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Barney & Friends
Barney & Friends season 3 logo
Format	Children's television series
Created by	Sheryl Leach
Starring	David Joyner, Carey Stinson, and Josh Martin (Barney suit) Bob West and Dean Wendt (Barney voice) Jeff Ayers (Baby Bop suit) Julie Johnson (Baby Bop voice) Patty Wirtz (B.J. voice) Kyle Nelson (B.J. suit) Adam Brown (Riff suit) Michaela Dietz (Riff voice)
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	248 (as of season thirteen)
Production
Running time	30 Minutes
Production company(s)	The Lyons Group (1992–2001) HiT Entertainment (2001–present) Connecticut Public Television(1992–2005) WNET New York (2006–present)
Broadcast
Original channel	PBS
Original run	April 6, 1992 – present

Barney & Friends is an independent children's television show produced in the United States, aimed at very young children ages 1–8. The series, which first aired in 1992, features the title character Barney, a purple anthropomorphic Tyrannosaurus rex who conveys learning through songs and small dance routines with a friendly, optimistic attitude.

Origin and development

Barney & Friends season 1 title card

Barney was created in 1987 by Sheryl Leach of Dallas, Texas. She came up with the idea for the program while considering TV shows that she felt would be educational and 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 3 videos. Later, Barney was joined by the characters Baby Bop, BJ, and Riff.

Although the original videos were only a modest success outside of Texas, Barney became a major success only when the character and format were revamped for the television series and were picked up by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), debuting as Barney & Friends in 1992. The series was produced by Lyrick Studios (bought by HIT Entertainment) and Connecticut Public Television. For several years, the show was taped at the ColorDynamics Studios facility at Greenville Avenue & Bethany Drive in Allen, after which it moved to The Studios at Las Colinas in Dallas, Texas. Currently, the series is produced in Carrollton, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. The TV series and videos are currently distributed by HiT Entertainment and Lionsgate, while the TV series has been produced by WNET since 2006. Sheryl Leach left the show in 2002 after HIT Entertainment bought Lyrick Studios.

Criticism

Although the show has been criticized for its lack of educational value,^{[citation needed]} Yale 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."^[1]

One specific criticism is:

[H]is 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.^[2]

It is ranked on TV Guide's List of the 50 Worst TV Shows of All Time at #50.^[3]

Cast

Dinosaurs

Barney the Dinosaur

The protagonist is a purple and green Tyrannosaurus Rex in stuffed animal likeness, who comes to life through a child's imagination. His theme song is "Barney Is a Dinosaur," which is sung to the tune of "Yankee Doodle". Episodes frequently end with the song "I Love You", sung to the tune of "This Old Man," which happens to be Barney's favorite song of all time^{[citation needed]}. 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 three-year-old green triceratops, Baby Bop has been on the show since the 1991 video "Barney in Concert". She carries a yellow blanket, and sings the song "My Yellow Blankey" to show how much it means to her. She refers to herself as 3 years old. She likes to eat macaroni and cheese and pizza. She wears a pink bow and pink ballet slippers. She is B.J.'s little sister.

B.J.

A seven-year-old yellow protoceratops, B.J. has been on the show since September 27, 1993. His theme song is "B.J.'s Song". He wears a red baseball cap and red sneakers (as heard in the lyrics of his theme). He has lost his hat in the episode Hats Off to B.J.! and sometimes says stuff to hide fears (like in the episode Barney's Halloween Party, he was shocked by the paper spiders and after learning they were fake, he said "I knew that, sort of."). Pickles are his favorite food and because of that, he actually has had them in different ways like pickles (also with pepperoni, peppers, pineapple and peanut butter) on a pizza (in the episode Barney's Adventure Bus). He is Baby Bop's older brother.

Riff

Referred as Cousin Riff by Baby Bop, he is an orange six-year-old hadrosaur, who is Baby Bop and B.J.'s cousin. He 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's 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 own voice). He even likes marching bands and parades as much as Barney does.

