Lyrick Studios, formerly The Lyons Group, was an American

video production Video production is the process of producing video content. 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 drives, SSDs, ...

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 varia ...

company based in

Allen, Texas Allen is a city in Collin County, Texas, Collin County in the U.S. state of Texas, and a northern suburb in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The population was 104,627 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, and was estimated to be 111 ...

, best known for their flagship property ''

Barney & Friends ''Barney & Friends'' is an American children's television series created by Sheryl Leach targeted at children ages two to five. The flagship production of the ''Barney'' franchise, it originally aired on PBS under the PBS Kids brand from Ap ...

''. 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 British entertainment company

HIT Entertainment HIT Entertainment Limited (stylised 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 Sophie Turn ...

and completed in June. HIT later folded Lyrick in August.

History

The company traces its origins to 1986, 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 & the Backyard Gang'', which was created by Leach's daughter-in-law, Sheryl Leach. Three years after its debut, ''Barney'' caught the attention of

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

executives, who subsequently revamped the concept for television as ''Barney & Friends'' and began airing on the organization's flagship television service on April 6, 1992. Lyrick Studios was formed in 1994, and DLM sold The Lyons Group to Lyrick Studios becoming the new division of the former and was renamed under the new name Lyons Partnership. The company developed the series '' Wishbone'' 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, Christian Computer animated, CGI-animated series and multimedia franchise created by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki under Big Idea Entertainment. The series stars Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumb ...

'' and ''

The Wiggles The Wiggles are an Australian children's music group formed in Sydney in 1991. As of 2022, the group members are Anthony Field, Lachlan Gillespie, Simon Pryce, Tsehay Hawkins, Evie Ferris, John Pearce (entertainer), John Pearce, Caterina Mete ...

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

Humongous Entertainment Humongous, Inc. (formerly Humongous Entertainment, Inc.) was an American video game developer based in Bothell, Washington. Founded in 1992, the company developed multiple edutainment franchises, most prominently ''Putt-Putt (series), Putt-Putt' ...

video game characters like '' Putt-Putt'', '' Freddi Fish'', and '' Pajama Sam''. On February 9, 2001, the company was acquired by

for $275 million and the two companies completed their merger in June of that year. Lyrick continued to use their logo until it was later folded into HIT on August 24, 2001. HIT also took over Lyrick's home video division and rebranded it under its name and it remained like this until 2006, when HIT Entertainment shuttered the division and began to release its products in the United States under third-parties instead.

Distribution

Programs

Movies/TV Films

Notes

References

External links

* {{Authority control Mattel Barney (franchise) Bob the Builder VeggieTales The Wiggles Mass media companies established in 1986 Mass media companies disestablished in 2001 1986 establishments in Texas 2001 disestablishments in Texas 2001 mergers and acquisitions Defunct companies based in Texas HIT Entertainment