Butterfly in the sky

I wish I was LeVar Burton.

My personal hero, and he never let me down. His enthusiasm as Geordi helped me embrace my passion for engineering early in school.

As somebody outside the us I never heard of him not before I saw community :(

The Wikipedia page is a bit dry, what's a good read about why he matters to you guys? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LeVar_Burton

Same for me. I just finished yet another rewatch to confirm it still my favorote show.

I wouldn't mind a second one, love that for you

His Harmontown appearance was hysterical. I still show my kid Reading Rainbow, got the whole series on my media server.

Next Generation is the closest my family got to a family TV show that wasn't the news but somehow, this moment is usually my first LeVar Burton thought.

For the millennials in the audience, he also taught us about recycling and care of the earth as the voice of Kwame on Captain Planet.

Mr RoDgers? Someone needs a little more reading rainbow.

He hosted the PBS kids' educational show Reading Rainbow starting in 1983, so anyone roughly 45 and younger likely grew up watching him talk about books and reading. He also had a big role in Star Trek: The Next Generation from 1987-1994, which might have been the most watched Star Trek series, and which was basically a series of lessons in ethical decision-making.

He wishes he was Lance Reddick.

LeVar Burton is an inspiration. If you missed Roots, whatever. He's relevant in so many more ways. Is currently in the film One Night Only (2026).

And a healthy dose of Writing Rainbow

levar burton, mister rogers, and alison martin. <3

a likely story was what made me want to drop everything and have a bookmobile when i grew up.

Alison Martin has a new career apparently.

(Ok, I don't know who she is, so I had to look it up)

Mr. Rogers would be very disappointed at the pedantry.

Even for posting on the internet...

Since OP is probably not going to address the typo, I'll say it's probably because they're from a country where "Rodgers" is more common than "Rogers". They're still wrong — names do not translate between English-speaking countries, even if they spell a word differently that is also a name. Sadly, the only person I can think of named Gray or Grey is Christian Grey, of Fifty Shades of Grey. Calling him "Christian Gray" or the book "Fifty Shades of Gray" just because you're an American is wrong. See also, Culture Club's Colour by Numbers album, which is not called "Color by Numbers" in the US.

We do localise and translate from other languages, though. Many anime, for example, are called something else in Japan. One of my favourite examples is Boku Dake ga Inai Machi, which literally translates to "The Town in Which Only I Am Missing," but is more commonly called "The Town Without Me". Outside Japan, it's called Erased. A simpler one is Shingeki no Kyojin, or "Giants Advance" or "Advance of the Titans", which, as you can guess, is called Attack on Titan in English. Then you have Boku no Hero Academia, which uses its literal translation, "My (young male speaker) Hero Academia". "Watashi no Hero Academia" would also translate to the same, but would imply they're college age/professional. "Ore no Hero Academia" would work if they were punks or delinquents — Boku, Watashi, and Ore are just pronouns that refer to social status, they all translate roughly to "Me" or "My" in English.

But again, names don't translate.

I like LeVar Burton for Star Trek: The Next Generation, but I've also read (and listened to) his book, Aftermath. It's a bit heavy on racial tones, but I think that was the point. In his dystopian future, the sun causes a lot more cases of skin cancer, but only in those fairer of skin, so Black people are hunted and skinned, with their skin being grafted onto rich white people to help keep them from getting cancer. Like a skin transplant. I guess that's easier than figuring out how to just add melanin to the skin somehow? Like reproducing it in a lab? Sounds like something Geordi and Data would attempt. But Burton didn't write Geordi and there's no indication he's an engineer IRL, he just played one on TV. What he is, is a writer. And I guess he wanted to address racism. Don't get me wrong, it's a good book, but a bit heavy handed at times.

The book never gets mentioned and I think it should.

And of course, there was a Star Trek episode of Reading Rainbow. I think Sir Patrick Stewart also read a book on a couple of episodes.

I can go twice as high

But you don’t have to take my word for it

I don’t know, feel like I hear love for him about as much as the other two

I have no memories of levar becaise every time reading rainbow came on my babysitter turned the tv off.

YOU CAN'T DISAPPOINT A PICTURE!

Take a look

This whole bit is so funny.

Also Roots.

This is the first I've heard of this book, I'm assuming it was written years ago prior to 'Melanotan 2' being a thing. It's a peptide which at high enough doses it can effectively transform the fairest skinned caucasian to a skin complexion to that of someone who is from Sub-Saharan Africa. The entire premise seems a little far fetched when there is a relatively simple solution available.

Why pit two bad bitches against each other, they're both icons

this alison martin :3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alison_Martin

(scroll down to the a likely story section; https://oldfilm.org/more-than-the-news-programming-from-wcvb/)

It's in a book

Don't forget Mr. Wizard!

Well, he said so himself. Personally, I like both of them.

Damn I somehow memory hulled Mr Wizard, that dude was the shit

I TOLD PIERCE A THOUSAND TIMES

Some would say he was from:

"The Next Generation"

I will see myself out.

For anyone interested, there is q pretty good documentary about Reading Rainbow. It's called # Butterfly in the Sky iirc

Reading Rainbow.... Part of CahLeFarNeahs Gahold. RIP Huell Howser too.

Mr. Rogers was never disappointed in you, he thought you were great just the way you are

I never noticed that!!

Also a very good children's podcast Sound Detective and the short story podcast Levar Burton Reads

which is wild. Ross-Rogers-Burton-Nye all belong in the same conversation

Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high...

I just got a copy of Octavia Butler's "The Parable of the Sower" and I was ecstatic to realize it has a foreward written by LeVar Burton

Yeah he was great in Star Trek

Give Octavia Butler's "Xenogenesis" a read. It's an allegory on slavery, race mixing, and the power dynamics of consent, but involving humans and aliens who are more powerful