Denver Comic Con 2014 – Reading Rainbow: LeVar Burton

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Panel Name: Reading Rainbow – LeVar Burton

Topic: Reading Rainbow Kickstarter, Q&A

Featured Guests: LeVar Burton

 

Imagine the thunderous roar of a room full of twenty-somethings as the panel opens with, “Butterfly in the sky…” The crowd chimes in, “I can fly twice as higgggh!” LeVar Burton, whether or not he wants to take credit for it, has helped raise a generation of readers. The revolutionary show Reading Rainbow lasted over twenty years and 150 episodes; each episode was comprised of a guest reader, who would read pages from a children’s book, and field trips, where LeVar would take kids to explore various careers or investigate the moving parts that make everyday activities so interesting. To this day, I’ll always remember the bowling alley episode, where Burton’s explanation of an entire mechanical part of the back room blew my little mind. For most of the 90’s, RR was like my Sesame Street, my Dora the Explorer. I could go on for hours about how great Reading Rainbow is, but I think the rest of the world already knows.

Late May 2014, LeVar Burton headed a Kickstarter campaign to make the Reading Rainbow app more accessible to children. The initial goal of $1 Million was intended to bring Reading Rainbow back to schools. Yes, back – we all remember when the teacher would roll in the TV/VCR cart into the classroom, and nurse a hangover while LeVar Burton took the class on a fantastical journey. What a lot of people didn’t know, us included, is that the Reading Rainbow app for tablets had been around for two years. The app works off a subscription basis and instantly gives kids access to hundreds of licensed books, accompanied by virtual field trips and other neat additions to the story to give kids the complete revamped Reading Rainbow experience. With the Kickstarte-funded project, a new app – specifically designed for classrooms – would be able to fund year-long subscriptions for over 1,500 classrooms. The thought of bringing a premium service to mostly under-privileged schools, whose students’ parents may not have the technology at home, made this an easy sell.

Even with over a month-long period to reach the goal, Burton was a little worried it would not get funded. When the Kickstarter went live on May 28th, it reached it’s goal a mere 11 hours into the campaign. LeVar said that he cried when he got the news. He was so endeared that a generation that grew up watching his show is now helping fund the show for the next generation of readers. Now with 15 days left of the campaign, Reading Rainbow’s goal of $5 million is certainly a reachable one, but it will be close. With this new goal, which they are approximately 75% of the way to fulfilling, will give children universal access. That means the app will be available on mobile phones, gaming consoles, OTT boxes – you name it. It also means putting it in the hands of public libraries, who have been seeing book collections shrink and digital media catalogs increase. While Burton did not eliminate the possibility of bringing back the TV show, he was focused on the direction that the app (existing and new) was headed. “To reach today’s children, you need today’s technology.” It’s hard logic to argue with – and the fact that he will be trying to bring it back to the schools and libraries backs up the plan for streamlined service. A good point that somebody in the audience led Burton to was that while the app is ideal for 3-9 year old readers, it works wonders for ESL students.

The panel wasn’t all Kickstarter, though. A lot of questions were aimed at LeVar personally. LeVar shared that he is always reading, and that his summer reading is his “escape” reading, so he always science fiction in the summer. Right now, he’s reading Octavia Butler’s The Goldfinch. He also revealed that his family loves to read books aloud to each other, and stated that the best way to get your children to read is to read in front of them. Burton even gave us an insight of what he used to read his daughter: Goodnight, Moon and  Harry Potter. The two books he recommends most are: Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman for girls and Enemy Pie by Derek Munson for boys. The panel wasn’t even all about reading, as Burton told the audience that he wasn’t even there. He was still with Troy on Community, fighting off pirates on the Gambino. Burton called Donald Glover “one of the most talented people on Earth,” which was just kind of a twist of the knife already in place that Community has been cancelled and Donald Glover left the show before it was over. Glover’s moments on the show with LeVar Burton were some of my most cherished.

Most of those attending the panel had already contributed to the Kickstarter, or were familiar with the what the campaign was trying to accomplish. This panel was all about The House that Love Reading Built. I was astonished at how many teachers and writers and volunteers were directly affected by having this show in their life. Question after question was full of love and a few of those throwing up questions were brought to tears just by getting up to the mic. One of the most sentimental to me was a young lady who had been home-schooled growing up in a poor learning environment. When she got to public school in 8th grade, she had a 2nd grade math level, but a college level reading level – thanks to Reading Rainbow instilling a love for reading. She graduated high school on time and now has a career in writing. That’s just one example of many touching anecdotes we heard at the panel… But you don’t have to take my word for it! We have the full panel on YouTube below.

