Reading Rainbow Return: LeVar Burton Launches Kickstarter Campaign To Bring Show Back

Reading Rainbow may be coming back, and LeVar Burton is making it happen.

The popular children’s show, which ran from 1983 to 2006, is now the target of a $1 million fundraiser. LeVar Burton himself launched a Kickstarter campaign that would bring the show back in internet form.

On the campaign’s site, Burton offered a message to fans of Reading Rainbow asking them for support:

You also may have grown up with me on Reading Rainbow.

It was my mother who taught me that, by picking up a book, I could “go anywhere” and “be anything.” Ever since Reading Rainbow began in 1983, I have dedicated myself to fostering a love of reading in children, just as my mother did for me.

Over the past year, I have watched Kickstarter bring communities together to support artists and inventors. Again and again, I have been inspired by watching like-minded people team up to accomplish impossible dreams, and to change the world.

Now, I am hoping you will join me on my mission: to bring Reading Rainbow back for every child, everywhere.

The Reading Rainbow campaign is off to a fast start. The total is quickly approaching $100,000 with still more than a month left to reach the goal.

LeVar Burton said he would also like to create a “classroom version” of the program for teachers to use, and would give copies away for free to low-income schools.

Donors are entitled to various rewards for different levels of gifts, including an autographed headshot for those who give $110 and a personalized voicemail greeting for donors giving $400. Those who donate $10,000 or more get a private dinner with LeVar and a chance to wear the visor his character wore in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

“So lets do it this, y’all,” Burton said. “Together we can create and deliver a proven tool for encouraging the love of reading to millions of children. We can genuinely change the world, one children’s book at a time.”

“Reading Rainbow is back, for every child, everywhere, but you don’t have to take my word for it,” he said.

LeVar Burton did not say exactly when Reading Rainbow could be coming back, but the Kickstarter campaign is well on the way to making it happen.