I Love You, You Hate Me

Over the course of two hour long episodes, I Love You, You Hate Me covers the origins of Barney the Dinosaur by Texas Schoolteacher and mother Sheryl Leach who created the character for her then 2-year-old son Patrick which through word of mouth became a massive sensation on home video before being picked up for a TV series on public television leading to an expanded media franchise. However with the rising popularity of Barney comes an equal and opposite rise in fashionable hatred of the purple dinosaur leading to emotional and mental stress, death threats from random emails directing at stars and staff, and even tragedy within the Leach family.

I Love You, You Hate Me is a two part documentary covering Barney the Dinosaur produced by Queer Eye producers Scout Productions for NBC-Universal's Peacock streaming service. Using a mixture of archival footage and interviews from those directly associated with the show as well as children's TV contemporaries like Blue Clue's Steve Burns or Bill Nye (The Science Guy) as well as former prominent "Barney Haters", the series attempts to understand why the Barney series spurred so much ire and what legacy has been left behind by it. While the show doesn't get to over everything you wish it had, it's a very well-done analysis of the Barney phenomenon from positive, negative, and in-between giving you the fullest possible view of the phenomenon and its legacy.

The show is really well-structured as we begin with Barney's origins from Texas schoolteacher and mother Sheryl Leach's desire to find something to occupy a rambunctious 2-year-old boy with her discovery of a VHS copy of Wee Sing Together and a traveling dinosaur exhibit serving as the impetus for what would become the foundations of the big purple dinosaur. The tracing of Barney's humble direct-to-video origins spread through crowd sourced marketing of moms at daycares and preschools is fascinating in its portrayal of humble origins to marketing and merchandising juggernaut and you get why the series became as ingrained with small children as it did. We also meet up with various crew involved with the show including Barney's voice actor from 1988-2000 Bob West, Barney Body actor David Joyner who provided movements for the character from 1990-2000 and gets to address misconceptions about him such as his practices of Tantra, and musical director Bob Singleton who provided the songs for the series including the theme song "I Love You, You Love Me".

While the show would be perfectly fine if nothing extraordinary if it had focused solely on the surprise runaway success of the big purple dinosaur, the show eventually finds a festering rot beneath the soft, squishy purple exterior of the franchise as it puts the culture of hate and vitriol the series inspired under a microscope and looks at the personal and societal costs of this culture of hate and what its legacy has been. Talking with notable "barney bashers" such as the founder of The I Hate Barney Secret Society, founder of pen and paper RPG The Jihad to Destroy Barney the Dinosaur, or Ted Giannoulas who appears in character as his sports mascot character The San Diego Chicken who once incorporated a Barney lookalike into his act as well as talking with former cast members and crew affected by the show we get a comprehensive look at both sides of the fence of the Barney phenomenon with the haters balanced against the hated. As Barney aired around the advent of the internet the show does make connections between the recreation of hatred directed at Barney the Dinosaur to the here and now of the digital age where internet dogpiling of memeing, populist pandering nitwits on Twitter and Youtube, and the barrage of nonsense from Twitter and QAnon has lineage that can be traced to Barney the Dinosaur complete with very similar conspiracy theories to the Q "movement" often spouting the exact same talking points you hear today. It's really intelligently done in terms of the discussion, and you do see a lot of DNA that can be traced back from the internet today to the internet of then.

My criticisms are fairly minor, but they should be addressed. Both Sheryl Leach and her son Patrick declined to be interviewed for this series and while I understand their resistance due to the subject matter involved, it does leave a hole in the story that the filmmakers do try to fill in but you can only do so much when key figures want nothing to do with this story. I also feel like the series sidesteps some of the legitimate criticism Barney the Dinosaur received from educators and child psychologists in regards to the actual content of the show itself and is instead focused primarily on the "Barney haters" who did it as a form of recreation with Bill Nye and Steve Burns making solid enough points but their segments while good could've benefitted from having a children's personality or child psychologist who didn't like Barney the Dinosaur on the value of its education merits to serve as a counterpoint.

I Love You, You Hate Me is a must watch as it's an excellent look at the internet's ability and usage in building a culture dedicated to hatred of something serving as a funhouse mirror exaggeration that only becomes louder and more distorted through our cultural lens as it's amplified and echoed into a poisonous cacophony. While I would've like to see some key individuals or other professional interviewed to give a more complete picture, the show not only gives us a definitive look at Barney the Dinosaur, but the absurdity and ugliness of the hatred he inspired.

Going into this, I thought it would be just an interesting dive into the origins of Barney and the armies of annoyed grown-ups which resulted. What this truly is is an examination of the hearts of people and how the worst of us find reasons to hate and trample things we don't understand. Adults fostered an unnecessary hatred for a fictional entity when no one ever forced them to turn the channel and watch Barney. I was entering high school when I first heard of Barney so it didn't appeal to me. Even though I found it a bit annoying, I knew I all I had to do was not watch it. I had the same attitude toward Harry Potter. I wasn't militantly against kids reading stories about witchcraft but it just did not appeal to me.

This mini-series highlights the bad attitudes grown people had towards Barney as well as the urban legends that went with them. Barney taught children many important things in life such as love, caring, and unselfishness and this doc reminds us that something so pure can make people look for hidden evil even if it isn't there. The most gripping point of this documentary is when Steven from Blues Clues looks at the camera and asks "Who was your Barney?" Many of us had a Barney growing up whether or not it was Barney himself. I pity those who didn't.

