Reading Rainbow

It's time for the telecast brought to you by

the Geekcast Radio Network. for the show, Optimus

Solo. That's right, I am Optimus Solo, and I'd

like to say hello and welcome to the ninth episode

of The Telecast, brought to you by the Geekcast

Radio Network. Today we're talking about our

fourth educational show, and unlike last episode

when I was riding solo, I have two people to

help me out today. Coming back again, I got Steve

Megatron Phillips. Hello, sir. Hello. And also

back with us is the rising star. Hello, Tara.

Hey. So we're teaming up on this one. There's

no solo -ness today. Team mission. That's right.

And today the three of us are going to be talking

about... folks we are talking today about reading

rainbow and before we get too far into our discussion

here's a little bit of background information

on the show reading rainbow actually debuted

back in 1983 i think i was like one almost two

at that point um and it actually continued airing

until 2009 i didn't actually know that it was

still going up until a year and a half ago but

it was um it aired on pbs and it was a 30 -minute

show It was on for 26 years, which equaled out

to 21 seasons, I guess, and there was, according

to my sources, 155 episodes. For those of you

that don't know, Reading a Rainbow was a show

designed to encourage children to read, obviously,

as the title would suggest. Each episode would

have a theme. from a certain book that they would

explore through different segments and stories.

They would also offer reviews and recommendations

on books for kids, from kids, to check out from

their local library. And we'll get a little bit

more into the segments later, but for now, Steve,

what do you remember about reading Rainbow? Well,

I remember listening to the books being narrated,

of course. It was always quite interesting to

me, and then I didn't know why I recognized the

guy from it. And then I put two and two together,

and I'm like, Jordan! No visor, but it's Jordan.

Right. And something about the theme song and

then just how they, some of the little ditties

between the various clips in the show were memorable

in it. Just the whole presentation in general

was what kind of made it stood out for me growing

up. For me, It was kind of like, I don't know

if you guys had this. I mean, I'm sure most people

do, but like at school, like when you're in the

early grades, like especially like kindergarten

through maybe third grade, we would always have

our school. We had this really old librarian,

but she didn't act really old. Like she was,

I'm guessing she was in her. you know, seventies,

you know, maybe even eighties eventually when,

when we were going through school, but you would

have library and you would go and she would,

you know, you'd all sit on the floor and she'd

be on a chair or whatever. And she would, you

know, go through a book with you, almost like

they do on the show. And that's what it always

reminded me of. And she was just this great storyteller.

And that's kind of, you know, whenever I watched

Reading Rainbow, I felt like I was like in, you

know, at that little point, which when you're

a kid, that was like one of the cool parts of

school. You always liked going to, you know,

art or to library or to, you know, those different

things that broke up your day. So that's kind

of what I equated it to. And yeah, it was always

cool because I loved listening to LeVar Burton.

I thought he was just a really good speaker and

a good presenter. as far as that. What about

you, Tara? Oh, definitely. You know what? I wasn't

even born when Reading Rainbow first came on

the air. But it definitely was a part of my childhood

growing up. I grew up with Reading Rainbow. My

mom and my brother and me would watch it right

after school in the morning because it used to

be on in the morning and then it would be on

in the afternoon. And Reading Rainbow is really

what got me into reading. And you can ask any

of my family or my friends, but... Growing up,

I was such an avid reader, and I still am. I

would read like 10 books in one day. Nice. And

remember them. So thank you. Well, I always,

too, another memory I have from it, I don't know

if it was on at different times in the States

compared to Canada or whatnot, or obviously it

probably changed throughout the 26 years or whatever,

but I seem to remember it being on either before

or after either Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood or Sesame

Street. both around the lunch hour. So before

my school years, because obviously this was on

1983, I didn't start school until probably like

86 or 85, somewhere in there. So there was a

couple years where I was watching this before

I was in school age. So I would be home for that,

obviously, for that lunch hour. And I just remember

seeing back -to -back those two or three of those

shows. And it was just always a fun little hour

or two hours where you got to watch TV. No, this

show, honestly, this show was just so well done.

And the way it was presented, it really got you

interested in reading. It really was promoting

literacy and all that fun stuff. So it was a

great show. Yeah, and it's a little different.

I didn't mention this in the intro at all, but

this is a little different than the other educational

shows that we've been talking about so far because

it just worked out that the first three shows

that we talked about educational -wise were all...

science -based and now we've switched over into

about the only one that i can think of that at

least for my childhood that focused on the reading

aspect yeah i mean obviously you had some that

kind of tried to focus on a bunch of different

things like we'll get to um on our next episode

with mr rogers and then eventually down the line

when we talk a little bit more about uh sesame

street in a different um block but this one this

one's obviously a little different feel than

bill and i and beekman's and mr wizard's even

But I guess we can kind of get into the who's

who because there's not a lot to this, obviously.

