Barney -- How do they do that?
Thomas McGinnis
has no better idea of the answer than I do, so I presume not.
How does the Barney costume work? I.e. How does the actor don/doff the suit?
Baby Bop (and, I presume, BJ) has an obvious zipper up the back, detachable
head, et cetera, but Barney seems to be a one piece job. I suppose the same
question could be asked of Big Bird or Mr Snuffelupagus, but feathers and fur
hide a multitude of tricks in their cases, I'm sure.
Please feel free to give a definitive answer (spoil sport :-) ), vote on
the speculations below, or provide further speculations.
SPECULATION #1: A zipper/velcro closure along the edge of the soft green
underbelly. This is a nice top-of-the-head guess, but if it is the
case, then I would say it is a *very* well made seam. The costume is
a loose fit, and the closure (if it exists) never bunches up nor
mis-aligns.
SPECULATION #2: (Or "Alimentary, my dear Watson #1): Access to the costume
is through the mouth. Commentary: Pretty clever if true, but leaves
open the possibility of emotionally scarring any child who might catch
the actor in the act of dressing ("Daddy! Barney is EATING that person!!
AAIIEEEEEEEEE!!!").
SPECULATION #3: (Or "Alimentary, my dear Watson #2): Access to the costume
is a zippered/velcro closure hidden somewhere amongst legs and tail.
Commentary: (See Commentary#2).
Any other guesses?
Curiously,
Tom,
Mickey(4) and Margee(20mos)'s Daddy.
--
Thomas F. McGinnis tf...@cmu.edu
Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon, 5000 Forbes Ave, Pgh, PA 15213-3890
Any opinions are mine except where noted, and not necessarily those of CMU.
spes mea in Deo nunc scripsi totum da mihi potum
Marilyn Walker
> Please feel free to give a definitive answer (spoil sport :-) ), vote on
>the speculations below, or provide further speculations.
Since Barney is only imaginary he doesn't need a costume. It's so
obvious.
Marilyn Walker
Paula Burch
|> Hope this is not a FAQ -- My wife, who follows these lists (Hi, Laura!),
|> has no better idea of the answer than I do, so I presume not.
|>
|>
|> How does the Barney costume work? I.e. How does the actor don/doff the suit?
I like this question! I have spent a lot of time while sick watching
Barney with my son. (Well, it seems like a lot. But it's a lot more fun
than chasing him out of trouble when I'm too sick to move! Plus, nobody
does anything nasty to anyone else--why do so many screenwriters seem
to think that cruelty is humorous?)
My main question is rather simpler. How does he see? Where does the actor
look through the costume? And is the person inside the suit Bob West,
the person credited with being Barney's voice, or is it someone else?
Who plays the new improved, that is smaller, Baby Bop? Is it a child
or a particularly short adult?
Paula Burch
pbu...@bcm.tmc.edu
Jonathan Cave
> I have spent a lot of time while sick watching
>Barney with my son.
Cause or effect?
John R. Cobarruvias
<mwa...@taimyr.colorado.edu> wrote:
So when does Barney have an imaginary tour? Like Sesame Street just did?
Hopefully the imaginary tickets will not cost too much imaginary money. :-)
>
> Marilyn Walker
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rd...@telerama.lm.com
> tf...@cmu.edu (Thomas McGinnis) writes:
> |> Hope this is not a FAQ -- My wife, who follows these lists (Hi, Laura!),
> |> has no better idea of the answer than I do, so I presume not.
> |>
> |>
> |> How does the Barney costume work? I.e. How does the actor don/doff the s
> I like this question! I have spent a lot of time while sick watching
> Barney with my son. (Well, it seems like a lot. But it's a lot more fun
> than chasing him out of trouble when I'm too sick to move! Plus, nobody
> does anything nasty to anyone else--why do so many screenwriters seem
> to think that cruelty is humorous?)
> My main question is rather simpler. How does he see? Where does the actor
> look through the costume? And is the person inside the suit Bob West,
> the person credited with being Barney's voice, or is it someone else?
> Who plays the new improved, that is smaller, Baby Bop? Is it a child
> or a particularly short adult?
> Paula Burch
> pbu...@bcm.tmc.edu
According to the credits on "Barney in Concert" Bob West does Barney's
voice and someone else (the kids are watching something so I can't
check the name right now) is inside the Barney suit. The first time I
noticed this I felt...I don't really know how to describe it...upset
in a childish way that THAT wasn't really Barney. Weird, I know.
Imagine how I felt when I found out the kids had completely different
names than the ones on the show.