This two part documentary dives deep into the history - and the controversy- around Barney the dinosaur. It's touching, it shocking, it's at times hard to watch. From recognizable faces to voices that immediately ignite nostalgia, I loved seeing so many of the cast, crew, and other thought leaders weigh in on the history and cultural impact of Barney. This doc exposes the hate surrounding the character, and what it says about our society and culture as a whole. Why do we love to hate? What about Barney was so threatening to so many? What can we do to make our world more like Barney's world? More importantly - when we will see Barney return to TV?

I grew up watching Barney as a kid and even then I was aware that it was corny, cheesy, unrealistic and not representative of my home life at all. In fact that's why I liked it. It was an escape for me and other kids. Although I did resent Barney for giving my parents the idea to force me and my sister to hug and sing the "I love you" song whenever we fought. Honestly though, looking back on that show as an adult, it was just an innocent cheerful children's show. I overheard older kids making fun of it but outside of that I had no idea all this Barney hatred was happening in the world. It's really sad, though at times also pretty funny. I understand the cynicism, but how was Barney any worse than Beavis and Butt-Head, Ren & Stimpy, or Rocko's Modern Life? I would argue those shows were all equally important because they all served their purpose of escapism while teaching compassion, humility, honesty, empathy and comedy. Children don't learn those things as often as they should from their own lives and unfortunately spend far too much time being in front of a screen in the first place. Barney didn't deserve the hate and it's really heartbreaking to hear how it damaged the lives of the creator and people around her. It's hard to imagine the same thing happening with any other character other than the teletubbies. It's still fun to hate on them, right? Hm.

I used to like Barney when I was younger, but I'm now neutral to it. However, I agree or used to agree with some of the criticisms it commonly receives and used to make fun of some of them (e.g., Barney's voice sounding dopey, some of the songs being annoying, the series being set in a perfect world, etc. I still hate these aspects, minus the setting being "perfect"). I'm also aware that there's a Wikipedia page for anti-Barney humor. I decided to watch I Love You, You Hate Me because I was intrigued when I read about it in an article and saw the trailer, and I have to admit that it was a good documentary! There are people from media that I like who are involved in this, like Steve Burns from Blue's Clues, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and a few others. I was already neutral to Barney before watching the doc, but I've warmed up to Barney a little more because of it.

After learning more about Barney from the doc, it's clear that some people take the popular children's character too seriously. Barney the purple dinosaur is known for loving and accepting everyone for who they are, and I don't understand how anyone could go wrong with that. Friendship and acceptance are essential themes of the show. A couple of the child (now adult) actors from the first three seasons of Barney shared experiences of racism before it came along, and they found acceptance and appreciation during their time on the show. However, after leaving the show and going back to school, they faced bullying from their peers for their involvement with Barney and struggled with coping mechanisms such as smoking and drinking. It's heartwarming that they found acceptance on the show, but it's sad to hear about the challenges they faced before and afterward.

Unfortunately, there have been instances of bullying and mistreatment directed at Barney's fans and the show's cast and crew, including death threats via emails and name-calling. It's disheartening to hear that some individuals have targeted Barney fans and the show's personnel with harassment, threats, and destructive behavior. This behavior does not align with Barney's core values, which include love, inclusion, and acceptance. It's important to remember that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and it's okay if someone doesn't like Barney. However, it's essential to treat others with respect and consideration and to acknowledge the positive impact the show has had on many individuals, regardless of differing preferences.

The documentary also talks about the negative reception Barney received when it first aired in the 1990s. Some people criticized the show for not being edgy, reflecting a cultural tendency toward cynicism at the time. It's noted that the rise of the internet during that era also contributed to the backlash the show faced. It's worth remembering that just because something isn't considered edgy doesn't mean it sucks. If every show/movie were edgy, the TV/movie industry would be boring and unoriginal. If people had given Barney a chance, they might have liked it.

The text also draws a parallel between the criticism faced by Barney and what Sesame Street might have experienced if the internet existed during its early years. It's acknowledged that some people might not like Barney, and that's okay.

Barney's head writer, Steve White, emphasized that the show aimed to inspire viewers to make the world a better place and never tried to argue that the world was a perfect place. There are several episodes where the characters face challenges and conflicts, even ones from before the Hit Entertainment era (more about that in a little bit), such as Baby Bop getting a stomachache after eating too many cookies, the kids getting scared of a grizzly bear, the characters losing a Christmas star, Barney and the kids trying to help BJ and Baby Bop settle an argument, and more. Additionally, Hit Entertainment created more episodes with conflict-based plots in response to feedback about the show's setting when they acquired the rights to it. The characters are indeed happy most of the time, but why shouldn't they be? What do you expect them to do? Mope around like a bunch of goths? Also, these items made me realize that the criticisms about the perfect setting were somewhat invalid. Despite differing opinions, many people appreciate the valuable life lessons imparted by Barney, even if they don't particularly enjoy the show itself.

Steve Burns asked the rest of the crew, "Who was your Barney growing up, and how would you feel about a room full of people hating on him/her?" Their "Barneys" included their teddy bears, Elmo, Bert and Ernie, Big Bird, and numerous other characters and toys, and they didn't like the idea of a room full of people hating on them. I must say that they hit the nail on the head with those lines! Even though I grew up with Barney, I think it'd be more accurate to say that my "Barney" was either Charlie Brown, Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, SpongeBob, Elmo, or all of the above, and I REALLY wouldn't want to be in a room full of people hating on either of them. You probably wouldn't like the idea of a room full of people bashing your favorite toy(s) or character(s) either.

In conclusion, whether you love or hate Barney, "I Love You, You Hate Me" offers a fresh perspective that may change your feelings about the character and show. Even if you're a Barney fan, this documentary is worth watching to gain a deeper understanding of the public's perception.