Adults

The adults on the show are usually one or two time guest actors who portray teachers, storytellers, or other characters.

One-time guests

Multiple appearances

Children

Over the years, more than one hundred children have appeared as cast members on the show. Barney & Friends mostly get local talent which is in Texas. Some notable children who have appeared on Barney & Friends and in other Barney media include:

• Selena Gomez (Gianna on Barney & Friends)
• Tory Green (Sarah in Barney's Colorful World)
• Demi Lovato (Angela on Barney & Friends)
• Trevor Morgan (Cody in Barney's Great Adventure)
• Madison Pettis (Bridget)
• Kyla Pratt (Mindy on Barney & Friends, Marcella in Barney's Great Adventure)
• Erica Rhodes (Kim on Barney & Friends)

Crew

• Sheryl Leach (creator)
• Kathy Parker (producer)
• Dennis DeShazer (director)
• Mark S. Bernthal (writer)
• Stephen White (writer)

Movies and specials

• Barney's Great Adventure (1998) (Theatrical Movie, starring Trevor Morgan and Kyla Pratt)
• Barney's Imagination Island (1994)
• Barney Live In New York City (1994)

Airings

Besides the United States, the TV show has aired in Canada, Mexico and Latin America, France, Ireland, Italy, 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 asobô!^?)" 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 (החברים של ברני Hachaverim shel Barney (The Friends of Barney)) produced from 1997–1999 in Tel Aviv, Israel, was the first of these. Rather than dubbing the American episodes from Seasons 1–3, 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 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 and Friends feature Bob West's voice as the voice of Barney, though the recent album The Land of Make-Believe (like every album starting with Start Singing with Barney) has Dean Wendt's voice.

Barney's famous song "I Love You" (as well as songs from Sesame Street and Metallica) has been used by interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to coerce the detainees.^[4]

See also

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

References

External links

• HIT Entertainment official website
• Barney & Friends on PBS Kids
• Barney & Friends on Treehouse
• Barney & Friends on Sprout
• Barney & Friends at the Internet Movie Database

From Wikiquote

Barney & Friends is a popular children's television show produced in the United States, mainly aimed at preschoolers. Barney is a purple anthropomorphic Tyrannosaurus rex who conveys learning through jumping around singing children's' songs with a friendly, optimistic attitude.

Barney

• I love you
  You love me
  We're best friends like friends should be
  With a great big hug and
  A kiss from me to you
  Won't you say you love me too?
  • Theme song - Full lyrics and video at YouTube

• Super Dee Duper!

• Stu-u-u-pendous!

• Tee-riffic!

Baby Bop

• Has any one seen my blankey?

• Oh Goody Goddy *laughs*

Dialogue

Shawn: I like spaghetti and pizza, are they healthy foods?

Michael: Well they can be, but to be healthy, you need to eat lots of different kinds of food.

Luci: Sure, look here! Come here, Shawn! These are the four food groups, Bread & Cereal, Meats & Protein, Milk & Dairy, & Fruits and Vegetables.

Barney: Oh boy! Just look at all the good things to eat. I think it would take a dinosaur to eat all of that.

Luci: Breads & Cereals are things like bread, and cereal, and rice, and crackers. Meats & Protein are things like Meat, and fish, and eggs, and peanut butter. Milks & Dairy are things like, milk, and butter, and cheese, ice cream, and yogurt. And there are lots of fruits and vegetables like apples, oranges, bananas, carrots, cauliflower, celery, and lots more.

Barney: Yummy, yummy veggies!

Michael: So a healthy meal could be.... Uh, some bread, uh, a little bit of peanut butter, uh, a piece of cheese, and uh, some celery sticks!

Barney: Oh-ho. I'd like a meal like that.

Shawn: Four kinds of foods make one healthy body. But what will happen if someone only ate one kind of food forever and ever?