I read in a magazine that the suit is air conditioned and the person
inside is a body builder. I guess he'd have to be to do those 360
degree-turn-in-mid-air stuff.
As for the new, improved Baby Bop, we haven't seen an episode in
months. Didn't even know that there is a new Baby Bop.
Rachel (mother to Cynthia 3.5 and Stephen 2.5)
Jerry Randal Bauer
outside his upper jaw. Perhaps it is just the mechanics of
how one makes a costume mouth work, but it makes my teeth
hurt to watch his mouth move!
Jerry Randal Bauer
Tamara Shaffer
he move his mouth???
TAMARA
mommy to Melissa (5/1/91) and Sarah (5/3/93) who stood up in her crib
yesterday!
Ray Rose
the July 11, 1993 issue of the Gannett Newspapers:
The person inside the Barney suit is David Joyner, 29 years old, a
model, who is a distant cousin of Jackie-Joyner-Kersee. He trained
extensively for the role - running and lifting weights - so he could
move gracefully in the 80 pound Barney suit. The voice belongs to
Bob West. Both on tv and in live appearances, the two always work
together.
Nothing about how he gets into the suit though.
--
Ray Rose
Damaris Ayuso
I don't know about Barney, but I once read (heard?) that Big Bird's
operation is quite a complicated affair. Big Bird is about 7ft tall.
I may be wrong about some details, but it's something like this: the
person inside is looking at the world through a small monitor inside
big-bird, meanwhile, he's holding up big-bird's head with his arm and
of course doing all the movements.
damaris (day...@bbn.com)
*******
In article <CLFGuw...@cs.cmu.edu> tf...@cmu.edu (Thomas McGinnis) writes:
Newsgroups: misc.kids
From: tf...@cmu.edu (Thomas McGinnis)
Summary: How does the Barney costume work?
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 1994 16:08:56 GMT
Hope this is not a FAQ -- My wife, who follows these lists (Hi, Laura!),
has no better idea of the answer than I do, so I presume not.
How does the Barney costume work? I.e. How does the actor don/doff the suit?
Baby Bop (and, I presume, BJ) has an obvious zipper up the back, detachable
head, et cetera, but Barney seems to be a one piece job. I suppose the same
question could be asked of Big Bird or Mr Snuffelupagus, but feathers and fur
hide a multitude of tricks in their cases, I'm sure.
Please feel free to give a definitive answer (spoil sport :-) ), vote on
the speculations below, or provide further speculations.
[...]
Laura E. Floom
I am very happy to see that fellow misc.kidders are not simply spacing
out in front of Barney. Your thought provoking questions and comments
show that you are having an educational experience.
I am very proud of you all!
:-)
Laura Floom
Beth Weiss
>I am very happy to see that fellow misc.kidders are not simply spacing
>out in front of Barney. Your thought provoking questions and comments
>show that you are having an educational experience.
Great job of specific praise. I'm sure you are pleased with your
ability to recognize and then verbalize positive traits in others.
But, I must confess, I _was_ zoning out in front of Barney. Or was I
grading--I forget :-)
I very much like Baby Bop's new smaller size; I think it is more in
keeping with the idea of Baby Bop being a baby. I still hate her
voice.
--
--Beth Weiss
bwe...@cs.arizona.edu
rd...@telerama.lm.com
> I am very happy to see that fellow misc.kidders are not simply spacing
> out in front of Barney. Your thought provoking questions and comments
> show that you are having an educational experience.
> I am very proud of you all!
> :-)
> Laura Floom
Laura:
If you think they're getting an education... I wrote a point of view
article about Barney for REDBOOK. Hope they buy it. :-)
Rachel
Robyn A E Kozierok
which he hates, because the Amox was causing him a terrible diaper rash.
When we try to give him the Sulfa, he gags and coughs and sometimes vomits
it (plus his recent breastmilk) up. Since the sulfa must be given with lots
of liquids, I can't even try giving him more medicine until he takes more milk
(he's exclusively breastfed).
He did have a stomach bug over the weekend to complicate things, but I'm
pretty sure he's over it now, and the vomiting is a mechanical response to
the gag. We had been getting it down with only a tiny amount of regurgitation
for the past few days, but today he vomited it all.
Ryan is 5.5 months, btw.
We are giving it to him laying on his back, becasue this makes it hard for
him to spit it out (his doctor's recommendation), but I think this makes
him more likely to gag. Any ideas on a good way to give medicine to a
gag-prone resistant baby?
Thanks,
--Robyn
Tamara Shaffer
it to him 1cc at a time. I give Sarah medicine the same way - laying
down, and I don't know of a better position.
