LeVar Burton Re-Launches Reading Rainbow As iPad App + Flashback To RR Visit To Star Trek: TNG Set

Star Trek: The Next Generation’s LeVar Burton is also famous for his 21 seasons as the host of the kids show Reading Rainbow. After PBS stopped airing reruns of the series in 2009, Burton was determined to bring it back. Today Reading Rainbow was re-launched as an iPad app. More details and LeVar’s video intro below. Plus we flash back to 1988 with a video from when LeVar and Reading Rainbow went behind the scenes on Star Trek: TNG.

 

Burton brings Reading Rainbow to the iPad

LeVar Burton is bringing his award-winning children’s educational show Reading Rainbow to your tablet. Reading Rainbow launched today in Apple’s app store. According to Burton the goal for the new app is to "re-invent and re-interpret all the best elements of the TV series." Here is the brand new trailer featuring LeVar

The app itself is free, with a monthly subscription for books and new content costing $10 per month. There is also an introductory offer of six months for $30. More info on the app at www.rrkidz.com.

Flashback: Reading Rainbow visits Star Trek: TNG

Of special interest to Trek fans is the episode of Reading Rainbow which featured LeVar giving viewers a tour of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Check it out below.

DVR Alert: LeVar on Fallon tonight

LeVar will be a guest tonight on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. He will promote the new app and likely they will talk about Fallon’s performance (as Jim Morrison of the Doors) of the famous "Reading Rainbow" song (see below).

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But you don’t have to take MY word for it.

Awesome Jimmy Fallon Cover! Reading Rainbow should be on Netflix!

LeVar Burton is a great successor to Mr. Rogers. Too bad PBS or Nick couldn’t pick this show up for young children.

Butterflies I the sky. I can go twice as high. Take a look; it’s in a book. Reading Rainbow. I’m half tempted to get the app. And I wish it all the best.

*in

Lavar Burtan is a Total Class Act and a great Actor. From Reading Rainbow to Geordi Laforge to Kunta Kinte. He is a all around great Actor and a Great Human. WTG Lavar.

Levar got it wrong Tasha was Chief of Security in the first season.

What’s Video Tape? LOL.

Dang Jimmy Fallon nailed that Jim Morrison impression!

I can’t even describe how excited my 5-year-old self was when the Reading Rainbow opening slid away to reveal the Enterprise-D. My two TV worlds collided; I’ll never forget it!

@10

I was thinking the same thing! I was about the same age when I saw this. I was already a big fan of TNG after watching countless episodes with the fam. And of course I had to fill my young afternoons with some sort of tv. I thought this was the coolest thing. To this day I remember that they did the teleportation effects with a glass of water filled with a swirl of glitter. And all because of this show. Crazy.

Great to see Mr. Burton taking the lead on getting Reading Rainbow back. A class act all the way around.

Michael Dorn kicking the trailer door open cant help but make me laugh.

Reading Rainbow should be brought back, we need to encourage children to start reading again. Nothing better than a good book

#7 This was filmed in the last episode Denise Crosby shot, so it would have aired after Worf’s field promotion. Probably didn’t want to confuse us kids even further. After all, I thought Star Trek was real until I saw this episode!

I remember watching this is a kid. Probably the main reason I watched RR was because I loved TNG. Mr. Burton’s a good guy for what he’s done for children, kind of like Mr. Rogers in a way. I hope the new app is successful. It seems like the smart thing to do now that we’re in the 21st century.

When I was a kid, LeVar Burton was my hero. I thought it was so awesome that he could have 2 shows like that. Then I found out that he was a voice actor on Captain Planet (he played Kwame), and so he actually had 3 shows that I loved, and he became even cooler.

I actually got to meet him when I was around 8 at a young people’s concert at the New York Philharmonic. I remember crowding into a greenroom with maybe 100 other kids, trying to get an autograph. (All the other kids had him sign their programs, I brought a Star Trek trading card.) What I remember most is how happy he was to see us all, and how even after narrating a whole young peoples concert, he was so energetic and genuinely happy to be around the kids. He did his Kwame voice for us, and had a huge grin on his face the whole time. His Reading Rainbow persona is the man I got to see in reality, and I think that’s really awesome, because I believe that is who he really is.

Great to see Reading Rainbow passed on to The Next Generation.

iPad app?

Where’s the Microsoft Surface version?

I remember getting so excited when I saw the Reading Rainbow seal on a book and I would just beg my parents to buy it for me.

I hate that they never used “don’t take MY word for it” on Next Generation.

Geordi explains something to the crew and then tosses the second half of the explanation to Data with it.

This episode of RR was pivotal to my childhood. It helped grow my obsession with star trek, and added on a love of film and tv editing. Always enjoyed Dorn’s “stand aside I take large steps” line.

…I wonder what all those video editors are doing for work now.

I used to watch RR and thought it was a cool and great show. I DVR’ed the TNG RR episode but I forgot to transfer it to DVD. It is great to see RR making the leap to the iPad.

When the first episode of TNG aired and I saw Levar’s name in the opening credits I was… well excited doesn’t cover it. I started building my personal library of books because of Levar and RR. LLAP Levar.