Buffalo influence on ‘Reading Rainbow’ highlighted in book

It took convincing him to admit that he was a little disappointed that the early influence of WNED-TV (Channel 17) and Western New Yorkers on the program was not given as much respect as he hoped for in the exceptional 2022 documentary “Butterfly.” in the Sky,” currently streaming on Netflix.

But he understands that making a movie named after the title of the show’s iconic theme song and writing a book about it are two different things that can complement each other.

Buttino and two former WNED colleagues who worked on the series, Barbara Irwin and Pam Johnson, are the authors of a new 296-page book, “Creating Reading Rainbow: The Untold Story of a Beloved Children’s Series.”

The book, which includes descriptions of all 155 episodes, will be published by North Country Books on June 18.

Buttino’s initial disappointment with the documentary was because the Buffalo portion was cut minutes after the principals here had been interviewed for hours.

“Creating Reading Rainbow” is designed to give more of Buffalo’s version by convincing PBS to support a series designed to get kids reading during the summer when they leave school with help from popular host LeVar Burton.

Buttino, 86, thinks the documentary will help the book.

“We help them and they help us,” Buttino said. “We met with the producers. We liked what they did. Of course, they didn’t give us a lot of credit in the show itself, obviously because they chose LeVar (Burton) and they probably chose the most interesting part over what we do. And that’s another reason why we love doing this book.

His initial disappointment with the documentary was tempered.

“I thought after days and days of them interviewing us for three or four minutes, I thought maybe they could give us a little more,” Buttino said. “I was disappointed then, but I’m not disappointed now. I mean, it all started in Buffalo.

Naturally, there are significant differences between the documentary and the book which was 10 years in the making.

“Our book is about the days before LeVar, before the shows were produced,” Buttino said.

The idea for the book came from Irwin the night Buttino was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in 2014. Irwin, a professor at Canisius University, realized there were several books about “Sesame Street.”

She approached Buttino and asked if he would be interested in writing a book about “Reading Rainbow.”

“Before I even thought about it, I said, ‘Sure. Yeah, let’s do it.’ »

Buttino, Irwin and Johnson, executive director of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s “Ready to Learn” program, wrote the book in sections and an editor told them they needed a moderator to work on the transitions. Irwin got this role.

“Basically, it features segments of my life, Pam’s life and everything that happened,” Buttino said. “Basically, she’s a bit like the narrator.”

The authors interviewed many people in the documentary, including Twila Liggett, Larry Lancit and Cecily Truett Lancit, who each had co-creator credits.

Irwin knew a Canisius graduate who worked in publishing. He said it sounded interesting and explained the process of publishing a book by first writing a chapter and an outline to show to an editorial board who would decide whether or not to pursue the project.

“They all knew ‘Reading Rainbow,’” Buttino said. “They were pretty excited that we could write a book about it.”

“I think I’ll sit down and type and I’ll burn the midnight oil and they’ll say, ‘Hey, the deadline is tomorrow.’ Well, none of that happened. I mean, I started writing and writing and writing and then all of a sudden, years went by and then we took it seriously probably a few years ago.

The book includes Buttino’s memories of his time at Bishop Timon High School in South Buffalo as “one of the few Italians who broke through to the Irish people there.”

The book also names intern Debbi Dennis, who coined the program’s title, believing that “reading is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”

The hope is that the book’s audience will be those who watched the program, which ran from 1983 to 2009, and who can undoubtedly recite the lyrics to the theme song: “Butterfly in the Sky, I Can Go twice as high. Take a look, it’s in a book. A rainbow of reading! »

“I think we have at least two or three generations of people because almost everywhere I go to talk about ‘Reading Rainbow,’ they break into song and do a song and dance,” Buttino said. “It’s that generation that was maybe a first grader, because that was our target audience, the beginning reader.”

Some of the episodes, first broadcast 40 years ago, are available on YouTube via Readingrainbow.org.

Buttino said he thinks the show — and the books — are timeless.

“‘Reading Rainbow’ is like having a good library of books,” Buttino said. “You have new kids coming in and these books are always good. They will stay for a long time. They are old books but they are good books.

All fans curious about the creation of the series can now “take a look, it’s all in the book” on “Reading Rainbow”.