LeVar Burton's Reading Rainbow Gave Star Trek: The Next Generation Fans A Big First

There are 178 episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," and any devoted Trekkie has likely seen them all. True obsessives, however, probably don't consider the series complete unless they include an episode of "Reading Rainbow" called "The Bionic Bunny Show" (which aired on August 15, 1988). "Reading Rainbow," for those unlucky enough not to know about it, was a PBS series for kids, hosted by LeVar Burton, that encouraged kids to read. Burton and others would read picture books to the audience, spur on children to go to their local libraries, and regularly host educational segments. "Reading Rainbow" premiered in 1983 and ran regularly for years, sometimes taking extended breaks, through to 2006. Kids who found the series loved it. They also loved that Burton, so friendly on screen, encouraged them to read. Burton won multiple Emmys for the show, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.

Each episode would feature a book, and in the episode in question, Burton talked about "The Bionic Bunny Show," written by Marc Brown and illustrated by Laurence Krasny Brown in 1984. The book revealed that the superheroes on your favorite TV shows are, in fact, just actors, and a lot of hard work goes into making a dazzling, FX-laden TV series. Burton, who was in the midst of filming the first season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" at the time, decided to walk kids through the set of his new show. Burton played Geordi La Forge, the helmsman of the Enterprise, and got special permission to bring his "Reading Rainbow" cameras onto the set to show kids how a TV show was made. Luckily, the makers of "Star Trek" understood the value of "Reading Rainbow" and gave their blessing.

The "Bionic Bunny Show" episode, as it were, holds the distinction of being the very first behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

In the episode, Burton takes kids into the makeup trailer and shows his co-star, Michael Dorn, being transformed into a Klingon. He also goes behind the scenes to the editing bay to show how scenes are constructed, shot by shot, as explained to those watching at home by Emmy-winning "Next Generation" visual effects supervisor Rob Legato. Little kids likely found this fascinating, as editing is not something children tend to pay attention to.

Legato also shows off some models he made for the show, as well as what he does to achieve the show's transporter effect. It involved dumping a tipple of glitter into a pitcher of water and stirring it rapidly. Legato also got to show off an outsize model of the Enterprise-D, which might be the most exciting part of the episode.

Trekkies will note that actor Denise Crosby was present during some of the scenes, meaning that she was likely filming her very last episode, "Symbiosis," the day Burton hosted the documentary. Crosby's character, Tasha Yar, was infamously killed in the episode "Skin of Evil," but she filmed "Symbiosis" last. The models Burton and Legato examine are from the episode "When the Bough Breaks."

Also excitingly, Burton was allowed to show some of the rare bloopers and flubs from the first season. One can see Patrick Stewart blowing his lines and stumbling over the show's techno-jargon. The bloopers, the first ever broadcast, were maybe the first chance Trekkies had to witness the otherwise staid Picard chuckling and behaving ridiculously. Burton closes the segment by saying that "Star Trek" is fun and TV shows are great because they're made by expert storytellers, but that it's better to pick up a book and become an expert yourself. When you read, he says, you're the producer, the director, and the SFX technician. It was a tactful way to close out a TV segment in a series devoted to reading.