--- description: Actor Levar Burton and the creators of Reading Rainbow have turned to Kickstarter to raise money to bring the show back online. title: Reading Rainbow Raising $1 Million to Return As Online Show image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Reading Rainbow Raising $1 Million to Return As Online Show by [Jared Newman](/author/jared-newman/) ## Jared Newman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 28, 2014 3:36 PM CUT by [Jared Newman](/author/jared-newman/) ## Jared Newman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 28, 2014 3:36 PM CUT Actor Levar Burton and the creators of _Reading Rainbow_ are hoping that $1 million worth of nostalgia can help resurrect the popular children’s program. You may remember _Reading Rainbow_–and its [impossible-to-forget theme song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfGhfI%5FNwcA "undefined")–from its days as PBS television series, which Burton hosted from the beginning. PBS cancelled the show in 2006 and stopped airing reruns in 2009, but the program lives on as an [iPad](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reading-rainbow-read-along/id512350210?mt=8 "undefined") and [Kindle Fire](http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Rainbow-Kindle-Tablet-Edition/dp/B00B9K2TSQ "undefined") app. Now, Burton and crew are trying to [raise money on Kickstarter](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/readingrainbow/bring-reading-rainbow-back-for-every-child-everywh "undefined") to build a web version of the show, along with a classroom version with teaching guides, dashboards and other tools. If the project gets funded, Burton says they can put _Reading Rainbow_ into more than 1,500 disadvantaged schools for free. As you might expect, the Kickstarter campaign is loaded with Burton-related rewards, such as a personalized photo and autograph ($250), a five to 10 minute phone call ($600) and a private dinner with the actor ($3,500). Deep-pocketed _Star Trek_ buffs can also pay $10,000 for a dinner with Burton and a chance to wear the actual visor Burton wore as Geordi LaForge on _Star Trek: The Next Generation_. $1 million is a tall order for a Kickstarter campaign, but it’s still a fraction of what some of the [most-funded campaigns](https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/most-funded?ref=footer "undefined") have earned. At the time of this writing, Reading Rainbow has raised nearly $45,000 with 35 days to go. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/123841/reading-rainbow-online/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/123841/reading-rainbow-online/"},"headline":"Reading Rainbow Raising $1 Million to Return As Online Show","datePublished":"2014-05-28T15:36:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:20.739Z","description":"The ambitious Kickstarter campaign is loaded with LeVar Burton-related perks.","url":"https://time.com/123841/reading-rainbow-online/","keywords":["Tech","Television","Kickstarter","reading"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jared Newman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jared-newman/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/123841/reading-rainbow-online/","name":"Reading Rainbow Raising $1 Million to Return As Online Show"}}]}] ```