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Don't Take My Word for It Reading Rainbow

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"Have a await, it'south in a volume..."

"I think reading is part of the birthright of the homo beingness."

— LeVar Burton, actor and children's literacy advocate.

American children'south Edutainment Show that aired on PBS from 1983-2009 note The last new episode was fabricated in 2006., and whose goal was simple — encourage children to read. It was hosted past co-creator LeVar Burton (yes, that LeVar Burton).

Each episode featured a children's story, usually narrated by a glory, that focused on a specific theme (i.e., the importance of teamwork or learning about dinosaurs). The evidence 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 "Simply you don't have to take my word for it." Every show ended with "I'll/We'll see you next time."

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. Information technology would exist difficult indeed to notice an American of a certain age who didn't scout this program at to the lowest degree occasionally, if non regularly. It'due south in the same sacrosanct category equally Rogers — rarely parodied (just if it is, it'south always the positive kind), and insulting it will cause swift and nasty responses.

Rainbow won a Peabody Award and 26 Emmys, and concluded its run as the third longest-running children's program in PBS history (behind the aforementioned Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood).

Five years after the show ended, Reading Rainbow has fabricated a comeback of a sort, as an cyberspace-based outreach projection. The project was started in 2012 with the goal of making Reading Rainbow content bachelor on the iPad to everyone in the world. Only as it progressed, feedback came in asking for the app to be available to more just the iPad, and their ambitions grew, and the existing funding method of an optional low monthly fee for premium content proved to be insufficient (since said fee was already being used for funding the server space and content royalty). A Kickstarter entrada for the project was started, and it reached its $1,000,000 goal before the outset day was finished. As you can imagine, Burton is overwhelmed by this support. In all, the project received over $5.4 1000000 in donations and set a tape for most individual backers for a Kickstarter entrada.

Reading Rainbow has a Youtube Page. You could get your Reading Rainbow fix hither, however at this time almost all content has been removed and the hereafter of the higher up-discussed efforts is in flux due to an ongoing lawsuit by producer/PBS station WNED alleging that Burton is capitalizing on the show'south name, having hosted the show merely not really owning the rights to it (LeVar had idea that he had bought out the entire franchise, which turned out to be incorrect). In October 2017, nonetheless, WNED announced on the bear witness'south official website that "Recent legal disputes between WNED and LeVar Burton/RRKIDZ take been resolved and RRKIDZ no longer licenses the Reading Rainbow brand from WNED. WNED is currently working on the next affiliate of Reading Rainbow and will keep its mission of fostering education for a new generation." Time volition tell whether backlash will have any upshot on this reboot, equally WNED did ruffle the feathers of a number of fans of LeVar'south, and that nothing further came out of it equally of 2019.

In 2018, Burton started a podcast entitled just LeVar Burton Reads. The podcast is very similar in format, except that information technology'due south audio-but and features more mature stories rather than children's literature. It besides came nether fire in the lawsuit for Burton describing information technology as "Reading Rainbow for adults" (he no longer does, but fans exercise with dispensation) and because WNED claimed copyright infringement over the phrases "you don't have to take my word for it" and "I'll see y'all next time" (unsurprisingly, they lost that one).

This show provides examples of:

  • Thespian Allusion: In the episode "Mufaro'south Beautiful Daughters," LeVar remarks that "all black Americans take roots in Africa."
  • Animated Credits Opening: Used until 1999.
  • Affectionate Parody: One of them was produced by Funny Or Dice, starring LeVar himself, showing the issues of taking the theme song's "I can practice anything" besides literally.
  • Alliterative Title
  • Birthday Episode: "Miss Nelson Is Dorsum", in which LeVar celebrates his birthday by being fabricated up to look like a moving picture monster and existence 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 unabridged matter is an episode of Reading Rainbow, it'southward likely it really wasn't a surprise to him in existent life.
  • Brick Joke: In the Egyptian episode, LeVar pays for a meter outside the Museum of Fine Fine art to park his camel. The episode ends with the meter expiring, and the meter human being giving him a ticket.
  • Catchphrase: 3 of them.
    • "Hi!" (each episode begins with LeVar maxim this word.)
    • "But you don't have to take my discussion for information technology..."
    • "I'll/We'll see you lot next time."
    • "Today'due south Reading Rainbow books are...."
  • Chroma Cardinal: LeVar explains the technique in a 1991 episode about optical illusions.
    • He does information technology once more when discussing the special effects behind Star Expedition: The Adjacent Generation.
  • Clip-Art Blitheness: Utilized one book per episode.
  • Crossover: The episode "The Bionic Bunny Prove" took us behind the scenes of Star Expedition: The Next Generation annotation on which LeVar Burton, of course, played Geordi LaForge. Notably, information technology 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 equally a bonus feature on the Blu-Ray of the 2nd season.
  • Edutainment Show: Ane of the all-time greats; a TV show encouraging kids to read is non equally hypocritical as it may audio.
  • Everything'southward Better with Rainbows: Well, it would've been pretty lame to have a show just called Reading, wouldn't information technology?
  • Excited Kids' Show Host: LeVar is Type 3 (informative, rarely condescending, not wacky/zany, speaks to children similar adults).
  • Skillful Angel, Bad Angel: In the prove's have on The Tortoise and the Hare, this happens to LeVar as he struggles to pedal a bicycle 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 correct, dressed in blackness and floating on a cloud of carmine, tells him to stop and smell the flowers and relax. When LeVar rejects this idea, the affections gives a cheer of "Fifty-Due east-V-A-R, pedal that wheel and we'll become far!" The devil doesn't surrender, though, telling him that by the fourth dimension he gets up the loma, everyone else will take 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 cursory reappearance as LeVar trains on an obstacle form. 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 Proficient Morning Message" has 1 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.
  • Long-Runners: Spent 26 years on the air before budget cuts killed information technology in 2009. Funnily plenty, Reading Rainbow outlived Star Expedition: The Next Generation by a few years (when y'all factor in the movies). In 2012, the testify came back as an Internet project.
  • Losing Your Head: A pair of floating heads startle LeVar in i episode.
  • OOC 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 ain 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'south meant to exist a pie fight.
  • Pilot: "Gila Monsters Meet You at the Airport", which was shot in 1981, aired every bit the 8th episode of season 1 in 1983. Information technology featured a completely dissimilar credit for a make clean-shaved, younger-looking LeVar, and a slightly different three-notation 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 Pecker Cosby to Hulk Hogan.
    • Notably, the entire bandage of Star Expedition: The Side by side Generation was featured in a 1988 episode that followed TNG behind the scenes...including a gag reel.
  • Take Our Give-and-take 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 Story
  • Uncancelled: For a certain value of uncancelled. The brand was relaunched equally an Internet outreach project in 2012 with an iPad app, only 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.
  • Vocalism Clip Song: In your Imagination.

"We'll see you next fourth dimension."

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/ReadingRainbow