I saw Barney live before in the 90s, after very intense and abusive childhood and growing up I have become an adult who uses Barney as a comfort item. It really hurts me that there's not much merch left and he's basically faded into obscurity because he is utterly a comfort item for me and helps me cope with some of the trauma I've experienced.
Barney will always be around. Thank you for having the courage to tell your story. As someone else replied, thrift stores and online sites have tons of Barney merch and videos from those parting with them, and there’s also lots of other things out there that surely can bring you more comfort. I hope you’re able to find something to heal your pain, and you’re always welcome here on the Rainbow Line 🌈 ✨
It may be because I’m PMSing, but when Barney was saying goodbye to Tina, I totally got teary!! I was a super sickly kid when I was little, and the only sure-fire way to get me to calm down was Barney. I grew to be a typical Barney-hating elemenentary schooler, but now that I’m older, I have an appreciation for him. ❤
I met the REAL Barney from the Barney and Friends TV show at a fair 14 years ago. No, not the actor who played him, the ACTUAL COSTUMED CHARACTER FROM THE TV SHOW...used in Barney and Friends.
Man I can't wait for more "uh who's gonna tell her" comments because it was good the first time, surely it will be even funnier five, ten, maybe twenty times!
Same. I grew up with late 90's-early 2000's Barney when everyone hated him. Didn't stop me from getting a shirt with him on it that I wore all through high school. No regrets.
When I was a kid in the early 2000’s, I thought I was the only one who knew the secret that Barney had an original version 😂 my dad rented me the Waiting for Santa tape from Video Avenue.
I had the original Christmas Special VHS, with the classic dark colored Barney. Watched it over and over in my preschool years. Glad to see it's available on UA-cam along with the other releases.
It feels so strange to see Barney as an adult - my kid brain made it look like he was a real living thing, not a costume. It wasn't like Sesame Street where the artistry of the puppetry makes them look real (they're just as real now!) it's just... So different.
it might be his size! I was talking about this exact thing with someone earlier, Barney is six feet, and with a being that big you really start to notice the imperfections more quickly, compared to a Muppet or something of that nature haha but as a kid they're as real as your imagination~
I never knew both backyard gang versions of barney (before barney in concert) were still being used at events. It really was sad to see them look warned out & falling apart. Especially the og design. It's also interesting that they had their own trademark for the backyard gang and they surprisingly abandoned it
I too never knew about the Backyard Gang series as a whole, I only found out about it when I was 15 lol. I loved Barney in Concert and I saw Campfire Sing-Along a couple times but that was it
On the bright side: much like well worn toys, it usually means that they were well loved and used all the time. If you were to see two dolls, one that's neat and tidy and one that's worn with tangled hair and clothes with missing stitches, which would you think was played with more?
I have core memories of wearing out my VHS copy of Barney in Concert. Little did I know it lit a fire for a love of the arts and would eventually go on to work in the industry.
I don’t know about y’all, but the words “this is the last know photo of Barney in his original form” is absolutely terrifying to me. He’s absorbed his former parts and only been growing stronger ever since.
today, i learned that there is in fact a barny fanbase and that there are people who refer to themselves as “barnytubers” im certainly not a barny fan myself but i enjoy learning about super obscure topics like this so i enjoyed ur video
Barney was me and my twin's first ever obsession starting in 1992 when we were like 1 year old lol. I believe we went to go see him at a live concert when we were 6 or 7, but we never actually got to meet him. I was personally very sad about it for the longest time. I had barney everything that you can think of, I think we even have some barney sticker sheets in the basement somewhere. 😂 Barney will always be a fond memory. Even though I saw some of the Backyard Gang tapes, it was always just Barney to me.
I was big into Barney as a kid. My mom claims my first word was “Barney” when I saw a doll of him at the store. Also, I was much older when the movie came out, but I remember enjoying it.
I gotta say, seeing the first Barney suit in the state that was in broke my heart a little but also brought out fond memories of watching “A Day At The Beach” and singing along to all the classic Barney songs that I wish could’ve been heard again in Barney and Friends, such as “There’s A Hole In The Bottom Of The Sea” and “Swimming Swimming.” Thank you for reminding us that although Barney underwent some changes, that he’s still not forgotten
Lord, I grew up watching Barney and friends, but I never knew anything about the barney and the backyard gang videos that actually existed before the Barney and friends TV series
I was exposed to the first season of Barney and Friends as I grew up in Puerto Rico and it was dubbed to Spanish at our local station in ‘93. A Barney doll was my first security plush. I was enthralled by the show until the theatrical release and then lost track of the show altogether despite having younger brothers who liked it. This was a fun trip through childhood memories, even if I don’t recognize the iconic English voice right away.
I was big into Barney as a kid. I had so many dolls and video tapes of him. Then a few years after kind of growing out of Barney, I randomly decided to watch Waiting for Santa (specifically, it was the tape shown at 8:59) and, even though I had watched the tape before, I took particular notice of how different the theme song was, and how Barney looked and sounded. It was the only Backyard Gang media I'd ever seen but I suddenly wanted more. I had a crazed phase where I was desperately after the other tapes of the original version of a character I was too old for. We even sought out a Backyard Gang era plushie on eBay and I still have him to this day. Needless to say Backyard Gang Barney holds a special place in my heart and I really miss it. If I ever have kids (unlikely as that seems), these will be a must-watch for them.
OMG. Waiting for Santa was one of my favorites! And Campfire Sing-a-long, & Rock With Barney, Barney’s Magical Musical Adventure. They were my all time favorites! I have fond memories as a child of playing with my toys while i watched all those VHS’s. I just got hit in the feels❤
As a kid I favored the original design from the first three and called him “blue Barney.” Those were my favorites, and I wish they’d get a proper dvd release
You'd think they would have released the full Backyard gang mini series on DVD by now. Not sure if they legally can with the trademark expired. I have no idea what can and can't legally be done with that series.
I like his BYG design much better than the current ones. His deeper voice was more iconic to me and it fits his character pretty well seeing that Barney is a big dinosaur. His newer voice sounds more nasaly. I wish they could bring the BYG back somehow in a reboot sort of way.
@@CosmicSponge2004 there was the original backyard gang costume and his & friends costume used for the TV shows. The last 2 videos for the BYG used his costume from the show
This is unexpectedly fascinating to me haha. My brother was born in 1996 and as a toddler, he would watch the hell out of old Barney and Friends episodes we taped off of PBS. Of course, I, being six years older, was too cool for Barney at that point, but still found myself watching the tapes on the sly when my brother would get bored and go do something else. A few of those old episodes really stuck with me and made me think (at an early age) about the idyllic Barney-like cooperation and affection we strive for vs. how gritty and hurtful real life can be, and it really kind of made me sad, but Barney helped me feel like those ideals were worth striving for and gave me a little comfort when life got tough and feelings got tricky to handle
Even I read rumours that both Michael and Amy's unnamed mom (Sandy Duncan) and Michael's sister Amy (Becky Swonke) could've returned in some episodes of Season 1 of Barney & Friends to complete the Backyard Gang reference, but both declined the role. Even though Becky decided to not reprise her role as Amy due to illness when Barney & Friends started production.
I had all the OG tapes with the original logo and everything, watched on PBS, I'm 99% sure my Barney is the only stuffed animal I kept, and it's here somewhere.
Oh i remember this show. I watched a few episodes when it was shown here on german TV somewhere in the mid 90s. It was also dubbed and the dub was really well done. I never became a fan of the show but i always liked and appreciated the jolly friendly nature of Barney. The enthusiasm of the character really affected you and it really made you smile.
As someone who grew up with the TV series primarily, I also had the Waiting for Santa VHS tape and always had a sense of unease watching it because of how dark and angular his design was compared to what I was used to. Definitely contributed to some nightmares lol.
I remember when these videos came out and they were being sold in those "As seen on TV" commercials. I lived in Texas at the time and I was in kindergarten, so I was a little to old for Barney at that point. I didn't think it'd take off the way it did. But I had no idea it was a local Texas thing, though.
Why does the scene with Tina and Barney at the end of Day at the Beach always get me 🥺😭 But such a wholesome video! Pre 2000 barney needs to be uploaded onto a streaming platform in the near future - UA-cam isn’t immortal
I had just turned 12 in 1990 but I had a 4 year old sister that loved Barney. She had a couple oh VHS tapes with Barney in his original form. She would watch them over and over again. Barney still haunts my nightmares to date. I still feel my left eye twitch when I hear the pipe intro….
