Reading Rainbow is an American children's television series that aired on PBS from June
6, 1983, until November 10, 2006, that encouraged children to read.
In 2012 an iPad and Kindle Fire educational interactive book reading and video field trip
application was launched bearing the name of the program.
The public television series garnered over 200 broadcast awards, including a Peabody
Award and 26 Emmy Awards, 11 of which were in the "Outstanding Children's Series" category.
The series was created under the leadership of Cecily Truett Lancit and Larry Lancit,
at Lancit Media Productions in New York.
The concept of a reading series for children originated with Twila Liggett, Ph.D., and
Paul Schupbach, of the Great Plains National Instructional Television Library at the University
of Nebraska–Lincoln; and Tony Buttino, of WNED-TV Buffalo, New York.
The original team included Lynne Brenner Ganek, Ellen Schecter, and host LeVar Burton.
Each episode centered on a theme from a book, or other children's literature, which was
explored through a number of segments or stories.
The show also recommended books for kids to look for when they went to the library.
It is the third-longest running children's series in PBS history, after Mister Rogers'
Neighborhood and Sesame Street.
It was also one of the first PBS shows to be broadcast in stereo.
After cancellation on November 10, 2006, reruns aired until May 29, 2009, when it was pulled
from the schedule.
On June 20, 2012, the Reading Rainbow App was released for the iPad and, within 36 hours,
became the #1 most-downloaded educational app in the iTunes App Store.
Built from the ground up by LeVar Burton and his company, RRKIDZ, the app allows children
to read unlimited books, explore video field trips starring Burton, and earn rewards for
reading.The week of June 11, 2013, Reading Rainbow celebrated its 30th anniversary.
In May 2014 a Kickstarter campaign was launched to raise funds to make the app available on
the web, Android, game consoles, smartphones, and other streaming devices along with creating
a classroom version with the subscription fee waived for up to 13,000 disadvantaged
classrooms.
The effort met its initial fundraising goal of $1,000,000 in eleven hours.
The campaign met its second goal of $5 million in the last 24 hours, triggering a matching
$1 million from Seth MacFarlane; the final amount raised on Kickstarter is $5,408,916
from 105,857 backers.
Show details Reading Rainbow was hosted by actor and executive
producer LeVar Burton, who is also known for his roles in Roots and Star Trek: The Next
Generation.
It was produced by Lancit Media Entertainment from 1983 until 2000, and by On-Screen Entertainment
from 2000 through 2006.
In every episode was a featured book, often narrated by a celebrity.
Celebrity readers included Philip Bosco, Michael Ansara, Josie de Guzman, Jason Robards, Bill
Cosby, Eartha Kitt and Charles Kimbrough.
Another segment featured Burton in diverse places talking to people about their work
and other contributions, focusing on the theme of each episode.
The final segment of each show, called Book Reviews, began with Burton's introductory
phrase, "But you don't have to take my word for it," and featured children giving capsule
reviews of books they liked.
Burton ended every show with, "I'll see you next time."
The series' pilot, which aired as the show's eighth episode in 1983, featured the book
Gila Monsters Meet You at the Airport by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat, and was narrated by Doug
Parvin.
It was created and produced in 1981.
Burton hosted the program.
Its theme song was written by Steve Horelick, Dennis Neil Kleinman, and Janet Weir; Horelick
also served as the series' music director and composer and received an EMMY nomination
in 2007 for his work on the series.
The original theme was sung by Tina Fabrique and featured one of the first uses of the
Buchla synthesizer in a TV theme song.
The original opening, which depicted a cartoon butterfly transforming the surroundings of
young children reading books into cartoon fantasy lands, was used until 1999.
Later episodes used a new opening, a live-action sequence in a space-themed environment, with
the same theme song performed by R&B artist Chaka Khan.
It was also used for reruns of older episodes until Labor Day of 2008, when PBS stopped
airing reruns.
