LeVar Burton's Reading Rainbow to be remembered in documentary Butterfly in the Sky
LeVar Burton. Image XTR via The Hollywood Reporter.
SEPTEMBER 6, 2021 - During the week that Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Geordi La Forge, LeVar Burton, hosted Jeopardy!, his chosen charity was Reading Is Fundamental. Of course, reading has always been fundamental for Burton, and now his long-running Public Broadcasting series, Reading Rainbow, is the subject of a documentary now in production.
ComicBook.com reports that the XTR film studio is producing Butterfly in the Sky, with Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb directing. Whitcomb said that Reading Rainbow “was my window into the big city and into diverse cultures” and “plant[ed] a seed that would inspire me for the rest of my life.” Thomason said, “More than any show on television, Reading Rainbow reflected the cultures that surrounded me…. I devour books to this day and I know Reading Rainbow had a hand in that.”
Reading Rainbow aired for 26 years on PBS, from July 1983 to August 2009, with production ending in November 2006. It even crossed over, in a way, with Star Trek: The Next Generation, when its season six episode, “The Bionic Bunny Show,” went behind the scenes during the filming of the TNG season one episode, “Symbiosis”. The episode included interviews and a blooper reel, and the segment is included on the TNG season two Blu-ray set.
For more on the upcoming Reading Rainbow documentary, Butterfly in the Sky, head over to ComicBook.com.
David is a contributing writer for Daily Star Trek News on the Roddenberry Podcast Network. He is a librarian, baseball fan, and book and movie buff. He has also written for American Libraries and Skeptical Inquirer. David also enjoys diverse music, but leans toward classical and jazz. He plays a mean radio.
