Barney the Dinosaur has enjoyed decades of popularity among little kids, who are the exact target market for the 1992 children's television program, Barney & Friends. The educational values it imparts and the way the dancing and singing dinosaur stands for love, optimism, compassion, and other positive virtues have made the series a fan favorite. Long before the "Baby Shark" song surfaced on everyone's computer screens, the "I Love You" song, made famous by the legendary dinosaur himself, was a worldwide success. However, the trailer for the upcoming limited documentary series, I Love You, You Hate Me, tells another side of Barney the Dinosaur's story—and it delves into the emergence and demise of the popular anthropomorphic character.
Directed by Tommy Avallone, the trailer for the docuseries highlights interviews with various members of the cast and crew of Barney & Friends and Barney & The Backyard Gang, explaining how Barney used to represent inclusion, acceptance, and love. Despite the fact that Barney the Dinosaur promotes love, the television series I Love You, You Hate Me will explore how humans may also love to hate. The official synopsis reads: "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?"
The director of the docu-series said that he didn't like Barney at first, but the "hatred" changed when he began having children of his own. "Barney came out on television when I was just 10 years old, and I admittedly didn't understand him. As a teenager, for one of my birthdays I asked my aunt to make me a Barney costume, so my friends and I could beat him up on camera," Avallone said in a statement, adding: "Several years later, creating this docuseries, it feels good to be on the other side and no longer a Barney hater. Now having children of my own, I understand all the love that went into making the purple dinosaur."
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Sheryl Leach created Barney, who first appeared in the 1988 series Barney and the Backyard Gang. The purple dinosaur later made an appearance as a staple of the PBS television program Barney & Friends, which eventually came to an end in November 2010.
Produced by Scout Productions, the production house's SVP of Strategic Development, Joel Chiodi, explained that the two-part docuseries will unveil how the loving character who teaches kindness and inclusion sparked a wave of outrage that jeopardized not only the show's future, but also its creators. "As it spotlights the beginnings of modern-day hate culture, this documentary traces the creation of the character and how it took a toll on the people closest to it, examining the surprising and lingering impact the ‘Big Purple Dinosaur’ left on American society.”
I Love You, You Hate Me will air on Peacock on Wednesday, October 12. While you're waiting to witness Barney's untold story, you may watch the limited series' trailer below.