We've mentioned that the host is LeVar Burton,

who most people know as Geordie LaForge. What

do you guys think about LeVar as a host, as he

did on the show? Oh, definitely. He did such

an amazing job. He was funny, and he had a great

personality, and I really enjoyed watching him

growing up. And his personality just fit the

show so much. Yeah, for me, he was almost like

he was, something I liked about him was he wasn't

afraid of acting goofy or he wasn't afraid of

how he was going to look. Exactly. Yeah, he was,

like, trying to make it fun for the kids, so

he acted, you know, even at times when he probably

knew stuff about the topic, he acted like he

didn't, you know, so he could learn with you.

Of course. And he just wasn't afraid to look

silly or do silly things, so I kind of always

appreciated that. Which is the kind of attitude

that you need when you're dealing with kids.

Right, right. And I just thought it was cool

that he didn't have his visor on. That was definitely

one of the cool parts. And then at the same time,

it was nice to have him in more of a down -to

-earth role. Basically just, you know, making

it... So that you were more enthusiastic about

reading in general. Yeah. I mean, because, you

know, at that time you're usually too interested

in what's going on in the playground rather than

what you should be doing is reading. Right, right.

Of course. And, you know, I actually don't remember

anybody else from the show. I remembered that,

you know, LeVar Burton was the host. And I remembered

that they had various kids at times doing things,

which we'll get to in a little bit. But I was

not aware that all these people were guests on

the show. Until I was doing research for it this

last week. And these guest stars, they are just

from all over the place. I'm just going to name

a few of them that I have listed here. James

Avery, who was the dad on Fresh Prince. And Shredder,

the voice of Shredder on Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtles. Wayne Brady, Matthew Broderick. Ferris

Bueller. Lacey Chabert. Kevin Clash, who's the

voice of... and the puppeteer for Elmo, or the

Muppeteer, however you want to call him. Bill

Cosby and everybody from that show, apparently,

because there was also Keisha Knight Pulliam

and Felicia Rashad. You had Michael Dorn, which

was his co -star on Star Trek, along with Whoopi

Goldberg and Patrick Stewart. You had Peter Falk,

which was Columbo, Richard Gere, Jim Henson,

James Earl Jones, Jerry Orbach from Law & Order,

Lionel Richie, Al Roker, Martin Short, Run DMC,

Jerry Stiller. I mean, I did not realize that

these guys were even on the show. Do you guys

remember any of these people being on the show?

No. No. I vaguely remember some of the Star Trek

cast, and I think it was just by coincidence.

Maybe Whoopi, and that's it. Yeah, I don't remember

those parts. I mean, I remember him going into

different places and stuff like that. I just

don't remember him being with these guests. stars

i and i didn't have a chance to look for specific

uh videos with these people i might have to do

that at a later date it may have been and i could

be wrong it may have been him having uh these

certain people say you know listen to so -and

-so read a book and then they possibly read one

of the you know little short stories yeah or

there could have been just it could have been

maybe not a visual thing where you just heard

their voice yeah it could have been just that

much i mean i could wrong, but I don't remember

much about them. I remember more of LeVar being

in the show. Yeah, that's the only person I remember

being on the show, basically, except for... I'm,

like, listening to the guests that you're mentioning,

and I'm like, James Earl Jones is on Reading

Rainbow? Well, I can definitely picture him reading

a book. Like, the voice of Darth Vader? Really?

See, I can picture people like him, and, you

know, some of these guys have really good speaking

voices, so I can picture some of them doing the,

like Steve was saying, maybe just reading the

book. You know, in the background, not necessarily

seeing them on screen. It was definitely a nice

pick of well -spoken narrative actors. I mean,

when you think of, like, most of these people

have done some type of voice acting, too, and

that kind of helps out in, like, you know, I

know Michael Dorn's done voice acting. I know

James Avery did voice acting, Lacey Chabert,

Kevin Clash, obviously Jim Henson. I mean, a

lot of these guys have done, you know, voice

work, so that kind of makes sense that that's

where they're picking their people from, maybe.

Mm -hmm. Well, because they have good narration.

I guess we can kind of get into our next section,

which is... The good. The bad. The ugly. That's

right. It's time for the good, the bad, and the

ugly. And it's not necessarily anything like...

ugly obviously about the show or anything like

that but i just wanted to use this section to

kind of go over some of the main segments that

you saw because they did a lot of different things

on the show and i want to kind of get your guys

opinion on the different segments because i kind

of have my favorites my my ones that i didn't

like as much um obviously It usually started

off with you had some type of theme, and the

way they would introduce that right off the bat,

at least on the episodes that were on when I

was a kid, they would go right into a children's

book that was narrated by one of these celebrities

or whoever. It wasn't a kid or anything like

that. So you'd go through a book on a certain

topic like Chinese culture or cakes or just whatever

it was that was going to be the theme. So right

off the bat, you'd get a whole book being narrated.

Now, this segment for me sometimes was good,

and sometimes this was my least favorite segment

only because of the length of some of the books.

