Barney & the Backyard Gang is an American direct-to-video series produced by The Lyons Group and released in periodic installments from August 29, 1988, to September 21, 1991.

Music for the Barney & the Backyard Gang videos was created by Stephen Bates Baltes and Phillip Parker (as with the television series), and Lory Lazarus wrote the first original song produced for Barney, "Friends Are Forever", sung by Duncan.

[citation needed] Then one day, in 1991, Larry Rifkin, then head of Connecticut Public Television, rented a Barney video for his daughter Leora.

[3] He liked the concept and talked to Leach about possibly putting Barney on television through the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

In order of release date:[1] The first six videos of this series aired on The Disney Channel in November 1990 as a part of its "Music Box" program.