Yesterday I was looking for a video of Maya Angelou’s reading on “Reading Rainbow” and I came across this Kickstarter campaign called “Bring Back Reading Rainbow.”** I clicked through and there was only like $150,000 pledged towards their $1mm goal, and that made me sad, so I threw in my $35 and posted a link to Facebook about it.
They reached their $1mm goal yesterday around 8 PM (so I guess in about 12 hours?) and right now they’re at $1.8mm with 34 days left to go. I wonder how much they will end up with?!
The campaign is smart because it’s not only leaning on America’s love for Reading Rainbow (well, young parent America’s love for Reading Rainbow - I don’t know how people over 40 feel about it!) but also including incentives that are Star Trek related. You can get yourself a paid of real, set-worn Geordie glasses!
I didn’t watch the campaign’s video until today. Check it out - the beginning is funny and then there’s a special treat for ST:TNG fans at the end. You can skip all of the “why we are doing this” stuff in the middle.
I actually was thinking about RR recently and how I wished I could show it to my nieces, because I loved it so much. And it was captivating. I downloaded some pirated copies of the show but the quality is lacking. I wonder if the new app they build will have an archive of the old episodes?? Some classics on there! Although it would be great to have new classics read by current actors, too! I don’t think there’s a Patrick Stewart or a Morgan Freeman episode!
It’ll be fun to watch their total go up, and see if there’s a Reading Rainbow Revival.
Anyone else throw their money in?
** Not going to link to it because I think there’s a rule against promoting Kickstarters around here. But if you want to be involved you can find it!
I donated yesterday shortly after it crossed the $1 million mark. Right now it’s at $1.9 million and will easily break $2 million by the end of the day.
videos of many, if not most, of the Reading Rainbow episodes are available at my library. anyone who is interested in revisiting episodes, with children or without, can probably find easily through a library.
I do think Mr. Burton means to expand beyond just making the old shows more available, but I’m not quite sure of the details. He probably isn’t either, at this point. Glad to see the effort is doing so well - I have confidence some good things will come of it.
But, the Kickstarter campaign is to allow them to offer the program to 1500+ schools for free. Everyone else pays the subscription fee.
In fact, part of the kickbacks for contributions is to get a free month of the RR app, so they make it pretty evident that there is a subscription fee.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I don’t think Reading Rainbow was ever a nonprofit. Of course, people didn’t have to pay a subscription to watch the show, but PBS had to pay rights fees to the production company. The article goes to great pains to point out that Reading Rainbow isn’t a charity and is charging subscription fees. But, fails to mention the fact that the point of the Kickstarter is to get the program into disadvantaged schools for free. Perhaps, as that article asks, Reading Rainbow is not the best vehicle for teaching literacy. But, I don’t think that means it is an unworthy project. And, like Zipper said, the Kickstarter page makes it very clear what you are paying for and what the Reading Rainbow app entails.
I’m pleasantly surprised by how effective Burton’s efforts to fund the return of Reading Rainbow has been. I loved the show as a kid, and I hope this new effort introduces lots more kids into reading.
LeVar Burton is a real hot commodity right now. People who remember him from RR love him - and are people with jobs and careers and money to throw at “the good of humanity”. He’s got the ST:TNG people - didn’t that just come out on Netflix? (Shout out PSXer) The people that forgot about him and didn’t watch Star Trek on Netflix were reminded of him by his appearances on Community and The Big Bang Theory. Plus he still looks great, and he’s got that iconic voice that we all remember from growing up with him on RR.
It’s great that he’s capitalizing on this power he holds over all of us to do something good. We’re all LeVar sheeple and it’s awesome!
Correction: Reading Rainbow was a nonprofit that was subsequently liquidated, and the Kickstarter is merely reviving the brand that Burton bought the rights to.
I think what’s amazing about this is that Reading Rainbow stopped producing episodes in 2006. The buzz surrounding the Kickstarter makes it sound like they stopped filming in 1987.