Now, I don't know if you guys remember the part

I'm talking about, but maybe it wasn't so much

as a kid, but this is the hardest part for me

to watch today as an adult because some of the

books I have no interest in, obviously, because

they're meant for kids, and it seems like they

go for like 10 minutes. I don't know. What do

you guys feel about the part where they just

went through the actual book with the celebrity

voice? Hmm. Well, I don't remember too much about

that segment, but I understand where you're coming

from. And it was kind of boring. Yeah, that's

the only part of the show that I actually found

boring, but it wouldn't be if it was a book that

you liked. I do remember the kid liking some

of them and being totally captured in it and

just wrapped up in the story. But then every

once in a while there would be a story and you're

just like, can we move on to the next part? Exactly.

Steve, do you remember this part of the show

at all? It usually happened at the beginning

of the episode. I remember vaguely. I don't really

remember enough to draw enough detail off of,

but I do remember that once in a great while

I'd find something that would interest me, but

as far as that, I would pretty much flip channels

until it got done with that part and come back.

And that's what I was doing even in watching

YouTube in preparation for this. I was skipping

most of those because I'm like, I can't sit through

this entire book. Yeah, there's some books that

were just really boring. The segment that's actually

probably, the next two segments both I love.

And the main one here is where LeVar Burton then

goes to a place that's related to the book that

was just read. So, like I said, if the book was

on, like, Chinese culture, he would be in, like,

Chinatown. Or if the book was on, you know, like,

baking cakes, he would go to, like, a confectionery,

you know, or a place like that. And he would

talk to the people about how they do their jobs

or, you know, get information. I saw somewhere

he went and, like, learned how bees, how the

honey was taken from the honeycomb and all that

type of stuff. I loved seeing him interact with

the people, and this is the part where it would

be just interesting topics for a kid. I mean,

I guess there would be times maybe where you

got something you weren't interested in, but

even as a young adult here now, I was getting

wrapped up into those segments and being like,

oh, yeah, I remember, that's how that works,

or that's how that... How did you guys feel about

when it was actually just LeVar Burton interacting

with the people? Loved it. Yeah, I mean, I think

this is one of my favorite parts of the show.

Yeah, I'd have to agree because he was always

good at drawing your attention to whatever it

was and somehow making you actually care. Yeah,

he made it interesting. Oh, definitely. Whereas

most of the time you wouldn't, especially if

it were your teacher. Yeah, but teachers are

going to tell me, like, today we're going to

learn about how we get honey from bees. I'd be

like, really? But for some reason, even just

watching it this week, I was like, I'm into this.

Let's watch this happen. Yeah, the whole point

of reading Rambo is that it got you interested

in learning. And it made learning fun, and learning

should be fun. And it was always cool to see

how they sometimes animated the books a little

bit as they read through it, and then afterwards

would go to other kids who thought, you know.

This is a great story as well, which would, you

know, usually it's like a pure thing. Yeah, well,

that was actually the last segment of the show

after they would go, and sometimes they do it

at different times, I'm sure, obviously since

it was on for a quarter of a century there. But

the final segment of the show usually was the

book review part, and that was also at times

my favorite part, not necessarily because of

the content, but I thought it was cool watching

the kids. actually giving their own little reviews

of the books, and they would show the book title,

and they'd show the kid, and then they would,

you know, act like they're this, like, you know,

super intelligent, like, reviewer, and they would

give you all the information on the book, and

I loved that part, too. It was so cute. Yeah,

I mean, some of the kids were terrible, and some

of them were great, but it was just kind of cool

to watch, and I think for kids it means more

when it comes from another kid. Like, it's not

like an adult was sitting there saying, you should

read this book. You could watch it, and you'd

get five different book reviews, and you might

find one that you would then want to search out.

I don't know. I don't remember if I ever actually

went to the library and got those certain books,

but I do remember wanting to at times. Yeah.

The ones that I really remember from reading

Rainbow was probably more like the fairy tale

ones. They did, because I loved fairy tales growing

up, and I still do. And just the way they presented

it, like you really actually felt like you were

there, you know, experiencing the book. And that's

what I loved about this show is that it got you

so involved into reading and it got you into

that world of literature. And I just thought

it was great for kids to really be exposed to

that. Yeah. And the other thing I kind of liked

about it, like Steve was mentioning, is that

the illustrations that they would show or sometimes

it was almost like animated, but sometimes it

was just like the still illustration of certain

things in the book. Like it gave you like a little

sneak peek that, you know, right away you'd know

that you were either interested in that book

or not, because obviously each kid likes a little

different style of illustration or this or that.

But I just thought it was a great way to encourage

people to go out and find some of those books.

Oh, definitely. And just a couple other things

I had to mention as far as good, the bad, and

the ugly. And then if you guys have anything,

you can talk about it. But there's this two catchphrases

that he always said. Well, the first one I loved,

and that's when he always said, but you don't

have to take my word for it. And you'll hear

that at some point in this episode. So that was

one line that I loved. And then he always ended

the show with, I'll see you next time. So I thought

it was cool. I kind of always like that in a

show when there's something you can count on

every week. And then the other thing I wanted

to bring up was the theme song. What were you

guys' thoughts on the theme song? I love the

theme song. Yeah. The one aspect I love. It's

catchy as hell, though. Yeah, it is super catchy.