I relate to this so much. Babysitting my little cousin (who just turned 30, whew I feel old) and having to rewind the same bloody tape Over. and. Over. and. Over. It's just as cringe today as it was back then! I was raised on 80s Sesame Street and Mister Rogers and that was a whole different vibe than the purple dino.
I used to have a Barney doll and remember playing with it like it was yesterday. Obviously I've outgrown the show since then, and most likely my parents gave him away to a much younger relative. It's sad that somewhere along the line Barney became the Johnny Test of "Baby shows."
I remember going to a Barney concert as a kid in Fresno. Sadly, when we got there it was cancelled in our seats because it was REALLY hot at the time and the person playing Barney couldn't handle the heat. My god, my brother and I were crying since he couldn't come out 😂
Hey, Hedge, this is Jamie Conner, the designer and art director of the original Barney of the BYG fame first 3 videos. In real life Barney didn't look dark purple, he looked the same as the very first plush, which I made on the fly because the producers forgot to contract to a toy builder. The reasons Barney seemed so dark in some of the scenes? Color Dynamics/Lyons Group had some severely inadequate color correction and keying equipment. And many of the scenes were shot in front of a blue screen. Due to the equipment issues, when Barney would move from one setup to another, lighting was also a problem. With the inconsistencies, the "blue" in his purple color would dominate. We did what we could with the facilities where we performed. In fact, because we couldn't control how the colors would translate, I actually ordered that foam rubber with sand poured over it cover the blue screen floor - at least parts of the action wouldn't completely disappear and the cast looked more attached to the floor. As far as the background scenes edited post production, for instance, the lighthouse in "A Day At The Beach," those images were cgi developed by a computer engineer for a Symbolics system that Lyons Group had recently acquired. He didn't have much interaction with the studio crew and so there was a real lack of coordination. We did the best we could with the limited resources. It has really warmed my heart to read the responses!! Keep up the good work! BYG forever!!
In my opinion barney's original doll version is far more scary than his mascot version. Now his doll version almost looks exactly like the mascot version. For some reason I can't believe the drastic change barney had.
Since we’re on this topic, I really wish that Barney and the remaining 4 members of the Backyard Gang (Michael, Tina, Luci, and Derek) still referred to themselves as such, within the first 2 seasons. And it would’ve been nice if they had mentioned Amy and Adam, along with Jason (Salim Grant) and Jeffrey, along with Michael and Amy’s parents at least once in those 2 seasons. For the sake of continuity.
This is a video I never knew I needed, like many in the comments here I saw the original Backyard Gang stuff growing up, iirc it might've been multiple episodes recorded onto one tape or something like that? Can't think back enough to remember, but I do remember noticing the early intro and design for Barney and thinking "This must be an early episode of the show!" It's a bummer they had to trash the suits, I remember finding the first iteration of the design neat. A cool trip down memory lane, keep up the good work!
LARRY BUNDY JR??? HELLO! AND THANK U After Barney costumes would wear out and gone through all the repairs they could, The Lyons Group would destroy them after receiving new ones. They did this to ensure that their old costumes wouldn’t end up in the hands of people that would use them to A: create their own works B: use them for purposes that conflict with the brand Because of this, every costume from the 90’s and the better majority of the ones from the 2000’s are gone entirely. Crew members somewhat recently have been trying to find the patterns and writings of the original costume designs and haven’t been able to find much. In other parts of the world Barney still makes occasional appearances here and there. So there is a Barney in a few countries outside the US (some still hanging on, but a few in pretty good condition). It’s thought Mattel (who owns Barney now) has a few still in their possession. The last time Barney was brought out in the US iirc was during an event celebrating the network Barney debuted on a few years back.
@@HedgeOnStage Theres a image on the internet you can find of a barney costume on the floor with beer bottles looking sad. it looks really authentic save for a few weird markings on the eyes. Is it real, or a really good bootleg or custom?
If it was made of foam, it probably has fallen apart by now. Foam and Latex ages really bad. :( Just look how the live action Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles costumes look today. It's so sad.....
This is why I want Barney & The Backyard Gang (along with the first 6 seasons of Barney & Friends) on DVD now more than ever. Especially the BYG stuff.
We’d have to wait and see if anyone reaches out to buy a distribution license. It’s hard to know just who owns the copyright to the Backyard Gang right now specifically, but if anything I would not put it past SHOUT Factory to put in the effort for it
@@HedgeOnStage If that ever happens, there's something I hope they do for the episodes [but they probably won't]: Including the OG Funding Credits and PBS logos [This might sound ridiculous, but those were my favorite parts of watching PBS Kids back in the day XD]
I'm not the biggest Barney fan, I grew out of him pretty early. But I love costume evolutions and special interest style passion docs, I can already tell I'm gonna spend a couple hours goin through this account's uploads 😅
I was a huge fan of Barney and Friends. The man who played Barney when I grew up (the late 90s to 2001) was a man who used to work for Texas Instruments. He really enjoyed being Barney
I was part of the first live tour. The original Barney from the Backyard Gang was our touring choreographer, and one of the early Barney’s was my acting coach at Young Actor’s Studio in Las Colinas, TX. With the recent documentary, I find it interesting that for that and videos like this, no one asks the dozens of former child actors of the show for their stories. Hmm.
no they do. the former actors are consistently asked for their stories they're either busy, dont respond, or go on Barney-specific podcasts but that's cool you were part of the first tour! This must've been Barney's Big Surprise yea?
I feel kinda bad for The Backyard Gang brand to just not renew the trademark in the late 1997, but yet again they weren't making anything new with that brand and instead continue Barney & Friends as usual since it was modern at that time. Also if it was renewed then Sing And Dance With Barney would've had a restored 1988 Barney (performed by original costume performer David Voss) meeting the kids of seasons 4-6 of Barney & Friends and the Barney of those seasons (performed by David Joyner as usual) through a magical time-machine. Plus we would've seen limited edition 10th anniversary editions of the original 1988 trilogy on VHS in 1998 called "Barney's Beginnings". It would've been nice to see a historical relic of the past come into something modern, but it couldn't be done.
To be completely honest, even if Lyons/Lyrick kept the trademark alive I firmly believe they would not’ve brought back the first three videos for any anniversary event, because of how different it was and it almost seemed as though they tried to distance the brand from it. It would’ve been neat however if they did something of that nature, now that nostalgia is big maybe someone will snag the rights
@@HedgeOnStage I know that back in 2013, they realized a trio of DVDs that had special packaging signifying that they were part of the franchise's 25th Anniversary. Even though they were just simply releases of an assortment of the Park Era episodes I kind of think that was a waste opportunity. They could've taken the opportunity to celebrate the anniversary by taking Barney back to his roots and have those videos be a trilogy entitled "Barney and the Backyard Gang: The Next Generation".
Very nice video! It's very interesting that PBS wanted the word "Gang" taken out of the show's title name. I've always thought they decided to drop the Backyard Gang name and have it be "& Friends" instead so they wouldn't have to worry about having the exact same group of kids on each episode and have their names mentioned in the theme song in case they have to replace a child actor and do a workaround with the opening title much like with what happened in Campfire Sing-Along. There's actually another time that Barney and the Backyard Gang gets refrenced. It happened in "Barney's Night Before Christmas" when Barney recalls how to get to Santa's Workshop and acknowledging he's been there before, hence "Waiting For Santa". Also Mrs. Claus acknowledging she's seen Barney before. I actually thought there was another BYG refrence in the Season 1 episode "Caring Means Sharing" before they sang Mr. Knickerbocker. When Barney said "Let's sing her [Baby Bop] favorite song! You know, the one with part of her name in it?" I actually thought he said "The one we thought of her name in it," to reference "Barney in Concert" but I guess I heard wrong lol. Also this last one isn't really a BYG reference but in another Season 1 episode "Be a Friend" when Micheal and Derek made their Barney portrait, the Barney in that picture made me think of the very first BYG doll (from the blue-era you could say). I'm sure that wasn't the intent but it was something I couldn't unsee lol.
