Loved this show as a kid and now as a parent I love being able to share this show with my daughter who absolutely loves it!

joyaugustyn

After reading so many negative reviews I felt that I needed to write my own review. As a child this show was great! It taught me how to have a very active imagination, it gave me a love for music and dancing and it taught me how to see the good in things and how to keep a positive outlook. I loved the show so much I even named our dog Barney ( the dog we got when I was about 4 and was completely obsessed with the show).

I had totally forgot about Barney for the most part until one day I started singing a song to my daughter that was from the show. So I found a whole bunch of the old episodes and movies that I watched when I was little on YouTube for my daughter to watch. One episode in she was hooked and I remembered every single song and taught her how to sing along with them. One thing I really like about the show is that it encourages kids to get up and move and dance while watching the show. Most little kid shows seem to try to get the kid to just sit still for the whole thing. Yes the music is simplistic, because its for little kids.

One of the reviewers complained about how all of the kids looked and dressed the same. I have to say that's completely wrong. This was a show that had kids from all different nationalities and body types as I am typing this up my daughter has an episode on and in it there is a girl of Asian descent, a Latino girl who is on the chunkier side, a African American boy and only 1 white boy and each of them have their own distinctive style. If you look at plenty of other kid shows there is a lot less diversity. Another reviewer complained about the show only showing junk food, and we just watch an episode where all the snack were either fruits, vegetables, or nuts, not to mention Barney has its own song about eating apples and bananas.

Another reviewer complained about the kids always being happy, which again is not true there are plenty of episodes showing a whole range of emotions, from jealousy, anger, fear and so on. But each one talks about how to handle your feelings, and yes how to have a positive outlook ( which by the way, its been proved that the most successful people are the ones with a positive attitude).

Lastly while it does have some educational qualities its not a crazy amount but TV is not supposed to be educational. TV is for entertainment and if you are relying on TV to educate your kids, you will be failing them, Parents need to take an active part in their kids education and not expect a TV show to do it for them.

Pretty much all kids shows are somewhat annoying but Barney is far less annoying then Kipper or Cailliou, or the Barbie movies ( don't even get me started on them, fighting over glitter, enough said). Also Barney does not push any agenda on the show. There are plenty of shows out there that are pushing their own view points on kids and I am thankful that Barney doesn't. That way my child can approach any issue with no pre-conceived notions and her and I can have an open and honest discussion so that she can make up her own mind on what she believes without feeling like her favorite TV show taught her to believe something else!

score 10/10

joyaugustyn 25 May 2016

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3476000/