Live action television series aimed at pre-school and younger children that started airing on PBS in 1992. Created by Texan teacher Sheryl Leach in 1987, Barney started out as a regionally successful home video series called Barney and the Backyard Gang before being picked up by the network for a regular series. The inspiration behind the creation was the belief that Sesame Street was too complex for younger viewers, much of the accusation being leveled at the music. Starring the title character as a friendly authority figure, a surrogate for the young girls in the form of Baby Bop, two other dinosaurs named B.J. and Riff (introduced 2006), and an ever-shifting cast of young kids, its setting was once a elementary school, but now takes place in a local park. The story (such that it is) focuses largely on the importance of imagination and delivering Aesops suitable for very young children.The show has a mammoth amount of merchandise in dolls, clothing, blankets, CDs, and virtually everything else a kid can use. There has also been a 1998 theatrically released film called Barney's Great Adventure, countless home videos, and a touring stage act. While the figures are undisclosed, it's not unreasonable to think that it makes somewhere in the range of eight or nine digits a year.The show is infamous for not exactly being very well-liked among older kids, adults and teenagers, to the point that anti-Barney humor became a borderline fad in The Nineties. And we will sayno more about it.
And Knowing Is Half the Battle: In addition to being a recap of the episode that just played, "Barney Says" reinforces the lessons that were taught in said episode.
Annoying Younger Sibling: Baby Bop, though BJ is often an Annoying Older Sibling from season 3 onwards.
Carlos occasionally gave this report of his little brother, Juan.
Broken Aesop: In one episode, Barney preaches about healthy foods. Then later on, he sings about ice cream.
Call Back: Chip is on a baseball team. This is brought up a couple of times.
Tina's broken arm and Tosha's parents having a baby were referred to numerous times in Season 2. The latter was the plot point in the season finale when it was revealed Tosha's mom had twin boys.
Captain Colorbeard: An early episode had Barney and co. find the treasure of "Rainbow Beard the Pirate," by using a Treasure Map filled with color and shape related clues. The treasure turns out to be a rainbow.
The Cast Showoff: The earlier cast displayed a range of talents. Min in particular did not miss an opportunity to dance, and aspired to dance professionally. Her actress actually did grow up to be a dance teacher, in addition to dancing professionally.
Characterization Marches On: In most of the Barney & The Backyard Gang videos, Barney was more dinosaur-like with a more god-like voice. Beginning in Barney in Concert, he went from a lumbering t-rex to a jolly and energetic playmate. His kind demeanor was the only consistent trait between the original Backyard Gang Barney and his portrayal in the TV series.
Confetti Drop: Used in a number of parties. Very common in the stage shows.
Cool Old Guy: Mr. Boyd, the school janitor. He can play the piano quite well, and when Barney moved his meeting place to a park, Mr. Boyd took up a job there.
Couch Gag: Each episode of the TV show ends with a shot of toy Barney involving something relevant. For instance, one episode about weather ends with Barney being peppered with flurries.
Cross Over: Not on the TV show per se, but in addition to the We Are Family cover, Barney and other popular 90's children's characters (as of 1996, when the video was released) team up to teach kids about the importance of character in Kids for Character.
Cultural Translation: In the Israel coproduction of the show, "London Bridge" was changed to "Yarkon Bridge," ironically filmed prior to the bridge collapsing. In addition, in an episode about music (known as "Practice Makes Music" in the original American version), the guest pianist plays traditional Israeli songs.
Distaff Counterpart: The point of both "The Sister Song" and "I'm Glad I Have a Brother" is that even though siblings may sometimes get on each other's nerves, they should be appreciated.
Dutch Angle: Used to simulate things such as airplane flights.
Early-Bird Cameo: Carlos and Kathy were introduced on media besides TV. Other cast members have been introduced as guest characters, before becoming part of the show's main cast.
Early Installment Weirdness: The Barney & the Backyard Gang video series has quite a few differences compared to the television series. In addition to I Love You being sung towards the beginning of the videos, Barney was also the kids' secret that they hid from their parents (at least, in the first three videos).
Everything Is Big In Texas: Some episodes have this appeal. "Barney in Concert" was performed in Dallas's Majestic Theatre.
Eye Glasses: A number of characters have had them, but they didn't all start out with them.
Five-Token Band: The child cast usually consists of children of different ethnicities.
Fleeting Demographic Rule: Because the show's setup is contingent upon the presence of a child cast, said cast goes through wholesale changes about once every five years, creating an opportunity for plots to be reused.
Barney: Today, we played with different kinds of balls...
Barney: There sure were a lot of balls around Baby Bop!
Golden Moment: Sometimes, just before leaving, a child will take a moment alone with Barney to thank him for his help, or to just be affectionate with him.
The Golden Rule: In the video Kids for Character, Barney and friends teach Baby Bop about respect through skits and a song (at the same time).
Help, I'm Stuck!: In an early episode, Barney gets stuck on the school's playset and the kids pull him out.
Just Eat Gilligan: Everyone could have saved themselves a lot of grief in "Live in New York City" if Barney and the kids had simply retrieved the Barney Bag during the Winkster's introduction song.
The Kiddie Ride: One car, one tractor, one train, among others. The train and tractor are common worldwide.
Leaving Food For Santa: Michael and Amy leave milk and cookies for Santa in the Backyard Gang video "Waiting for Santa". It's how they know that they beat him to their house after their North Pole visit.