Barney mentioning that Knickerbocker has part of Baby Bops’ name in it is just true, I don’t think it was ever meant to be a direct reference to the live show from ‘91. Even though she was directly named from it LOL
About the VHS edits thing you brought up, with any kind of edits, what I do if I put out that kind of video [which is kinda often] is that I usually just state right in the title that it's fake or fanmade to let people know before they ask questions. I used to not do this when I uploaded fanmade VeggieTales VHS openings and Closings of if the tapes were distributed by Warner Home Video and PBS Kids, but then I got a bunch of people asking if the tapes were real [probably because I edited them together with several of my own tape captures, as well as some from online, making the edits much more seamless], so I decided to change the title so that the word FAKE was put before anything else. I had already typed out in the description that I had based these on articles from a VeggieTales fanon wiki and that they were edited, but, y'know, people don't read video descriptions anymore, so I had to find a more direct way of letting them know. Did it pay off? I definitely think it did. Although it resulted in less people watching the video, I think I did a good term on letting the curious and clueless that would've watched it know, "No, this isn't real, you can't find this on eBay or Amazon, no Goodwill, Half Price Books, etc."
Random Unlocked Memories!!! I was never a Barney fan, but I would occasionally watch when there was nothing on. I can still sing the "I love you" and "clean up" songs from memory! And a random Barney memory. I remember when there was a Barney live concert in Waikiki (Hawaii). The main road there was backed up for at 2 - 3 MILES. My mom and I joked that there must be crying kids in all the cars turning back home. I also remember Barney merchandise being the SUPER hot items for Christmas. Barney talking plushies were flying off the shelves. Little kids would beg to watch episodes every day....
Oh my god dude you brought me back, i literally had flashbacks when you mentioned the "Please stay tuned following this presentation for more barney home videos" lol I was born in 92 and i had all the original backyard gang tapes and always preferred the og series over barney and friends, even though i was a barney fanatic as a kid.
it’s crazy too bc kids still know who he is they just have no way of having new things abt Barney brought to them, bc the company (Mattel) havent done anything since since the show left TV in 2010 It’s so unfortunate 😭
I immediately recognize that 1993 release of Waiting for Santa. That was the only Backyard Gang tape we had, as we (mainly my older sis) were well into the Barney and Friends era of tapes. I remember being like 3 or 4 and knowing immediately something was different with Waiting for Santa compared to the other Barney tapes we had. I didn't know what it was, but it just felt discomfortingly off, so I rarely wanted to watch it. It wouldn't be until years later that I figured out why it was so different.
My mom bought me all of those VHS’s as a child and I have a fucking meltdown lol 😂. I kept calling my mom a liar and told her that Barney wasn’t the real Barney. That’s probably why they don’t reference it. Kids are savvy.
I had the repackaged version of Waiting for Santa, so seeing the original VHS tape cover in this video honestly blew my mind. Waiting for Santa was one of the few if not the only Backyard Gang tape that my siblings and I held onto for dear life from our parents giving it away when we were too old to keep it. Since it was a Christmas video, we really wanted to keep it so we could watch it every year during the Christmas season. Now I am not sure if we have it anymore :(
you should definitely try and see if you can snag it online now! there's tons still circulating sites like ebay and mercari, that's how i got mine a few months ago!
I'm actually pretty sad that this show was not even remembered. Only people remember Barney and Friends, without Barney and the Backyard Gang. (If I'm right or not) But, nice video though.
It’s funny I find this video because while urban exploring (it’s one of my content hobbies) I actually stumbled across a pile of vhs tapes stuck in the dirt. I of course, happened to be a retro enthusiast so to leave those tapes to be erased forever in a dump would be a no go, so I gathered them all and took them home and tested each one. Out of all 40 to 50 vhs tapes, only 15% of them already had wear and tear from the dirt right next door to the house that was once filled with them, and couldn’t project anything, etc. But the craziest thing was when I didn’t realize I had taken one of these Barney and the Backyard gang original pilot episodes. It was white but had a different look to it. It was on an official Barney vhs tape so i knew it was real, but very shocking to find out I’d come across something this old and historical
When I was a kid, my grandma had a VHS tape with several of those old backyard gang episodes, and even at that young age, I was fascinated with how different they were from the regular show that was airing on PBS, particularly the blue-ish black costume.
I didn't have the first three tapes in the series, but I had a mixture of both Backyard Gang and Barney & Friends tapes as a little kid. He was my favorite when I was really little and I remember it all pretty fondly, aided by the fact that my younger siblings would find and enjoy the tapes when they were small too. Guess the fact that I didn't ware out the tapes too much paid off in the end.
I was born in the early 90s but we had the video tapes of Barney (NZ was quite behind so things popular in the 80s and early 00s were still popular here right up to the mid 00s when we al finally got better internet) and I grew up on them as a small child, even decades later the theme is still in my head and I have to say as much as I like the rounder version I grew up with his original coloring is nicer.
I remember thinking this was like reality tv show. I knew Barney was a costume but I didn’t realize the kids were acting 😂 Edit: never knew of blurple Barney
Now before anyone says "OMG BARNEYS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN LETS GOOOOOO". I dont think Lyrick deciding not to renew the trademark means The Backyard Gang era is in the public domain. If it were on one hand it would kinda suck cuz...I think the Pooh horror movie speaks the explanation better than I can. But on the other hand it would be kinda cool for us to be able to do anything with two different iterations of Barney. I wouldn't really know as my knowledge on the Public domain is a tad low.
If a trademark expires it is possible for a work to head into public domain. What they’re saying has some merit regardless of how little, however with a property like Barney there’d definitely some sortof pushback if anything like that was attempted.
Pretty sure it's not. It's just a trademark thing. It's not like Space Cats where it just fell into deep obscurity & there is barely any sort of demand for it these days.
Hi! Just thought I’d say hi! I love Barney. Barney is my childhood. I used to watch it while my mom was cooking supper. The Backyard Gang was cool. I remember seeing Barney Goes To School and thinking this is different than what I’m used to. I also watched some of these episodes at my daycare in the afternoon after school. Good times. Anyway, Barney is cool! And you are too! Well, thanks for sharing! Have a great day!
Thanks to this video for reminding me that I had the Waiting for Santa special (with the 3rd cover) on VHS, I remember noticing the different costume as a little kid, but I'm South American so Barney had the same voice I knew, so I guess the difference wasn't as jarring.
It's also interesting that they left the BYG trademark to die out in 1997 because even after that year they still say in the credits "Barney & Friends and Barney and the Backyard Gang are trademarks of Lyons Partnership." I just checked the credits on Best of Barney to double-check and it is in fact still mentioned in the credits.
I watched a few Barney and the Backyard Gang tapes back 30 years ago. A classmate/friend of mine had the tapes and I also watched a couple in school. My class and I watched Barney and Friends almost every morning when I was in kindergarten.
@11:21 - I always wondered if/when someone was going to notice this. I think it's kinda cool to think "Oh, what would happen if the 'Backyard Gang' videos got re-released by HiT in the early-mid-2000's?" Honestly, that's something I wish would happen, even with the original trilogy (as bizzare as that sounds), but every time I see them pop up, I think "Alright, you know you guys are gonna leave viewers confused with titles like '2005 VHS' and not state that it's a fake release, right? Why don't you just say it's not a real one to spare the confusion?" I totally hear you right there, because it is pretty annoying. lol
It mainly also bc it’ll be uploaded by someone who doesn’t have an actual account. No profile image, nor video description, they just upload it and leave. Ppl were freaking out over “Rock with Barney 2005” a few months ago thinking it was real and that someone “just now discovered it” and I’m like…. Bro ..
Looking at that channel, that person actually uploaded the Wee Sing videos with previews of Lyons/Lyrick/Hit home videos. At no point in time was Wee Sing owned by that company (Yes the first Wee Sing video did inspired Barney, but having watched both series, as a kid I couldn't see Wee Sing inspiring Barney), Wee Sing was owned by a different company, "Price Stern Sloan" and in the late 1990s, the videos were released by MCA Universal.
@@MichaelBoothofOz2009 The "Wee Sing" ones are...very interesting. :P Like, I get that the first video in that series inspired Barney, but I'm 99.9% sure they weren't distributed by the same company. haha
That explains why he was redesigned in the 1990. The 1988 was starting to decompose and kids were afraid so the made Barney a 2.0 makeover and given him a much brighter purple, right?
I am a 90s kid, and definitely grew up on Barney. I coincidentally watched the Peacock series about the hate Barney received. I definitely didn’t realize there are literal organizations devoted to hating Barney, and how almost the whole country turned on him. He does become increasingly more irritating from the age of like 7 and up. Kids were bullied mercilessly if they watched Barney after like 2nd grade or had Barney merch. They associate Barney with being a baby. The company couldn’t use the word “gang” lol? I didn’t know the BYG was a thing. I hated Baby Bop with a passion.
