I think a lot of those who were part of the hate trend might feel like garbage after seeing this.

7748630
Agreed. Sure, some of them may hate something with a passion, but they never wanted it like this.

7748630
I would basically say this, as an incredibly nuanced take on everything.

I get and respect that Barney was made with obvious good intentions. That Barney was meant to spread a message of love and acceptance to everyone, and that he represents a comforting presence to make people always feel secure and that there's always someone that supports them. And that's definitely not a bad thing.

But many of the criticisms showing how the execution was mangled are still quite true. That Barney acts too much like a kid himself and less like a figure of guidance, and thus doesn't seem to pull off a sense of maturity to deal with incredibly deep and even painful topics children have to learn about. That the iconic song and the "Everyone Is Special" song helped to inadvertently trigger a growing sense of narcissism and entitlement as these children grew up, and played into the "participation trophy" phenomenon. That it ended up becoming incredibly saccharine as well as more of style over substance. And that Barney effectively became a "gateway drug" to louder, flashier, ADHD-stylized entertainment that pandered to the lowest common denominator, as well as the insufferable brattiness of Caillou. It's not just the likes of Sesame Street or even FIM that Barney falls short in comparison to, but especially the likes of Fred Rogers, The Wiggles and VeggieTales, all of which have addressed children at their level, stimulated them, and truly nurtured them.

That said, there's a definite difference between criticizing what is at the core of Barney and outright vituperative hatred of the character on a molecular level, in line with the perils of toxic fandom and screaming about how "They didn't do what I want, so it's garbage now!", and the unceasing harassment of figures involved with these changes. Just because the execution of Barney was botched and he didn't really work as children's education doesn't warrant hurtful memes, videos, messages and death threats. It doesn't retroactively make Barney great or a classic, but at least we can understand where it all came from, and that there was genuine effort, and even fun, in crafting him and his show.

For me my hate wasn't so much on the fact that the parents were siding with the toxicity... my hate for Barney is mostly... personal.

Long story short: The most I remember about my 2-year birthday party was how Barney pretty much scarred me for life.

The truth being is that I didn't really 'hate' the show. I 'used' to watch it as a kid. And while the show did 'taught' kids a few things, the lack of educational value was pretty limited to Kindergarten and preshow stuff (Even if that was Leach's original intent). I even agree that some elements are repetitive, whether when new kids got involved or plots dealt with the same lessons, it got boring after a while. And then there's the thing that the show makes apparent... 'denial'.

Denying any attempt to explore the negative feelings that children go through, as far as their emotional status. I mean even when they did... they were either far and few or the kids make it seem as if it was Barney solving it all rather than him mentoring how they should discover the solution for themselves. Life is not all about giggles and unconditional love, even if it is nice, the world is an unpleasant reality of compromise and disappointments... but everything can still be okay.

Maybe if it wasn't such a one-dimensional program, where everyone must be happy, and everything is resolved 'immediately' and even when I say that it sounds even like MLP at the time. The real issue is that Barney was a show whose target audience was always meant for 'children', whereas shows like 'Sesame Street' could get away with their material because their audience expanded to children... and adults. Maybe if it were on that level, beyond simple terms and music, maybe it would've lasted longer and maybe parents wouldn't be hating on it. Who knows for sure? Maybe if it's first movie expanded its target audience with a stronger story, it would've been better received.

Guess all the B&F fans can do is hope that the Daniel Kaluuya movie is a work of art, but that depends if production is still going on. Nobody has really talked about it in almost three years after all.

I was...more adjunct to the trend than part of it. Seeing morbid parodies in gaming magazines, later on flash vids, and kids having their own obscene rhymes in school. I wasn't part of it. I was kind of neutral on it. In fact I remember liking the character until I got past 1st grade.

7748650
Again, some people, given how this age seems to be increasingly binary in reaction on things (the overpraise of the Snyder Cut, for example, when in reality, it's just two different flavors of suck when you compare it and the theatrical release of Justice League), some will probably try to use the toxic overreactions to Barney to try and prop it up and say "It wasn't so bad."

I'm sorry, but that doesn't retroactively affect the quality and make it good by default. That said, the degree of hatred did get extremely out of line, no doubt. It's easy to look at the whipping boy and just join in the cruel fun of the spectacle, because you want to belong and feel like you're not missing anything. It's much harder to see the pain and try to defend them.

I also think the fact things got toxic also has to do with the fact they milked it far too long. Barney kept going on in some iteration until 2010, for crying out loud, long after he'd become hopelessly irrelevant. This might also have to do with PBS trying to cling to him as their way to deal with Congress' draconian cuts to their funding and ever-increasing reliance on corporate underwriting, as well as HIT Entertainment's own mentality. But the fact is that Barney is inextricably tied to the '90s, just as much as The X-Files is, and can't really adapt to the changing times. (BTW, true '90s kids, born in the early part of the decade will admit Barney was the center of their universe and they have no memory or knowledge of the likes of Kurt Cobain at that time.)

If they'd given up the ghost in, say, 2002, at the time when The Wiggles were rising and VeggieTales was popular but in the midst of its fight for survival, things might have been different, in that everyone would've moved on from kicking the dead purple corpse, and it might have had repercussions for the competitors. PBS might've given a lifeline to Bob and Larry, for example, and given Big Idea Productions room to grow, rather than face the threat of death and be bought by someone who tried to remove the central part of VeggieTales' identity for a few years.

7748650
Wow that's deep