Reading Rainbow was such a great show, and educational too. I used to love sitting there and learning about things. Like Hawaii. The show on Hawaii was pretty, which is about all I wanted out of tv at the age of seven. And educational. I learned about volcanoes.
Of course, Reading Rainbow wasn't about to cover the political issues in Hawaii, like the anti-statehood people. No, back then Reading Rainbow knew what kids could take.
If only they'd stayed that way. I remember the episode when they reviewed the Anarchist's Cookbook. That does things to a kid. I can go anywhere... as long as my fake passport is good enough to fool the Columbian government. I can do anything... as long as I've mixed the chemicals right and my explosives work. They'd lost their limits, and although ratings went up, the show was just never the same.
Still, I could take that. No, what finally killed Reading Rainbow for me was black history month. The first few days were fine. They covered Martin Luther King, then George Washington Carver, then Harriet Tubman. After that they did Malcolm X. That was a little odd, what with his black nationalism, but it was fine in the end when he became loving and tolerant. No, what finally did it was when they ran out of good black role models and started just doing anyone black and famous.
Papa Doc killed it for me, like he did so many others. I could never look at Jordie Laforge the same way after I'd heard him say "Today we're visiting Papa Doc Duvalier, ruler of Haiti. Hey Papa Doc, what are you doing today?"
"We're killing rebels and their families today. Wanna come along?"
"Sure, Papa Doc, that sounds like fun."
Then the burning huts, and the dismembered bodies, and the shouting soldiers, and the voodoo rituals. After that my heart just wasn't in it anymore.
No, after that my heart was in that jar on the witch doctor's shelf, and I never watched Reading Rainbow again.
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