Gosh, I had the Barney on Stage tape and watched it so many times as a kid. I was just wondering what it was called because I forgot. I grew up on Barney & Friends, and I really loved it. I still have the stage one, Barney's Great Adventure (I just remember the egg lol), and that one where they pretend they're at a castle still burned into my memory over 20 years later because I watched them so much.
When I was about 3, I was given Waiting for Santa as a present from a friend of my sister. I remember being excited to watch it cause it had the Season1-2 Barney on the cover (it was the UK/Ireland VHS so the cover was the same as the 1993 US, but flipped horizontally). But then when it started I was left so confused by the intro (the slower tempo, different lyrics and Amy and Adam who I’d never seen before), and of course when Barney appeared I was so scared of his look. After watching it for the first time, I was so scared that I didn’t watch it again until maybe 2 or 3 years later. Interestingly the only other Backyard Gang videos that got UK/Ireland releases were Barney goes to School, Barney in Concert, and Rock with Barney. Regarding the box art, they’re visually different from the US ones (except Rock with Barney for the most) it’s the same in that they don’t have the Backyard Gang Barney on the cover, they all have the season 3 Barney. I’m not really surprised that the 1st 3 videos weren’t released here but I don’t know why Campfire Sing Along wasn’t released here. I did watch Barney in Concert at a friend’s house, but I think because I had already seen Waiting for Santa I wasn’t freaked out by Barney (of course now I know the costumes in these videos were different).
The original design is one that scared myself and the other kids that attended the same daycare as me… for a while, eventually we all warmed up to it and now the “Three Wishes” tape featuring it is forever a classic for us haha
I remember many years ago trying to find a copy of one of the BYG tapes after the VCR ate the original, prices were insane even then. (The kids we were taking care of at the time liked Barney, but loved the BYG episodes much more than the later PBS episodes.)
At least i still remember Barney and the Backyard Gang, because the first episode i've ever saw from that show was "A Day at the Beach", During the same time i grew up watching barney and friends during the Lyrick era too, even though i like both era's of Barney a lot better. including Lyons and Lyrick.
2:39 Yeah I've watched a bunch of the Time Life Barney VHS tapes and just realized that the show's continuity was kinda wonky. Like once, Tina asked questions about the meaning of recycling (in "Our Earth, Our Home") when she previously learned it in "Rock with Barney"
I could never review this franchise the way you do sir. My own bias would get in the way. I was never able to adjust to the post Season 3 changes as a child, and as an adult viewing it the same way is all but impossible. But I respect very much what you’re doing here and look forward to your future perspectives.
Anytime I do “History of Barney” or “A Look Back”, it’s written in a way that removes any bias and is friendly for both fans as well as(but most importantly) those who are unfamiliar with the Barney franchise and want to learn about it. Now when I’m doing a Spotlight, thennnnn absolutely I let it fly LOL
WOW! I have so many questions! But first, thanks for sharing this info. My whole Barney journey started with my daughter born and believe you me, once she was old enough to notice and my Mom brought her a Barney VCR cassette on her 3rd birthday it was on for years to come. She became a hardcore fan and I to this day cannot get many of those songs out of my head. She was all advanced pink/purple Barney era. I'm a geek so we even had the Barney (Teddy Ruxpin sorta) thing that interacted with the PC. Had to go see the movie. My Mom even got her one of those birthday videos where they would super impose a picture you sent in and dub the kids name like barney was saying it. Pretty cool for the time. All of that. Heck my Daughter 27 now and when I talked about the first day of Fall this year she responded with, 'Well, you can call it Fall if that's what you please, but I say I like Autumn!' even though she always thought the gang was a bit mean in that video with their pointing and such :-P ua-cam.com/video/oY0DciZES64/v-deo.html One of my fondest Barney memories though was taking her to a Barney live show when they came through our town, 'Barney's Musical Castle' around 2000 when she was 5. She never sat down and sang every number which leads me to this question. There was clearly a backyard gang/Barney Friends around, and Barney was still HUGE even at 2000 when we saw them live so when did it really end?
Hi!! Firstly thank you for sharing your story !! The Barney brand was at its peak in the mid-to-late 90’s. Things revamped as a whole in the early 2000’s. At the same time this was because an entirely different company took over the brand, and some creative staff from before had left. This led to a decline in creativity and the company wanting to spend less on what made the franchise so big and special. Barney & Friends officially went off the air in 2010 and has seen no episodes, movies, film related anything since. Mattel (the company that now owns the property) licenses out to other companies to make Barney toys here and there, and there are “talks” of a supposed Barney movie in the works but nothing concrete. Barney still makes occasional appearances live in other countries here and there, but as for America we haven’t seen a push for him in a longgg long time
I used to live in the system and alot of the kids were actually scared of Barney to point his tapes where a punishment most would want to watch something else like sesame street or teletubbies when they finally came around. And there screams about the uncanny dinosaur I'd all I can remember about this series
I saw Barney live before in the 90s, after very intense and abusive childhood and growing up I have become an adult who uses Barney as a comfort item. It really hurts me that there's not much merch left and he's basically faded into obscurity because he is utterly a comfort item for me and helps me cope with some of the trauma I've experienced.
you gotta get somethin different dude
Damn. I wish the best for you. Nobody in the world deserves something like this.
Bro. I wish everything goes good for you
Have you tried thrift stores? I hope you find all the barney merch you need to heal ❤
Barney will always be around. Thank you for having the courage to tell your story. As someone else replied, thrift stores and online sites have tons of Barney merch and videos from those parting with them, and there’s also lots of other things out there that surely can bring you more comfort.
I hope you’re able to find something to heal your pain, and you’re always welcome here on the Rainbow Line 🌈 ✨
It may be because I’m PMSing, but when Barney was saying goodbye to Tina, I totally got teary!! I was a super sickly kid when I was little, and the only sure-fire way to get me to calm down was Barney. I grew to be a typical Barney-hating elemenentary schooler, but now that I’m older, I have an appreciation for him. ❤
I watched this religiously as a toddler… but when my parents took me to meet him live, I screamed and cried in pure fear. Never meet your heroes.
poor thing!
😂😂😂😂😂
I met the REAL Barney from the Barney and Friends TV show at a fair 14 years ago. No, not the actor who played him, the ACTUAL COSTUMED CHARACTER FROM THE TV SHOW...used in Barney and Friends.
Is anyone going to tell her?….
Uh……. Who’s gonna tell her
yeah so... whos gonna tell her someone has to
who's gonna tell her... I idont know what it is so seriously tell her for us
Man I can't wait for more "uh who's gonna tell her" comments because it was good the first time, surely it will be even funnier five, ten, maybe twenty times!
I’ll never admit it, but I’ve still got a soft spot for Barney from my early childhood
u can admit it, this channel is the safest place to do so I promise you LOLLL
Same but for the movie 💀
So do I! 90s PBS cartoons hit a good part of me. Cannot replicate one bit today.
Same. I grew up with late 90's-early 2000's Barney when everyone hated him. Didn't stop me from getting a shirt with him on it that I wore all through high school. No regrets.
I love Barney as well.
I'm 22 years old and I still experience that giddy feeling when I first here the original theme song. So nostalgic and pretty!
When I was a kid in the early 2000’s, I thought I was the only one who knew the secret that Barney had an original version 😂 my dad rented me the Waiting for Santa tape from Video Avenue.
I had the original Christmas Special VHS, with the classic dark colored Barney.
Watched it over and over in my preschool years. Glad to see it's available on UA-cam along with the other releases.
It feels so strange to see Barney as an adult - my kid brain made it look like he was a real living thing, not a costume. It wasn't like Sesame Street where the artistry of the puppetry makes them look real (they're just as real now!) it's just... So different.
it might be his size! I was talking about this exact thing with someone earlier, Barney is six feet, and with a being that big you really start to notice the imperfections more quickly, compared to a Muppet or something of that nature haha
but as a kid they're as real as your imagination~
I never knew both backyard gang versions of barney (before barney in concert) were still being used at events. It really was sad to see them look warned out & falling apart. Especially the og design.