Continue to follow us, as we share the happenings of Denver Comic Con 2014.

“Respect My Craft” – Jonathan Frakes

In this consumer-based industry, it can be easy to forget the years of hard work that the people in the business put in. Behind every panel, it takes a skilled writer, artist, inker and colorist to make the product complete. Behind each scene goes hours of preparation. Hush Comics’ weekly article “Respect My Craft” will dive into the history of these comic book and pop culture greats that will hopefully give a new perspective on how the men and women behind the pen (or stylus) contribute to the collective awesome-ness of the nerd world, or at least give you a reason to invest in their work.

Click on the link to view all our Denver Comic Con articles!

Name: Jonathan Frakes

Profession: Actor, Author, Director

Notable Work: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, North and South

“If the prime directives [of Star Trek] were followed a little more accurately here on earth, I mean it sounds somewhat Pollyanna, but I think people would certainly get along better.”- Jonathan Frakes

 

Jonathan Frakes is definitely a major force to be reckoned with when it comes to his craft and legacy. Although his list of credits is not as long as you would think it should be, so much of what made this man a legend was done in such a short time among his credits. Frakes was born in 1952 and grew up in Pennsylvania, became a Thespian and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Penn State University. One of his first jobs was to travel to different conventions with Marvel Comics portraying Captain America.

Around this time Frakes moved to New York and soon became a member of the theater group known as the Impossible Ragtime Theater. After having his first Off Broadway show with this company, Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape, he went on to start staring on Broadway with Shenandoah, while also starting the new role of Tom Carroll on the soap opera, The Doctors. Frakes continued to have a bunch of smaller roles including Kirk Wendover in Fantasy Island, and Brad in Charlie’s Angels. These appearances were usually just single-episode appearances, but it is at this point that the beginning of the legend of Jonathan Frakes starts to come to light.

Frakes gets longer story arcs on a couple series in the early 80s’ including Bare Essence (which originally started as a made-for-TV movie) as Marcus Marshall, then a bunch of the show Paper Dolls portraying Sandy Parris, Falcon Crest as Damon Ross, and one of his biggest projects North and South the miniseries, Frakes did all three of the miniseries for North and South portraying Stanley Hazard. This was a pretty big point but what came next was what everyone knows and loves this man – and his beard – so much for.

After North and South ended, Frakes got the job that he is most iconic for, and that, of course, is Commander William Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation. This role went on for the entire seven season run of the show up until 1994, he had guest roles on Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and even Enterprise (not to mention the four movies: Generations in 1994, First Contact in 1996, Insurrection in 1998, and Nemesis in 2002). What makes it even crazier is he also directed several episodes of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, and also directed the films First Contact and Insurrection. So his Star Trek resumé alone shows you how much this man does, so hopefully his work behind the camera lives up to the legacy as Captain Picard’s #1 officer and ultimate ladies man – like Futurama‘s Zapp Brannigan, except Riker actually gets women.

Although Riker continued to be a major pop culture icon past The Next Generation running years, Jonathan Frakes also had another more cult beloved character coming up but the this one was for only his voice. Frakes played the villain David Xanatos on the animated Disney show Gargoyles along with a large amount of the Star Trek cast. The oddest thing is Frakes has rarely appeared on screen after his Star Trek days, as far as acting goes.

However, he did end up becoming quite the television director. Frakes has directed episodes of Roswell, The Twilight Zone, Burn Notice, Castle, NCIS: Los Angeles, and most recently an episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Frakes has said that he feels his directing ability has far surpassed his acting ability which may be true and false depending on which acting and which directing project of his you would be comparing. It’s not that there are any are bad projects, but because they are all so different and spanned out; it is like comparing a lobster and a poison ivy plant on which gets better gas mileage.

On top of his acting and directing experience Frakes has also done well as a narrator of films specifically documentaries. Frakes has of course been in a whole bunch of Star Trek documentaries and featurettes, but he also was well-liked as the narrator of the documentary Lee & Grant, and the successful series Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction. Beyond Belief went for years and covered some of the strangest true stories the small screen had ever heard. More than any other kind of documentary, Jonathan Frakes did supernatural documentaries, which makes sense.

