Hachaverim Shel Barney (The Friends of Barney) is the Israeli production of Barney & Friends. This series aired from 1997-2000 on various networks in Israel (notably Telad and children's channel "Hop") and has since been released on video and DVD.

Contents 1 History 2 Video 3 Series Cast 4 Trivia 5 See also

HistoryEdit

The late Itzhak Kol, one of the heads of Israeli entertainment company Roll Communications, was inspired by Barney. His daughter, like many children in the early nineties, became entranced with the purple dinosaur, which inspired him to pursue the rights to produce an Israeli adaptation of the show. He approached Lyrick Studios in 1995, but was initially denied, told that he was only allowed to air the show dubbed. He felt that "putting hebrew words into American kids' mouths" wouldn't work. Realizing that Sheryl Leach and her father in law, Richard Leach, were devout Christians, Mr. Kol asked "Why not have Barney speak in the language of the Bible?" This sealed the deal and, under strict guidelines, the show could be produced. One of these guidelines was that the shows could only be adapted from the US counterparts, with very few script changes. When the agreement went through, it cost Roll Communications $41,000 per episode to produce (Only $500 per episode went to Lyrick), making it one of the most expensive children's shows produced in Israel.

VideoEdit

Roll gave some of the Barney titles from the first season of the show to Clasikaletet for video release and they have been released on DVD as well. Sisu Entertainment distributes the Clasikaletet DVDs in North America. Season 2 videos were also released in Israel, but distributed by Roll themselves.

Series CastEdit

• Barney (voice) - Avi Termin and Kini Friedlander

  

• Barney (costume) - Josh Sagi
• Buba Bon (voice) - Tzipi Mor
• Buba Bon (costume) - Penny Abraham
• Bee Ben (voice) - Unknown
• Bee Ben (costume) - Unknown
• Yana - Yana Kotlyar
• Aviv - Yahala Lachmish

  

  

• Dana (Israeli Adaptian of Tina) - Noy Ben-Ami
• Amir - Amir Lakner
• Nir - Nir Oaknin
• Tom - Tom Baromer
• Miki - Ira Biram
• Ran - Ran Bakor
• Noa (Israeli Adaptian of Luci) - Etti Lijishal
• Tal - Tal Balahusky
• Yael - Yahab Shoster
• Karen (Season 1) - Linoy Kapach
• Mai - Mai Jacobson
• Jodey - Nehemia Hadar
• Karen (Season 2) - Noper Brailovsky
• Hillel - Hillel Greitzer
• Isod - Ido Ben Yosef

Trivia Edit

• Josh Sagi, who plays the Barney costume, is slightly shorter than standard Barney performers
• Despite the fact script tinkering was rarely done, some episodes had segments (London Bridge was sung as "Yarkon Bridge" in Caring Means Sharing) or even whole storylines changed to fit Israeli traditions (Hola, Mexico! was now about an Arabian hafla (feast) instead of a Mexican fiesta).

See alsoEdit

• Baniwa Chingudeul