Rock With Barney Marked The End Of The Original STV Series

Rock With Barney Marked The End Of The Original STV Series

You’ve heard of Barney & Friends but what about Barney &The Backyard Gang, the original series that ended in 1991 with Rock With Barney?

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Rock With Barney Marked The End Of The Original STV Series

Here’s how “Rock With Barney” ended the original STV series. Barney & Friends was a childhood staple for many a 90s baby. The kids’ TV show aired on PBS for almost two decades and introduced its titular character Barney, a purple Tyrannosaurus Rex toy who comes to life and teaches youngsters important life lessons about friendship, family and so on. But not many people know the big purple dinosaur dates back a little further than Barney & Friends.

In fact, Barney’s origins were in an obscure direct-to-video series called Barney & The Backyard Gang. Barney was the brainchild of former teacher and marketing executive Sheryl Leach who created Barney & The Backyard Gang after recognizing a gap in the market for TV content aimed at preschoolers. Together with the help of her father-in-law who handily owned a production company, Leach made a total of eight episodes all filmed in her native Dallas.

Much like Barney & Friends, the original series focused on the big purple dinosaur and a bunch of kids – AKA The Backyard Gang – using their imaginations and learning things along the way. The series featured a total of eight videos that began with “The Backyard Show” in 1988. Other episodes included “A Day At The Beach” and the festive-themed “Waiting For Santa” before the original series concluded with “Rock With Barney” in 1991, which saw Barney and the gang visit a movie studio while learning about protecting the environment.

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Barney & The Backyard Gang was a success in Texas but only a moderate success elsewhere. It was by chance the young daughter of Connecticut Public Television executive Larry Rifkin happened upon a copy of a Barney & The Backyard Gang video. After seeing how mesmerized his daughter was by Barney, Rifkin introduced creator Sheryl Leach to PBS who he knew was looking for quality, kid-oriented programming. Thanks to this introduction, the big purple dinosaur’s legacy didn’t end with “Rock With Barney” and Barney & Friends was born soon after in 1992.

Barney & Friends went on to air for a total of 13 seasons and 200 episodes and in 1998 the character made the jump to the big screen in his first feature film, Barney’s Great Adventure. Interestingly, a live-action Barney movie is in the works helmed by the film division of toy company Mattel (who has owned the Barney character since 2012) and Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya’s production company 59%. Head of Mattel Films Robbie Brenner has stated their live-action film will take a new approach that will reportedly “surprise audiences and subvert expectations.” Perhaps the new film will explore Barney’s origins before “Rock With Barney” and the other Backyard Gang episodes? Only time will tell.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/rock-with-barney-video-ending-original-stv-series/

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