He has the credit of hosting, Alien Autopsy: (Fact or Fiction?), Roswell: Coverups & Close Encounters,and both UFOs: The Best Evidence Caught on Tape 1 and 2. Although those seem to have ended on top of the acting I am sure Frakes will continue to direct TV and work behind the camera trying to help others create a legacy as he has among Television. Frakes also still does small stints in acting including playing a fan of Richard Castle on Castle, an adult Finn on Adventure Time, and as Administrator/ Mr. Francis in The Glades. So we are bound to see his name or face on any show making it better in front of the camera and behind it.

 

None of the media in this article belongs to Hush Comics; it all belongs to their respective properties. Join us tomorrow as we continue our countdown to Denver Comic Con with one of Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s founding Scooby, Nicholas Brendon.

“Respect My Craft” – Michael Dorn

In this consumer-based industry, it can be easy to forget the years of hard work that the people in the business put in. Behind every panel, it takes a skilled writer, artist, inker and colorist to make the product complete. Behind each scene goes hours of preparation. Hush Comics’ weekly article “Respect My Craft” will dive into the history of these comic book and pop culture greats that will hopefully give a new perspective on how the men and women behind the pen (or stylus) contribute to the collective awesome-ness of the nerd world, or at least give you a reason to invest in their work.

 

Click on the link to take you to all of our Denver Comic Con 2014 “Respect My Craft” articles

 

Name: Michael Dorn

Profession: Actor, Voice Actor, Director

Notable Work: Star Trek: The Next Generation & Deep Space Nine, I Am Weasel, Castle

“The character didn’t have any back story. He was a name on a sheet of paper, that was it. I think the third or fourth day of shooting, I went up to Gene [Roddenberry] and asked him what he wanted from this character. He told me to make it my own. I took it and decided that the character was going to be the opposite of everybody else on the show. And the writers took it from there, and Worf became one of the best characters ever.”- Michael Dorn

 

Michael Dorn has been on TV and in our lives since around the mid-1970’s, but before that he grew up in Pasadena California although he was born in Luling, Texas. While living in California he studied radio and television production at Pasadena City College. This led him to join several bands at that time which had him traveling from San Francisco and Los Angeles. In the coming years Dorn had a recurring role of Officer Jeb Turner on CHiPs even with the typical cheesy 80’s mustache and all. He had minor roles in a bunch of TV shows along the way including Charles in Charge, and Punky Brewster, and even had a uncredited role in Rocky, as Apollo Creed’s bodyguard.

He started to become a rather distinct and welcome face when it came to television, but his career really blew up when he joined the soap opera Days of Our Lives as Jimmy up until 1987 where he decided to quit the show because he had gained a role which would ultimately change his life forever, Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Ultimately, it was just a job and he had no idea the character he would help create or the legend he would become to others.

Any fans of Michael Dorn before, and many after the fact, would never recognize him without the Klingon forehead and epic facial hair. Sure this can cause a problem to a certain degree, as many people who love your craft don’t even know what you look like. However, it also could help him take roles outside of typecasting him in roles similar to Worf. On the other end of it, not being Worf was not a problem because it was a perennial role Michael Dorn played in Star Trek: The Next Generation and the four films made from that series, as well as a regular cast member in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine during season four of the series and this made him the actor who has played the same character the most through the entire span of Star Trek history. So as hard as it may be for some Star Trek fans to hear, Worf is better at Kirk and Picard at something.

Dorn kept pretty busy while doing Star Trek: TNG and it showed, as he didn’t have many other roles while doing the show up until 1994. This is where Michael Dorn really grew with his voice over acting but most of it was small roles in one or two episodes including shows like Swat Kats: The Radical Squadron, Aladdin, Biker Mice From Mars, and the series Fantastic Four. This led to a major event for anybody that was a Star Trek nerd and a cartoon nerd, which was Disney’s Gargoyles. A good amount of original cast from Star Trek: TNG provided a voice at some point during Gargoyles. Michael Dorn was only a small recurring character, Coldstone, the cyborg gargoyle which made him a quite disturbing, yet awesome, character for a kids show.

After Gargoyles was dying gown, he got other jobs including Borl and other roles in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, and Disney’s Hercules animated show. He didn’t have another huge role until the show Cow and Chicken came along. Many people remember Cow and Chicken but he played a character in it that became so popular he got his own show, which was I Am Weasel. Although his show was not long-lived by any means, I Am Weasel and I.R. Baboon are definitely some huge pop culture figures for my generation and, along with Cow and Chicken, they soon became the next Ren and Stimpy or Rocko’s Modern Life, known primarilyfor being crude, yet still childish and funny.

