Barney was created in 1987 by Sheryl Leach of Dallas, Texas. She came up with the idea for the program while considering TV shows that she felt would be educational and appeal to her son. Leach then brought together a team who created a series of home videos, Barney and the Backyard Gang, which also starred actress Sandy Duncan in the first three videos.

Later, Barney was joined by the characters Baby Bop, B.J., and Riff. Although the original videos were only a modest success outside of Texas, Barney became a major success only when the character and format were revamped for the television series and were picked up by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), debuting as Barney and Friends in 1992.

Something that a lot of people didn’t know was that barney at one time was played by a black person.

The series was produced by Lyrick Studios (bought by HIT Entertainment) and Connecticut Public Television. For several years, the show was taped at the Color Dynamics Studios facility at Greenville Avenue & Bethany Drive in Allen, after which it moved to The Studios at Las Colinas in Dallas, Texas.Connecticut Public Television

Currently, the series is produced in Carrollton, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. The TV series and videos are currently distributed by Hit Entertainment and Lions gate, while the TV series has been produced by WNET since Sheryl Leach left the show in 2002 after Hit Entertainment bought Lyrick Studios.

Barney closes up with "I Love You" before he dissolves back into his original stuffed form. After the children discuss a bit about what they had learned, the sequence cuts to Barney Says where Barney, who is off-screen, narrates what he and his friends had done that day, along with still snapshots from the episode.

Although the show has been criticized for its lack of educational value, Yale researchers Dorothy and Jerome Singer have concluded that episodes contain a great deal of age-appropriate educational material, calling the program a "model of what preschool television should be."

The main character is a purple and green Tyrannosaurus Rex in stuffed animal likeness, who comes to life through a child's imagination. His theme song is "Barney Is a Dinosaur," which is sung to the tune of "Yankee Doodle". Barney often quotes things as being "Super dee-duper".

Episodes frequently end with the song "I Love You", sung to the tune of "This Old Man", which happens to be Barney's favorite song. Despite being a carnivorous type dinosaur, Barney likes many different foods such as fruits and vegetables, but his main favorite is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a glass of milk.

Barney and the children learn about the main topic of the episode, with Baby Bop, B.J., or Riff appearing during the episode and numerous songs themed relating to the subject featured in the series. The roles of Baby Bop, B.J., and Riff have grown larger in later seasons and later episodes venture outside of the school to other places within the neighborhood and to other countries around the world in Season 13.