dumplings."

The show has some movies such as *Barney's Night Before Christmas* and *Barney's Christmas Star*. They both aired on Sprout, including for Elmo's Movie Merry-Thon and Merry Movies.

Barney also visited malls as part of "Barney's Sprouterrific Playdate." The Sunny Side Up Show hosts and Chica were also present.

On February 14, 2010, a 3-hour special called "Dino-Mite Valentine's Sing-Along" aired. It was hosted by both Barney and Dorothy the Dinosaur from The Wiggles. It was screened again in 2011.

Barney has had appearances on *The Sunny Side Up Show*. Barney appeared in the 2007 Thanksgiving special along with Nina and Chica as well as the 2009 Valentine special with Sean and Chica. From the Sprout Press Room:

*"On Friday, February 13 from 9 a.m. to noon ET, Barney will join Sunny Side Up Show hosts Sean and Chica live in the Sunshine Barn for “Sprout's Super-Dee-Duper Valentine Party” where they will take viewer calls, sing songs, play games and read special Valentine’s Day wishes sent in from preschoolers all over the country.  He will also be taping special segments later that afternoon to air during a special Saturday morning presentation of The Sunny Side Up Show on February 14 from 9 a.m. to noon ET. From now through February 13, preschoolers and their parents are invited to visit SproutOnline.com where they can make their own Valentine’s Day cards, crafts and send in messages telling their friends and family how much they love them.  Sprout will be airing viewer-submitted messages throughout Valentine’s Day, Saturday, February 14, within a special on-air crawl."* (link)
He also appeared on the show on August 17th and 18th, 2010 with Kelly and Chica to promote Dinosaurs Week. He also appeared on the show on February 14th, 2011 again with Roach and Chica. Barney appears on *The Sunny Side Up Show* on November 22nd, 2011 with Liz and Chica, to receive calls from Sproutlets who have been doing something kind. Riff has also appeared on *Sunny* on March 31, 2011, in honor of Season 10 episodes of *Barney & Friends* on Sprout.

After Barney's 2007 appearance, he hosted a marathon of episodes of his show from noon to 6PM, showing hand turkeys created by Elmo, Angelina Ballerina, the Teletubbies, and Thomas.

Barney has appeared in a Kindness Counts PSA which premiered in September 2011.

*Barney* stopped airing on Sprout on September 26th, 2015, along with most of the other PBS shows, save for *Caillou*, *The Berenstain Bears*, and *Sesame Street*. The latter stopped airing in November.

The show returned to the network on December 17, 2018 lest when the channel was re-branded as Universal Kids, but left in 2020, although Barney videos are still uploaded on Universal Kids' social media accounts.

## Characters

* Barney
* Baby Bop
* BJ
* Riff

## Connections

* Earl Fisher played Booker T. Bookworm in Season 5 and home video productions.
* Demi Lovato played Angela.
* Mike Pantuso designed live productions

## Games

* Baby Bop's Shape Game
* Barney's Coloring Book
* Barney's Coloring Game
* Barney's Count with BJ
* Barney's Lets Go Playset

## Notes

* By 2008, *Barney & Friends* became Sprout's #1 video-on-demand program.
* Airing for 10 years, having tons of promotions and airtime, countless appearances on *The Sunny Side Up Show*, and even returning to Universal Kids, *Barney* is one of Sprout's most profitable, popular, and longest-lasting shows.
* The show possibly returned to Universal Kids because PBS lost the rights to *Barney* in 2016.
* After the 20th century episodes (Seasons 1-6) were removed in 2011, no television stations have aired them since then.
* Season 13 has the shortest time on Sprout (4 years).
* Season 14 never aired on Sprout.
* The Barney Says and the Barney... A Helping Hand for Growing Children closing segments have frequently been shown during reruns. However, the Let's Play with Barney and Barney's Travel Book segments were the only two not to be shown although they were formerly aired on the PBS children's network, PBS Kids.
* A clip of BJ, Baby Bop and Riff sleeping from "Days of the Week" was shown in the Snooze-a-Thon, as well as "La La Lullaby," which aired at the end of *The Good Night Show*.
* Nina and the kids once did "Barney's Pretend Flying Stretch" on *The Good Night Show*. This segment appropriately appeared in the episode "Dinosaurs."
* On *The Sunny Side Up Show*, Kelly and Chica spun a wheel to do the "Baby Bop Hop" like Baby Bop, dive like Olly, and climb up a beanstalk like the Super Readers.
* In 2010, a Barney Birthday Sweepstakes was held. The winner would have Barney, Chica, and a host from *The Sunny Side Up Show* come to his or her birthday party. The winner was Twitter's @safirecat.
* As with *Sesame Street*, the E/I screenbug from PBS was left intact in Sprout airings of certain episodes.
* In later years, when the series aired during *The Sunny Side Up Show*, a red, Sunshine Barn-like background on the sides of the screen was seen.
* The clip of Barney calling Bean in his *Sprout Diner* episode was taken from the episode "Pennies, Nickels, Dimes."
* A Thanksgiving promo from 2011 retained a clip of Barney's 2010 appearance.
* When The Wiggles made a guest appearance on *The Sunny Side Up Show*, Lachy noted that his shirt is the same color as Barney (purple).
* *Sunny Side Up Show* segments were packaged in live broadcasts of the show.
* SproutOnline.com has had a section with crafts, recipes, and printables for a *Barney*-themed birthday party.
* The show has received its fair share of hatred over the years, and TV Guide listed it as the 50th worst TV show of all time in 2002.
* A reboot was planned after 9 Story Media Group's acquisition of the show. However, the reboot never came into fruition, though a CGI reboot from Mattel, *Barney's World*, is set to premiere on Cartoonito, Cartoon Network's preschool block, in 2024. A first look received criticism from a few fans.
* In 2019, Daniel Kaluuya of *Get Out* announced that he was making a movie based on the show with his production company 59%.
* *I Love You, You Hate Me*, a two-part documentary based on the series, premiered on Peacock, NBCUniversal's streaming service, on October 12th, 2022.
* The show was filmed in Carrollton, Texas, a suburb of Dallas.
* The Wiggles became popular in America by serving as the intermission act for the *Barney's Musical Castle* tour in 2000.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.nexttv.com/news/barney-pays-turkey-call-sprout-370988
2. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20071227074517/http://www.sproutonline.com/currentSite/good\_night/yoga.php?id=48
3. ↑ https://sprouttvfans.wordpress.com/2021/08/22/my-life-as-a-sprout-fan

### Videos

Barney Spanish Episodes PromoThe Sunny Side Up Show Barney Appearance - November 22, 2011Barney and Friends theme song Sprout 2010Sprout Kindness Counts “Barney”!💜💚💛 - CLIP - SUBSCRIBE

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***Barney & Friends***