I remain astonished at the level of vitriol often expressed online-people seem to jump from “I disagree with you” to “you should be killed in gruesome ways and your little dog too!” without pause. I found the show an irritant, and refused to get my nieces and nephews Barney themed crap at gifts, but the idea that threatening to kill the person in the suit would never seem remotely ok.
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Never had to deal with Barney (it predated my kid) and I never understood the abject hatred either; obviously it’s not meant for me, and I didn’t have to put up with it, so why even waste the energy?
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Here in the UK it got shown early on Saturday mornings, before Power Rangers. The first time I saw it (1994, I was 19) I’d pulled an all-nighter and thought I was hallucinating because that seemed more likely than a show so painfully saccharine existing…
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As a former member of the Usenet ab4d, it was really all in good fun. If any of us had seriously suggested finding the guy in the suit and going after him, it would not have flown to the best of my knowledge.
What developed out of that community was a weird and hilarious collection of world-building, where the demon B’Harnii, summoned by the warlocks of the planet Lyra, was bent on the destruction of the universe. Various secret societies, from the mystical to the military (TRES Corps represent), were dedicated to protecting all life from enslavement by this eldritch force. The demonic forces of the Purple One were summoned by people who had no idea of the true depth of Its depravity, and the Lyrans quickly became pawns.
There was a LOT of fan fiction. Or, I suppose, anti-fan fiction.
It was really all in good fun, and I don’t think anyone, even in jest, suggested RL action against actual people. Maybe mock protests in front of the headquarters, or something.
According to the article in the post the actor found the death threats against him and his family unnerving. Perhaps your merry band wasn’t the only group to be sending these messages. Maybe the actor didn’t really understand that it was “all in good fun.”
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I remember that there was a barney hate web ring. Must have been the mid to late 90’s. My favorite was one called Into the Purple Abyss that featured really funny short stories about barney taking over the world with his army of kids. My favorite story was Barney Reich. It included barney photo-shopped into nazi pics. Hilarious. I tried to look up the guy years later. I think he ended up working in public radio somewhere in the Midwest.
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So much this.
A decade ago, I had male work colleagues grumbling about Twilight (words like “stupid” and “brain-dead” might’ve been used, from memory). I pointed out that my wife reads Dickens and Austen for fun, and she has enjoyed reading Twilight. “Someone is enjoying this, it isn’t you, but nobody is ever going to force you to try to enjoy it. You can relax now. It’ll be fine.”
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Also /Death to Smoochie/. Ed Norton, Catherine Keener, Robin Williams…
I am familiar with that movie.
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I knew parents at the time who wouldn’t let their kids watch it because they thought it was inane, but they didn’t really hate it. If you want a children’s programme to despise, you’ll do much better with Caillou.
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If you liked /Death to Smoochy/, and how could you not? you might enjoy a book called /Millroy the Magician/ by Paul Theroux. It’s not about a costumed children’s show character but it leaves the same feeling behind. It turns out that the secret of living to 200 years old in good health is to “minimize colon transit time”. You do this with diet and magic.
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Never seen the movie, sorry. The above are just two quotes from the thread.
Our daughter was born in 1985 so some of these shows like Barney she was borderline target audience but in those days there were 7 over air channels with no cable and video rental wasn’t quite a thing that we could afford.
She did love Sherry Lewis and Lamb Chop along with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and those damn mutant turtles.
Most of those shows were annoying to me but I wasn’t the target audience and they were great to occupy her for an hour or two to give us a break.
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The general you, I meant. My fault for not being clear. Never mind. I’m out, now.
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Not to stray too far from the topic but Shari Lewis was an amazing person who’s never really gotten full credit for her work. Even when I was a sarcastic (read: asshole) teenager I found her and Lamb Chop absolutely charming, and I think that’s because she was so sincere. Show business is a business but Lewis’s first priority was to entertain.
I don’t know anything about Barney but I bet the same is true for at least some of the people behind the scenes: they were thrilled to be doing something creative, living their own dreams, and they wanted to share that and didn’t deserve to have their work shit on.
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I remember at the height of the Twillight craze that Kevin Smith went on a rant at a convention about how the fandom got treated, primarily because it was tween and teen girls, and then noted that the same people mocking them happily cosplay as star war characters and people booed him for it… He was right, tho!
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Sherry Lewis was one of the few shows I didn’t mind sitting down and watching with her, until the song that never ends came on, man when that song gets stuck in your head it never leaves.
You’re right though about all those shows.
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…but you’d play the version of Marathon (DOOM for macs) with Barney and his aconfrontational saurian pals in it, right? Maybe not use the same pastel base when painting the barn, the lawn and the rocks? Maybe share your fave shrooms and MJ blend with the ADR? Put patterned lenses on the gobos? Reprogram the dimmers? Rearrange all the lyrics with straight up randomization if necessary? Tell the kids they don’t have to huff SF6 before every number? Put some kids with good voices on a pedal that adds octaves besides the one?
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