Creator Sheryl Leach came up with the idea for a children's show after noticing her son had outgrown the Wee Sing Together videos and finding no suitable alternatives, leading her to produce the home video series Barney & the Backyard Gang in 1988, whose first three videos starred actress Sandy Duncan.

The TV series was born after Connecticut Public Television executive Larry Rifkin's daughter became 'mesmerized' by a rented Barney & the Backyard Gang video in 1991, prompting Rifkin to pitch a PBS adaptation, which debuted as Barney & Friends in 1992.

Although Barney & Friends became a runaway hit, PBS initially refused to fund episodes beyond the first 30-episode run; CPTV executives and the Lyons Group rallied fans and member stations to write letters and make phone calls, creating what Rifkin called an atmosphere 'like an insurrection' at the annual PBS member stations meeting, forcing PBS to reverse its decision.

Barney was voiced by Bob West from 1992 to 2000 and later by Dean Wendt from 2001 to 2010, while the physical suit was worn by David Joyner from 1991 to 2001 and later by Carey Stinson.

Several child actors who appeared in minor roles on Barney & Friends went on to become famous, including Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez (both in seasons 7–8), Debby Ryan and Madison Pettis (season 10), and Jaren Lewison (seasons 12–13).

The show's closing theme 'I Love You' uses the melody of 'This Old Man' with lyrics originally written in 1982 by Indiana homemaker Lee Bernstein for a children's book; Barney producers adapted the lyrics in the early 1990s without knowing who wrote them, and Bernstein later had to hire a lawyer to secure writing credit and royalties.

In 2008, Demi Lovato and Jimmy Fallon performed a heavy metal cover of the Barney theme song 'I Love You'.

The Barney theme song was reportedly used by interrogators at Guantanamo Bay and by the US and UK armies alongside music from Sesame Street and Metallica to psychologically torture and interrogate Iraqi prisoners of war through sleep deprivation and cultural offense.

Barney & Friends ranked No. 50 on TV Guide's 2002 list of the 50 worst TV shows of all time, and the show is often cited by critics as a contributing factor to a perceived sense of entitlement among millennials who grew up watching it.