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Warming Glow
Warming Glow is a blog dedicated to the best and worst of television programming. Mostly the worst.


08.28.09 R.I.P. READING RAINBOW

reading-rainbowMore like RACIAL Rainbow!

After a run of 26 years on PBS, the final episode of “Reading Rainbow” aired today. The only children’s television shows with longer runs are “Mister Rogers” and “Sesame Street.”  **plays “Taps” on the kazoo**

Each episode of Reading Rainbow had the same basic elements: There was a featured children’s book that inspired an adventure with Burton. Then, at the end of every show, kids gave their own book reviews, always prefaced by Burton’s trademark line: “But you don’t have to take my word for it …”

The show’s run is ending… because no one — not the station, not PBS, not the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — will put up the several hundred thousand dollars needed to renew the show’s broadcast rights. [NPR]

I don’t know if “Reading Rainbow” had any lasting effect on people who grew up in the ’90s, but if you were a nerdy little bookworm in the ’80s (guilty), this show OWNED YOUR SH*T.  Check out video of the original credits after the jump.  The catchy hook and the reverb on the synthesizer makes me want to go read the f*ck outta some Very Hungry Caterpillar.

[via Popwatch]

SEE ALSO: 11 best “Reading Rainbow” theme song covers at Buzzfeed.

33 Comments » TAGS: LEVAR BURTON, PBS, READING RAINBOW
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There are 33 comments about:
R.I.P. READING RAINBOW

August 28th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Upstate Underdog says:

I was too busy watching He-Man, Transformers and GI Joe to even know this show existed.

Also, I would have gone with “reading rainbow coalition” for the picture’s title.

August 28th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
La Schmoove says:

Damn! First 3-2-1 Contact and now this!

August 28th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
peter says:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1K8hYiJIHo

Pours a forty for levar.

August 28th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
whowillsexmutombo? says:

if they want the show renewed they should re-format into some sort of reality show. “America’s most illiterate children” or “Read your ass off” are two possible angles…

August 28th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Kid Presentable says:

Holy crap, I felt like I was having an acid flashback watching that (less dragons than usual, though). That show kicked ass.

August 28th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Vodka says:

This is sad news. That show was great. The more stuff like this happens, the more I realize I think I watched everything on TV growing up.

August 28th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
BadKarma says:

Affirmative Action Rainbow

August 28th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Danger Guerrero says:

@ Vodka

Agreed. I’ve won multiple drinks at bars from friends by being able to sing theme songs of kids’ shows from the 80-90s purely from memory.

/Ducktales, woo-oo

August 28th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
CrabApple says:

That video almost brought a tear to my eye and I have no idea why. I think it had to do with the Benjamin Franklin looking guy that used to scare the hell out me for some reason as a kid.

*pokes at my new vagina

August 28th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
iwontrememberthis says:

I loved the show as a kid, and have a feeling the synth intro made a lasting impact on my musical tastes.

August 28th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Johnny D says:

@Danger Guerrero

When you’re in trouble you call DW … Darkwing Duck!

August 28th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
La Schmoove says:

@Danger

Ch-Ch-Ch-Chip and Dale! Rescue Rangers!

August 28th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Erin says:

Best episode ever was when they visited the set of Star Trek and talked about the “special effects”. Like a model of the Enterprise in front of a picture of stars.

August 28th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
La Schmoove says:

Damn! First Square One and now this!

August 28th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
I am Dan says:

This show made me half the man I am today.

Because I am illiterate on my left side.

August 28th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Oscar says:

I didn’t even know it was still on.

August 28th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
HarvardAlum says:

Racial Rainbow?? RR was filmed in Brooklyn,New York.. Do the Math people! You want to talk about race, lets talk about the lack of color in the citcom “Friends”. A show filmed in NEW YORK, but with no black people! Give me a break. This must be the utopia that the East Village has been praying for, but then again where will all of the New York Knicks,Yankees,Mets live? Racial Rainbow right there!

August 28th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Duke of Madness says:

I was going to make an amusing and pithy point, but HarvardAlum has pretty much hate-fucked this thread to death.

Too bad about the show…

August 28th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Enrico Pallazzo says:

longer runs are “Mister Rogers”

Thanks for the image of that chode’s diarrhea. HarvardAlum is a total faggot.

August 28th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Matt says:

I think we all owe it to ourselves to punch every Harvard alum we meet, just on the off chance it’s HarvardAlum.

August 28th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Burt Destruction says:

reading is FUNdamental

August 28th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
I am Dan says:

I was told there would be no math.

August 28th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Junker23 says:

Hadn’t heard that theme song in years, that was weird. A little depressed the show’s toast, but honestly I had no idea it was still filming.

August 29th, 2009 at 2:17 am
THECURSOR says:

Damn it! This show was the fucking bomb, and now fucking gone.

Say what you want about the 80s but kids knew how to fucking read thanks to Levar Burton. The world is going to shit because there’s no fucking Reading Rainbow anymore. Fuck you world.

August 29th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
TBG says:

Wow. I didn’t even think the show was still on air. I definitely would have watched that during sick days instead of the rest of the crap that’s on during the day.

August 30th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Nikolas says:

Damn, I didn’t even known this show still aired. Makes me wonder if there are any shows left airing that actually try to influence children to read more.

August 30th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Dave says:

Disney and Nicklelodeon produce retarded crap with insipid laugh tracks and politically correct propaganda cartoons, designed to make a max profit and dumb down American youth. Mothers plunk their kids in from of this electronic babysitter, and they graduate to the garbage on MTV, ruining their morals. Damn, we had to pull this crap off the satellite, and I see my nieces and nephews becoming brain-dead. Anything promoting critical learning is eliminated, and PBS is nothing but a propaganda arm for Barak and ACORN. I am not surprised, write your congressman if you feel the same outrage about the dumbing down of America!

August 31st, 2009 at 1:31 am
collin says:

*tears up* its ok even though pbs doesnt love you anymore patrick stuart still does. “status report mr. laforge”

August 31st, 2009 at 4:36 am
Rg says:

Bring back ZOOM!

August 31st, 2009 at 7:51 am
lura says:

Well at least The Electric Company still comes on for my kids to watch. I wont let them watch this new stuff

August 31st, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Bryn says:

I may have missed the attention span, but go here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=144192794133&ref=ts and help us brainstorm ideas to keep Reading Rainbow on the air! Any and all ideas are welcome!

September 1st, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Spatula says:

Reading? Our kids don’t need no reading. Reading makes you get all upitty, sassin’ your parents and preachers. Nope, don’t want none o’ that.

September 1st, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Mousie says:

*SOB!* NOOOOOO! I freaking LOVE that show… At first because I was a nerdy little bookworm (and still love reading), and then because it was a great way to get the little kids I babysat to read books with me and sit still for more than two seconds a day. With shows like this, 3-2-1 Contact, Square One, and the original Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego meeting their doom… well, quite frankly I’m not surprised that at least 5 out of 10 teens I meet are poorly educated, and at least 1 out of every 25 can’t read at more than a 6th-grade level. It’s a damnable course of events, and I wish more parents would get involved in putting a stop to it.

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