The Silly Nonsense Note 19 (by Jomaribryan)

I wrote the nineteenth silly note:

"Barney's Big Surprise" on home video in stores May 19, 1998 from Lyrick Studios

This rousing stage version of Barney won a Performance magazine poll award for its 1997 tour, and the tape version is equally successful. The big surprise of the title is a party honoring BJ's 7th birthday. After several songs, the kids decide to decorate the tree house, while Barney, BJ, and Baby Bop climb into the Barney-mobile and head for Professor Tinkerputt's  toy shop. The elaborate toy shop set obviously delights the young audience as it features giant turning gears and adult-sized clowns and robots (hence the  song "We are Little Robots"). In the second act, the dino trio makes it back to the tree house via balloon and many a song. Back on terra firma, they are joined by party guests Humpty Dumpty, Old King Cole, Mother Goose and her gander, Clarence--just the excuse for a nursery rhyme medley. BJ gets the red scooter of his dreams, and the kids in the audience--and at home--get  to sing "Happy Birthday." The stage version of Barney is less schmaltzy than the TV version, making it of greater interest to the older members of the recommended audience of ages 1 to 8. Who knows? You may even give  it a grudging glance or two.

"Barney's Musical Castle" on home video in stores March 6, 2001 from Lyrick Studios

Depending on how you feel about the Purple One, Barney's Musical Castle is either a loathsome marketing tool (a self-addressed piece of video fan mail, sort of) or a magnificent 70-minute romp for young minds. The tape plants viewers in the audience for a performance of Barney's second live stage show, a cross-country affair for which more than a million of the warm-fuzzies-inducing big fellas turned out. The story's simple: Barney and his usual complement of sidekicks (a handful of completely nonironic, overly nice school kids, plus the brother-sister dino duo of BJ and Baby Bop) discover a lost crown in the flimsy-looking set they call the Enchanted Forest and set out to return it to the king. Their mission is interspersed with syrupy, kid-pleasing song and dance numbers (20 of them total). To gain entry to the king's castle, for instance, the gang must perform the musical equivalent of a password. That's a song, the guard explains, that involves clapping, foot-stamping, and shouting hooray! (Barney to the crowd: "Do we know a song like that?") Throughout the performance, the camera cuts away to shots of singing, clapping, overjoyed toddlers, and their delighted-looking parents, most of them gripping, wearing, or waving some article of Barney paraphernalia. Buy the video if you've disappointed a young devotee of the dinosaur by skipping the show when it blew through your town or if the king of cornball makes your kids happy.

"Barney's Colorful World" on DVD and video in stores September 14, 2004 from HIT Entertainment

Barney has your ticket to adventure as he brings the magic of his colorful stage show to video. Join the purple dino-star and his co-stars, Baby Bop and BJ, as they visit exciting places and make new friends, including a tap-dancing monkey, an ice-skating polar bear and a starfish who sings rock and roll! Imagine flying to a rain forest, dancing with penguins in the Arctic, and exploring the colorful world under the sea. Sing and dance along with Barney on a magical, musical trip around our colorful world!

"Barney Live! - The Let's Go Tour" is coming to town this fall of 2006

Barney, BJ and Baby Bop are going on a super-dee-duper musical adventure to a tee-rific toy factory and will be introducing their newest dino friend - Riff, in Barney Live! - The Let's Go Tour. On their journey to get BJ and Baby Bop's toys repaired, the four dinos meet dancing teddy bears, out-of-this-world robots, life-sized musical instruments and much more!

'''"Barney Live in Concert - Birthday Bash!" is coming soon to your neighborhood November 2010'''

Celebrate with Barney on his birthday at this BRAND NEW, interactive, live stage concert, featuring more than 25 fun and upbeat sing-along tunes including your children’s favorites, such as "Mr. Knickerbocker", "Dino Dance", "Baby Bop Hop" and "Rock ‘n Roll Star". You’ll be singing and dancing in the aisles with your favorite purple dinosaur and his friends Baby Bop, BJ and Riff. It’s a fun-filled show all about sharing, caring and friendship -- brought to you by the power of your imagination!

"A Day in the Park with Barney" opens at Universal Studios Florida in Orlando 1995

It's the only place on earth where kids can meet Barney and his friends Baby Bop and BJ live every day in a sing-along, clap-along musical show. The fun takes place in a peaceful park setting with trees, park benches and flowers. While the characters dance and sing both new songs and familiar favorites leaves fall from the sky, snowflakes flutter down, the stars come out and other magical surprises take place.

Kidomo proudly represents HIT Entertainment Canada (Barney, Angelina Ballerina, Bob the Builder, Thomas & Friends, Pingu, Kipper, Mike the Knight); Hasbro Canada (My Little Pony, Chuck the Dump Truck, Doh-Doh); Nickelodeon (Dora, Diego, SpongeBob, Patrick, Blue, Wonder Pets, Kai Lan) Classic Media Group (Guess with Jess, Olivia); The Wiggles (Dorothy, Wags, Henry) and The Big Comfy Couch, for marketing, PR initiatives and live events in Canada.

"Barney's Imagination Island" Book

Based on the NBC prime time network special which debuted April 24th, Barney's Imagination Island is a unique book that features specially adapted full-color art taken from actual scenes in the network special and includes Barney, Baby Bop, BJ and several of the familiar cast members from the Barney & Friends.

