Barney and the Backyard Gang — Season 1, Episode 1: The Backyard Show
30 min • 3 seasons, 15 episodes
Episode synopsis
Amy and Michael want to surprise their dad for his birthday. With the Backyard Gang in doubt, there's no way the show can be produced quickly (or, so they think). Fortunately, Barney the Dinosaur comes to life, and encourages the kids to use their imaginations to help make the show a reality. Along the way, they sing songs and recite rhymes that are later sung in the birthday show. The show ends up to be a success with Dad doing the "Hokey Pokey".
About Barney and the Backyard Gang
Barney and the Backyard Gang is a direct-to-video series produced by The Lyons Group and was produced from October 13, 1988 to October 20, 1991. This series launched the stardom of the PBS television show Barney & Friends. Music for the Barney and the Backyard Gang videos was created by Stephen Bates Baltes and Phillip Parker. 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 last video in the series before the television show debuted. Also, only four of the kids from the videos (Michael, Luci, Tina and Derek) were carried over to the television show.