And it's just like right from the beginning.

It's just that sound that they do. It's not like,

I don't know if I've ever even heard that sound

repeated. It's that... Yeah, but then it's like

some type of synthesizer type deal. It's so pretty,

though. It was such a pretty melody. Yeah, and

I don't know, it's just a great song. Once it

gets stuck in your head, you have trouble getting

it out of there. At least until you get something

better. Yeah, but it's something that I could

still almost repeat word for word, and I hadn't

heard it for years. But, yeah, as soon as you

hear it, you're like, yep, I know this one word

for word. I got it. I'm like, yep, it's reading

Rainbow theme song. Obviously, there was a couple

different intros for the show over the 25 years

or 26 years. I remember one being more like nature

-y with flowers and stuff. I remember one being

like all spaceship stuff. But I don't really

remember too much specific. I just remember more

about the actual song. Tara, do you have anything

else about, like, the regular show, things you

liked, things you didn't like, or anything like

that? Not so much. The only thing I have to say

is that I liked when they read the story and

the way they did the story. Like Steve was saying,

with the illustrations, it really drew you into

the story, and that's the one aspect I liked.

The book reviews, they were cute, but I could

have done without the book reviews. Yeah, like

I said, I think my favorite part was just watching

him doing the interactions, and my least favorite

part was probably just every once in a while

when they went through a book that I wasn't.

caring about because it just seemed like it would

drag on a little bit i don't i was trying to

think if there was a favorite clip that i had

that i watched in in preparing for the show and

there was just so many i mean like like i kind

of mentioned before i watched one that were where

they were making cake and it was kind of cool

to see the cake guy like cut all the different

shapes and design it and see it from the beginning

to the end i saw the the one at the honeycomb

um i saw one with uh all about chinatown where

they showed some like uh preparing Chinese food

and stuff like that. But I don't remember any

specific episode from my childhood. I just remember

more of the song and the format of it. What about

you, Steve? Any other thoughts on the actual

show? Definitely something that if you were a

kid at the time, it was something that you probably

watched in whatever iteration that it was at

that time. But definitely something that should,

I think, continue. Into the future. Yeah, that's

true. And I got some things to say about that

in our next section. The other thing that I forgot

to say before is not many shows have been around

for every generation, it seems like. My point

is there is sometimes when we're talking, especially

on ToonCast, not when we're doing the spotlights

on the movies or whatever, but when we're talking

about certain cartoons, there's only one generation

that usually grew up with those cartoons. You

know what I mean? If we're talking about Mask,

Like, only kids that grew up in the 80s and some

people that have been exposed to it since then,

you know, would know about it. Whereas Reading

Rainbow was basically on for every generation

from my generation forward. I mean, when you

talk about something that was on from 1983 to

2009. So it's not like there hasn't been many

kids out there, you know, that haven't been,

at least had a chance to be exposed to that as

a kid. So many generations have gone into experience

the wonders of reading. Exactly. Like you said,

you know, you weren't alive when it first started,

but you were still a kid when it was on. Like

it was still on when you were a kid. Yeah. So

I think that's just something cool. And, you

know, not a lot of shows can have that same ability

to say that. I love that I got to grow up with

it. I just love that. Like I said, it really

got me interested in reading. It really did.

It's not something that I ever watched after

I was out of that age range, even though it was

still on TV. Steve, did you ever watch this after

you were... I watched it maybe, like I said,

from kindergarten or preschool, maybe up through,

I don't know, third grade, second, third, fourth

grade. But even though it was on during my entire

middle school, high school, college, I had never

seen another episode since then. Have you ever

seen it? On actual TV since you were a little

kid? Yeah, it's usually on our PBS channel. I

don't usually sit on it nowadays, but I've seen

it here or there when I'm flipping channels.

What about you, Tara? Did you ever see it after

you were a kid? Yes, definitely. I watched it.

I recall seeing it on PBS. Um, like when I was

flipping through PBS and it was on, I think when

I was in like grade seven or eight, I would just

went to it and I'm like, Oh my God, it's reading

rainbow. Yeah. And the other thing I think that's

funny is watching LeVar Burton change over the

years. Yeah. He definitely changed. And then

the intro changed, and I'm like, oh, it's a new

intro. I like the old intro better. But going

from seeing him in his late 70s, early 80s outfits

with the mustache and everything, and seeing

him grow up and almost get old on the show. And

now he's clean -shaven. So I think that does

it for the good, the bad, and the ugly. Basically

all good, except for maybe a few boring parts

here and there on Reading Rainbow. And now it

is time for... Things that make you go, hmm.

