Rainbow’s End

I was trained pretty early on to see if there was something good on PBS before watching something else. Sure I watched Transformers and He-Man after school like other kids, but I if I wanted to watch TV I would be more willing to sit through The Electric Company or Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego — no commercials, the little sister could watch as well, and you actually had to engage your mind a little. Besides, it was nice knowing where to find Botswana before the kid on TV did. Like most others of a certain age I would watch Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood (which might someday get a write-up all to itself) and Sesame Street, but I also came across Reading Rainbow just as it was coming on the air.

I remember host LeVar Burton talking about the book Gila Monsters Meet You at the Airport and not having a clue what a gila monster was, although they helped out with that by showing off one on the show. And, of course, they let kids show off three of their favorite books during the show as well. Some of the shows were more memorable than others (if it looked like there was going to be singing of original songs I usually found something else to do; songs about teamwork and space aliens seemed a little cheesy even at eight years old), but going through a list of books from the show is bringing it all back to me: A Chair for My Mother, Bea and Mr. Jones, Miss Nelson is Back, Could be Worse, A Three Hat Day, and many others are books I either read after I saw the show or followed along with because I owned the book. They did special episodes, too.  For example, one was almost entirely centered on music videos as a way of telling a story and used videos from Lionel Richie and Tears for Fears to make a point.

And now the last episodes are airing. After 26 years on the air, Reading Rainbow is ending its run on PBS. Different reasons are coming out, but one of the major ones is that funding is being cut and priorities are being changed in the world of PBS. In a sense this is a loss for good educational television. Ever since Barney came on to delight pre-schoolers and Elmo became the face of Sesame Street it seems like the educational shows on PBS have shifted notably younger. Shows in the 70s like The Electric Company were meant to be for kids in mid-elementary school who had reading and language problems, while a show like 3-2-1 Contact was for kids just a few years away from Junior High. There aren’t too many like that now, and Reading Rainbow was one of the few left.

That’s not to say that there’s nothing on there for older kids. If you get a chance, check out WordGirl — it’s both smart and hilarious in that way Rocky & Bullwinkle was almost 50 years ago. If you have kids or little siblings don’t just sit them in front of the TV, watch it with them. Chances are you’ll get a few jokes that go over their heads.

Also, check out the episode they did when visiting the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I recognized Burton from Reading Rainbow when I first saw this show….which means that they could probably get the series back up and running in a short time if they could just reroute the power thrusters to mimic a warp core breach, causing the HallieEisenberg compensators to overload their temporal anomalous patterns. Or something like that.