50 Fun Facts About Barney & Friends

Who created Barney & Friends?

Leach, a former teacher from Dallas, had the idea after noticing her toddler son had outgrown his Wee Sing tapes.

Which network originally aired Barney & Friends from 1992 to 2010?

It ran inside the PBS Kids block for 18 years, with reruns later moving to Sprout and Universal Kids.

What kind of dinosaur is Barney?

Despite being a carnivore species, Barney has no fearsome teeth and prefers peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Barney's closing song "I Love You" borrows the tune of which folk song?

The lyrics were written in 1982 by Indiana homemaker Lee Bernstein, who later won writing credit and royalties.

Barney's own theme, "Barney is a Dinosaur", is set to which tune?

Barney's other catchphrase is that things are "Super dee-duper".

Baby Bop is what kind of dinosaur?

She debuted in the 1991 video Barney in Concert and turned three in the episode "Look at Me, I'm 3!".

BJ, Baby Bop's older brother, is what kind of dinosaur?

The seven-year-old joined the show in September 1993 and calls his sister "sissy".

Riff, who joined in 2006, is what kind of dinosaur?

Riff is Baby Bop and BJ's music-obsessed cousin; his theme is "I Hear Music Everywhere".

Who was the voice of Barney from 1988 to 2000?

West retired from the role in 2001 after 13 years, saying he wanted "new challenges".

What colour is Baby Bop's beloved security blanket?

She sings "My Yellow Blankey" about it, and it saves the magic egg at the climax of Barney's Great Adventure.

What is BJ's favourite food?

He has eaten them in various ways, including on pizza.

What is Barney's favourite meal?

He washes it down with a glass of milk; Baby Bop prefers macaroni and cheese.

Which NBA star beat up Barney in a Saturday Night Live sketch?

The SNL beating became one of the most-cited examples of the 1990s anti-Barney backlash.

The purple dinosaur first appeared in which 1988 direct-to-video series?

Only eight videos were made before the TV series launched, and just four of the kids carried over.

Which actress played Michael and Amy's mother in the first three Barney videos?

Duncan was starring on the NBC sitcom The Hogan Family at the time; Thomas and Rashad were considered for the part.

Which CPTV executive rented a Barney tape for his daughter, then pitched the show to PBS?

Rifkin rented A Day at the Beach on Super Bowl Sunday 1991 and thought Barney was less neurotic than Big Bird.

The 2024 animated relaunch Barney's World premiered on which Cartoon Network block?

It premiered on Cartoonito on October 18, 2024, four days after it began streaming on Max.

Barney's World is co-produced with which Canadian animation studio?

Nelvana is owned by Corus Entertainment; the show also airs on Treehouse TV in Canada.

Which toy company announced the 2023 relaunch of the Barney franchise?

The relaunch was seen as part of Mattel's wider revival trend alongside Monster High and Masters of the Universe.

In what year was the theatrical film Barney's Great Adventure released?

It remains the only theatrical Barney film; every other Barney movie went direct to video.

Where did Barney's Great Adventure hold its world premiere?

Barney had played twelve sold-out concerts on the same stage four years earlier.

Who directed Barney's Great Adventure?

Gomer had no interest in the TV series but wanted to make the film, and pushed to shoot in Montreal to save money.

In Barney's Great Adventure, what is the name of the koala-like creature that hatches from the egg?

Twinken is a "Dreammaker", a being said to fall from the sky in an egg once every 1,000 years.

Which company distributed Barney's Great Adventure in cinemas?

The film had been set up at Geffen and Warner Bros. for a 1995 release before PolyGram took the rights.

Near which city was Barney's Great Adventure filmed?

Locations included the Morgan Arboretum wildlife sanctuary in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue.

What was the budget of Barney's Great Adventure?

It grossed about $12 million domestically and was widely called a box-office bomb.

Which future pop star played Gianna on Barney & Friends in seasons 7–8?

Gomez and Demi Lovato met as child actors on the Barney set in Texas.

Demi Lovato played which character on Barney & Friends?

Lovato appeared in seasons 7 and 8; Madison Pettis and Debby Ryan came later in season 10.

With which TV host did Demi Lovato perform a heavy metal cover of the Barney song in 2008?

The song has also been used by interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to wear down detainees.

For several years Barney & Friends was taped in which Texas town?

Production later moved to Las Colinas in Irving and then Carrollton, both Dallas suburbs.

What was the name of the brown squirrel puppet seen in seasons 4–6?

He was performed by Todd Duffey alongside the purple bird Miss Etta Kette.

Where did Barney & Friends rank on TV Guide's 2002 list of the worst TV shows of all time?

Yale researchers Dorothy and Jerome Singer, by contrast, called it a "model of what preschool television should be".

Barney reruns aired from 2018 to 2020 on which successor to Sprout?

Universal Kids itself closed down in March 2025.

What is the title of the 2022 Peacock documentary about the backlash against Barney?

The three-part series grew out of a 1993 news story about a Barney-bashing event at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Who directed the 2022 Peacock documentary series about the anti-Barney phenomenon?

Avallone began work in 2020; nearly fifty interviews from the show's later years were cut from the final edit.

The only Barney video game, Barney's Hide & Seek Game, was released for which console?

It shipped in 1993 with a self-play mode that finishes the level with no input from the child.

In which year did A Day in the Park with Barney open at Universal Studios Florida?

It was built on the former Bates Motel set from Psycho IV and closed permanently in February 2021.

Who wore the Barney costume from 1991 to 2001?

Joyner says he dreamed of reviving Barney with mouth-to-mouth the night before his audition.

Barney's 1991–2001 costume performer later played the title role in which kids' show?

Before Barney he spent six years as a software analyst at Texas Instruments.

Barney's original voice actor also voiced which Chuck E. Cheese animatronic character?

He voiced Jasper and Pasqually for about a decade, and his Barney voice played on at Universal Studios until 2021.

The creator named BJ after which of her relatives?

Billy Joe "B.J." Stamps was Sheryl Leach's father; her brother-in-law Tom Leach directed Barney specials.

Before settling on a dinosaur, what was Barney's character originally going to be?

The switch came after the creator's son got interested in dinosaurs at a Science Place exhibit.

How much of his own money did DLM owner Richard C. Leach put up to fund the first videos?

Richard C. Leach owned DLM, Inc., whose board had already turned the idea down.

Which word from the home-video title was dropped for TV because of its negative connotations?

The PBS show was retitled Barney & Friends and launched with a $2.25 million grant.

In 1992, how much did the Barney franchise generate in retail sales?

By 1994 licensing alone was bringing the Lyons Group an estimated $50 million a year.

Daniel Kaluuya's planned adult-oriented Barney film is being made for which distributor?

A Mattel executive described it as "surrealistic", in the vein of Adaptation and Being John Malkovich.

Who voices Barney in the animated series Barney's World?

In Barney's World the T. rex can do magic, and BJ has been renamed Billy.

What colour is the baseball cap BJ wears?

He matches it with red sneakers, and lost the hat entirely in "Hats Off to BJ!".

How many episodes did PBS initially fund before nearly letting the show lapse?

A letter-writing campaign by stations and the Barney Fan Club forced PBS to relent in what Rifkin called "an insurrection".

How many videos were made in the original 1988–91 direct-to-video series?

Sandy Duncan appeared in the first three; Rock with Barney was the last before the TV show.