That's right. Here are some of the things that

you might not know about Reading Rainbow. Number

one thing that you might not know, even though

we've said this for about every show that's been

on the telecast, but this one has blown the other

ones out of the water. Reading Rainbow has not

only won a Peabody Award, it has won 26 Emmy

Awards, 10 of which were for Outstanding Children's

Series. Outstanding Children's Series category.

26 Emmy Awards in 26 years. I mean, if that's

not impressive, I'm not sure what is. That is

extremely impressive. Yeah, which kind of makes

me still confused as to why it is not on the

air anymore. But we'll get to that in a second.

Second thing you might not know about Reading

Rainbow, in 1988, apparently the most popular

episode of Reading Rainbow of all time featured

a behind -the -scenes look at the making of Star

Trek The Next Generation. And apparently in that

episode it included a set of Star Trek The Next

Generation bloopers, which has been the only

legal release of any bloopers from that show,

apparently. I did seek out this episode. I forgot

to look for the bloopers, though. I saw the behind

-the -scenes of the show. I saw them show all

the different cameras and show the editing and

show that, but I must have missed where they

did the bloopers. But I'm a huge Star Trek fan,

so I thought that was cool. Oh, yeah. And I will

still search out for those bloopers now that

I remember that they're there. The third thing

that you might not know, and I'm going to combine

the third and fourth here because it kind of

gets to my point a minute ago, that LeVar Burton,

first he stated on February 18, 2009, that he

was considering webisodes of a new version of

Reading Rainbow, a new version of a Reading Rainbow

-like show for adults. So that was his first

idea. I don't know if anything ever happened

with that since that was almost two years ago

now. But another one that I wanted to mention

is that LeVar Burton announced on his Twitter

feed just last March, March 19, 2010, that Reading

Rainbow 2 .0 was in the works. Now, I don't know

if that's still, like he was saying before, a

version for adults or if that's a new version

of the show for kids. But apparently he's doing

everything he can to try to get the show back

running either on the Internet or on TV. I think

they can do it. Yeah. Apparently, though, the

reason they got cut. is because no one, PBS and

all the different companies that are affiliated

with PBS, no one would front the money to keep

the show going in 2009 when it got canceled.

Oh, jeez. After 26 Emmys? That's what I'm saying.

It was not like it was like, maybe it just doesn't

get ratings. I don't know. But if you were winning

Emmys and stuff like that, I can't imagine if

you've been on for 26 years that someone somewhere

couldn't have fronted the money for it. Yeah.

It's not an expensive show to produce. It's not

like you have... All these special effects. It's

not like you're paying any actor besides LeVar

Burton. I don't get why it's that expensive and

why someone wouldn't. I don't know. I just think

it's a shame that it got canceled in 2009. It

is sad. It's sad. So let's hope that he's successful.

End of my childhood. Yeah. Let's hope that he's

successful in somehow getting it back going.

And that's another thing that it did is it reinvented

itself enough that it was always current. It

didn't keep the exact same format it had in 1983.

Otherwise, it wouldn't have survived 26 years.

Oh, no. No, definitely not. It had a current

look. It had a new look so that people of 2008,

2009 would have liked it. I just don't, I don't

know. It's sad that it's not on. Which leads

to my last thing that you might not know about

Reading Rainbow. It is the third longest running

children's series in PBS history, or it was the

third longest until it got cut. But I don't know

how long it'll hold on to that. But it's only

behind Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood and Sesame Street,

which is pretty impressive. Sesame Street is

not going to be beat by anybody anytime soon.

Nope. But to be third longest behind that in

Mr. Rogers' neighborhood is pretty impressive,

as well as the 26 Emmys from before. Definitely.

So I think it's time for us to try to go VH1,

even though this one's maybe the most common

knowledge out of all of them, since we only have

one person with where they are now. Obviously,

LeVar Burton is still very much in the... acting

world, in the producing world, directing, writing,

all that stuff. He hasn't gone away. Obviously,

maybe his prime as far as his career was during

Reading Rainbow and Star Trek The Next Generation.

But he is still doing a lot of stuff. He's currently

53, which he's still pretty young for having

been doing stuff as long as he has. But he's

kind of shifted, though, from... Being the actor

type guy, he does a lot of behind the scenes

work now as far as directing and producing stuff.

His most recent things that he's done I wanted

to bring up. As far as film goes, he was in Superman,

Batman, Public Enemies in 2009 as the voice of

Black Lightning. His last big movie, as far as

I can tell, was Star Trek Nemesis in 2002. As

far as television goes, I did not know this until

today, Steve, but he is actually, apparently

Jazz is going to show up in Transformers Prime.

Yeah, I just found that out today, too. And he

is the voice of Jazz in Transformers Prime coming

up on this. Which is awesome. Yeah. That's pretty

sick. So, like, that is incredibly awesome. And

he's got a couple other things that he's listed

for 2011 for something called Perception. And

another thing, Community, is that a TV show?

Yes. I thought it was, but I haven't seen it

before. He also appeared in The Superhero Squad

as the War Machine voice. He did some voices

for Family Guy. So he's been in quite a bit of

stuff. He did pretty well for himself. Yeah.