"Barney's Great Adventure" Book

This book follows the storyline of the movie, "Barney's Great Adventure." If your child has seen the movie, this book will help to remind your child of main events and can be used as a starting point for discussion of favorite moments in the movie. This is also a good book to reinforce sequencing. What happened first and what happened next?

A few years ago my daughter spotted some videos at the store which depicted farm scenes and characters on the front. Having never heard of the Old MacDonald's Sing-Along Farm series before, I agreed to let her rent one of them. After finding that she loved it, we went back to rent others in the series, and then decided that since these were the only videos she wanted to rent at the time, that we would purchase all three in the series: Past, Present and Future, That's What Friends are For, and this one, Share and Care Alike.

Old MacDonald's Sing-Along Farm: Share and Care Alike is approximately fifty minutes long, broken down into two episodes: "Everything's Coming Up Apples" and "Moo-sic to My Ears". Every episode has the same cast of six characters, and though others may be spoken of (parents, siblings, or friends), they are never in the stories, making it easy for younger children to keep track of the characters involved: Each episode begins with their rendition of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" with the upbeat characters singing and dancing around. "Everything's Coming Up Apples" begins with Old Mac and Celeste Cow discussing their garden and Lucinda Chick joins them wanting to help, they sing "Down By the Garden" (to the tune of "Down By the Station") while they wait for the worms to loosen the dirt for them.
 * Old Mac (a human)
 * Joanna (a human veterinary student who helps Old Mac)
 * Lucinda Chick (a person in a chicken costume)
 * Celeste Cow (a person in a cow costume)
 * Alfred Pig (a person in a pig costume)
 * Poppycock Rooster (a marionette)

Alfred Pig needs a lesson in sharing and caring, and after he walks away with Old Mac's rake, tricks Celeste to get her off of a swing, and takes all of the straw that Lucinda was willing to share, they all sing "The More We Plant Together" ("The More We Get Together"). Joanna arrives with seedlings that she planted in soil in cut off empty milk cartons, and tells us that we can do the same with seeds or beans from our kitchen. We learn that seeds with grow over time, if they are given water and sunlight.

When it is time to plant the seeds, they find that Alfred has eaten them all, which upsets everyone, so they begin singing "You're Better Off With a Wishing Trough", which is in every episode. The idea is that they pool their wishes near the trough, and usually they get what they wish for. This time, when the song is over, there are seeds and tools for planting, along with a basket of apples, which prompts Old Mac to read the story of the Apple Star. First he shows us an apple which has been cut in half so that we can see that the seeds inside make a star shape, and then he tells how Mother Nature put the stars inside apples, since there were too many stars in the sky. Following the story, their own barnyard version of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". After the song, they finally get the seeds planted.

When Celeste and Lucinda go to get their lunches, they find they are missing and right blame Alfred. He did take the lunches, but only to make a nice big lunch for everybody to share, so Alfred has indeed learned to share

The second episode is entitled "Moo-sic to My Ears" and begins with Old Mac singing as he prepares snacks for his barnyard friends. He calls them all to come eat, but they only take a bite or two before they return to their game of tag, without saying "thank you". When Poppycock Rooster realizes that Old Mac is upset, he and the others want to do something to make it up to him. They sing "Old Mac Likes to Dance and Sing" (to the tune of "7Mary Had A Little Lamb") to try and figure out what would make him feel better. They decide to perform a thank you musical show for Old Mac and enlist Joanna's help.

They make a kazoo out of a comb and cover blocks with sandpaper to make music and sing "Old MacDonald was a Farmer" (to the tune of "Michael Finnegan"). Old Mac comes by, and since they all hide what they are working on and decline his invitation for a tractor ride, he feels even worse than before, prompting him to sing "Nobody Wants to Play with Me".

As the barnyard pals work on their show, they sing an upbeat tune about their Moo-sical. They decide that Alfred will tell jokes, and Lucinda will be the choreographer, but they realize they have no costumes, so its time to sing "You're Better Off With a Wishing Trough" and combine their wishes. At the end of the song, they are disappointed that only scraps of material appeared, and not actual costumes, but Joanna helps them create costumes out of them.

Old Mac comes looking for them, and is surprised to see them in their costumes, until they explain that they have created a special Moo-sical to thank him for all that he has done. They give him a crown and a throne and sing "Hail to Old Mac" ("Hail to the Chief") followed by "Old King Mac" ("Old King Cole"). They begin the show about a princess who enjoys the antics of her court jester, but never says thank you. They sing "One Dull Pig" ("Three Blind Mice"), and the story continues to say that the pig brings things to the princess each day, but she never thanks him, so eventually he stopped visiting. The princess missed the pig, and sends for him so that she can thank him. When he comes back, he is no longer dull, because the thank you made him Super Pig. The whole barnyard has learned that they need to say "thank you" when somebody does something nice for them. At the end, Old Mac and Joanna tell us that we can make our own instruments at home, such as the kazoo, a drum out of a food container, or dried beans stapled inside of two paper plates.

Old MacDonald's Sing-Along Farm: Share and Care Alike is part of the Bright Beginnings series which is produced by Disney/Buena Vista Home Video. The barnyard characters, dressed in bright colors, and corralled by the two humans, were hits with my children from their first viewing of one of these Old MacDonald videotapes. The stories are kept simple so that preschoolers can understand them, and most of the songs are kept short and sung to familiar tunes so that they do not lose interest.