Shown below is a timeline for broadcasts of Barney & the Backyard Gang, the first three seasons of Barney & Friends, Barney's Imagination Island, and Barney Live! in New York City on various television networks.
NOTE: This timeline is incomplete.
Timelines[]
Barney & the Backyard Gang[]
| Channel aired | Broadcast run |
|---|---|
|
November 1990 – October 1992 |
On the Disney Channel, the Backyard Gang videos aired within the Lunch Box block.
Weekdays[]
| First broadcast | Last broadcast | Episodes aired | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 6, 1992 | May 15, 1992 | #101–130 | First air dates of Season 1. |
| May 18, 1992 | September 24, 1993 | #101–130 | All episodes reran at least 10 times on PBS within this time period. |
| September 27, 1993 | October 20, 1993 | #201–218 | First air dates of Season 2.
About four or five episodes were closed-captioned by The Caption Center, while all others were done by the National Captioning Institute. |
| October 21, 1993 | December 1, 1993 | Season 1 | Because there were only 18 episodes in Season 2, this resulted in certain episodes airing on improper days of the week. |
| December 2, 1993 | December 27, 1993 | Season 2 | |
| December 28, 1993 | February 7, 1994 | Season 1 | |
| February 8, 1994 | March 3, 1994 | Season 2 | |
| March 4, 1994 | April 14, 1994 | Season 1 | |
| April 15, 1994 | May 10, 1994 | Season 2 | |
| May 11, 1994 | June 21, 1994 | Season 1 | |
| June 22, 1994 | July 15, 1994 | Season 2 | |
| July 18, 1994 | August 26, 1994 | Season 1 | |
| August 29, 1994 | September 21, 1994 | Season 2 | |
| September 22, 1994 | November 2, 1994 | Season 1 | From this point on, Kimberly-Clark began underwriting Season 1 as well. |
| November 3, 1994 | November 28, 1994 | Season 2 | |
| November 29, 1994 | January 9, 1995 | Season 1 | |
| January 10, 1995 | February 2, 1995 | Season 2 | |
| February 3, 1995 | February 24, 1995 | #101–116 | |
| February 27, 1995 | March 3, 1995 | #301–305 | First air dates of Season 3.
From here, all further new episodes of the show were closed-captioned by The Caption Center. |
| March 6, 1995 | March 23, 1995 | #117–130 | |
| March 24, 1995 | April 18, 1995 | Season 2 | |
| April 19, 1995 | May 30, 1995 | Season 1 | |
| May 31, 1995 | June 13, 1995 | #301–310 | The next five episodes of Season 3 premiered from June 7–13, 1995. |
| June 14, 1995 | July 7, 1995 | Season 2 | |
| July 10, 1995 | July 28, 1995 | #301–315 | Episodes 11–15 of Season 3 premiered from July 24–28, 1995. |
| July 31, 1995 | September 8, 1995 | Season 1 | |
| September 11, 1995 | October 6, 1995 | #301–320 | First air dates of the last five Season 3 episodes.
Chuck E. Cheese's and Mead Johnson began underwriting this season, and the end credits for all episodes were shortened. |
| October 9, 1995 | October 13, 1995 | #316–320 | |
| October 16, 1995 | November 8, 1995 | #201–218 | |
| November 9, 1995 | December 20, 1995 | #101–130 | |
| December 21, 1995 | January 15, 1996 | #201–218 | |
| January 16, 1996 | February 12, 1996 | #301–320 | |
| February 13, 1996 | March 25, 1996 | #101–130 | As of these dates, Chuck E. Cheese's and Mead Johnson began underwriting Season 1.
End credits were also now shortened. |
| March 26, 1996 | April 18, 1996 | #201–218 | |
| April 19, 1996 | May 16, 1996 | #301–320 | |
| May 17, 1996 | June 27, 1996 | #101–130 | |
| June 28, 1996 | July 23, 1996 | #201–218 | |
| July 24, 1996 | August 20, 1996 | #301–320 | |
| August 21, 1996 | October 1, 1996 | #101–130 | |
| October 2, 1996 | October 25, 1996 | #201–218 | |
| October 28, 1996 | November 22, 1996 | #301–320 | |
| November 25, 1996 | January 3, 1997 | #101–130 | Mead Johnson stopped underwriting Season 1 and moved to Season 2. |
| January 6, 1997 | January 29, 1997 | #201–218 | |
| January 30, 1997 | February 26, 1997 | #301–320 | |
| February 27, 1997 | April 9, 1997 | #101–130 | |
| April 10, 1997 | May 5, 1997 | #201–218 | |
| May 6, 1997 | June 2, 1997 | #301–320 | |
| June 3, 1997 | July 14, 1997 | #101–130 | |
| July 15, 1997 | August 7, 1997 | #201–218 | Last weekday reruns of four Season 2 episodes. |
| August 8, 1997 | September 4, 1997 | #301–320 | |
| September 5, 1997 | October 16, 1997 | #101–130 | At least 15 episodes of the first season aired for the last time here. |
| October 17, 1997 | October 31, 1997 | #201–211 | Last weekday broadcast of another Season 2 episode. |
The following episodes were withdrawn in late 1997, most likely to allow room for newer seasons produced since before that time:
Not only that, any surviving episodes from the first three seasons had the Barney Says segment removed from further reruns. | |||
| December 1, 1997 | December 26, 1997 | #301–320 | First reruns of Season 3 without the Barney Says segment.
