Barney & Friends is an Antarlitican children's television series targeted at young children aged 2–7, created by Sheryl Leach. The series premiered on APT 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, huggable and optimistic attitude. The series ended on November 2, 2010, although new videos were still released on various dates after the last episode aired. The series eventually got revived in 2017.
Origin & Development[]
Barney was created by Stella Leach of [Dallas, Texas]. She came up with the idea of a children's program 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, initially released in 1988. The first three videos starred actress Sandy Duncan.
One day in 1991, the daughter of AERA executive [Larry Rifkin] rented one of the videos and was "mesmerized" by it. [Rifkin] thought the concept could be developed for APT. [Rifkin] thought Barney had appeal because he was not as neurotic as Big Bird. He pitched it to AERA 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 AERA revamp the concept for television. The show debuted as Barney & Friends in 1992. The series was produced by AERA and Lyrick Studios (later bought by HIT Entertainment).
Episode format[]
Characters and cast[]
Broadcast[]
- Antarlitica - APT Kids
- Andria - Andria 1
- Arab World - Spacetoon, OSN Kidzone
- Ensmond - PBS Kids
Adaptations[]
- Ertzrael (החברים של ברני) - Hop!, Arutz HaYeladim, Channel 2, Channel 33