It's also interesting that they had their own trademark for the backyard gang and they surprisingly abandoned it
I too never knew about the Backyard Gang series as a whole, I only found out about it when I was 15 lol. I loved Barney in Concert and I saw Campfire Sing-Along a couple times but that was it
On the bright side: much like well worn toys, it usually means that they were well loved and used all the time. If you were to see two dolls, one that's neat and tidy and one that's worn with tangled hair and clothes with missing stitches, which would you think was played with more?
I have core memories of wearing out my VHS copy of Barney in Concert. Little did I know it lit a fire for a love of the arts and would eventually go on to work in the industry.
I don’t know about y’all, but the words “this is the last know photo of Barney in his original form” is absolutely terrifying to me. He’s absorbed his former parts and only been growing stronger ever since.
Nah he just absorbed the life energy of the children you never hear about after they left the show
Good God this literally unlocked core memories I forgot I had. Gah... Back to a time where life was so simple and innocent.
the good ol' dayz
today, i learned that there is in fact a barny fanbase and that there are people who refer to themselves as “barnytubers” im certainly not a barny fan myself but i enjoy learning about super obscure topics like this so i enjoyed ur video
ty for coming by! ~ 🌈
Barney was me and my twin's first ever obsession starting in 1992 when we were like 1 year old lol. I believe we went to go see him at a live concert when we were 6 or 7, but we never actually got to meet him. I was personally very sad about it for the longest time. I had barney everything that you can think of, I think we even have some barney sticker sheets in the basement somewhere. 😂 Barney will always be a fond memory. Even though I saw some of the Backyard Gang tapes, it was always just Barney to me.
I was big into Barney as a kid. My mom claims my first word was “Barney” when I saw a doll of him at the store.
Also, I was much older when the movie came out, but I remember enjoying it.
I gotta say, seeing the first Barney suit in the state that was in broke my heart a little but also brought out fond memories of watching “A Day At The Beach” and singing along to all the classic Barney songs that I wish could’ve been heard again in Barney and Friends, such as “There’s A Hole In The Bottom Of The Sea” and “Swimming Swimming.” Thank you for reminding us that although Barney underwent some changes, that he’s still not forgotten
Lord, I grew up watching Barney and friends, but I never knew anything about the barney and the backyard gang videos that actually existed before the Barney and friends TV series
I was exposed to the first season of Barney and Friends as I grew up in Puerto Rico and it was dubbed to Spanish at our local station in ‘93. A Barney doll was my first security plush. I was enthralled by the show until the theatrical release and then lost track of the show altogether despite having younger brothers who liked it. This was a fun trip through childhood memories, even if I don’t recognize the iconic English voice right away.
I was big into Barney as a kid. I had so many dolls and video tapes of him. Then a few years after kind of growing out of Barney, I randomly decided to watch Waiting for Santa (specifically, it was the tape shown at 8:59) and, even though I had watched the tape before, I took particular notice of how different the theme song was, and how Barney looked and sounded. It was the only Backyard Gang media I'd ever seen but I suddenly wanted more. I had a crazed phase where I was desperately after the other tapes of the original version of a character I was too old for. We even sought out a Backyard Gang era plushie on eBay and I still have him to this day. Needless to say Backyard Gang Barney holds a special place in my heart and I really miss it. If I ever have kids (unlikely as that seems), these will be a must-watch for them.
OMG. Waiting for Santa was one of my favorites! And Campfire Sing-a-long, & Rock With Barney, Barney’s Magical Musical Adventure. They were my all time favorites! I have fond memories as a child of playing with my toys while i watched all those VHS’s. I just got hit in the feels❤
There I am, learning about Barney....I was never a fan growing up. But it's still interesting to learn about how media evolves.
As a kid I favored the original design from the first three and called him “blue Barney.” Those were my favorites, and I wish they’d get a proper dvd release
You'd think they would have released the full Backyard gang mini series on DVD by now. Not sure if they legally can with the trademark expired. I have no idea what can and can't legally be done with that series.
I like the original barney too was sad when they changed him
Barney, The big comfy couch, Between the lions and Arthur were always on my TV as a kid. Followed by The little mermaid and Mulan.
I like his BYG design much better than the current ones. His deeper voice was more iconic to me and it fits his character pretty well seeing that Barney is a big dinosaur. His newer voice sounds more nasaly. I wish they could bring the BYG back somehow in a reboot sort of way.
There were more than 2 Barney Costumes?
@@CosmicSponge2004 there was the original backyard gang costume and his & friends costume used for the TV shows. The last 2 videos for the BYG used his costume from the show
Personally I find the current voice a lot more iconic and more unique. The deeper voice feels too generic. But that’s just me.
@@thirst7827 I understand, the current voice is what's heard the most by many but Bob West's voice is very iconic to me.
@@CosmicSponge2004 I used to watch Barney growing up I had a Barney birthday party when I was 2 it was fun
This is unexpectedly fascinating to me haha. My brother was born in 1996 and as a toddler, he would watch the hell out of old Barney and Friends episodes we taped off of PBS. Of course, I, being six years older, was too cool for Barney at that point, but still found myself watching the tapes on the sly when my brother would get bored and go do something else. A few of those old episodes really stuck with me and made me think (at an early age) about the idyllic Barney-like cooperation and affection we strive for vs. how gritty and hurtful real life can be, and it really kind of made me sad, but Barney helped me feel like those ideals were worth striving for and gave me a little comfort when life got tough and feelings got tricky to handle
Even I read rumours that both Michael and Amy's unnamed mom (Sandy Duncan) and Michael's sister Amy (Becky Swonke) could've returned in some episodes of Season 1 of Barney & Friends to complete the Backyard Gang reference, but both declined the role.
Even though Becky decided to not reprise her role as Amy due to illness when Barney & Friends started production.
I had all the OG tapes with the original logo and everything, watched on PBS, I'm 99% sure my Barney is the only stuffed animal I kept, and it's here somewhere.
Oh i remember this show. I watched a few episodes when it was shown here on german TV somewhere in the mid 90s. It was also dubbed and the dub was really well done. I never became a fan of the show but i always liked and appreciated the jolly friendly nature of Barney. The enthusiasm of the character really affected you and it really made you smile.
As someone who grew up with the TV series primarily, I also had the Waiting for Santa VHS tape and always had a sense of unease watching it because of how dark and angular his design was compared to what I was used to. Definitely contributed to some nightmares lol.
A reunion of the original backyard gang would make my inner child so happy😢❤
I remember when these videos came out and they were being sold in those "As seen on TV" commercials. I lived in Texas at the time and I was in kindergarten, so I was a little to old for Barney at that point. I didn't think it'd take off the way it did. But I had no idea it was a local Texas thing, though.
Convoluted story with a soporific narration.
hell yea
6:42 it should be of note that, like the Lyons Group, Ms Duncan is also a Texan.
Why does the scene with Tina and Barney at the end of Day at the Beach always get me 🥺😭
But such a wholesome video! Pre 2000 barney needs to be uploaded onto a streaming platform in the near future - UA-cam isn’t immortal
Peacock only has seasons 10-12 right now. None of the older or newer stuff, no VHS/DVD releases, not even the movie.
@@austinreed7343 no offense but who even watches seasons 10-12?
@@carolineslack9508
Not sure… it would be appealing to completists.
I had just turned 12 in 1990 but I had a 4 year old sister that loved Barney. She had a couple oh VHS tapes with Barney in his original form. She would watch them over and over again. Barney still haunts my nightmares to date. I still feel my left eye twitch when I hear the pipe intro….
I relate to this so much. Babysitting my little cousin (who just turned 30, whew I feel old) and having to rewind the same bloody tape Over. and. Over. and. Over. It's just as cringe today as it was back then! I was raised on 80s Sesame Street and Mister Rogers and that was a whole different vibe than the purple dino.
I used to have a Barney doll and remember playing with it like it was yesterday. Obviously I've outgrown the show since then, and most likely my parents gave him away to a much younger relative. It's sad that somewhere along the line Barney became the Johnny Test of "Baby shows."
