American children's Edutainment Show that aired on PBS from 1983-2009note , and whose goal was simple — encourage children to read. It was hosted by co-creator LeVar Burton (yes, that LeVar Burton).
Each episode featured a children's story, usually narrated by a celebrity, that focused on a specific theme (i.e., the importance of teamwork or learning about dinosaurs). The show would explore the theme further through various segments, live-action and animated. The last segment of the show would feature children providing recommendations of other books to look for at the library, preceded by LeVar saying "But you don't have to take my word for it." Every show ended with "I'll/We'll see you next time."
The show was critically acclaimed for its promotion of literacy and for never talking down to its target audience of elementary school-aged children. For all the episodes that covered fun and whimsical topics, there were plenty that dealt unflinchingly with challenging and delicate subject matter, such as love, loss, death, and war.
This show was part of PBS' "triple crown" of children's programming in The '80s and The '90s, along with Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. It would be difficult indeed to find an American of a certain age who didn't watch this program at least occasionally, if not regularly. It's in the same sacrosanct category as Rogers — rarely parodied (but if it is, it's always the positive kind), and insulting it will cause swift and nasty responses.
Rainbow won a Peabody Award and 26 Emmys, and ended its run as the third longest-running children's program in PBS history (behind the aforementioned Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood).
After the show's cancellation, LeVar Burton attempted to revive the Reading Rainbow IP as an internet-based outreach project. However, this got mired in lawsuits after WNED (the PBS station that produced the original show) alleged that Burton didn't have the legal right to do so (Burton thought he'd bought entire franchise, but turned out to be incorrect).
Undeterred, Burton set up Skybrary
, which features a large library of children's books and videos hosted by Burton himself.
Reading Rainbow, meanwhile, was revived by WNED as a series of live events with a rotating cast of hosts.
Burton also has a podcast, "Levar Burton Reads", aimed at an older audience, namely those who watched the original show and want a similar experience in adulthood.
There is also a YouTube channel featuring a small number of stories that were read during the original run.
Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high!
- Actor Allusion: In the episode "Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters," LeVar remarks that "all black Americans have roots in Africa."
- Animated Credits Opening: Used until 1999.
- Affectionate Parody: One of them was produced by Funny Or Die, starring LeVar himself, showing the problems of taking the theme song's "I can do anything" too literally.
- Alliterative Title
- Birthday Episode: "Miss Nelson Is Back", in which LeVar celebrates his birthday by being made up to look like a movie monster and being the star of famed magician Harry Blackstone's trademark bow sawing illusion. The episode ends with his Surprise Party held in a bookstore, though given that the entire thing is an episode of Reading Rainbow, it's likely it actually wasn't a surprise to him in real life.
- Brick Joke: In the Egyptian episode, LeVar pays for a meter outside the Museum of Fine Art to park his camel. The episode ends with the meter expiring, and the meter man giving him a ticket.
- Borrowed Catch Phrase: In "Digging Up Dinosaurs", Jerry Stiller's dinosaur comedian uses LeVar's "But you don't have to take my word for it" catchphrase.
- Catchphrase: Three of them.
- "Hi!" (each episode begins with LeVar saying this word.)
- "But you don't have to take my word for it..."
- "I'll/We'll see you next time."
- "Today's Reading Rainbow books are...."
- Chroma Key: LeVar explains the technique in a 1991 episode about optical illusions.
- He does it again when discussing the special effects behind Star Trek: The Next Generation.
- Clip-Art Animation: Utilized one book per episode.
- Crossover: The episode "The Bionic Bunny Show" took us behind the scenes of Star Trek: The Next Generation note . Notably, it included the only official Hilarious Outtakes of TNG released for over a decade. TNG later completed the crossover by including this episode of Reading Rainbow as a bonus feature on the Blu-Ray of the second season.
- Edutainment Show: One of the all-time greats; a TV show encouraging kids to read is not as hypocritical as it may sound.
- Everything's Better with Rainbows: Well, it would've been pretty lame to have a show just called Reading, wouldn't it?
