Barney’s David Joyner remembers when KKK banned their children from watching shows

David Joyner looked back on some of the hate he received as benevolent Barneythinking about the time he heard that the Ku Klux Klan had banned their children from watching the program after learning that the man under the purple dinosaur suit was black.

The anecdote is shared in the latest episode of Generation Barneya new seven-part podcast from Connecticut Public dedicated to the beloved dinosaur and how the PBS program shaped generations.

“I get called while I’m busy Barney from my hometown news reporter from Decatur Herald & Reviewand he asked me to comment on an article that had arrived Esquire magazine,” Joyner recalls. “I had no idea what he was talking about, so he asked me if I wanted to go get the magazine and then call him with a comment. In the magazine, the Klan had found out that the man in the Barney costume was African American, so they banned their children from ever watching Barney again.”

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Asked for his opinion by the reporter: “I said, ‘Well actually, when I read it, I laughed.’ And he says, ‘What do you mean?'” Joyner said. “I said, ‘Well, it’s the Klan and I can’t change their mind.’ I said, ‘And what we’re trying to do is represent love. If someone’s trying to represent hate, the last thing they want to do is love what it is.”

Joyner said he didn’t let those moments get to him, but instead embraced the magic of portraying Barney. Like the dinosaur, love was and remains the most important thing for Joyner. “Our parents encouraged us to look in the mirror before you walk out and say, ‘I love you,’ so that you walk out with love,” he said. “I didn’t know that I’m literally training for this character, being able to walk out with love in my heart. So when I got the role too, it wasn’t like I had to put on a costume and a facade and become the character.

Joyner played the beloved dinosaur for ten years, from 1991 to 2001 Barney & Friends. He also shared the role with Bob West, who voiced the dinosaur from 1988 to 2000.

The rise of the beloved dinosaur was also explored in Peacock’s 2022 documentary I love you, you hate mewhich traced Barney’s beginnings to the eventual vitriol the dinosaur received. “Barney bashing” was a very real and terrifying phenomenon, with program composer Bob Singleton recalling in the documentary the death threats he received over the theme song.

“I was surprised that they felt like they wanted to do me physical harm,” Singleton recalled. “I got actual emails about the death and mutilation of my family.”

Listen to the latest episode of Generation Barney above.