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Join us for our Reading Rainbow SPECIAL! Featuring:
Tony Buttino and Pam Johnson, authors of
CREATING READING RAINBOW: The Untold Story of a Beloved Children's Series
Long before there was KidLit TV, there was Reading Rainbow! One of the most iconic children's television programs of all time, the show won 250 awards over 26 years including 26 Emmy Awards! Now, after 20 years, it's back — but have you ever wondered how it originally came to be?
On StoryMakers, join program creators Tony Buttino and Pam Johnson, co-authors of CREATING READING RAINBOW: The Untold Story of a Beloved Children's Series for an inside look at the making of this landmark show for teaching children to love books and reading. Don't miss the fun Reading Rainbow coloring activity and make sure to share your favorite books with us!
About the Book
Reading Rainbow is one of the most successful PBS children’s series in television history, earning numerous national and international awards including 26 Emmys and a Peabody Award. But perhaps more important than anything else, Reading Rainbow helped generations of children cultivate a love for books.
Reading Rainbow is very much a story of humble beginnings and enormous perseverance. Over five summers, Tony Buttino Sr. and his colleagues at WNED-TV, the public television station in Buffalo, New York, worked in collaboration with educators and librarians to experiment with summer reading programs. But after trialing these programs, the WNED team realized there was a big need for a new children's literacy series and believed they could create a new show with local and national collaborators and friends. After fits and starts, and enough twists and turns to fill a children’s book, Reading Rainbow premiered in the summer of 1983 and captured the attention of 6.5 million young viewers.
Creating Reading Rainbow explores the many intriguing and homespun stories that, when woven together, reveal how this groundbreaking and iconic television series came to be. What led to the series being called “Reading Rainbow”? How did the road to Reading Rainbow wind its way through Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood? How did a public television station in Buffalo spearhead a movement in education and spark the passion for reading in millions of children? And, what does lasagna have to do with it?
DOWNLOAD the Activity Sheet and share your favorite books with us!
Watch Tony Buttino's and Pam Johnson's StoryMakers
https://youtu.be/EJoDjtMA-6M
Viewers:
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If you grew up on Reading Rainbow…this book is for you!
— Levar Burton
Click HERE to purchase CREATING READING RAINBOW!⭐ ⭐ ⭐
ABOUT READING RAINBOW
The story of “Reading Rainbow” begins in Buffalo, New York, as a WNED-TV program idea before it made its debut on PBS. Three people who worked on and helped make the show, Tony Buttino Sr., Barbara Irwin and Pam Johnson, collaborated on a 2024 book about the process called Creating Reading Rainbow: The Untold Story of a Beloved Children’s Series.
Working with educators and librarians on summer reading programs, Buttino led WNED-TV’s Educational Services Department at the time. Johnson was the liaison with the executives working on the show. And Irwin was an intern in that department at WNED, working alongside Buttino and Johnson. She worked on community outreach and on production of the book review segments of the show that were done in Buffalo for the first several years.
“This was intended to be a summer series,” Buttino says. But, of course, it ended up transcending that. “People loved the program.”
About Tony Buttino
Tony Buttino Sr. is best known for his leadership in the creation of the Emmy award-winning Public TV series Reading Rainbow. Most of his forty years of working at WNED-TV were spent utilizing and marketing instructional television (ITV) as a teaching and learning tool. And for his efforts, his colleagues affectionately refer to him as the “Father of ITV.” A multi-year effort to use television to bridge the summer reading gap led to the creation of Reading Rainbow, which began as a summer series on PBS, reaching over 6 million beginning readers in its first season. The series went on to become a year-round sensation and was broadcast for 26 years – among the longest running children’s series on PBS. Although as co-executive producer Buttino garnered five Emmy Awards for Outstanding Children’s Series, he says his biggest accomplishment is being able to reach youngsters through television and motivating them to read.
Connect with Tony Buttino
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About Pam Johnson
Pam Johnson, Ph.D., is Executive Director of Ready To Learn at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a school readiness program developed in partnership with PBS KIDS, leading children’s content producers, researchers, and America’s public media stations with funding from the U.S. Department of Education. Prior to joining CPB, Dr. Johnson served as Vice President for Education and Engagement at WNED-TV where she spearheaded learning services and advanced innovative initiatives including ThinkBright TV, the Buffalo Professional Development and Technology Center, and Reading Rainbow’s national outreach and web priorities. With a passion for exciting children and their grown-ups about learning through media, Johnson shares that it all began as a station intern working closely with her longtime colleague and friend, Tony Buttino, during Reading Rainbow’s early years.
Connect with Pam Johnson
Website | Instagram
About Barbara Irwin
Who doesn't love Reading Rainbow? I was fortunate to work on the series during the early years at WNED-TV in Buffalo, NY where I grew up. It was there that I met Tony Buttino and Pam Johnson, my co-authors on Creating Reading Rainbow: The Untold Story of a Beloved Children's Series. Tony co-created the show; Pam began as an intern (as I did) and continued working hand-in-hand with Tony on Reading Rainbow and other education initiatives. My work at WNED inspired me to continue my graduate education, and I became a professor of Media Studies at Canisius University, where I worked for 32 years. I love television and have always been interested in the behind-the-scenes stories of how television shows are created. I'm especially drawn to the positive things television can accomplish — including motivating generations of children to read and develop a love of books! I knew there was a story to tell about how Reading Rainbow came to be and spent years researching, studying archival materials, and interviewing those involved in developing the beloved series, including host LeVar Burton, members of the production team, educators, and librarians.
Connect with Barbara Irwin!
Website | Instagram
–Reading Rainbow© and its logo are registered trademarks of Western New York Public Broadcasting Association, the sole owner of all Reading Rainbow© intellectual property
–Photos are courtesy of BTPM PBS, Buffalo, New York
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