Barney the Dinosaur docu-series to explore the dark side of the iconic children’s show

Virgin Radio

29 Sep 2022, 11:26

A new documentary series looking into the seedy side of Barney the Dinosaur is about to explore what happened outside of the beloved kids show. 

Barney and Friends was a telly mainstay for legions of families with young children growing up in the 1990s, starting in 1992 and finishing in 2010. 

Despite his huggable appearance and delightful tunes, it wasn’t all sing-a-longs and cuddles outside of the series, and Peacock docu-series I Love You, You Hate Me is about to uncover just what happened with the unexpected hate towards the big purple dinosaur. 

The synopsis for the two-part series explains: "I Love You, You Hate Me is a limited doc series chronicling the rise and fall of Barney the Dinosaur's furious backlash and what it says about the human need to hate."

"From Barney-bashing to frat parties to homicidal video games, something in American society broke into a million pieces, and it's never been put together again… or is this just who we were all along?"

Watch the trailer below:

In the trailer, the voice behind Barney, Bob West, shared how his family used to get death threats after the show’s release. 

He said: “They were violent and explicit, death and dismemberment of my family. They were gonna come and find me, and they were going to kill me.”

Barney and Friends was a meteoric hit with children and family when it first aired, but drew criticism from older viewers and wider pop culture, and soon, an Anti-Barney humour phenomenon grew, and saw the character become a target of hateful attacks and vicious parody. 

Famous faces, such as Bill Nye the Science Guy and NBC News icon Al Roker also take part in the documentary. Al adds in the trailer: “As the loved character was heading into the stratosphere, people couldn’t accept that this was just a show.”

I Love You, You Hate Me will air in the US on Peacock on Wednesday 12th October, but a UK air date hasn’t yet been confirmed. 

In some lighter children’s TV news, earlier this month, Peppa Pig introduced its first femal same-sex couple. 

It’s the first time a female couple has been featured on the show in its eighteen years on air, and comes after fans started petitions to see more LGBTQ+ representation on the popular series.