And his last directing thing was actually in

2008, so I'm not sure if he's still focusing

on any directing or if he's taking a break for

that. The amount of awards he's won is just ridiculous,

so I'm not going to list them all, but I'm sure

you can find them on the Internet if you want

to. But just a pretty cool guy. I've always been

a fan of his, and I'm glad he's still doing well.

Oh, yes. I'm happy for him. And he seems to be

a guy, I mean, you never hear anything bad about

him. He just seems to be a good role model for

people, and he doesn't ever get himself into

trouble. He's like, I don't know, he's just a

good guy, it seems like. Yeah, he has a great

personality. He's just amazing. Like, you've

got to love the guy because he does such a great

job at what he does. Yeah. I mean, besides the

fact that he was on Star Trek. Yeah. But, all

right, I think we're going to take a quick intermission.

I don't think I actually know we're going to

take a quick intermission. But please don't touch

that dial. After these messages, we'll be right

back. This is The Brain, and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Yes! This is Megatron,

leader of the Predacons. And if you're hearing

this, it means the Beast Unleashed podcast is

now over. Yes. In the Beast Unleashed, myself,

Steve Megatron Phillips, Pecan Court Michael

Wilson, and TFG1 Mike review Beast Wars and Beast

Machines in the very first podcast of its kind.

Yes. In the podcast, We interview voice actors,

writers for the show, and talk in -depth trivia

between everything in between. So, if you're

interested, you can tune in to the now -finished

Beast Unleashed podcast over on geekcastradio

.com. Excellent! Yes! Hey, Dad! Pinky here. of

Pinky and the Brain, the smarter one, if you

don't mind saying so, I love listening to the

Geekcast Radio Network. Love. Hey, guys, it's

Mike Hunt, and we here at IGN have just put together

a totally cool list of the top 100... Oh, my

God, what's happening? I am from the Geekcast

Radio Network, and I have been sent from the

Cartoon Cat. to do away with your crappy top

100 list and to enlist all of the other geek

gods from across the internet. With our powers

combined, we will create the most epic top 100

list of all time and forever put you peons at

IGN to shame. So go tell all the other morons

at IGN to take cover because the Geek Cast Radio

Network's top 100 animated series of all time

list is... All right, thanks for staying with

us, everyone. So you may be wondering how you

can watch some of the Reading Rainbow these days,

and you have a couple different options, which

we'll go through here. First of all, it is available

on DVD. TV shows on DVD actually does not list

it as being available on DVD, which I don't know

why they don't list it as that, because it definitely

is. I went to Amazon and typed in Reading Rainbow,

and I got like... I don't know how many results.

It was like pages and pages of results. It is

not, as far as I can tell, available in any type

of season format. From what I'm gathering, there's

just different volume type sets, which I don't

think go by season. And then there's some special

sets that have specific themes to them. But there

are DVDs available. So if you want to get it

on DVD, you can get it. You just have to kind

of search and sift through. what's on and what's

included on each volume and try to find what

one's the best for you. I mean, they ranged in

price from, like, around $10, and I saw some

sets that were, like, $100. So there's a lot

of different options for you on DVD. It is also

available through Netflix. There's six different

volumes available through Netflix. And, of course,

it is available somewhat, I guess, on YouTube.

What was your guys' YouTube experience with Reading

Rainbow? There's some episodes. Most of them

are from the 1980s, though. Yeah. There's nothing

really recent. I tried searching for, like, modern

ones, and all I found was, like, the new intro,

and that was about it. Yeah, and even the ones

that are available, like, full episodes, are

kind of scattered. I mean, some of them are three

parts. Some of them are, like, four or five parts.

There is complete episodes available there. I

wouldn't say the quality is like super great.

It's confusing. Yeah. I mean, it wasn't like

it was unwatchable, but it definitely wasn't

like crystal clear either. And there's also,

it's, it's kind of hard with this one to, to

sift through all of the different results you'll

get from typing in reading rainbow on YouTube.

Cause you'll get all kinds of weird stuff. Like

you'll get people reviewing it. You'll get like.

little clips here and there. You'll get, like,

a song or you'll get, like, this one story. It's

kind of hard to eventually find the ones that

are actual episodes. At least it was for me.

I mean, I did eventually find, like, three or

four episodes that I could watch in their entirety.

But it was kind of frustrating to use the YouTube

on this one for me. So YouTube fails for this

episode of the telecast. Yeah. I mean... But

on the upside, anyone that's a diehard fan, if

you didn't know, you can get it on DVD. I kind

of wish there were seasons available for it,

but I don't know if I'd actually want a whole

season, so maybe that's fine. But as far as doing

our IGN imitation, how does this show stack up

for you rank -wise, Tara? Number three. Number

three? Yeah. I don't really want to own it. Yeah,

you don't want to own it. How about you, Steve?

I would have to say three, and especially for

the time, but I probably would never own it myself.