I remember going to a Barney concert as a kid in Fresno. Sadly, when we got there it was cancelled in our seats because it was REALLY hot at the time and the person playing Barney couldn't handle the heat. My god, my brother and I were crying since he couldn't come out 😂
Hey, Hedge, this is Jamie Conner, the designer and art director of the original Barney of the BYG fame first 3 videos. In real life Barney didn't look dark purple, he looked the same as the very first plush, which I made on the fly because the producers forgot to contract to a toy builder. The reasons Barney seemed so dark in some of the scenes? Color Dynamics/Lyons Group had some severely inadequate color correction and keying equipment. And many of the scenes were shot in front of a blue screen. Due to the equipment issues, when Barney would move from one setup to another, lighting was also a problem. With the inconsistencies, the "blue" in his purple color would dominate. We did what we could with the facilities where we performed. In fact, because we couldn't control how the colors would translate, I actually ordered that foam rubber with sand poured over it cover the blue screen floor - at least parts of the action wouldn't completely disappear and the cast looked more attached to the floor. As far as the background scenes edited post production, for instance, the lighthouse in "A Day At The Beach," those images were cgi developed by a computer engineer for a Symbolics system that Lyons Group had recently acquired. He didn't have much interaction with the studio crew and so there was a real lack of coordination. We did the best we could with the limited resources. It has really warmed my heart to read the responses!! Keep up the good work! BYG forever!!
In my opinion barney's original doll version is far more scary than his mascot version. Now his doll version almost looks exactly like the mascot version. For some reason I can't believe the drastic change barney had.
Since we’re on this topic, I really wish that Barney and the remaining 4 members of the Backyard Gang (Michael, Tina, Luci, and Derek) still referred to themselves as such, within the first 2 seasons. And it would’ve been nice if they had mentioned Amy and Adam, along with Jason (Salim Grant) and Jeffrey, along with Michael and Amy’s parents at least once in those 2 seasons. For the sake of continuity.
Even as much as a passing line or reference would’ve been pretty neat yea haha
@@HedgeOnStage I would’ve liked that too. Imagine if they also included flashbacks.
It’s like Adam is the Barney and Friends equivalent to Chuck Cunningham
This is a video I never knew I needed, like many in the comments here I saw the original Backyard Gang stuff growing up, iirc it might've been multiple episodes recorded onto one tape or something like that? Can't think back enough to remember, but I do remember noticing the early intro and design for Barney and thinking "This must be an early episode of the show!" It's a bummer they had to trash the suits, I remember finding the first iteration of the design neat. A cool trip down memory lane, keep up the good work!
a friend of mine (Barney Builder on YT) is working on a full scale replica of that original design currently~
and tysm! it means a lot!
Most excellent video!!! Is there any news on where the costumes are today at all? do they still exist?
LARRY BUNDY JR??? HELLO! AND THANK U
After Barney costumes would wear out and gone through all the repairs they could, The Lyons Group would destroy them after receiving new ones. They did this to ensure that their old costumes wouldn’t end up in the hands of people that would use them to
A: create their own works
B: use them for purposes that conflict with the brand
Because of this, every costume from the 90’s and the better majority of the ones from the 2000’s are gone entirely. Crew members somewhat recently have been trying to find the patterns and writings of the original costume designs and haven’t been able to find much.
In other parts of the world Barney still makes occasional appearances here and there. So there is a Barney in a few countries outside the US (some still hanging on, but a few in pretty good condition). It’s thought Mattel (who owns Barney now) has a few still in their possession. The last time Barney was brought out in the US iirc was during an event celebrating the network Barney debuted on a few years back.
@@HedgeOnStage Theres a image on the internet you can find of a barney costume on the floor with beer bottles looking sad. it looks really authentic save for a few weird markings on the eyes. Is it real, or a really good bootleg or custom?
If it was made of foam, it probably has fallen apart by now. Foam and Latex ages really bad. :( Just look how the live action Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles costumes look today. It's so sad.....
Woah didn’t expect to see you here
This is why I want Barney & The Backyard Gang (along with the first 6 seasons of Barney & Friends) on DVD now more than ever. Especially the BYG stuff.
We’d have to wait and see if anyone reaches out to buy a distribution license. It’s hard to know just who owns the copyright to the Backyard Gang right now specifically, but if anything I would not put it past SHOUT Factory to put in the effort for it
@@HedgeOnStage If that ever happens, there's something I hope they do for the episodes [but they probably won't]: Including the OG Funding Credits and PBS logos [This might sound ridiculous, but those were my favorite parts of watching PBS Kids back in the day XD]
@@HedgeOnStage If I were tbh, Mattel should have the entire Ip of Barney, with 9Story being the licenser for distribution.
I had the barney goes to school when I was 1 half and year old because my grandpa and my dad went to toys r us
So far the oldest Barney video to get released onto DVD was imagination island
I'm not the biggest Barney fan, I grew out of him pretty early. But I love costume evolutions and special interest style passion docs, I can already tell I'm gonna spend a couple hours goin through this account's uploads 😅
welcome welcome! ~ there's a lot to comb through!
This reminded me that I loved the campfire episode I would watch it over and over again as a child. What a throwback
The backyard gang was before my time but I still grew up with them after my mom worked at a thrift store and bought me all of the old tapes.
I was a huge fan of Barney and Friends. The man who played Barney when I grew up (the late 90s to 2001) was a man who used to work for Texas Instruments. He really enjoyed being Barney
David Joyner! ~
All jokes aside. I completely forgot there was a dark purple Barney. This unlocked a memory!
memory lane!
I hope you find lots more history content on the channel that suits your liking!
@@HedgeOnStage I’ll definitely search around 💪🏾
I was part of the first live tour. The original Barney from the Backyard Gang was our touring choreographer, and one of the early Barney’s was my acting coach at Young Actor’s Studio in Las Colinas, TX. With the recent documentary, I find it interesting that for that and videos like this, no one asks the dozens of former child actors of the show for their stories. Hmm.
no they do. the former actors are consistently asked for their stories
they're either busy, dont respond, or go on Barney-specific podcasts
but that's cool you were part of the first tour! This must've been Barney's Big Surprise yea?
I feel kinda bad for The Backyard Gang brand to just not renew the trademark in the late 1997, but yet again they weren't making anything new with that brand and instead continue Barney & Friends as usual since it was modern at that time. Also if it was renewed then Sing And Dance With Barney would've had a restored 1988 Barney (performed by original costume performer David Voss) meeting the kids of seasons 4-6 of Barney & Friends and the Barney of those seasons (performed by David Joyner as usual) through a magical time-machine. Plus we would've seen limited edition 10th anniversary editions of the original 1988 trilogy on VHS in 1998 called "Barney's Beginnings". It would've been nice to see a historical relic of the past come into something modern, but it couldn't be done.
To be completely honest, even if Lyons/Lyrick kept the trademark alive I firmly believe they would not’ve brought back the first three videos for any anniversary event, because of how different it was and it almost seemed as though they tried to distance the brand from it. It would’ve been neat however if they did something of that nature, now that nostalgia is big maybe someone will snag the rights
@@HedgeOnStage It's also similar to how recently Mattel failing to renew the trademark of the Barney brand itself. So maybe it could happen.
@@HedgeOnStage I know that back in 2013, they realized a trio of DVDs that had special packaging signifying that they were part of the franchise's 25th Anniversary. Even though they were just simply releases of an assortment of the Park Era episodes I kind of think that was a waste opportunity.
They could've taken the opportunity to celebrate the anniversary by taking Barney back to his roots and have those videos be a trilogy entitled "Barney and the Backyard Gang: The Next Generation".
This gave me so many warm, fuzzy feelings. I wish Barney had a bigger presence today. I'd love to watch it with my son.
Very nice video! It's very interesting that PBS wanted the word "Gang" taken out of the show's title name. I've always thought they decided to drop the Backyard Gang name and have it be "& Friends" instead so they wouldn't have to worry about having the exact same group of kids on each episode and have their names mentioned in the theme song in case they have to replace a child actor and do a workaround with the opening title much like with what happened in Campfire Sing-Along.
There's actually another time that Barney and the Backyard Gang gets refrenced. It happened in "Barney's Night Before Christmas" when Barney recalls how to get to Santa's Workshop and acknowledging he's been there before, hence "Waiting For Santa". Also Mrs. Claus acknowledging she's seen Barney before.
I actually thought there was another BYG refrence in the Season 1 episode "Caring Means Sharing" before they sang Mr. Knickerbocker. When Barney said "Let's sing her [Baby Bop] favorite song! You know, the one with part of her name in it?" I actually thought he said "The one we thought of her name in it," to reference "Barney in Concert" but I guess I heard wrong lol.
Also this last one isn't really a BYG reference but in another Season 1 episode "Be a Friend" when Micheal and Derek made their Barney portrait, the Barney in that picture made me think of the very first BYG doll (from the blue-era you could say). I'm sure that wasn't the intent but it was something I couldn't unsee lol.
