'Reading Rainbow' Celebrates 30th Anniversary At The Grove

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — PBS Friday will celebrate the 30th anniversary of "Reading Rainbow" at The Grove in Los Angeles.

Host LeVar Burton will commemorate the landmark event at Dylan's Candy Bar from noon to 4 p.m. and has invited all fans of the series to attend.

The classic children's show, which inspires children to pick up a book, has been on the air since June 1983 and is PBS' third-longest running children's show.

"When we began this venture 30 years ago, it was a summer series only. It was designed to get kids reading during the summer months when they're apt to be doing anything but. Back in the 80s, it was a lot of watching TV," Burton told KNX 1070.

Despite going off the air in 2009, the show is still used as an educational resource.

"It still streams to thousands of classrooms around the country,"Burton said.

The series is also shining in the digital age with a "Reading Rainbow" App available on the iPad or Kindle.

The app is "a mobile library of books and videos for your child just like the original television series, but delivered for the tablet experience, which is where one needs to be if one wants to connect with children today," he added.

Within hours of the release of the Reading Rainbow App in June 2012, it became the #1 educational app in the country and it continues to win awards and acclaim, most recently being named one of the top apps by PC MAGAZINE.

Burton is also famous for his roles as Kunta Kinte on Roots and as one of the crew members on Star Trek: The Next Generation. His Reading Rainbow series is the third-longest running children's series in PBS history behind Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood and Sesame Street.

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