The only way I would own it is if you could buy

a DVD that has, like... Everything? Well, not

necessarily everything, but, like, a little...

I don't want every episode or any episode. I

want bits from different years to see how it

progresses through the years. If I could get

one episode per year, and then there's 26 episodes

or whatever on this set, that would be kind of

cool to see how it changes. And you'd be happy.

Yeah, but I don't really need to spend any money

on this. The best of every season. Yeah. They

should do, if you think about it. Yeah. Because

I didn't mind watching some of it on YouTube,

but I could never pay money for it, I don't think.

Yeah. So I'll give it a three as well, which

shouldn't be odd since I seem to give every show

a three. But you don't have to take my word for

it. Any last words on Reading Rainbow, Tara?

Just an amazing show that I'm very thankful to

have watched, and I miss it. And I hope if it

comes back that it'll... be the same kind of

experience that i got growing up as a kid because

honestly in today's society kids really do need

to you know yeah learn how to read that's for

sure which that's the only reason i know some

people like to hate on especially i don't know

there's certain people that i know um hate on

book franchises because they become this like

super popular thing like a Harry Potter or like

a Twilight, for example. And I don't like the

fact that even if it's not your thing, I don't

like when people hate on those just because they're

popular because anything that's going to encourage

people to read, I'm 100 % for. It's like the

whole debate with the e -readers. Some people

are like, oh, is the e -reader going to kill

the printed books? Yeah. not gonna happen but

i mean just like any type of series of books

whether it was you know there's been a bunch

of different ones throughout the years i mean

obviously you have like the chronicles of narnia

you have like the harry potter the twilight and

there's lots of different series um goosebumps

or whatever but like anything that like gets

people like super enthused about reading and

like a little mini phenomenon i'm not gonna bash

it just because it's popular which a lot of people

do to harry potter which is kind of dumb I am

going to agree with that. But kind of going off

of something else you said, I do hope it gets

back on. This is something like if I had kids,

I would want them to watch it. Oh, yeah, exactly.

And as long as LeVar Burton is still kicking,

I don't see why you don't keep doing this show.

Now, once he was no longer able to do the show.

No longer wanted to. Yeah, then you have to be

very careful in trying to replace him. Oh, yeah.

Because that could just ruin the whole show.

I don't know. In a dream world, my kids would

be able to see LeVar Burton on some Reading Rainbow

when they're growing up. I just have a feeling

that if and when Reading Rainbow comes back,

it's going to be different. I don't think it's

going to be the same as what we grew up with

just because of the audience today. That's true.

They're not going to want to sit there and listen

to... see the pictures moving. They're going

to want to see CG and Tangled -esque stuff. Instead

of showing the illustrations, they're going to

show it on a Kindle or something like that. They're

going to have it fully animated. It's going to

be 3D animation. It's not going to be like, this

is the actual book. That takes away the magic.

Go out to the library and go pick up a book.

Some kids will be like, there's a library. What's

that? It's a library. I didn't even know there

was a library down the street. It's one of those

things you get a card to. Yeah. It's funny, but

it's the truth. That's true. It's true, and it's

kind of sad because, I mean, I still love to

read, but I find myself more on my laptop than

actually reading these days, which is kind of

sad. But that's just with the times. And if Reading

Rainbow is going to succeed in the future, it's

going to have to find a way to get kids back

interested in reading while at the same time

keeping up with modern technology, which is possible

because it's been done. Yeah. Should be interesting.

Oh, and LeVar Burton is the right type of guy

to have behind that because he always claimed,

you know, he always is like a self -proclaimed

nerd or geek tech guy anyway. So he should be

able to find a way for it to work if someone's

going to. Yeah, you know what? I think he gets

it. I think he gets that it needs to come back,

but it needs to come back differently in order

to survive today. Well, and this is, you know,

whether... He wants to admit it or not. I mean,

I know he will always have a cult following for

Star Trek or whatever, but reading Rainbow is

kind of his legacy. It's his mark that he's leaving

on so many different generations, and I can see

him taking pride in it. I wouldn't be surprised

if he's the one spearheading all these efforts

to try to get it back on. Well, he should. It's

his, for lack of a better word, it's his baby.

Yeah, and it's good that he ran it. He should

be able to keep it going. Yeah, he wasn't just

the host. He was a producer. He was making a

lot of the decisions on the show, too. Hats off

to him for having a passion for something and

sticking with it. Steve, I didn't give you a

chance to say any of your last words on the show.

Do you have any last words? Pretty much, I just

have to agree with you guys. It's a damn good

show for kids to watch. There's no reason why...

It should have ever gotten canceled, for one.

Yeah. That was a mistake. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's

just a no -brainer there. I mean, it should have

been on the air still. It's one of those things

that you need to have, especially when you have

so many kids going through nowadays that are

illiterate and don't want to read them. The fact

that a lot of parents, I mean, parents today

are not like parents when we grew up. I mean,

you know, they're almost non -existent in some

cases. And so many parents use the TV as a babysitter.