Barney mentioning that Knickerbocker has part of Baby Bops’ name in it is just true, I don’t think it was ever meant to be a direct reference to the live show from ‘91. Even though she was directly named from it LOL
@@HedgeOnStage I like to point out in the 1996 release of campfire sing-along, Barney’s second design is shown on the back cover
Thank you for my childhood, he is the first person I love him. It keep on my heart and appear on real life with me. 2006-2008
Another great video Hedge!
tysm !!! 🌈
About the VHS edits thing you brought up, with any kind of edits, what I do if I put out that kind of video [which is kinda often] is that I usually just state right in the title that it's fake or fanmade to let people know before they ask questions.
I used to not do this when I uploaded fanmade VeggieTales VHS openings and Closings of if the tapes were distributed by Warner Home Video and PBS Kids, but then I got a bunch of people asking if the tapes were real [probably because I edited them together with several of my own tape captures, as well as some from online, making the edits much more seamless], so I decided to change the title so that the word FAKE was put before anything else. I had already typed out in the description that I had based these on articles from a VeggieTales fanon wiki and that they were edited, but, y'know, people don't read video descriptions anymore, so I had to find a more direct way of letting them know.
Did it pay off? I definitely think it did. Although it resulted in less people watching the video, I think I did a good term on letting the curious and clueless that would've watched it know, "No, this isn't real, you can't find this on eBay or Amazon, no Goodwill, Half Price Books, etc."
Random Unlocked Memories!!! I was never a Barney fan, but I would occasionally watch when there was nothing on. I can still sing the "I love you" and "clean up" songs from memory!
And a random Barney memory. I remember when there was a Barney live concert in Waikiki (Hawaii). The main road there was backed up for at 2 - 3 MILES. My mom and I joked that there must be crying kids in all the cars turning back home.
I also remember Barney merchandise being the SUPER hot items for Christmas. Barney talking plushies were flying off the shelves. Little kids would beg to watch episodes every day....
As a Dallas native i'll always have a soft spot for Barney in my heart! Thanks for the video!
thank you for coming by!!~
Oh my god dude you brought me back, i literally had flashbacks when you mentioned the "Please stay tuned following this presentation for more barney home videos" lol
I was born in 92 and i had all the original backyard gang tapes and always preferred the og series over barney and friends, even though i was a barney fanatic as a kid.
memories are forever! ❤
I watched SOO much barney as a kid. Wild to think its not relevant to kids anymore.
it’s crazy too bc kids still know who he is
they just have no way of having new things abt Barney brought to them, bc the company (Mattel) havent done anything since since the show left TV in 2010
It’s so unfortunate 😭
I immediately recognize that 1993 release of Waiting for Santa. That was the only Backyard Gang tape we had, as we (mainly my older sis) were well into the Barney and Friends era of tapes. I remember being like 3 or 4 and knowing immediately something was different with Waiting for Santa compared to the other Barney tapes we had. I didn't know what it was, but it just felt discomfortingly off, so I rarely wanted to watch it. It wouldn't be until years later that I figured out why it was so different.
My mom bought me all of those VHS’s as a child and I have a fucking meltdown lol 😂. I kept calling my mom a liar and told her that Barney wasn’t the real Barney. That’s probably why they don’t reference it. Kids are savvy.
I had the repackaged version of Waiting for Santa, so seeing the original VHS tape cover in this video honestly blew my mind. Waiting for Santa was one of the few if not the only Backyard Gang tape that my siblings and I held onto for dear life from our parents giving it away when we were too old to keep it. Since it was a Christmas video, we really wanted to keep it so we could watch it every year during the Christmas season. Now I am not sure if we have it anymore :(
you should definitely try and see if you can snag it online now! there's tons still circulating sites like ebay and mercari, that's how i got mine a few months ago!
I'm actually pretty sad that this show was not even remembered. Only people remember Barney and Friends, without Barney and the Backyard Gang. (If I'm right or not) But, nice video though.
It’s funny I find this video because while urban exploring (it’s one of my content hobbies) I actually stumbled across a pile of vhs tapes stuck in the dirt. I of course, happened to be a retro enthusiast so to leave those tapes to be erased forever in a dump would be a no go, so I gathered them all and took them home and tested each one. Out of all 40 to 50 vhs tapes, only 15% of them already had wear and tear from the dirt right next door to the house that was once filled with them, and couldn’t project anything, etc. But the craziest thing was when I didn’t realize I had taken one of these Barney and the Backyard gang original pilot episodes. It was white but had a different look to it. It was on an official Barney vhs tape so i knew it was real, but very shocking to find out I’d come across something this old and historical
coincidences are CRAZY
When I was a kid, my grandma had a VHS tape with several of those old backyard gang episodes, and even at that young age, I was fascinated with how different they were from the regular show that was airing on PBS, particularly the blue-ish black costume.
I didn't have the first three tapes in the series, but I had a mixture of both Backyard Gang and Barney & Friends tapes as a little kid. He was my favorite when I was really little and I remember it all pretty fondly, aided by the fact that my younger siblings would find and enjoy the tapes when they were small too. Guess the fact that I didn't ware out the tapes too much paid off in the end.
The vhs tapes with my nephew in the early 90s. I knew all the songs. Played over and over. Different time back then.
I was born in the early 90s but we had the video tapes of Barney (NZ was quite behind so things popular in the 80s and early 00s were still popular here right up to the mid 00s when we al finally got better internet) and I grew up on them as a small child, even decades later the theme is still in my head and I have to say as much as I like the rounder version I grew up with his original coloring is nicer.
I remember thinking this was like reality tv show. I knew Barney was a costume but I didn’t realize the kids were acting 😂
Edit: never knew of blurple Barney
Now before anyone says "OMG BARNEYS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN LETS GOOOOOO". I dont think Lyrick deciding not to renew the trademark means The Backyard Gang era is in the public domain. If it were on one hand it would kinda suck cuz...I think the Pooh horror movie speaks the explanation better than I can.
But on the other hand it would be kinda cool for us to be able to do anything with two different iterations of Barney. I wouldn't really know as my knowledge on the Public domain is a tad low.
If a trademark expires it is possible for a work to head into public domain.
What they’re saying has some merit regardless of how little, however with a property like Barney there’d definitely some sortof pushback if anything like that was attempted.
Pretty sure it's not. It's just a trademark thing. It's not like Space Cats where it just fell into deep obscurity & there is barely any sort of demand for it these days.
Hi! Just thought I’d say hi! I love Barney. Barney is my childhood. I used to watch it while my mom was cooking supper. The Backyard Gang was cool. I remember seeing Barney Goes To School and thinking this is different than what I’m used to. I also watched some of these episodes at my daycare in the afternoon after school. Good times. Anyway, Barney is cool! And you are too! Well, thanks for sharing! Have a great day!
I used to have a VHS copy of _Barney in Concert_ as a kid, and the original Barney & The Backyard Gang logo scared the DAYLIGHTS out of me!
Me too, but mine was the 2000 release from Lyrick Studios.
BROO THE GARAGE SONG WITH THE DUCKS SCARED TF OUTTA ME !!!!
Once he sung barney is a 🦕 scared😮😮😮😮
Thanks to this video for reminding me that I had the Waiting for Santa special (with the 3rd cover) on VHS, I remember noticing the different costume as a little kid, but I'm South American so Barney had the same voice I knew, so I guess the difference wasn't as jarring.
I really enjoyed the Barney shows when I was younger.
1:12 Tristan, you know what we do at school already. We sit around playing games that bad guys use to try to control the earth.
Ohhh boy, oh boy, oh boy oh boyo boyo boy! I’ve been waiting for a new episode to release! Yay!
It's also interesting that they left the BYG trademark to die out in 1997 because even after that year they still say in the credits "Barney & Friends and Barney and the Backyard Gang are trademarks of Lyons Partnership." I just checked the credits on Best of Barney to double-check and it is in fact still mentioned in the credits.
It’s also present in the very last episode of Barney & Friends that was put together as well before production ended, it’s interesting
I watched a few Barney and the Backyard Gang tapes back 30 years ago. A classmate/friend of mine had the tapes and I also watched a couple in school. My class and I watched Barney and Friends almost every morning when I was in kindergarten.
