The Internet nostalgia machine has donated over $2.5 million dollars to Reading Rainbow’s LeVar Burton to restart the PBS series that originally ran from 1983 until 2006. Burton’s Kickstarter campaign was looking for a $1 million dollar goal and promises such incentives as private dinner with LeVar and a chance to wear his character’s sci-fi visor from Star Trek: The Next Generation (these perks require pledges of $3,500 and $10,000, respectively).
Back in a 2012 interview with Mediabistro, Burton announced an earlier attempt to re-launch the show as an app aimed at modern tablet-addled kids. In the same interview, LeVar reveals his theory that the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 caused Rainbow’s demise five years later. He also levels a vague critique at the military-industrial complex.
I’m with Kunta Kinte; trying to get kids to read is never a bad thing. In other news, the Barney & Friends Kickstarter campaign has failed to get off the ground, incentives like a weekend in Vegas with Baby Bop ($7,000) and the original, dilapidated, and mysteriously stained Barney costume ($20,000) failing to entice.
