8 Insane Urban Legends About Famous TV Shows

6. The Original Barney The Dinosaur Was A Coke Fiend

One of the defining moments of transitioning from childhood to adulthood is the change in how you perceive kids' television. At a young age the whole thing is magical and innocent, an amazing world in which everybody is happy and smiling. As an adult, though, you can't help but see through the façade, wondering why the hosts seem so suspiciously cheery. Yes, at a certain point you begin to see the reality and humanity in it all, and humanity doesn't exist anywhere without a healthy dose of darkness.

According to rumour, the host of the original run of Barney & Friends €“ aka the person in the big purple suit €“ was addicted to cocaine, and was in fact busted during a taping of the show, where sniffer dogs located the purple dinosaur's stash to the tail of his costume. It's believed the network PBS Kids attempted to distance themselves from the crime by refusing to acknowledging it.

If that sounds fishy, fair enough, but there are other credible examples of the same thing happening. In 1998, a sniffer dog located drugs inside a Barney doll that was being used to ship drugs across America, and in 2004 thousands of dollars were found inside a Barney doll, money that had been made from drug trafficking. In both instances a similar tactic was employed, despite being documented as factual occurrences. So who knows what might have happened back in the day?