By: Jenny Castro
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 10/4/24 – “This is a story of a “dream team” that came together to bring Reading Rainbow to life. While the seeds were planted in Buffalo, the series further developed and flourished with the formation of a larger collaborative team that shared the same passion for using television to motivate children to read.” Excerpt from “Creating Reading Rainbow: The Untold Story of a Beloved Children’s Series”
Since its launch in 1983, Reading Rainbow has been synonymous with educating young children through its iconic TV series airing on PBS from July 1983 to November 2006. Groundbreaking for the time, Reading Rainbow went on to become one of the most watched series in all of the country while winning countless awards including 26 Emmy Awards along with Parent’s and Teacher’s Choice Awards. In its first season, the program earned around 6.5 million views from children and families all over the country. Earlier this year, a book detailing the story behind the making of the series was released and co-authored by Tony Buttino Sr., Barbara Irwin and Pam Johnson. Titled, “Creating Reading Rainbow: The Untold Story of a Beloved Children’s Series,” all 3 authors spent a great deal working on the series and provide great detail regarding the beginnings of Reading Rainbow and how the program became a phenomenon in the world of children’s education.
Offering more insight, Co-Author Barbara Irwin provides more details pertaining to the making of the book, “I was a professor in the communications department at Canisius University teaching media studies courses and among them a course about media and children,” said Irwin. Adding, “And having worked on Reading Rainbow, I wanted to incorporate some things into the class pertaining to the show and was looking for reading materials, and there’s very little written about Reading Rainbow so there was a void to be filled and with my background having worked with Tony and Pam it seemed like a natural extension of my work. This is a show that is among the longest running children’s series on PBS, and it’s right up there with Sesame Street, Mister Rogers Neighborhood and Arthur which all had a wide impact on children, so it seemed like a good project to develop.”
Co-Author and Co-Creator of Reading Rainbow Tony Buttino Sr. had spent around 5 years or so experimenting with children’s summer literacy programs along with his colleagues while at WNED-TV in Buffalo, NY. The inspiration behind the development of the show stemmed from the lack of summer reading programs available to children, “Basically, I found out that there’s this summer loss phenomenon where kids were not reading and teachers have to spend a lot of time getting them motivated. As a parent, I was thinking that television could help in that sense, as a way to bridge the gap between the time they leave school and when they go back,” said Co-Author and Creator Tony Buttino Sr. Adding, “I’m called the co-creator of Reading Rainbow, and when I got money, I was one of the executive producers. So basically, my role was getting the television program together and starting with people that would help us.” Buttino would end up receiving money and sponsorships from a variety of sources including the Kellogg Company to get the pilot up and running. Co-Author Pam Johnson offers further insight, “In the world of educational television for children it can take 5, 6, 7 or 8 years to make and build the case and prove the need. Basically, to pave the way for the production of a children’s series. It’s the kind of thing that takes a bit of time and thinking. And the strength of Reading Rainbow which we talk about is that it was so focused on this need, of not only motivating kids to read, but the idea of how to really support children in the summer because it really began in that way.” Adding, “And Tony and Barb write about this and the bringing together of television and reading which was something incredibly innovative at that time. No children’s series had yet been doing that, and so this was a notable idea of how television could be utilized to support and excite kids about reading.”
Buttino admits it was very challenging in all aspects particularly in the beginning, and even experienced some pushback from some of the local librarians, “Teachers and librarians I don’t think were so happy with kids watching television the way it was. And in fact, I’m sure some of them said to turn the TV off and go read a book or something like that. So that was a challenging time to kind of work with the public librarians and school librarians,” he said. In terms of finding the right host, Mr. Rogers had been considered at one point but to no avail. Instead, PBS was able to land actor LeVar Burton. Barbara Irwin tells us more, “We have a chapter in the book called “Finding Our Mr. Rogers,” and we really look at LeVar as the Mr. Rogers of Reading Rainbow. And there were a lot of names being thrown around and nothing was really floating to the surface as the person.” she said. Adding, “And people knew of LeVar obviously because this wasn’t too long after “Roots,” and he became a sensation after that, and was in New York about to leave on a rafting trip and of the associate producers Lynne Ganek saw him and saw that he was going to be on this local talk show in New York. And this was in the formative stages as there was no series yet, but finding a host was essential.”
Eventually, Burton was cast as the host and was the face of Reading Rainbow for over 20 years, leaving his mark on the iconic series which is still very much loved and admired today. After airing for decades, Reading Rainbow came to a close in 2006, bittersweet for all involved in the show. “It was very emotional as it was ending. And that’s probably one of the things we should all be taught, right? How to graciously close down and say goodbye to something you love at a sunset. It’s not a thing you’re taught how to do. And how many series of any kind can go 26 years. So, claiming success and graciously saying, “we did it.” That we did something phenomenal here, and it’s time to take a break and step down plus times were also changing,” said Pam Johnson.
There’s no question Reading Rainbow has left an iconic legacy behind that many will always remember during their childhood. Pertaining to that legacy, Barbara Iwin shares her thoughts, “The idea that Reading Rainbow brought the joy of reading to millions and millions of children while showcasing how important stories are in our lives. Is an important legacy to have. The series allowed them to travel to distant places that they would never have had an opportunity to visit. To go back in time and to go forward in time to encounter people who are different from themselves as diversity was a really important aspect of Reading Rainbow from the start. So, I think all of those things, Reading Rainbow played a really pivotal role in providing these opportunities for children who were watching, including families and parents as well. And, as a professor of media studies to think about the legacy in terms of the power of the media to do something very positive. I think that’s an important legacy as well.”
Currently, Netflix showcases a documentary titled, “Butterfly in the Sky: The Story of Reading Rainbow.” Barbara, Tony, and Pam encourage those to watch it as it provides great insight into the making of the series as well.
You can find the book, “Creating Reading Rainbow: The Untold Story of a Beloved Children’s Series,” on Amazon here.
Visit the Official Website here.