Dorn did a whole bunch of voice acting because if your voice finds its way into that community they never let you leave but that it meant in the upmost respect as it is a community I would die to get “trapped” in. This saw him working almost exclusively in video games until the early 2000’s with a run on the animated show Superman as Kalibak and John Henry Irons AKA Steel. A lot of these video games in these years were Star Trek including Invasion, Deep Space Nine- The Fallen, Klingon Academy, Away Team, Gatatog Uvenk in Mass Effect 2, Tassadar in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, Maero in Saints Row 2 and Saints Row IV. The most current thing you can see Michael Dorn in is the current Saints Row IV and as the recurring character Dr. Carter Burke on Castle. He has a show up on idiegogo titled Swallow Your Bliss, which is a sitcom set up as a TV Cooking Show and its crew. He is also set to star in a comedic Sci-Fi film titled Unbelieveable!!!!!. This film is also set to star Nichelle Nichols, who would also be producer.

None of the media in this article belongs to Hush Comics; it all belongs to their respective properties (Photographer Janis Ogata, Paramount Television, Walt Disney Television Animation, Beacon Pictures, Experimental Pictures, ABC Studios, Buena Vista Television, Huffington Post Canada TV (http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/03/06/michael-dorn-star-trek-worf-interview_n_2821205.html)). Join us tomorrow as we continue our countdown to Denver Comic Con with Neal Adams, comic book artist legend.

“Respect My Craft”- LeVar Burton

In this consumer-based industry, it can be easy to forget the years of hard work that the people in the business put in. Behind every panel, it takes a skilled writer, artist, inker and colorist to make the product complete. Behind each scene goes hours of preparation. Hush Comics’ weekly article “Respect My Craft” will dive into the history of these comic book and pop culture greats that will hopefully give a new perspective on how the men and women behind the pen (or stylus) contribute to the collective awesome-ness of the nerd world, or at least give you a reason to invest in their work.

Click on the link to view all our Denver Comic Con articles!

Name: LeVar Burton

Profession: Actor

Notable Work: Roots, Reading Rainbow, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and recently raising nearly 3 million dollars to bring back Reading Rainbow in 2 days.

The “Roots” experience was one where I really was schooled on the power of the medium: television. My life was changed in two nights of television. I watched a nation be transformed around the idea of slavery and our relationship to that part of the American story. It was like ‘Wow.’ The opportunity to do “Reading Rainbow,”  to do half an hour of television in the summer when kids are spending most of their time in front of the TV and try and steer them back in the direction of literature made all the sense in the world to me. My mother was an English teacher, so it was really a no-brainer. ” -LeVar Burton in an interview with the HeroComplex at the L.A. Times

Levar Burton shares the joy of reading on Reading Rainbow.

LeVar Burton has been a household name since the ’70’s.  However, depending on your generation, you may know him from something different than your parents.  You may know him as Kunta Kinte from Roots, or if you were born in the ’80’s, you may know him as the host of the children’s literacy show Reading Rainbow, or as Geordi La Forge in Gene Rodenberry’s Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Burton was born on an Army Base in Germany in 1957.  His mother, an English teacher, moved to Sacramento when Burton was a child.  When he was 13, he decided to join a seminary to become a priest.  Yeah, Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge was almost a priest.   After some soul-searching and reading different philosophies, Burton decided not to be a priest and enrolled in the Theater Program at University of Southern California.  Burton began his acting career when he was a sophomore in college.

Burton auditioned for Roots, his first Hollywood audition, and got the part of Kunta Kinte, a name now synonymous with slavery and race relations in America.  Roots was the first mainstream slavery story to be told through the eyes of the enslaved man.  Kunta Kinte was a man from Gambia and a slave who never forgot where he came from.  Kunta was badly abused.  At one point, after trying to escape, part of his right foot was cut off.  The visual images that came with Burton’s role as Kunta are still prevalent in American culture today.  Roots is highly regarded as a turning point in how black people and white people viewed each other.  Burton can be quoted as saying, “Roots wasn’t just art for art’s sake. It was art as a way of moving the ­culture forward” in an interview last year with Vulture.  Burton’s portrayal of Kunta in Roots earned him an Emmy nomination for Best Actor in 1977.

LeVar Burton in Roots as Kunta Kinte.