Chef Jr. and Kellogg's Frosted Flakes became underwriters, the latter only for Season 3 onwards until 1998. |
| December 29, 1997 | January 14, 1998 | Season 2 | First reruns of Season 2 without the Barney Says segment.
Only one episode closed-captioned by The Caption Center (The Exercise Circus) survived the withdrawal. |
| January 15, 1998 | February 4, 1998 | Season 1 (15 episodes) |
First reruns of Season 1 without the Barney Says segment. |
| March 5, 1998 | April 1, 1998 | #301–320 | |
| April 2, 1998 | April 20, 1998 | Season 2 | |
| April 21, 1998 | May 11, 1998 | Season 1 | |
| June 9, 1998 | July 6, 1998 | #301–320 | |
| July 7, 1998 | July 23, 1998 | Season 2 | |
| July 24, 1998 | August 13, 1998 | Season 1 | Last weekday reruns of all episodes from "Going Places!" to "Hola, Mexico!". |
| September 11, 1998 | October 8, 1998 | #301–320 | |
| October 9, 1998 | October 27, 1998 | Season 2 | |
| October 28, 1998 | October 30, 1998 | Season 1 | Last weekday reruns of the first three Season 1 episodes that survived the withdrawal in 1997. |
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting permanently left the show in late 1998. Also, PBS withdrew these episodes from weekday reruns:
| |||
| December 14, 1998 | January 8, 1999 | Season 3 | |
| January 11, 1999 | January 20, 1999 | Season 2 | |
| January 25, 1999 | February 19, 1999 | Season 3 | |
| April 19, 1999 | April 28, 1999 | Season 2 | |
| May 3, 1999 | May 28, 1999 | Season 3 | |
| July 26, 1999 | August 4, 1999 | Season 2 | Last weekday reruns of this season. |
| August 9, 1999 | September 3, 1999 | Season 3 | Last weekday reruns of this season. |
After September 6, 1999, only the next generation of Barney & Friends (which began in 1997) continued to air on PBS stations under the new PBS Kids programming block and the launch of the new PBS Kids channel on several stations.
Weekends[]
This timeline only contains data from 1997 to 2000.
| First broadcast | Last broadcast | Episodes aired | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 2, 1997 | November 29, 1997 | #201–218 | Last reruns at all for the Season 2 episodes that were withdrawn after 1997. |
| December 6, 1997 | May 9, 1998 | #301–320 | |
| May 16, 1998 | August 22, 1998 | Season 1 | Only the 15 episodes that survived the withdrawal in 1997 aired within these dates. |
| August 29, 1998 | November 28, 1998 | Season 2 | Strangely, the episode "Look at Me, I'm 3!" aired for the last time at all on October 31. |
| December 5, 1998 | May 8, 1999 | #301–320 | |
| May 15, 1999 | August 21, 1999 | Season 1 | Last reruns at all for this season after its complete withdrawal from weekdays in late 1998. |
| August 28, 1999 | November 20, 1999 | Season 2 | Last reruns at all for this season. |
| November 27, 1999 | May 6, 2000 | Season 3 | Last reruns at all for this season. |
Specials[]
On April 24, 1994, Bedtime with Barney: Imagination Island premiered on NBC. It was only known to air once.
The other 1994 special, Barney Live! in New York City, was known to have aired on PBS on the following dates:
- March 12, 1995 (premiere)
- June 4, 1995
- August 13, 1995
- March 3, 1996
- March 9, 1997
- September 7 and 14, 1997
- March 15, 1998
- December 6, 1998
PBS Kids Sprout era[]
Not long after all of the pre-2002 seasons permanently stopped airing on PBS, the network announced PBS Kids Sprout, a cable and satellite channel devoted to preschool programming owned by PBS, Sesame Workshop, and HIT Entertainment (the current rights holder at the time), including Barney & Friends.
The following episodes aired on PBS Kids Sprout starting on September 27, 2007:
- Down on Barney's Farm
- Our Earth, Our Home
- I Just Love Bugs!
- Practice Makes Music
- A-Camping We Will Go!
- Home Sweet Homes
- Hola, Mexico!
- Falling for Autumn
- Grandparents Are Grand!
- May I Help You?
- Red, Blue and Circles Too!
- Hoo's in the Forest?
- Picture This!
- The Exercise Circus!
- The Alphabet Zoo
- Shawn and the Beanstalk
- I Can Be a Firefighter!
- Classical Cleanup
- Our Furry Feathered Fishy Friends
- At Home with Animals
- Who's Who on the Choo-Choo?
When "Home Sweet Homes" and "Hola, Mexico!" aired on this network, they got brand-new closed captions in addition to retaining their original end credits. All other Season 1 episodes had the short end credits from 1996. Season 3 also used the short end credits as well.
Sprout's license with HIT Entertainment's shows expired in 2015, while PBS' broadcasting rights for the show expired a year later; however, the older seasons' removal from Sprout occurred in August 2011. The reason was unknown, but either way, this was the very last time these seasons were ever available anywhere on television and On Demand, as no streaming service has ever picked up the rights for them ever since.
This could all change in Barney's next upcoming anniversary, when Peacock releases a new docuseries revolving around the title character's history in 2022. Other than that, nearly all episodes from the first generation were uploaded to YouTube from 2013 to 2015 by several Barney fans, where they still remain to this day.
If the first generation episodes from 1992–1995 ever get released on streaming, expect all 50 episodes from Seasons 1 and 3 to have the short end credits from 1996.