Lyrick Studios, formerly The Lyons Group, was an American

video production Video production is the process of producing video content for video. It is the equivalent of filmmaking, but with video recorded either as analog signals on videotape, digitally in video tape or as computer files stored on optical discs, hard dri ...

and

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations * Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a vari ...

company based in

Allen, Texas Allen is a city in Collin County in the U.S. state of Texas, and a northern suburb of Dallas. According to the 2020 U.S. census its population was 104,627, up from 84,246 in 2010. Allen is located approximately twenty miles (32.2 km) north ...

best known for their flagship property ''

Barney & Friends ''Barney & Friends'' is an American children's television series targeted at young children aged 2–7, created by Sheryl Leach. The series premiered on PBS on April 6, 1992. The series features the title character Barney, a purple anthropomorp ...

''. The company was known for producing and distributing television shows, home videos, audio products and children's books and toys. On February 9, 2001, the company was acquired by

HIT Entertainment HIT Entertainment Limited (commonly written as HiT) was a British-American entertainment company founded in 1982 as Henson International Television, the international distribution arm of The Jim Henson Company, by Jim Henson, Peter Orton, and Soph ...

and folded into it on August 31 the same year.

History

The company traces its origins to 1988, when The Lyons Group was formed as a division of DLM, Inc., an educational company owned by Richard C. Leach. Lyons began producing and distributing a direct-to-video series titled ''

Barney and the Backyard Gang ''Barney and the Backyard Gang'' is an American direct-to-video series produced by The Lyons Group and released in periodic installments from 29 August 1988 to 1 August 1991. The series led to the launch of the children's television show, ''Bar ...

'', which was created by Leach's daughter-in-law,

Sheryl Leach Sheryl Lyna Stamps Leach (born December 31, 1952) is an American author and creator of the children's show ''Barney & Friends'', along with Kathryn O'Rourke Parker, Kathy Parker and Dennis DeShazer. Education Leach holds a bachelor's degree in ...

. Three years after its debut, ''Barney'' caught the attention of

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

executives, who subsequently revamped the concept for television as ''

'' and began airing on the organization's flagship television service on April 6, 1992. Lyrick Studios was formed in 1994, and The Lyons Group became a division of a new company under the name ''The Lyons Partnership''. The company developed the series ''

Wishbone Wishbone commonly refers to: * Furcula, a fork-shaped bone in birds and some dinosaurs Wishbone may also refer to: * Wish-Bone, an American salad dressing and condiment company * Wishbone formation, a type of offense in American football * Wish ...

'' for PBS in 1995. This series was produced by Big Feats! Entertainment, another division of the company, and was primarily filmed on a studio backlot in

. In the late 1990s, Lyrick acquired the distribution rights for ''

VeggieTales ''VeggieTales'' is an American Christian media, computer generated musical children's animation, and book franchise created by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki under Big Idea Entertainment. The series sees fruit and vegetable characters retelling ...

'' and ''

The Wiggles The Wiggles are an Australian children's music group formed in Sydney in 1991. The group are currently composed of Anthony Field, Lachlan Gillespie, Simon Pryce and Tsehay Hawkins, as well as supporting members Evie Ferris, John Pearce, Ca ...

'' and also distributed book publishing and video gaming rights for some

Humongous Entertainment Humongous Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Bothell, Washington. Founded in 1992, the company is best known for developing multiple edutainment franchises, most prominently ''Putt-Putt (series), Putt-Putt'', ''Fred ...

video game characters like '' Putt-Putt'', '' Freddi Fish'', and ''

Pajama Sam The ''Pajama Sam'' series is a collection of point and click children's adventure and puzzle games originally created by Humongous Entertainment. After the release of the first two adventure games, the series was proving a success when the product ...

''. On February 9, 2001, the company was acquired by

for $275 million and folded into it on August 31 that year. The home video division of the company was rebranded under the HIT Entertainment name and remained trading until 2006, when HIT shuttered the division and began to release products in the United States through outside third-parties instead.

Distribution

Programs

Movies/TV Films

Notes

References

External links

* {{Authority control Mattel Barney & Friends Bob the Builder VeggieTales The Wiggles Mass media companies established in 1988 Mass media companies disestablished in 2001 1988 establishments in Texas 2001 disestablishments in Texas 2001 mergers and acquisitions Defunct companies based in Texas HIT Entertainment