Sandy Duncan Remembers Burt Reynolds Saying 'I Wanted to Kill You' During Height of “Barney and the Backyard Gang”
Sandy Duncan Remembers Burt Reynolds Saying 'I Wanted to Kill You' During Height of “Barney and the Backyard Gang”
Angela AndaloroThu, April 9, 2026 at 9:13 PM UTC
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Sandy Duncan (left), Barney (center), Burt ReynoldsCredit: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty; Virginia Sherwood/NBC NewsWire; Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty -
Sandy Duncan agreed to appear in several Barney episodes during a late 80s writer's strike
Duncan didn't think much would come of the children's series and passed on the opportunity to be part of the show when it was picked up by PBS
Duncan recalls Burt Reynolds's reaction to her being part of the Barney world
Sandy Duncan had no idea Barney would be as big as it got.
During an appearance on Nostalgia Tonight with Joe Sibilia, the actress, 79, opened up about her part as a mom on Barney & the Backyard Gang videos, which debuted in the late 1980s ahead of the PBS series. Duncan took the role on a whim during a writer's strike because the filming location gave her the opportunity to spend time with family.
"When I got there and saw what it was, I went, 'Oh my God, what have I done?' " she laughed.
"We filmed it, and it was very much a [children's] show. It ended because I had to go back to work and they had shot their pilot, which I did three episodes. And they came out to have a meeting with me and they said, they all had Texas accents, and they said, 'Sandy, now we're going to do a series of it and we're going to put it on, if you do it, they'll put it on PBS... we're going to have plush toys and do all this.' "
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Sandy Duncan in 1989Credit: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty
The offer wasn't enough to lure Duncan in, but she was shocked when the PBS series debuted and became "this huge phenomenon.'
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"We lived in an apartment the next year in New York, and my kids, the balloons [for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade] would get blown up right outside our window. And right outside our window was Barney," she laughed.
When her kids joked that they could have had "our own island and our own airplane and a boat" if she stuck with it, Duncan countered, "What are you gonna do? Somebody would have killed me by now, because you know some parents. I might not have survived that."
"Burt Reynolds, I can't say [where] exactly, but we were at a big gathering, one of those events, and somebody behind my back creeped up and whispered in my ear, 'I wanted to kill you,' because he had a toddler, and he said, 'All we have on television is you and Barney.' "
Barney plushCredit: James Keyser/Getty
It's no secret that Barney & Friends included catchy tunes that would come to irk parents of some young viewers. The overall upbeat demeanor of the show spawned some true hate and backlash for Barney, both for those involved in the series and for fans.
"There were certain things, certain messages that people would send that were pretty threatening," Bob West, the original voice of Barney, shares of his experience in the 2024 podcast Generation Barney, recalling getting flak when people would learn what he did for a living.
"If you get a death threat from a middle school child who sends you an email, then it doesn't make me feel bad for me. It makes me feel bad for them because they're obviously going through something that's leading them to act out this way."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
