Two Startling Things to Learn
1) LeVar Burton has still been hosting Reading Rainbow all this time, which is awesome and impressive.
2) The last episode aired yesterday, which not at all awesome. Full story.
I'm sort of torn by these revelations. It's distinctly sad, particularly as even rerun rights are complicated by the issue of renewing broadcast rights for the books featured on the episodes. As a kid of the 80s, I adored the show, and I can't overstate the greatness of the series - an opinion I'm sure millions of people my age and younger share.
On the other hand, for all I knew, the show had died off back in the 90s - and it hadn't. It survived four presidential administrations, anti-PBS posturing by Team Red, and the other vagaries of public TV. It got to kids as early as possible to show them how fun and amazing books can be be, before the education system could try to stamp out any interest in them, and it did that for 26 years.
26 years.
It's sad to not be able to say " - and counting", but I can't let that sort of accomplishment and good work go by uncelebrated. Here's to Mr. Burton and everyone else involved in Reading Rainbow.
(Hat tip to Alexandra Erin, who wrote about this here.)
2) The last episode aired yesterday, which not at all awesome. Full story.
I'm sort of torn by these revelations. It's distinctly sad, particularly as even rerun rights are complicated by the issue of renewing broadcast rights for the books featured on the episodes. As a kid of the 80s, I adored the show, and I can't overstate the greatness of the series - an opinion I'm sure millions of people my age and younger share.
On the other hand, for all I knew, the show had died off back in the 90s - and it hadn't. It survived four presidential administrations, anti-PBS posturing by Team Red, and the other vagaries of public TV. It got to kids as early as possible to show them how fun and amazing books can be be, before the education system could try to stamp out any interest in them, and it did that for 26 years.
26 years.
It's sad to not be able to say " - and counting", but I can't let that sort of accomplishment and good work go by uncelebrated. Here's to Mr. Burton and everyone else involved in Reading Rainbow.
(Hat tip to Alexandra Erin, who wrote about this here.)