New Barney Docuseries Reveals Dark Side of the '90s Show

Prepare yourself for a caller fresh position connected Barney's iconic request: "Won't you accidental you emotion maine too?"

Bob West, the histrion who originated the iconic dependable of the beloved children's quality and gave beingness to the purple dinosaur from 1988 to 2000, is revealing what it was really similar to enactment connected Barney & Friends.

In Peacock's caller documentary, I Love You, You Hate Me, West opens up astir some the bully and atrocious of being portion of the Barney family. While the acceptable was a joyful spot to enactment for the formed and crew, West was one member of the squad who yet recovered himself connected the receiving extremity of immoderate hate.

"I did get immoderate emails from immoderate mediate schoolers, which are truly sad," West recounted during an exclusive interrogation with E! News of the signifier known arsenic Barney bashing. "I did get decease threats from kids successful mediate school, but I cognize what that was: Kids increasing up and trying to propulsion disconnected childhood. Generally, determination was a batch much emotion than determination was hate."

West explained that successful the aboriginal days of the Internet his idiosyncratic email someway got leaked to the public, which led to some affirmative and antagonistic feedback.

I Love You, You Hate Me shines a airy connected a circumstantial subgroup of Barney haters who formed communities and fueled backlash against Barney & Friends.

One of those anti-Barney groups was The Jihad to Destroy Barney, an online community successful which users created instrumentality fabrication with the extremity of defeating fictionalized Barney villains. West said helium really had an enactment with the radical online, but it was actually beauteous positive.

"It was conscionable this wonderfully developed, truly analyzable small nine that they had," helium said of the Jihad. "They each had roles and they had ranks and it was this warfare against Barney. It was a large joke...I really went into the radical a mates of times to accidental hullo and they were conscionable truthful bully to me. It was each conscionable for fun." 

Addressing Barney critics, West shared, "I recognize wherever it comes from but I don't promote it. I recognize that cynicism is casual to travel crossed now. I mean, I person to accidental that I'm a small much cynical than I was erstwhile I was younger."

He continued, "There's a existent request for knowing and not amplifying being skeptical astir thing to the constituent wherever it becomes hatred oregon violent."

To larn much astir the acheronian broadside of Barney, don't miss I Love You, You Hate Me, which premieres Wednesday, Oct. 12, connected Peacock.

(E! and Peacock are some portion of the NBCUniversal family.)