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.[2]

Barney and the Backyard Gang
Genre	children's music
Created by	Sheryl Stamps-Leach Kathy O'Rourke-Parker
Developed by	Sheryl Stamps-Leach Kathy O'Rourke-Parker Dennis DeShazer
Written by	Frank H. Olsen (1988–1990) Pat Reeder (1988–1989) Kathy O'Rourke Parker (1991) Sheryl Stamps Leach (1991) Dennis DeShazer (1991)
Directed by	John Grable (1988–1989) Dwin Towell (1990) Garry Potts (1990) Jim Rowley (1991)
Starring	David Voss (1988–1990) David Joyner (1991) Dao Knight (1991) Sandy Duncan (1988–1989) Brian Eppes Becky Swonke Jessica Zucha Leah Montes Salim Grant (1988–1989) Rickey Carter (1990–1991) Alexander Jhin Jeffrey Lowe (1990) Bob Reed (1988–1989)
Voices of	Bob West Julie Johnson
Composers	Stephen Bates Baltes Lory Lazarus Philip A. Parker
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producers	Richard C. Leach (1988–1989) Sheryl Stamps-Leach (1990–1991) Kathy O'Rourke-Parker (1990–1991)
Producers	John Grable (1988–1989) Dennis DeShazer (1990)
Production locations	Allen, Texas (six videos) Dallas, Texas (two videos)
Editors	Doug Wilson (1988–1989) McKee Smith (1990–1991)
Running time	30 min.
Production company	The Lyons Group
Distributor	Kids Edutainment Video/The Lyons Group
Release
Original release	August 29, 1988 (1988-08-29)[1] – October 20, 1991 (1991-10-20)[1]
Chronology
Followed by	Barney & Friends

The first three episodes from 1988 and 1989 include Sandy Duncan as Michael and Amy's mother. (At the time, Duncan was starring on the NBC sitcom The Hogan Family.) Music for the Barney & the Backyard Gang videos was created by Stephen Bates Baltes and Phillip Parker (as with the television series), 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.[3] He liked the concept and talked to Leach about possibly putting Barney on television through the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Rock with Barney was the final video in the series before the television show debuted. Also, only four of the kids from the videos (Michael, Derek, Tina, and Luci) were carried over to the television show.