The seventh season of Barney & Friends premiered on the PBS children's block, PBS Kids from September 2 until November 22, 2002 and consisted of twenty episodes. This season continues to display Barney coming to life through a child's imagination, whenever he is needed for something, helping his friends, through educational themes tailored for toddlers, which is the viewing audience.
As the series celebrated ten years of airing on PBS at this point,[1] the series was now being filmed at HIT Entertainment Studios in Carrolton, Texas. This season welcomed entirely new changes, including the setting, the cast and producers. This season also introduced both new exterior and interior sets with the park and caboose, respectively.[1]
The children's cast from Seasons 4-6 is also entirely replaced, by introducing new children (with the exception of Nick who made his debut in Come on Over to Barney's House) who hadn't appeared in previous episodes and/or videos.
Starting with this season, Barney "breaks the fourth wall", by talking directly to the audience in some episodes,[2] unlike previous episodes where he would talk to viewers after the episode in the "Barney Says" segment. In this season, some episodes feature interactive cameos with real kids who playfully respond to Barney[3] and the series starts to use real footage of children interacting with each other and with their family and friends, especially in some songs.
This was the first season to not be executive produced by any of the creators of the show. Randy Dalton, who'd been involved with the series previously, now serves as executive producer.[1]
Prior to this season, Barney & Friends took a break due to the series having completed its contract with PBS in 1999.[4] During the hiatus, it was announced that Lyrick Studios, the owners of the series at the time, and PBS had reached a deal for Lyrick to produce forty new episodes to premiere in 2002 and 2003. The new contract was set to last until 2007. Announced with the deal was for the show to take place at Barney's House,[5] which was introduced in the home video, Come on Over to Barney's House. Later that month, the UK based HIT Entertainment acquired Lyrick Studios for $275 million,[6] making season seven the first season to be produced and distributed by HIT.
As HIT acquired the studio, the setting transformed into a more natural and realistic setting with the park as opposed to the imaginary set with Barney's house. The reason for the last-minute decision change was that the production team wanted a set that was a hybrid of a private and a public place. Sheryl Leach, the series' creator, briefly returned to consult on changes to the series, and she suggested the idea of a train depot,[7] which became the caboose for the new season (signifying the indoors or private area).
Production
Promotional shot of Barney with BJ and Baby Bop
Filming
Filming for this season ran from November 2001[8] to April 26, 2002.
Casting
Longtime Barney performer, Carey Stinson bagged the role of Barney for the television series, after David Joyner retired from doing the role on television. Kyle Nelson also joined the cast, assuming the role of BJ replacing Jeff Brooks. Kyle Nelson had been on the road with Carey Stinson for Barney live shows.
Tim Dever was supposed to assume the role of Barney for this season, after the retirement of Bob West after the filming of Season 6 and More Barney Songs. Due to a family tragedy, the crew hired Dean Wendt, who had been working at Radio Disney.
This season was also very notable for launching the careers of breakout celebrities Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato (who respectively portrayed Gianna and Angela).
Writing
For this season, longtime writer for the series, Stephen White, briefly serves as the show's first head writer. When promoted to head writer for the brief period, in he wrote the Barney bible, a thick book that discussed the individual characters and how to write a script. The Barney bible was for the incoming writers to teach them what to do. One of the pages of the Barney bible was a collage of preschool children, in which the writers were reminded that the children were the audience for the show, and that the scripts should be specifically tailored for them. [9]
Marketing
During the week of October 14-28, 2002, Barney TV spots aired on network programs (Wonderful World of Disney, Everybody Loves Raymond, Providence and Sunday Night Movies), cable networks (Lifetime, TLC, PAX and ABC Family), syndicated programs (Oprah, Dr. Phil, and Access Hollywood) and daytime programming (The Young and the Restless, All My Children, and The Price is Right) to promote new episodes during the season.[10]
Live events
To promote the new season of Barney & Friends, one of the promotions was with Barney, BJ, and Baby Bop performing at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on the float titled Barney's Playtime in the Park, which saw the new park setting constructed. The announcement of what was included in the new series was done by Al Roker.
Barney, BJ, and Baby Bop also performed at many parks in the United States in 2002 to promote this season, with Barney's Purple Park Tour.
'Watch & Win with Barney & Friends' Contest
From September 2 - December 31, 2002, participants could enter to win prizes by answering five trivia questions based on the new season seven episodes. Prizes included a Universal Orlando vacation package, Rayovac battery pack, Chuck E. Cheese family party, and JC Penney family portrait package.
Cast
The Cast of Season 7
Another frame without BJ and Baby Bop
The children's cast of the seventh season of Barney & Friends with their set teacher, Anne Marie Hurlbut.
Another photo of the children's cast of seventh season of Barney & Friends with their set teacher, Anne Marie Hurlbut.
After feeling left behind, Kami is made "conductor of the day" by Barney and his friends. By learning about the role of the conductor, the kids learn the importance of the caboose on a train.
Angela is struggling to learn how to play the trumpet. Mr. Boyd introduces the kids to different types of horns. Mr. Boyd's band members come to the park for a band practice.
Barney teaches his friends important safety rules. After feeling tired of being told to be careful, BJ learns that saying "be careful" truly means I Love You!
Beth creates happy day: a special holiday in which each friend makes a wish and the others try to make it come true. When Beth hurts herself, BJ learns the importance of doing good deeds for others.
BJ builds his own house in the park. While waiting to see the house, Barney and his friends discuss different rooms in a house. When BJ forgets to include space for Baby Bop in his house, Barney reminds him that family makes a house a home.
Release
Barney, BJ and Baby Bop in the park.
Broadcast
The first ten episodes of this season originally aired from September 2 - 13, 2002 while the last ten episodes of this season originally aired on Fridays from September 20 until November 22.[11]
On PBS Kids broadcasts, at the end of each episode after Barney Says (Barney... A Helping Hand for Growing Children in later reruns) and the pbskids.org promo, there would be 1-2 instrumental renditions of songs featured in the episode along with clips of children doing things pertaining to said song, and at the end there'd be white on black title card that Barney reads aloud. This was also done with Seasons 8 and 9, and hasn't been seen since September 17, 2007, when Seasons 7 to 9 were mostly phased out from PBS Kids.
Due to a content deal between streaming service Tubi and 9 Story Media Group, the entirety of this season became available to stream on Tubi on April 9, 2021.[12][13][14] It was also released to stream on The Roku Channel in March 2022.
