'Reading Rainbow' Reaches Its Final Chapter

[Blue_Tires]

Even if you can't remember a specific Reading Rainbow episode, chances are, the theme song is still lodged somewhere in your head:


Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high,
Take a look, it's in a book — Reading Rainbow ...

Remember now?

Reading Rainbow comes to the end of its 26-year run on Friday; it has won more than two-dozen Emmys, and is the third longest-running children's show in PBS history — outlasted only by Sesame Street and Mister Rogers.

The show, which started in 1983, was hosted by actor LeVar Burton. (If you don't know Burton from Reading Rainbow, he's also famous for his role as Kunta Kinte in Roots, or as the chrome-visored Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: The Next Generation.)

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 series resonates with so many people," says John Grant, who is in charge of content at WNED Buffalo, Reading Rainbow's home station.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112312561&ps=cprs



NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[seemunkee]

1. Didn't realize it was still running

My kids watched it when they were little. Too bad it is ending, hope it gets replaced with something just as intelligent.

LeVar Burton looks a lot younger than 52. He was born only 3 days before me

[fNord]

2. NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!11111!!!!!

:cry::cry::cry:

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

3. Wait a second, isn't this like the tenth time it was "Going off the air?"

I remember back in the late eighties Lavar Burton saying he wasn't going to do it any more. And a few years ago too.

[guitar man]

4. how sad

my daughter loves that show :cry:

[coconuted]

5. They are

Going to replace it with "Texting Rainbow".

[Blue_Tires]

6. welcome to the site!

[coconuted]

7. Thank You!

[Pharlo]

8. My favorite episode dealt with

The Wall. It covered other national monuments as well, but concentrated specifically on The Vietnam Memorial.