The Peacock two-part documentary on Barney is coming in October
If you were a child of the 90’s, you probably spent countless hours in front of the television watching a big purple dinosaur. It’s been some time since Barney graced the silver screen, but he’s back in a new way: a sizzling series.
I Love You, You Hate Me is coming to Peacock as a two-part limited documentary series and frames the show in an entirely new light. Per the streaming services, the series will “chronicl[e] 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?
Related: Barney the Dinosaur Is Making a Comeback In a New Movie from Mattel
The brain child of Sheryl Leach, Barney & Friends was developed in 1992 with Kathy Parker and Dennis DeShazer. It helped shape children’s television for the foreseeable future, and according to CNN even launched Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez’s career.
Bob West, one of the voices of Barney spells out the purple dinosaurs purpose: “Barney stands for inclusion, acceptance.” Unfortunately, not everyone was accepting of good ole Barney.
The documentary digs into the cultural phenomenon that was hating the big purple dino, and how it resulted in crime, death threats for West, and so much more. “They were violent and explicit, death and dismemberment of my family,” says West. “They were gonna come and find me, and they were going to kill me.”
Peacock enlisted plenty of notables to help tell the story, including Bill Nye the Science Guy, Al Roker, and Bob West himself. I Love You, You Hate Me will debut on Peacock on Oct. 12. Grab that popcorn, and settle in for a whole lot of purple goodness.
