Reading Rainbow to end after 26 years

Zero Satori

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LeVar Burton's dedication to this show and its cause have always been inspirational. The man could have sought-out high-profile roles after "Roots" and goodness knows how many minor roles he had to consider turning-down because of the time he invested in helping kids learn how to and enjoy reading.

This is, of course, not to underrate all of the people who worked behind the scenes. Reading Rainbow itself is one of the elite group of shows which could be considered "an American icon" and when it goes off the air, a small piece of us will always feel a bit empty. :( A bit too bad, too, but I hope that they rerelease recordings of it so it can help my kids love to read (when I finally have some).
 

systmdfect

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I honestly didn't know it was still going on. It was definately a great show though, that's for sure.
 

Mike Shagohod

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You know I've watched "Reading Rainbow" religiously since 1983 when it first aired, (even before I comprehended the totality of the show) and it's indeed a sad day that something like that is taken off the air. Doesn't surprise me in the slightest at all though. The future is basically water boarding today's children into consumer driven mindless automatons who might know how to read, but really don't understand why it's important. They won't foster much in the way of caring, and like so many others already, merely regard *reading* with whatever is a part of their curriculum, or necessary to GET THAT JOB/CAREER and nothing beyond that. Once in a blue moon due to mainstream ballyhoo, they might pick up a novel, series or otherwise (Harry Potter anyone?) but that'll be the beginning and the end of it.

I learned quite a bit from Levar Burton's adventures simply hosting the show growing up, and it always both amused me as well as continued to educate (from time to time) throughout Senior High School. I can remember my first "reading moment of magic" in Spring of 1990, when I picked up THIS book:

STEELE03.png


which was the third in an 8 part series of *The Terminator* met ROBOCOP with elements of Mad Max in it, but only the first 6 books would prove to be worth a damn as the last two were written by another author who sucked. It was the first time I really got pumped about a book outside of what some teacher told me I had to read. While looking for the 1st in the series, I then stumbled upon Mack Maloney's post WWIII Nuke Aviator Action-Drama series of:

Wingman01.png


and from the summer of 1990 onward, I was hooked on reading. From that series I would move onto the 4 part series by Ben Sloane of:

HORN01.png


then onto:

DeltaFactor.png

TargetforTonight-1.png
SwagTown01-1.png


...and so on, furthering into non fiction works that set the stage for my never ending quest for more knowledge, and then going out and acquiring "Life Experience" over any over priced schooling. ***Now something like this happens and it saddens me. Yet another reason time is ending. A show actually promoting something of worth and the fat cats don't like it because in their eyes it's no longer pertinent. What could be more pertinent?
 

starscream615

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This is fucking crazy! I was just having this conversation with my mom on the phone today about how my sister raises her kids on crappy television that is full of absolutely nothing helpful. We were discussing Reading Rainbow as one of the few shows that still held to it's original message unlike some like Sesame Street which is just so trivial and commercial even now. I swear if I have to see Elmo's world ever again with mister noodle I'm going to chop his fishes head off.
 

Hidden Character

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For all that you've done inspiring children all across the country and world to legitimately enjoy reading at such a young age, I thank and salute you, Mr. Burton.

BTW, we should have a salute emoticon other than the viking.
 

rarehero

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sesame street, mister rogers, and reading rainbow was some of the better
programming that I loved watching as a kid.
I look at what's available now and I'm disappointed.
on just plain network tv you don't even see cartoons or anything remotely educational.
just jerry springer.
 

Zero Satori

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- Maya and Miguel
- Dragon Tales
- Dora The Explorer
- Clifford

...teach kids every day the value of being over-emotional, optimistic, love-for-no-reason retards. Ultimately, "being socially skilful" becomes more important than being able to read, write, or calculate mathematics. And these are being kept on the air whereas Reading Rainbow is being canceled.

I didn't want to bring-down a thread that's supposed to be about love for something great, but it's unjust that this is happening.
 

Moon Jump

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The public television stations suck, I remember as a kid when I was home on summer vacation they would always air the kids shows, now they only air them in the morning and three or four in the afternoon and that's it. Because of that I didn't even know they were still making Reading Rainbow. I have a 2 year old nephew that I take care of and the stuff they have on for kids now just sucks compared to what we had.

My favorite parody is still the YTMND page that has a clip of Reading Rainbow with the audio from Read a Book!

http://readabooknigga.ytmnd.com/ :lolz:
 

payment_due

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I was one of the ones that didn't know the show was still going, but I'm happy to hear that it actually was still on. It's a real shame that RR is going off the air. Fred Rogers is dead so the Neighborhood is closed, Sesame Street sold out to the dipshits that think 45 minutes of "Elmos World" is educational and now LeVar's great show is gone. Such a shame.
 

duo_r

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Maybe a new show Reading the Amazon Kindle Rainbow will take it's place???
 

Metal Slugnuts

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Yeah my mom emailed me the new link the other day.

My first three years of life were in the panhandle of Oklahoma, right out in the middle of fucking nowhere. As a result the only station we could get was PBS...I lived off of Mr. Rogers, Seasame Street and especially Reading Rainbow.

RR was and is one of my favorite television shows of all time. We had a VHS that got so worn out we could barely play the damn thing anymore...learning how to make honey/cheese, chatting with the Astros, searching for treasure, etc etc etc.

I hope they're able to get most of them on DVD now. I'll nab the compilation sets for my daughter and keep her the FUCK away from the "shows" they push on kids these days. Fuck Nickolodean. :angry:
 

abasuto

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Any remember a show about a dude who taught you to draw ?

I think his name was Mark and at the end of each episode he'd add a little more to his one huge drawing.
 

TonK

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Any remember a show about a dude who taught you to draw ?

I think his name was Mark and at the end of each episode he'd add a little more to his one huge drawing.

Picture Pages?
 

Rade K

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Only in America could a slave become free, learn how to read and become an engineer on a starship.
 

Moon Jump

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Picture Pages with Billy Cosby baby, how could you forget? I watched that all the time with my crayons and markers out, it was awesome, like having good ol' Bill with you drawing pictures. I even have the Ichabod Marker from when we made a donation to PBS. Not sure if it works though, but it never sounded like it did on the show.

Bill Cosby has another kid's show on Nick Noggin called Little Bill, and oh boy does it suck. All he is on the show is the producer and doesn't have a hand in it at all. The kid on the show I guess is supposed to be him as a little kid, but it's not funny or educational. Whenever the show comes on my two year old nephew grabs the remote and comes up to me and says, "No, Nick...no..." then I change the channel.
 

payment_due

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Any remember a show about a dude who taught you to draw ?

I think his name was Mark and at the end of each episode he'd add a little more to his one huge drawing.


Secret City with Commander Mark. :) Loved that show.
 

Zenimus

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Wow, I had no idea that Reading Rainbow was still going. I can still remember the themesong to it. I guess I'm even more surprised though that LeVar Burton remained the host for all those years. It just didn't strike me as the type of show you would stick with for that long.

The TV station claims they want to focus more on the "mechanics" of reading, and not fostering a love for it? Aren't parents supposed to be handling that? No wonder LA's drop-out rate is around 50%. What's going on nowadays?
 

terry.330

Time? Astonishing!
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Anyone remember The Big A?

That shit was like Reading Rainbow for art class.
 
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