- Excited Kids' Show Host: LeVar is Type 3 (informative, rarely condescending, not wacky/zany, speaks to children like adults).
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: In the show's take on The Tortoise and the Hare, this happens to LeVar as he struggles to pedal a bike up a hill in a race. The angel on the left wearing all white waves pom-poms and encourages him not give up and keep trying. The devil on the right, dressed in black and floating on a cloud of red, tells him to stop and smell the flowers and relax. When LeVar rejects this idea, the angel gives a cheer of "L-E-V-A-R, pedal that bike and we'll go far!" The devil doesn't give up, though, telling him that by the time he gets up the hill, everyone else will have crossed the finish line. LeVar rejects that too, saying that even if he loses, he'll feel like a winner for trying. The two later make a brief reappearance as LeVar trains on an obstacle course. Once again, LeVar listens to the angel. At the end, when LeVar finishes the race, the angel tells him that he knew he could do it.
- Green Aesop: The episode "Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message" has one about appreciating nature and taking care of the Earth. In fact, many of the episodes featured books of an environmental nature, with the other material in the episode based around it.
- Hash House Lingo: After reading "The Robbery at the Diamond Dog Diner," Levar starts helping in a diner. One customer orders "ice on rice." Taking this literally, he prepares a bowl of rice with ice on it. The waitress clarifies it means "ice cream on rice pudding."
- Kid Hero All Grown-Up: After reading "The Shaman's Apprentice" Levar reaches the village and is taken to meet somebody: the titular apprentice, now all grown up and the shaman of the village, who is passing his teachings onto his two sons.
- Long-Runners: Spent 26 years on the air before budget cuts killed it in 2009. Funnily enough, Reading Rainbow outlived Star Trek: The Next Generation by a few years (when you factor in the movies). In 2012, the show came back as an Internet project.
- Losing Your Head: A pair of floating heads startle LeVar in one episode.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The normally exuberant LeVar spends the episode "Follow The Drinking Gourd" in a very somber and serious mood, talking about the experiences his own ancestors suffered in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
- Pie in the Face: In "Ludlow Laughs," LeVar is given a "comedy makeover." The pie-in-the-face is part of his routine. He gets into it with the clown on realizing it's meant to be a pie fight.
- Pilot: "Gila Monsters Meet You at the Airport", which was shot in 1981, aired as the 8th episode of season 1 in 1983. It featured a completely different credit for a clean-shaved, younger-looking LeVar, and a slightly different 3-note jingle for the book recommendation segment. Not to mention the videotape quality looks noticeably poorer in this episode, in contrast to the rest of season 1.
- "Reading Is Cool" Aesop: The entire point of the show.
- Roger Rabbit Effect: Used in the classic intro, although not to the same extent as others.
- "Sesame Street" Cred: Many. Celebrity narrators ranged from Bill Cosby to Hulk Hogan.
- Notably, the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation was featured in a 1988 episode that followed TNG behind the scenes...including a gag reel.
- The Stinger: The ending credits for "Digging Up Dinosaurs" are interrupted during the writer's credit by the dinosaur comedian, who finally manages to make his dinosaur audience laugh. The credits resume afterward with the associate producers' credits.
- Stock Footage: The episode "Space Case" includes a montage of how humans have imagined extraterrestrial life. The featured clips are of the cantina scene from Star Wars: A New Hope, Jabba's palace from Return of the Jedi, and the glowing aliens from Cocoon.
- Take Our Word for It: As the catchphrase indicates, averted.
- Title Sequence Replacement: To the dismay of fans who know and love the original, trippy intro.
- Transatlantic Equivalent: Long running BBC show Jackanory which began in 1965 offered virtually the same format to British children.
- Another called CBeebies Bedtime Stories
- Uncancelled: For a certain value of uncancelled. The brand was relaunched as an Internet outreach project in 2012 with an iPad app, but thanks to the success of the Kickstarter campaign in 2014, the app was ported to other platforms (including web-browser-based), underfunded classrooms were given free access to all the content in the app, and LeVar even has the budget to film new segments for the project.
- Voice Clip Song: In your Imagination.
