Just as the original LeVar Burton-hosted Reading Rainbow provided generations with an avenue to the imaginative worlds within children’s books, the new reboot continues the legacy to give kids access to essential educational content.
Over the weekend, KidZuko (operated by Sony Studios) and the official Reading Rainbow YouTube channel premiered the first episode of the reboot for the internet generation. Now hosted by the internet’s librarian, Mychal Threets, who gained social media popularity through content geared toward enshrining libraries as important community-building spaces, the revival couldn’t have come at a more crucial time.
The first episode includes appearances by Ebon Moss-Bacharach (The Fantastic Four: First Steps) and Jamie Chung (Batman: Caped Crusader) where the actors read to kids and sometimes even cats at a rescue! Seeing comic book actors lean into the premise of the new show could totally inspire kids to seek out more of their works in pop culture by finding a love for comic books. LeVar Burton’s presence as a teacher in homes across America inspired a generation of readers but also introduced many of us to his important works in various genres, including Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Many Trek fans will remember Reading Rainbow‘s strong history with the series, thanks to Burton’s tenure as its host and as TNG‘s Geordi Storage. Reading Rainbow even played up that connection at times, including even airing an episode that took its audience behind the scenes of The Next Generation (you can watch it here, and it’s so wild to see Burton on the bridge without Geordi’s visor). Alongside the curated books to fit the themes of teamwork, the episode showcased the Star Trek crew’s collaboration and was such a formative way for kids to fall in love with TV production. It really helped young minds see that they too could make sci-fi worlds come to life and sent Reading Rainbow‘s young audience in the direction of Star Trek—one of the series’ first attempts to get younger fans on board through family-focused entertainment.
It’s by far no means the only one, however. Of course, there was Star Trek: The Animated Seriesbut more recently, Trek has tried to appeal to families and younger audiences more directly than by association, as it did with the old Reading Rainbow. Star Trek: Prodigy wanted to bridge new young viewers with the shows their parents watched growing up through its use of legacy characters like Captain Janeway. More recently, Paramount launched an educational kids’ show, Star Trek Scouts, on YouTube. But Reading Rainbow and Burton’s special remain one of the most beloved ways Trek has bridged that gap. It was such a big deal for kids to explore the day-to-day of the actors, writers, directors, special effects, and makeup artists like a grown-up would without talking down to them.
With guests like Marvel Studios’ star Moss-Bachrach and other prominent figures in pop culture lending their time to the new show, it would also be cool to see that kind of connection continue along with the books presented. For me, my love for writing about fantasy and monsters grew from storybooks like Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Arewhich I first discovered through Reading Rainbow. So I’m excited to see how literary works will be featured to create new diverse pathways for kids to be creative and find belonging in such an uncertain world.
The original home of Reading RainbowPBS has made headlines as the current administration has seemingly attacked the budget provided to bipartisan-supported public media. NPR reports that the decision directly affects the stations, as lawmakers passed legislation to “eliminate all federal funding for public broadcasting for the next two years,” which included $1.1 billion that was previously approved to financially cultivate content, as these stations have for decades with educational programming such as Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Wishbone, and countless others.
The Trump administration’s repeated attempt to cut off these avenues of knowledge speaks to a broader pushback against entertainment studios that has defined several parts of Trump’s second-term agenda, including pressuring studios to capitulate on anti-DEI and inclusion, as well as threats of tariffs on foreign-made films making it more difficult for Hollywood to produce stories that he can deem biased against conservative beliefs. Targeting places where programs like Sesame Street are found only feels more and more deliberate. At least similarly to the new Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street has recently found a new home online by moving a lot of its catalog of seasons onto YouTube to continue to inspire children’s love for learning, reading, and counting—just as I was all those years ago through Burton’s work, so hopefully will the next generation shepherded by Threets.
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