The daughters of producer Larry Lancit, Shaune and Caitlin Lancit, were often featured in
the series, notably as the children thanking the sponsors at the beginning and end of the
show.
Reading Rainbow's last years as TV series
Original production was to have ended after April 4, 2005, with the show continuing to
air in reruns, but host LeVar Burton said on February 7, 2006 that five new episodes
of the show would be shot in 2006 despite the continuing financial troubles of PBS.
Relaunch as an App; 2012 to Present Former executive producer LeVar Burton announced
on his Twitter feed on March 19, 2010, that "Reading Rainbow 2.0 is in the works."
On March 4, 2012, he announced that it was the "last day of shooting before launch!"
On June 13, 2012, in a special presentation at Apple Inc's annual World Wide Developers
Conference, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, introduced the new Reading Rainbow
iPad App.
It became available in Apple's iTunes Store on June 20, 2012, and within 36 hours was
the #1 educational app.
In January 2014, the Reading Rainbow App surpassed 10M books read and video field trips watched
by children in 18 months.
Consistently the #1 Educational and overall Kids App for iPads, the Reading Rainbow App
continues to inspire new generations of readers in children throughout the world.
Accolades List of accolades received by Reading Rainbow
Television and film Reading Rainbow and LeVar Burton, have appeared
in many works of popular culture.
Community 2011 & 2014.
LeVar Burton surprised super fan Troy Barnes, leaving him speechless in front of his idol.
Troy winds up singing the Reading Rainbow theme song alone in the bathroom.
The Colbert Report 2013.
LeVar Burton appears as the host of Reading Rainbow in a dreamlike sequence when Stephen
Colbert and Carey Mulligan admit that they never have read The Great Gatsby and yet were
both acting as if they did when discussing Mulligan's film based on the novel.
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon 2012.
Jimmy Fallon performed the Reading Rainbow Theme as Jim Morrison from The Doors garnering
2 million hits on YouTube.
PBS Digital Studios 2012.
On Behalf of PBS, Aka Melody Sheep remixed the Reading Rainbow Theme earning over 1 millions
views on YouTube.
Wish I Was Here 2014.
LeVar Burton and an episode of Reading Rainbow appears in Director Zach Braff film starring
Braff and Kate Hudson, Jim Parsons, and James Avery.
Animation producers Feature Book filming
The photographing of the Feature Book segments was by:
Centron Films Loren Dolezal; Take Ten Animation teamed up
with Dolezal from 1995–1998 On Screen Entertainment
Roger Holden - www.rainbowcybercamguy.com - Designer of the digital animation photography
system used by Centron Films to film the Feature Book segments
Guest readers and contributors
Writing and illustrating contest
In 1995, the creators launched the first contest called Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators
Contest.
The annual writing and illustrating competition for children grades K through 3 continued
until 2009 when it was relaunched as PBS Kids Go!
Writers Contest.
Kickstarter Revival Campaign On May 28, 2014, LeVar Burton started a Kickstarter
fund to revive the show and materials.
In under twelve hours the show had reached its $1 million goal.
The new goal is to create an educational version for schools to use, free of cost to those
schools in need, and help America get back to high literacy rates.
They are also going to create a website for students to use to assist them with learning
how to read.
The campaign reached the US$1,000,000 goal on May 28 just before 8 p.m. EST, less than
12 hours after the campaign had launched.
The following day, May 29, 2014, they reached two million dollars at 1:15 p.m. PST.
The campaign raised $5,408,916 on Kickstarter with another one million from Seth MacFarlane,
and 70,000 raised via direct contributions.
The grand total is $6,478,916.
With 105,857 backers, the campaigns holds Kickstarter's record for most backers and
is the 5th highest amount raised on Kickstarter.
References
External links Reading Rainbow at the Internet Movie Database
Reading Rainbow at TV.com ReadingRainbow.com Reading Rainbow website
by RRKidz, Inc.
Reading Rainbow App for Kindle Fire on the Amazon Appstore
Reading Rainbow App for iPad on the Apple App Store