@11:21 - I always wondered if/when someone was going to notice this. I think it's kinda cool to think "Oh, what would happen if the 'Backyard Gang' videos got re-released by HiT in the early-mid-2000's?" Honestly, that's something I wish would happen, even with the original trilogy (as bizzare as that sounds), but every time I see them pop up, I think "Alright, you know you guys are gonna leave viewers confused with titles like '2005 VHS' and not state that it's a fake release, right? Why don't you just say it's not a real one to spare the confusion?" I totally hear you right there, because it is pretty annoying. lol
It mainly also bc it’ll be uploaded by someone who doesn’t have an actual account. No profile image, nor video description, they just upload it and leave. Ppl were freaking out over “Rock with Barney 2005” a few months ago thinking it was real and that someone “just now discovered it” and I’m like…. Bro ..
Looking at that channel, that person actually uploaded the Wee Sing videos with previews of Lyons/Lyrick/Hit home videos. At no point in time was Wee Sing owned by that company (Yes the first Wee Sing video did inspired Barney, but having watched both series, as a kid I couldn't see Wee Sing inspiring Barney), Wee Sing was owned by a different company, "Price Stern Sloan" and in the late 1990s, the videos were released by MCA Universal.
@@MichaelBoothofOz2009 The "Wee Sing" ones are...very interesting. :P
Like, I get that the first video in that series inspired Barney, but I'm 99.9% sure they weren't distributed by the same company. haha
That explains why he was redesigned in the 1990. The 1988 was starting to decompose and kids were afraid so the made Barney a 2.0 makeover and given him a much brighter purple, right?
The response to Barney’s original design was promoted from the Home Videos themselves, not outside appearances.
I am a 90s kid, and definitely grew up on Barney. I coincidentally watched the Peacock series about the hate Barney received. I definitely didn’t realize there are literal organizations devoted to hating Barney, and how almost the whole country turned on him. He does become increasingly more irritating from the age of like 7 and up. Kids were bullied mercilessly if they watched Barney after like 2nd grade or had Barney merch. They associate Barney with being a baby. The company couldn’t use the word “gang” lol? I didn’t know the BYG was a thing. I hated Baby Bop with a passion.
ohNOOOO NOT BABY BOP LOLLL
Yeah, I definitely remember multiple parodies of the theme song about murdering Barney with various weapons sung on the school bus lol
Gosh, I had the Barney on Stage tape and watched it so many times as a kid. I was just wondering what it was called because I forgot. I grew up on Barney & Friends, and I really loved it. I still have the stage one, Barney's Great Adventure (I just remember the egg lol), and that one where they pretend they're at a castle still burned into my memory over 20 years later because I watched them so much.
Barney in Concert and Barney's Magical Musical Adventure! classiccccs
When I was about 3, I was given Waiting for Santa as a present from a friend of my sister. I remember being excited to watch it cause it had the Season1-2 Barney on the cover (it was the UK/Ireland VHS so the cover was the same as the 1993 US, but flipped horizontally). But then when it started I was left so confused by the intro (the slower tempo, different lyrics and Amy and Adam who I’d never seen before), and of course when Barney appeared I was so scared of his look. After watching it for the first time, I was so scared that I didn’t watch it again until maybe 2 or 3 years later.
Interestingly the only other Backyard Gang videos that got UK/Ireland releases were Barney goes to School, Barney in Concert, and Rock with Barney. Regarding the box art, they’re visually different from the US ones (except Rock with Barney for the most) it’s the same in that they don’t have the Backyard Gang Barney on the cover, they all have the season 3 Barney. I’m not really surprised that the 1st 3 videos weren’t released here but I don’t know why Campfire Sing Along wasn’t released here. I did watch Barney in Concert at a friend’s house, but I think because I had already seen Waiting for Santa I wasn’t freaked out by Barney (of course now I know the costumes in these videos were different).
I was obsessed with him growing up! Sad… this is the kind of stuff worthy of a nostalgic reboot😢
I recall having the vhs for this, and as a kid it was definitely pretty jarring seeing that design for Barney compared to the others.
The original design is one that scared myself and the other kids that attended the same daycare as me… for a while, eventually we all warmed up to it and now the “Three Wishes” tape featuring it is forever a classic for us haha
I loved the earlier versions of barney growing up.
I used to have all of these old Barney VHS tapes as a kid, shame I lost them all at some point as a kid during a move.
I remember many years ago trying to find a copy of one of the BYG tapes after the VCR ate the original, prices were insane even then. (The kids we were taking care of at the time liked Barney, but loved the BYG episodes much more than the later PBS episodes.)
At least i still remember Barney and the Backyard Gang, because the first episode i've ever saw from that show was "A Day at the Beach",
During the same time i grew up watching barney and friends during the Lyrick era too, even though i like both era's of Barney a lot better.
including Lyons and Lyrick.
But as always, i appreciate the work you've put into this video Hedge.
I use to rent the Waiting for Santa tape every year during the holidays.
2:39 Yeah I've watched a bunch of the Time Life Barney VHS tapes and just realized that the show's continuity was kinda wonky. Like once, Tina asked questions about the meaning of recycling (in "Our Earth, Our Home") when she previously learned it in "Rock with Barney"
I could never review this franchise the way you do sir. My own bias would get in the way. I was never able to adjust to the post Season 3 changes as a child, and as an adult viewing it the same way is all but impossible. But I respect very much what you’re doing here and look forward to your future perspectives.
Anytime I do “History of Barney” or “A Look Back”, it’s written in a way that removes any bias and is friendly for both fans as well as(but most importantly) those who are unfamiliar with the Barney franchise and want to learn about it.
Now when I’m doing a Spotlight, thennnnn absolutely I let it fly LOL
WOW! I have so many questions! But first, thanks for sharing this info. My whole Barney journey started with my daughter born and believe you me, once she was old enough to notice and my Mom brought her a Barney VCR cassette on her 3rd birthday it was on for years to come. She became a hardcore fan and I to this day cannot get many of those songs out of my head. She was all advanced pink/purple Barney era. I'm a geek so we even had the Barney (Teddy Ruxpin sorta) thing that interacted with the PC. Had to go see the movie. My Mom even got her one of those birthday videos where they would super impose a picture you sent in and dub the kids name like barney was saying it. Pretty cool for the time. All of that.
Heck my Daughter 27 now and when I talked about the first day of Fall this year she responded with, 'Well, you can call it Fall if that's what you please, but I say I like Autumn!' even though she always thought the gang was a bit mean in that video with their pointing and such :-P ua-cam.com/video/oY0DciZES64/v-deo.html
One of my fondest Barney memories though was taking her to a Barney live show when they came through our town, 'Barney's Musical Castle' around 2000 when she was 5. She never sat down and sang every number which leads me to this question. There was clearly a backyard gang/Barney Friends around, and Barney was still HUGE even at 2000 when we saw them live so when did it really end?
Hi!! Firstly thank you for sharing your story !!
The Barney brand was at its peak in the mid-to-late 90’s. Things revamped as a whole in the early 2000’s. At the same time this was because an entirely different company took over the brand, and some creative staff from before had left. This led to a decline in creativity and the company wanting to spend less on what made the franchise so big and special. Barney & Friends officially went off the air in 2010 and has seen no episodes, movies, film related anything since.
Mattel (the company that now owns the property) licenses out to other companies to make Barney toys here and there, and there are “talks” of a supposed Barney movie in the works but nothing concrete.
Barney still makes occasional appearances live in other countries here and there, but as for America we haven’t seen a push for him in a longgg long time
@@HedgeOnStage Hey. Thanks for the response! I really appreciate it! Your post was a great one and really took me back. Thank you again!
5:17 it would’ve been cool to see the ‘90 Barney with Joyner’s Barney mannerisms
I had no idea this was a different show. I thought it was the earlier seasons of the same show I grew up with.
Michael is the only Backyard Gang member to appear in Sing & Dance With Barney. I would’ve loved if he referenced The Backyard Gang in the special
Waiting for Santa was my jam!!! I loved that video so much!
With my Autism, ADHD and Cognitive Delay as a kid; Barney helped me speak and call my mom “Mama”. I was 4-6 years old.
thats great! thank you for sharing your story!
4:42 Man, Blue Barney looks like he’s seen better days
Tell me about it.
Looks scary
That original deep purple Barney had always been my favorite one. I had all the tapes except the beach one I think.
I used to live in the system and alot of the kids were actually scared of Barney to point his tapes where a punishment most would want to watch something else like sesame street or teletubbies when they finally came around. And there screams about the uncanny dinosaur I'd all I can remember about this series