Barney and the Backyard Gang


Barney and the Backyard Gang is a direct-to-video series produced by The Lyons Group and was released in periodic installments from August 29, 1988, to October 20, 1991. This series launched the PBS television show, Barney & Friends.
The first three episodes from 1988 and 1989 include Sandy Duncan as Michael and Amy's mother. Music for the Barney & the Backyard Gang videos was created by Stephen Bates Baltes and Phillip Parker, and Lory Lazarus wrote the first original song produced for Barney, "Friends Are Forever", sung by Duncan. In the first five videos, "I Love You" was sung at the beginning. Although "I Love You" was sung at the end of Barney Goes to School and Barney in Concert, and later frequently sung at the end of all episodes of Barney & Friends, it was not featured at the end of Rock with Barney.
The series was a regional success, but only a moderate success throughout the rest of the country. Then one day, in 1991, Larry Rifkin, then head of Connecticut Public Television, rented a Barney video for his daughter Leora. He liked the concept and talked to Leach about possibly putting Barney on television through the Public Broadcasting Service. Rock with Barney was the final video in the series before the television show debuted. Also, only four of the kids from the videos were carried over to the television show.

Video list

In order of release date:
The first six videos of this series aired on Disney Channel in November 1990 as a part of its "Lunch Box" program.