Luci: Oh you wouldn't wanna do that. Something strange might happen.

Barney: Oh. Like what?

Luci: I'll tell you. There once was a boy who would only eat noodles. Oodles, and oodles, and oodles of noodles. And unless mom served him, he'd go boo-hoo-hoodles. Until she would fill up his plate. Yes unless he got noodles he get him mad noodles. And wiggle and whine and act terribly ruddles. He wouldn't eat salad or meatballs or froodles. He thought those were things that could wait. But then one dark day after eating his noodles, not carrots, and oranges, and such healthy froodles, that little boy turned into a noodle. And let that be a lesson to him, me, and youdle.

Shawn: That couldn't really happen could it?

Luci: No Shawn, that was just story. But it wouldn't be a bad idea to remember all four food groups in every meal.

Quotes about Barney & Friends

• I was always looking for products and programs that I felt good about and that would entertain my young son and hold his attention, because very few things would hold his attention. ... I started noticing what worked with him and what didn’t – the characters, music, pacing and so on — and I came up with a formula in my mind of what was needed in order to work with preschoolers.
  • Sheryl Leach on the creation of Barney & Friends, in "Thinking Big, Really Big: Sheryl Leach" at StartupNation

• [Children recognize that] Barney thinks like them ... He celebrates the child in childhood. ... We don't really think about what the parents are going to like and dislike.
  • Sheryl Leach, quoted in Handbook of Children and the Media (2001) by Dorothy G. Singer and Jerome L. Singer

• Barney is much more than just a fun creature of kids' imaginations. He is a politically correct teacher of everything on the liberal left's agenda, from New Age evolution to radical ecology.
  To many children Barney has become a guru of sorts. He teaches transcendental thought and mystical ideas. Nothing comes through Barney's teachings more clearly than the New Age idea of using our minds to create miracles. No one should deny that positive or negative thinking can tremendously affect our lives. But such powers are clearly physical and end with the normal experiences we enjoy. God alone is supernatural.
  • Reverend Joseph Chambers in Barney, "The Purple Messiah" (1993-1994)

• The idea of a seance is at the forefront of almost every "Barney" program. On one show Mother Goose talks to the children from one of her books. Led by Barney, the children commune with Mother Goose and conduct a seance to bring her to them. As they sing and dance their little ditty she — poof! — appears in their presence. The Bible calls that necromancy and says a person who participates in such behavior is an abomination unto the Lord. This kind of occult activity fills the "Barney" material. Conjuring someone up is certainly not kids' play!
  • Reverend Joseph Chambers in Barney, "The Purple Messiah" (1993)

• Barney, the harmless, ever-so-lovable purple dinosaur who is the star of the highest-rated public TV show for children in the United States, Barney and Friends, becomes a fierce object of hate. A Barney lookalike was viciously attacked in a Texas shopping mall, and an "I Hate Barney Secret Society" has formed, turning Barney's "I Love You, You Love Me" theme song into "I Hate You, You Hate Me, Let's Go Out and Kill Barney!" ... Barney and Friends was envisioned as a toddler show. It was created in the late 1987 by Sheryl Leach, a young mother who wanted a simple program that would entertain her pre-school children. ... Kindergarteners often do still like Barney, but by grade school, most children have learned to disdain him. ... How one wields Barney (whether one "loves" him or "hates" him) is akin to riding a merry-go-round: one does it differently at different ages.
  • Laura Desfor Edles in Cultural Sociology in Practice (2002) Ch. 3 : The Media and Popular Culture, p. 100

• Barney and Friends is known for drawing the adoration of preschool viewers and the occasional joke or rolling of the eyes from parents and other adults due to its saccharin sweet content.
  • Media and the American Child : Learning the Hard Way (2007) by George Comstock and Erica Scharrer, p. 133

External links

Wikipedia has an article about:

Barney & Friends

• Barney & Friends quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• Barney & Friends at TV.com
• Reviews at CommonSenseMedia.org