Leitmotif: Each dino's I Am Song is often their leitmotif. Baby Bop had a unique one in the first three seasons.
Long Runner: The show has been running for 20 years. While new episodes are not being produced (Notably, with owner company HIT Entertainment being sold to Mattel), videos of recent episodes are being released. In addition, a 14th season was produced in 2010, consisting of reruns from the 10th and 11th seasons.
Mickey Mousing: Very common for things such as turning off the lights.
Milestone Celebration: Both the 10th and 20th anniversaries of the Barney franchise led to the video specials "Sing and Dance with Barney" and "The Best of Barney," respectively. The former even brought back a few Barney alumni to join the (then) new child cast for a "sing along."
The one hundreth episode of Barney and Friends is more lighthearted than usual, and Old King Cole comes over to party.
Moral Guardians: Reverend Joseph Chambers blamed Barney in 1993 for, not only for witchcraft, but for the show's focus on tolerance for others.
Although most of the criticism was aimed at SpongeBob SquarePants, Moral Guardians still went after Barney and the other stars of the We Are Family music video, claiming the video would teach "the homosexual agenda"
Cody in Barney's Great Adventure is also an aversion of this trope, but he too did a Heel Face Turn towards the end.
Not Allowed to Grow Up: Baby Bop turned 3 in Season 2, while BJ turned 7 in the "Barney's Big Surprise" stage show. Since then, neither of them have increased in age.
Or Was It a Dream?: It is implied in "Barney's Campfire Sing-Along" that the Backyard Gang is transported to and from the campground in their sleep.
The Power of Friendship: Despite what the title says, the message of the ending song "I Love You" is more about friendship than love. In the Backyard Gang videos, it was towards the beginning and (in the very early videos) brought Barney to life.
Really 700 Years Old: Barney is over 200 million years old. It's justified as he's a t-rex, but how he's still light on his feet is a mystery. Averted with the other dinos, whose ages are in the single digits.
Real Life Writes the Plot: There was a lawsuit over the lyrics to the "I Love You" song in 1994, so it was omitted from "Live in New York City" and "Imagination Island."
Rearrange the Song: A notable example includes a lullaby version of "Everyone is Special," used to accommodate newborn twins.
Through the show's run, most songs sung on the show have been rearranged, notably the show's theme and I Love You.
Salt and Pepper: Derek and Michael hang out together a lot. Kathy and Tosha are classmates.
Serious Business: Lyons Partnership, the company that owns Barney, does NOT take kindly to any form of parody. They have been known to threaten people who parody Barney with lawsuits. After losing a 2006 lawsuit with EFF, Lyons seems to have backed down.
Sesame Street Cred: Children's author Tomie dePaola appeared on three episodes.
The Season 2 finale A Very Special Delivery had singer Ella Jenkins stop by. The direct to video special Barney in Outer Space had astronaut Ken Reightler make an appearance and teach the kids about NASA.
She Is All Grown Up: After Min (who was played by Pia Manalo-Hamilton in all her appearances) left the Barney set, she returned for two specials.
Erica Rhodes (who played Kim) showed up at the 2010 Dallas American Idol auditions and Hollywood tryouts as well. The Hollywood one did not go over well.
Other cast members have reprised their character roles (most notably in Sing and Dance with Barney).
Shout Out: In "Live in New York City", the teddy bears that join Kathy on stage for her song were almost certainly borrowed from the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.
In "The Land of Make Believe":
[Barney and co. walk under a somewhat familiar gate] BJ: You know, I've got the strangest feeling I've seen this place before. Baby Bop Yeah, me too. Barney: I know what you mean... [The gate is revealed as the Jurassic Park gate, as the film's theme plays] Barney: ...But I'm sure there's never been any dinosaurs here before.
Strictly Formula: Barney is brought to life by the imagination of some children, they play around and/or address some issue, sing the infamous "I Love You" outro song, Barney goes back to being a doll, capping off the episode with a closeup of the doll and a twinkle in its eye (or in the case of the early Backyard Gang videos, a crudely drawn animated eyelid giving off a wink).
Time Lapse: Shows up in the "Backyard Gang" videos and occasionally in Barney & Friends episodes whenever the producers want to make Barney and co. appear to do something fast or speed it up for the sake of time.
Too Smart for Strangers: As noted in the Beam Me Up, Scotty! reference in the Trivia tab, a segment of safety episode Playing It Safe focused on how to deal with strangers.
Treehouse of Fun: In Seasons 3-6. Once the show switched sets, the treehouse was abandoned.
Trans Atlantic Equivalent: In addition to dubs, the show has had co-productions in Israel and South Korea, both mostly following the plots of the original American episodes.
Trash the Set: The Season 3 episode "Classical Cleanup" has Baby Bop dancing in and wrecking the classroom.
Theme Twin Naming: Tosha's twin brothers, Kevin and Kyle, as well as two school-age girls named Ashley and Alissa.
Making Use of the Twin: In their first appearance, Ashley and Alissa are introduced one at a time and are mistaken for each other, before they show up together and explain themselves. They also team up for a Mirror Routine in a talent show.
Vocal Evolution: Barney's voice sounded deeper and more mature in the early Backyard Gang videos. Then, over the years, he started to sound younger.
B.J. also had this effect, starting out with a huskier drawl, then beginning to sound a little higher and squeakier.
Baby Bop too has had some vocal evolution. She sounded much more infant-like in her early appearances, but by the third season, she began to sound more like a three year old.
became a borderline fad in The Nineties. And we will say no more about it.
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