His groundbreaking role garnered a lot of attention.  Burton hosted the last season of the children’s show Rebop.  He starred in the TV movie One in a Million: The Ron LeFlore Story as Ron LeFlore, the baseball player who was recruited to the MLB out of prison.  Burton was in a myriad of other movies and had a guest spot on Fantasy Island once.  Then, in 1983, LeVar Burton became of the host of Reading Rainbow on PBS.  It was from that moment on that children across America learned to read.  Ok, ok, I am exaggerating.  I really hope (and on some level, I know) kids could read before Reading Rainbow was on the air.  The show took kids on “field trips” to different places in America and then an awesome celebrity guest would read a book to us as the pages were shown on screen.  Then kids would recommend books they liked. I can honestly say that Reading Rainbow was one of my favorite shows growing up.  I was, and still am, a bookworm, and I truly believe Reading Rainbow and LeVar Burton were major catalysts in my love of reading (my grandmother and father were huge roles, too, just in case they read this).  Reading Rainbow‘s original run was from 1983 to 2006.  Now, LeVar is bringing Reading Rainbow online to the kids of the digital age.  He famously launched a Kickstarter campaign, raising over 1 million dollars in 11 hours.  In the last day, the campaign’s goal has expanded to 5 million dollars.  The plan for Reading Rainbow is to not only be a full-fledged website, set up similarly to the television show, but a tool for teachers, particularly in underfunded schools, and to provide it all for free.  If you would like to contribute to the cause for literacy, click HERE.

LeVar Burton meets Kermit in the “Pig” aisle on Reading Rainbow.

In 1986, Burton was cast as Geordi La Forge, a blind pilot, in Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Burton grew up watching Star Trek, so working on the show was a dream come true.  Geordi was a character who inspired many fans.  Because of his “disability”, he wore a VISOR, which gave him the ability to see things even the human eye couldn’t.  That prop wasn’t the best thing though, according to Burton.  He has stated it obscured 80 percent or more of his vision while filming, causing him to trip or lose balance often.  He also felt that without the audience being able to see his eyes, a large part of his acting skill was limited.  He has also stated that he hopes that the technology of the future would be more advanced than the VISOR for blind people to be able to see.  Since the series ended, Burton has been fairly vocal about the lack of a love life La Forge had.  He has noted that Star Trek is generally better than to stereotype people, but that La Forge was stereotyped because he was a nerd and a black man.  He says that everyone has a sexual identity, but that was denied to his character, something he would have changed.  Burton was eventually able to direct an episode of TNG, and continued to do so, even beyond the TNG franchise and on to Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise.  To date, Burton has directed the most Star Trek episodes than any other actor from the show.  His career as Geordi La Forge lasted 7 television seasons and continued in 4 Star Trek movies.  You may wonder if Geordi La Forge inspired me, the way Reading Rainbow did.  I do admit to being a Trekkie when I was a kid.  I had a Geordi action figure and often walked around my house with a headband over my eyes. I was an odd child, but it has made me a pretty cool adult, and I’d like to think Burton and Star Trek had something to do with it.

LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation. And the best reason for him to appear at Denver Comic Con.

Most recently, Burton has been a staple, whether on screen or not, in Community.  Burton was Troy’s idol and caused him to go catatonic at one point because of his presence.  LeVar Burton also happened to be the man who took Troy away from the study group and on Pierce’s boat the “Childish Tycoon.”  However, the boat was then taken by pirates, so who knows what happened to LeVar and Troy? He has also appeared in The Big Bang Theory as himself.  Burton is  the voice of Doc Greene in the Hub Network series Transformers: Rescue Bots.  He has said he believes it was one of the few children’s shows that portrays pro-social behavior.  Burton believes all television is educational, but wonders what we are trying to teach our children.  Currently, Burton is a regular on TNT’s Perception as Paul Haley, anthropologist best friend to Eric McCormack’s character who is a paranoid schizophrenic who helps the FBI investigate difficult cases.  In addition to all his acting endeavors, Burton has been working as the “Curator In-Chief” for the Reading Rainbow website and campaign with business parter Mark Wolfe and revolutionizing how kids learn to love reading.  I’d say, LeVar Burton is a pretty big deal.  Live long and prosper, folks.

Troy Barnes (Donald Glover) meets LeVar Burton on Community.

After you donate to the Reading Rainbow Kickstarter, go ahead and listen to this while you think about tiny children reading all thanks to LeVar Burton.

None of the media in this article belongs to Hush Comics; it all belongs to their respective properties. Join us tomorrow as we continue our countdown to Denver Comic Con as we spotlight author Kevin J. Anderson!

written by Adrian Puryear