20 replies to this topic

[Cress]

I just saw an episode of RR today where Levar was dressed up sort of like a Masterpiece Theatre host, and the theme for the show was UFOs and paranormal stuff.

Charles Kimborough, aka Jim from Murphy Brown, read a story called June 29, 1999, where giant vegetables fall from the sky. It was so cool hearing him read it in his anchorman voice, like it was a serious piece of news. Loved him pronouncing it veg-e-tables, so you could hear every syllable.

It's such a fun show.

Edited by Cress, Apr 16, 2004 @ 1:39 PM.

[Skywater]

Bump! Caught a rerun of Reading Rainbow today, one of my favorites: this one is about dinosaurs. The little bits with the animated standup comedian dinosaur were just as lame as I remember, but the dump trucks and the trip to Dinosaur National Park was just as cool as I remember.

Some of my favorites: I was a kidlet watching Star Trek, so realizing that Levar and Geordi were the same person blew a few brain cells at the time. One with pilot whales being rehabbed at Sea World, and then set free. And also one where Levar goes out with a marine biologist and they catch little sea creatures in a net. I had a serious marine biology fetish as a girl

[icelimbo]

YourDensity, the book you're thinking of is "Round Trip" by Ann Jonas. I know because it was one of the many books I bought specifically because of RR. Like many others, "A Chair for My Mother" was another one, as was "Hill of Fire," "Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain," "Hot-Air Henry" (from the wonderful hot air balloon ep already mentioned), "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble" (I think it was an RR book?), the one about the bone that talks (maybe called "The Talking Bone"?), "Perfect the Pig," etc. I too watched the series long after grade school, just because it was so much fun. Favorite eps include the aforementioned library/onomatopeia ep, the ep where LeVar is on a scavenger hunt that leads him to a preformance by the magician Harry Blackstone, the one where they visit a pasta-making plant, the one with the fire department (was that for "A Chair for My Mother"?), and the one with "Kapiti Plain" because it was read by James Earl Jones and the whole ep was LeVar inside during a thunderstorm and talking about violent kinds of weather (a personal favorite topic of mine as a child). There was also one where LeVar visited "Big Mama Blue" at this shipyard, and the book was about a dock-rat detective versus these mouse gangsters. Ah, wonderful memories from my childhood. My mom was/is a reading resource specialist for grades K-6, so she loved that I got into the series, and most of the books I got were presents from her for birthdays and holidays. Those books (and a number of others) are currently living in a big plastic tub in my parents' basement if I ever have kids.

[Bean9879]

The little bits with the animated standup comedian dinosaur were just as lame as I remember, but the dump trucks and the trip to Dinosaur National Park was just as cool as I remember.

Oh man, RR was my favorite show on TV when I was younger, right up there with Mister Rogers (because he thought you were special just the way you are). My brother and I were big book nerds, and RR made us feel good about that.
I would definitely buy the plush doll..it would remind me of the episode where they have the little LeVar puppet at the end..and they showed how they built him.
Another big favorite was the behind-the-scenes look at the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, checking out the big floats, and seeing how the ballooms are designed and built.

Is the show still in trouble? I haven't heard anything about it in years, and didn't even realize it had gone this long. I have to say I agree with whomever said that when they see it now, it's still the same old eps from the late 80's. Those seem to be the ones I catch, too.

Oh, and word on the creepy goats. But I did like learning the diner lingo--though I can't remember much of it now...I think there was something about Adam & Eve, and coffee being "mud".

[joanne3482]

One of my favorites was Ox Cart Man when he went to Old Sturbridge Village in Mass. It was the first time I had ever seen something like that, an interactive history museum. Out in Arizona, where I grew up, the best we had was Old Tucson, and it just wasn't as cool. I really enjoyed the story too and I remember him walking home after the Oxen grew up with a pair of baby ox to train and a pocket full of penny candy for his daughters. And in one scene LeVar picked up some hand knitted mittens and made a big deal about how they were hand made and they did everything there the old way, like churning butter. For years I tried to convince my parents to go there with us and for years it didn't happen.

[lavenderbrown]

The goats thing was really creepy. I saw a re-run a few months ago when I was sick from school and whoa, creeped me out! Other than that I loved this show!!!

My favorite was the one where LeVar read Imogene's Antlers. That is THE book!

[amberseashell2]

What a wonderful show... My favorite was when they went to Chinatown. I was a bit baffled at the time, though, that it was New York Chinatown and not San Francisco- I didn't know there was any other!
One of the things that bugged me a bit about this show was that the books were always picture books, even though the show was clearly intended for kids old enough to read "chapter books". Not that they didn't pick out good books, but you see what I mean.

