How do I find my episode of Reading Rainbow?
June 9, 2014 4:00 PM Subscribe
Many, many years ago, when I was a wee pup, I was on an episode of Reading Rainbow. You know the short segments when they had kids present a sort of short, spoken book review of their favorite book? Well I presented Oliver Twist.
I had to have been between 9 - 11 years old, I'd guess. That'd put the time frame around 1992 - 1994. I remember I had gone to my local library where they had a bunch of us kids write a bit about our favorite book and I was selected to present mine on the show! My segment was recorded in Indianapolis, IN, at what I'm assuming was the local PBS station. I'm not sure exactly how these segments were used. Did every local PBS station edit in their own local kids? Or are there only a couple kids featured nationally for each episode? I would love to find this episode. Does anyone have any ideas of how I could go about finding this?
I had to have been between 9 - 11 years old, I'd guess. That'd put the time frame around 1992 - 1994. I remember I had gone to my local library where they had a bunch of us kids write a bit about our favorite book and I was selected to present mine on the show! My segment was recorded in Indianapolis, IN, at what I'm assuming was the local PBS station. I'm not sure exactly how these segments were used. Did every local PBS station edit in their own local kids? Or are there only a couple kids featured nationally for each episode? I would love to find this episode. Does anyone have any ideas of how I could go about finding this?
LaVar Burton has staged a massively successful "Bring Reading Rainbow Back for Every Child, Everywhere" Kickstarter campaign." That might be a good place to start.
posted by NoraCharles at 4:25 PM on June 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by NoraCharles at 4:25 PM on June 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
Older episodes are available on iTunes: http://www.readingrainbow.com/classic-series - link on the right hand side.
posted by blaneyphoto at 4:26 PM on June 9, 2014
posted by blaneyphoto at 4:26 PM on June 9, 2014
I have a database of all the Reading Rainbow books (main stories and kid review segments) and don't see Oliver Twist or anything else by Dickens in it, so maybe it was a local segment.
posted by Flannery Culp at 5:00 PM on June 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Flannery Culp at 5:00 PM on June 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Awww... that's kinda bummer.
Also, wow. This is why metafilter is awesome. Where else would I find someone who has a database of all the Reading Rainbow eps?
posted by matt_od at 5:03 PM on June 9, 2014 [10 favorites]
Also, wow. This is why metafilter is awesome. Where else would I find someone who has a database of all the Reading Rainbow eps?
posted by matt_od at 5:03 PM on June 9, 2014 [10 favorites]
It might be worth calling Viewer Services at WFYI (the Indy PBS affiliate) - 317-715-2090. They might be able to point you in the direction of the local segment archives.
posted by cessair at 5:34 PM on June 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by cessair at 5:34 PM on June 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
Re the kickstarter, they claim to read every comment. Would be interesting to see if that gets you a response.
posted by colin_l at 7:02 PM on June 9, 2014
posted by colin_l at 7:02 PM on June 9, 2014
If you search on youtube there are some of these kid's capsule review segments and comments about how they won a contest to make it, etc. it does look like they were edited in by the local PBS stations.
posted by sevenless at 8:08 PM on June 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by sevenless at 8:08 PM on June 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I'll try the kickstarter page, though after quickly shuffling through four seasons of the show (I found a torrent with 21 seasons worth of episodes) I'm starting to doubt my segment ever made it to the national broadcast. I probably would have come across as a pretty precocious and odd child. All of the books the kids are reviewing seem to be picture books. I just watched one kid review Find Waldo Now. I'm not quite sure how that made it onto Reading Rainbow. It doesn't seem like they were broadcasting reviews of many classics, illustrated version though it may have been.
posted by matt_od at 9:17 PM on June 9, 2014
posted by matt_od at 9:17 PM on June 9, 2014
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posted by brujita at 4:17 PM on June 9, 2014 [1 favorite]