On April 9, 1992, Public Broadcasting Service, better known as PBS, introduced to the children of the world a purple dinosaur named Barney.

In June of that year, PBS tried to cancel Barney because it couldn’t afford it, but local PBS stations across the U.S. and Canada and of course parents called to object, and Barney returned to action and would remain on the air until Nov. 2, 2010.

Little did I know at the time how much “Barney & Friends” (that was the name of his show) would impact my life over the next few years.

That’s because my youngest son, Colin, was born on Aug. 9, 1992, three months after the show first aired.

 

A few short months later, we placed him in front of a TV, and it didn’t take him long to discover the entertainment value of what could be seen on it, including “Barney & Friends.”

At that time, we didn’t have CDs, DVDs and streaming, but we did have VHS tapes. That’s another story for another time and those under 10 years of age.

So when the friendly and outgoing Tyrannosaurus rex wasn’t on PBS, we could pull out a VHS tape, stick it in the VCR and escape to another room for a little while.

But no matter where we went in our home, we couldn’t get away from our son singing along with Barney, his backyard friends, Baby Box, BJ and Riff and other characters.

If you have never listened to a Barney song — or seen him and his friends dancing to those songs — you haven’t lived life to its fullest.

Barney conveyed some very simple educational messages through the lengthy list of songs he produced for kids over the years. Those songs were filled with a bunch of life lessons about love, friendship and much more.

The list from 1992, for instance, includes these oldies but goodies: “Snackin’ on healthy food,” “Taking turns,” “I used to be afraid,” “Growing,” Brushing my teeth,” “Simple and beautiful rainbow,” “The career march,” “When I grow up,” “People helping other people” and “We like rocks.” I’m not sure what that last one was about, but I’m betting there’s a life lesson in it someplace.

And then there’s my personal favorite, “Please and thank you.” Can you imagine what the world would be like if more people used those magic words more often?

My son would listen to them all and rewind the tape and replay it again, again and again for what seemed like hours on end. It got to the point where I found myself singing — or at least humming them — even when Colin was nowhere around.

Barney left behind a lot of memories for children of that era. Many valedictorians and salutatorians mentioned the life lessons they learned from the big purple guy during commencement programs.

It didn’t take Colin very long to outgrow Barney, thank goodness. But there was always a cast of new characters to come to the TV screen in our house, including CatDog, The Fairly OddParents and SpongeBob SquarePants, as he grew up. None of them taught him as many things about life and growing up as Barney.

Now, thanks to Mattel, Barney is making a comeback — this time globally — in a digital format available on your TV, film and even YouTube TV sometime in 2024.

As a test, I recently called my son to see if he could sing me one Barney song because he might need to keep that information close at hand for future reference.

The only one he could come up with was the “The Barney Song.”

For those of you who don’t know the lyrics, here you go:

“I love you. You love me. We’re a happy family with a great big hug and a kiss from me to you, won’t you say you love me, too?”

I have to admit that after all these years, I could sing most of the lyrics. Just don’t ask me to sing a solo.

Aubrey Woods is editor of The Tribune. Send comments to [email protected].