[carrier76]

I think the only eps of this they showed were Dinosaurs, Chinatown and Statue of Liberty rehab. Is this still on?

[Eegah]

Wasn't there an episode where Kermit the Frog turned up? I vaguely recall a buildup to them meeting with a weirdly ominous feel, with stuff like Kermit's hand appearing as creepy music played.

[Mack the Spoon]

Does anyone remember the episode about "Follow the Drinking Gourd"? With the slaves following the Big Dipper to the North? I think it was on the Underground Railroad. Anyway, I don't think I'd learned much about that before, and it was cool. Plus, the song that went with it was nifty, too.

I *heart* this show so much.

[tennyoaisu]

I remember that story, Mack! The song was indeed really cool; seven years later my choir class had to sing it so I was all "hee!"

I watched Reading Rainbow every afternoon when I was little. I can't clearly remember any of the stories by name, but I do recall loving one story about this old chair. Ehe.

[dutchsofa]

I watched Reading Rainbow every afternoon when I was little. I can't clearly remember any of the stories by name, but I do recall loving one story about this old chair. Ehe.

I believe the story you are thinking of is A Chair for My Mother. The apartment burns down and through careful coin dropping (in a glass jar), the little girl and her mother and grandmother are able to replace their favorite easy chair and sit on it together. Good book.

I loved this show growing up. We didn't have cable, so my afternoon entertainment all came from PBS. My parents and I still remember a lot of the books; my dad's favorite was Caps For Sale, my mom's was The Purple Coat, and mine was The Paper Crane.

I also remember one episode where LeVar went to a museum and looked at mummies (featured book was Mummies by Alikei). I was really freaked by mummies for a long time.

[grimy]

I remember the drinking gourd one. Or maybe we sung it in some music class. Hmm. The theme song to this show always haunted me for some reason. Also, it seems like it always turns up as a funny punchline in black comedies.

[ottergreen]

Everyone has such great memories! One of my favorites (that I can remember) was where Levar had a metal detector at the beach... oh, and then there was one where he showed how they used manure to fertilise crops. Good times.

I always hated, though, the part with the three kids doing their book reports. "But don't take my word for it" always struck me with dread for some reason. Maybe because it meant that the show was almost over.

[swingkidpt]

Personally, I always liked the Star Trek episode. I didn't realize until that episode that Levar Burton was Geordi.

A friend of mine was on Reading Rainbow. I don't remember the episode, but she said she made hats, or something like that.

[MartianIceQueen]

Heh. I hadn't yet started watching Star Trek: TNG when I first saw that episode, so I thought: "How nice! They created a character on their show for LeVar!"

[ashwini]

I always hated, though, the part with the three kids doing their book reports. "But don't take my word for it" always struck me with dread for some reason. Maybe because it meant that the show was almost over.

Me too! However, I remembered it fondly when one of my classmates in high school tacked it on the end of a presentation he did in our lit class senior year.

I so desperately wanted to be on this show when I was four.

[BitchySmurf]

Reading Rainbow is no more. I was very sad to hear about this. I don't watch anymore (stupid work, taking up my days) but I remember I would long past the time when I was "too old" for it. Like when I was on spring break in high school. Stupid government, pulling their funding.

[Batman Beatles]

I saw an episode that utterly depressed me. It was about kids who have parents in prison.

[Cress]

Hey, Reading Rainbow fans, have you heard about the new iPad app they made? Engadget has a report about a press event with LeVar Burton where they demo the app. In the first video, LeVar even sings the Reading Rainbow theme song with the original singer.

http://www.engadget....hands-on-video/

The app itself is free, and you're supposed to be able to view videos in it for free, but you need a subscription in order to get the books. Anyway, even if you aren't interested in the app, it's nice to see LeVar Burton still continuing Reading Rainbow even without the TV show.

Edited by Cress, Jun 20, 2012 @ 3:32 AM.

[Kweed]

According to the website:
Reading Rainbow is back and back strong! Here we are truly beginning anew a journey that started almost 30 years ago. When the first episode of Reading Rainbow went on the air in 1983, no one, least of all me, imagined that three decades later, our attempt to instill in children the love of reading books and of literature itself would turn into, well, all of this! Last year I fulfilled a dream of mine and acquired control of the Reading Rainbow brand.

http://www.rrkidz.com/