So why not? I mean, seriously, they're like,

you know, throw the kids in front of the TV.

We don't have to worry about them for a while.

Well, let's put some shows on there that maybe

they'll stumble across that might do some good.

Like the more shows we put on like that, the

better it is for these kids that are growing

up with the television as their, you know, their

parent. So, you know, I don't know. I just think

it should still be on TV. I hope it really, I

hope it comes back because one day when I have

kids, I really want them to watch shows like

this. get interested in reading or whatever because

it's an important part of life. You need to be

able to read and write because you can't go into

a job. You need to know how to fill out a job

application. You need to know how to fill out

a college application. It's part of life. And

the other thing it did is it exposed kids to

stuff they might not have been exposed to as

far as not only our own culture but other cultures.

Like, you know, some people don't live near a

farm. So when they would go and talk about stuff

that was happening on a farm or whatever, you

know, kids would learn about that if it was,

you know, or they'd talk about, you know, all

different things that you might not be exposed

to. So, I don't know, it did more than just,

you know, influence you or pique your interest

in reading. There's only so much you can learn

from a stupid TV set. You know, like. Go on and

read a book. Go to the library. It's not going

to hurt you. Everything I learned. I promise

it's not going to hurt you. But, yeah, maybe

we'll keep our ears and eyes peeled. And if we

hear any news about Reading Rainbow coming back

during the course of the different telecast episodes

or seasons, we will for sure let you know. We'll

get back to you. Yeah. So we will. We'll keep

you posted. All right. I'd like to thank. both

Steve and Tara, for coming back to help out with

this fourth educational episode. And I would

like to thank everybody else for joining us here

on the telecast. If you want to leave us feedback

on the show, there are three main ways to do

this. First and foremost, you can go visit the

website, which has always seen improvements.

It looks great. Steve does a lot of good work

there, www .geekcastradio .com. You can click

on the telecast tab, you can find all the different

episodes, and you can leave comments right there

on the site, and we will definitely respond to

those comments. Second, you can rate our show

and leave us feedback on iTunes. We actually

just got a new review yesterday, today, January

24th, which is when this is actually being recorded.

It'll go up on January 28th. He actually wrote

us a review earlier, C. Maximus, but before he

said he was going to withhold judgment until

he heard some more episodes. So apparently he's

been listening. Gave us five stars. I'll just

read it for you. It says, fantastic, simply amazing.

Kevin, on my last review, I mentioned that I

would wait and see what you had in store for

us, and I'm glad I did. Your podcast has measured

up to the ranks of the other Geekcast Radio podcasts,

at least in my book. I really enjoyed the last

three educational scientific shows. As for me,

I grew up watching Bill Nye. I actually was able

to watch it in high school as my chemistry teacher

went over her lesson. Overall, an amazing show,

and this is a show that I would watch today just

to bring up old memories. As for Beekman and

Mr. Wizard, I didn't watch them as much, mostly

because I could never really catch them while

they were on. When I did watch them, it was reruns.

However, I did recognize them when you mentioned

them. They are memorable shows to say the least.

I'll be looking forward to reading Rainbow and

Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood if the geek cast crew

hasn't revoked your geek license yet. And that

reference to the Mr. Wizard's World episode.

So if you don't know what that's talking about,

you have to go listen to that. Leave us feedback

on the Canadian side, too, not just the U .S.

side. Yes. Wherever you live, leave feedback.

We will find it somehow. Tara will find it. I

will find it. But so far, we're up to eight different

ratings, and we are averaging five stars right

now. Yay. Thank you. Let's see. Where in the

heck am I? Oh, if you want your comments to be

part of a future show, call the voicemail line

502 -526 -58. Just tell us what you want us to

call you and that you're leaving a message for

the telecast. And like I've been saying, you

can leave it for a past episode. You can leave

it for a future episode. You can always see the

entire Season 1 schedule on geekcastradio .com.

Also, if you want to keep up to date with all

things Geekcast related, Best way to do that

is to become a fan of us on Facebook by going

to facebook .com slash geekcastradionetwork.

Mike does a great job of making sure that everything

that happens with Geekcast Radio is posted on

that Facebook account. Steve does, too, so you'll

always be up to date. And don't forget about

our theme song contest and our listeners' choice

episode voting. I did have someone made a comment

on the website about the theme song contest.

The theme song contest clip does not play at

the end of the introductory episode, which is

numbered 00. So don't let that confuse you. The

theme song contest clip plays at the end of every

episode starting with episode one. So that should

clear that up, hopefully. So that does it for

now. We hope we succeeded in entertaining you,

informing you, and most importantly, unleashing

the geek in you on this episode of The Telecast.

And we hope that you will tune in for our next

episode when we go old school again with Mr.

Rogers' Neighborhood. For now, I am your host,

Optimus Solo, with Steve. Eve Megatron Phillips.

And Tara the Rising Star. Saying... We'll see

you next time. And tune in in 10 days for another

episode of The Telecast. this.