You could try putting the medicine in a bottle with 1 oz of milk. It
might be a waste of milk and he might refuse it, but it would probably
be worth a try. It worked with Melissa when she was a baby.
Good luck,
Michael D. Logan
Robyn A E Kozierok <ra...@ATHENA.MIT.EDU> wrote:
>
>When we try to give him the Sulfa, he gags and coughs and sometimes vomits
>it (plus his recent breastmilk) up. Since the sulfa must be given with lots
>of liquids, I can't even try giving him more medicine until he takes more milk
>(he's exclusively breastfed).
>
>
>We are giving it to him laying on his back, becasue this makes it hard for
>him to spit it out (his doctor's recommendation), but I think this makes
>him more likely to gag. Any ideas on a good way to give medicine to a
>gag-prone resistant baby?
We had the same problem with our (then) 6-mo. old. I finally got him
to take the medicine by putting the medicine in one of those "syringe"
droppers, sitting my son on my lap (slightly leaning back), putting
the tip of the dropper just past his gums, and squirting a little at
a time (1/16th of a tsp) onto his tongue. Doing it this way took a
while, but at least he didn't throw up. By the way, this is opposite
of what most books will tell you to do. They say to put the dropper
in the back of the mouth and squirt to the side of the tongue. Doing
it that way invariably made my son throw up.
Good luck!
Gloria Logan (mom to Christopher 7/14/94)
Posted for my wife ...
- Michael Logan
Debby Pilkerton
> In article <2kfue8$e...@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU>,
> ra...@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robyn A E Kozierok) writes:
>
> it to him 1cc at a time. I give Sarah medicine the same way - laying
> down, and I don't know of a better position.
>
> You could try putting the medicine in a bottle with 1 oz of milk. It
> might be a waste of milk and he might refuse it, but it would probably
> be worth a try. It worked with Melissa when she was a baby.
>
> Good luck,
> TAMARA
> mommy to Melissa (5/1/91) and Sarah (5/3/93)
>
let her suck the meds from it. Sucking on a nipple that is familiar
seemed to make even the nasty tasting stuff bearable! It does take
a little coordination to get the correct amount of medicine into the
nipple and depending on the size of the nipple it may take filling it
two or three times. Best wishes! Hope your little one is soon feeling
better.
Debby
Mom to Ricky 11/28/74 and MOTHER PLEASE to Destiny 8/1/82
Laura E. Floom
Beth Weiss <bwe...@CS.Arizona.EDU> wrote:
>
>I very much like Baby Bop's new smaller size; I think it is more in
>keeping with the idea of Baby Bop being a baby. I still hate her
>voice.
I think the plan is to keep making her smaller and smaller until she
finally disappears. Then they are gonna start on Barney!
Laura Floom
Robyn Grunberg
>> ra...@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robyn A E Kozierok) writes:
>>
>> >When we try to give him the Sulfa, he gags and coughs and sometimes
>> >vomits it (plus his recent breastmilk) up.
I also had a baby with the gag reflex from hell (she still has it at
age 2) and found that the gag reflex had the annoying habit of masking
when she had a real problem; it took me four feedings of banana for me
to realise that she was allergic to it! Her reaction is amazing,
projectile vomiting (which doesn't seem to bother her, it just adds to
the laundry).
Is the stuff banana flavoured? Most baby stuff is, and he may well be
allergic. Maybe he just doesn't like the flavour, try another flavour
and see if it helps.
P.S. I *still* forget to ask pharmicists if antibiotics are banana
flavoured, after 2 years you'd think I'd remember.
Robyn.
Linda Smith
: In article <2kfue8$e...@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu>,
My daughter got to be pretty good at spitting it back out -- even a little
if I give her a little bit at a time. I have had more success with getting
her to take her medicine if I aim the dropper toward the inside of her
cheek. One friend of mine suggested plugging their nose (but I could
never bring myself to do this). My mother suggested quickly following
each little bit of medicine with a sip out of a bottle. My daughter,
however, caught on to that one fairly quickly, and spit the medicine out
before I could get the bottle in her mouth.
Good Luck!
Lorinda Brandon
Hee Hee hee...I love it, Laura!! I would definitely throw a
big "Where's Barney?" party on that day!!
What's with this new character, BJ? Or is he just new to me (we've
been watching more Barney than I care to admit these days...)? Is
he supposed to add a little life to the show - it seems to me that
he is patterned after energetic 4 YOs who often act before they think
and so unwittingly break the rules...
Lorinda