According to NPR, today is Reading Rainbow's last day. The program has run for 26 years -- so just long enough for me to have loved it from the beginning -- but now isn't being funded for a new season, in part because PBS research has shown that programs that teach children how to read are the way to go.
A spokesperson for PBS said Reading Rainbow was never "a show about how to read...it was about why to read."
They pointed out that probably everyone (or at least everyone listening to NPR at 8 a.m.) had the theme song locked away in their brain somewhere. I have an additional one: the 1984 "Teamwork" episode (where Levar dresses up in tights and dances with a ladder). And then there's the "Abiyoyo" song Tyler used to sing until I yelled at him in irritation.
I watched Reading Rainbow reruns during lunch break between classes senior year in college. It came on right after The Wonder Years, and it usually made me feel more nostalgic than Kevin's voiceover accounts of his relationship with Winnie.
I'll miss Reading Rainbow, even though I haven't seen it for years, and its end makes me wonder: When will it be out season-by-season on DVD?
And what will Levar Burton be doing now? Sci-fi conventions?
At least I've got all of TNG to console me.
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