Jordi LaForge sez "Help!"

] In a plea for the life of "Reading Rainbow," host LeVar
] Burton returned to a familiar setting: the stage where he
] picked up the PBS show's seventh Emmy Award for best
] children's television series.
]
] "If you are a wealthy philanthropist out there, I'm not
] that difficult to find," said Burton, the show's
] executive producer and host since it began in 1983.
]
] He's still waiting. And "Reading Rainbow," which has
] counterintuitively used television to introduce children
] to a world of books, may only have a few months to live.
]
] "Reading Rainbow" has several strikes against it in the
] battle for funding. For starters, it has no access to
] merchandise licensing deals, an increasingly important
] part of PBS' funding scheme for children's shows. There
] are no "Reading Rainbow" action figures to sell, no
] "Reading Rainbow" jammies to keep kids warm at night.
]
] The series is also 20 years old when many corporate
] benefactors prefer being involved with something new. And
] the show's narrow audience -- children 6 to 8 who are
] just learning to read -- doesn't give sponsors the broad
] exposure they're seeking, said Amy Jordan, senior
] researcher on children and the media at the University of
] Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center.

'Reading Rainbow' fights for survival - May. 29, 2003