Bob West: Celebs Rumors

Behind the large smile of the popular purple dinosaur Barney, lies a shocking dark side.  The new two-part "Barney" docuseries "I Love You, You Hate Me," uncovers alleged death threats, rumors and violence toward the beloved character created by Sheryl Leach in 1992. "What color is happier than purple? No color," Bill Nye said in Peacock’s newly released trailer.  What became a cultural television phenomenon continued to receive negative criticism nationwide.  "'I Love You, You Hate Me' is a limited series chronicling the rise and fall of Barney the Dinosaur’s furious backlash — and what it says about the human need to hate," the docuseries synopsis read.

Pity the purple dinosaur. He came to spread a message of love, and got the stuffing knocked out of him.

two-part documentary about the darkness surrounding the legendary kid’s show “Barney & Friends.”Friendly faces like Bill Nye and Al Roker are interviewed for “I Love You, You Hate Me,” but so are former actors David Joyner and Bob West — who both donned the purple dinosaur suit during the show’s run from 1992 to 2010.They both provide not-so-jovial recollections about their time as Barney — West even alleging that his entire family received death threats.“They were violent and explicit, death and dismemberment of my family,” he recalls on top of video of Barney stuffed animals being lit on fire. “They were gonna come and find me, and they were going to kill me.”Another interview subject talked about some of the “rumors” he heard about the costumed character, including that he hid “dugs in his tail.”The trailer ends with a woman saying, “I don’t think you could ever think somebody would go and shoot someone.”This could relate to “Barney” founder Sheryl Leach’s son, Patrick Kearns Leach, who was charged with one count each of assault with a firearm and shooting for allegedly shooting his neighbor multiple times after an argument in 2013.