If you were a kid at some point in the last 30 years, or had kids at some point between 1983 and 2006, LeVar Burton’s Twitter feed had very exciting news for you today – Reading Rainbow may be making a come back. According to the long time host and Star Trek star’s post, “Reading Rainbow 2.0 is in the works!”
With a 23 year run, this seminal show has been an important part of childhood for more than one generation of children and parents. Designed to encourage children to read, each episode featured a different celebrity narrating an animated take on a short children’s book. The shows also featured segments with Burton interviewing people or going places that related to the theme of the episode and a short ending segment of book reviews and recommendations in which Burton would suggest books for children to check out at their local library and then add, “but you don’t have to take my word for it” before cutting to various kids doing their own reviews. The host would then promise, “I’ll see you next time” and the oh-so-familiar theme music would strike up, ending the show.
In the course of its time on the air, Rainbow received over 200 broadcast awards, including Emmys. It is the third longest running children’s series in PBS history, after Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Sesame Street. For those of us who loved going on an adventure with Burton every afternoon, it was much more important than a collection of awards – it was comfort food in televised form. The very idea of having it back, ready for a whole new generation of kids to fall in love with, is enough to make anyone smile. Goodness knows, excellent children’s television is hard to find. We can only hope that “in the works” will soon be here to stay!
