#SetTheVCR: Butterfly in the Sky

My Summer Lair

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#SetTheVCR: Butterfly in the Sky

A Reading Rainbow documentary is now streaming on Netflix!

Sammy Younan

May 24, 2024

Transcript

Yo…

Let’s return to the glorious era where we deeply invested in the lives and imagination of children: from Mister Rogers to Sesame Street to Reading Rainbow.

Ah, yeah Reading Rainbow:
Host LeVar Burton was tasked with La Forge-ing the “Next Generation” of kids to be active readers.

Launched in 1983, Reading Rainbow used television to inspire children’s love of reading, especially during the summer reading slump when kids are out of school. 155 30-minute episodes were produced over 23 seasons.

Butterfly in the Sky is a documentary that tells the story of the PBS children’s series Reading Rainbow from its iconic host, the people behind the scenes, and the challenges its creators faced in cultivating a love of reading through television.

(The challenges are thin, though…there wasn’t a lot for Reading Rainbow to overcome so it makes the documentary feel watered down rather than triumphant. That’s not the filmmakers fault, it’s just the way history worked out. Currently, with the rise of book bans we’re marred in a gross anti-intellectual movement. Book bans prove: Everyone Has A Voice But Not Every Voice Is Valuable.)

Today, Butterfly in the Sky has been added to Netflix (in America and in Canada): #SetTheVCR.

Like all of us the documentary’s co-director and editor, Bradford Thomason grew up watching the program along with co-director Brett Whitcomb.

As you’ll hear…I asked them if they’re ‘80s nerds. Big Hint: they are!

As filmmakers they were surprised to discover no one had yet to make a documentary about Reading Rainbow.

Some of the Children’s Television documentaries I’ve enjoyed so much:
I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story (2014),
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (2018),
Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street (2021),
Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe (2023)

(I know there’s a couple of Schoolhouse Rock specials floating around, not sure about a proper documentary.

And The Electric Company…yo, son! Morgan Freeman and Spider-Man! That should be celebrated.

Tangent: There’s no difference between The Electric Company and The Shawshank Redemption! In Electric Company Morgan played The Easy Reader he was a friend to the entire cast…wearing the same outfit in every episode like a uniform encouraging everyone one around him to read. And in Shawshank Redemption Freeman plays Redding which is so close to reading, wearing a uniform and since he’s a contraband smuggler he’s a “friend” to the entire prison cast. With Tim Robbins’ help Freeman is back in the library helping others to read. Pop Culture Symmetry is so special.)

Where was I? Ah yes…sorry, my tea is strong today and the Sun is out so I’m stepping lively.

Butterfly in the Sky!

A special children’s TV show like this doesn’t just affect the small sitting cross legged viewers, it touches the creators and producers and all the staff…you understand you’re fashioning something special. The filmmakers wanted to hear those stories and understand those experiences.

And attached for your listening pleasure is a My Summer Lair conversation with directors Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb talking about Butterfly in the Sky, the ‘80s and Reading Rainbow.

In late 2020 writer David Kamp was a MSL guest; he wrote Sunny Days: The Children’s Television Revolution That Changed America.

There’s a startling moment early in Sunny Days where Loretta Long is cast to play Susan on Sesame Street. She calls her parents back home in Michigan to describe her new job and that included trying to describe Bird Bird to her parents. I was like what…the?!

It never occurred to me there was a life before Big Bird: like the sun and the moon and the stars. He’s always been there. When you see the history of these children’s TV shows laid out in books like Sunny Days or via docs like Butterfly in the Sky aren’t you amazed or surprised what’s the word I’m looking for...the producers and creators consistently made the right decisions?

Like Big Bird!! I dunno how you decide a TV show needs an 8 foot yellow bird that talks like a child and only uses one arm. That’s a truly weird decision. Are you high? How do you arrive at an idea like that?

How do you know an 8 foot yellow big bird would work? And yet here we are, decades later and Big Bird is iconic and timeless.

Sesame Street used television to prepare low-income kids for school; to close the educational gap between children who had access to resources compared to those who did not have resources. That’s why it all started.

Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood used television to focus on emotional nurturing and what we now call the mental health of children…social skills. Fred Rogers expressed the self-esteem a child would have after learning to count from watching Sesame Street. This is how we grew up.

And notice Reading Rainbow wasn’t designed to teach kids how to read, but instead encouraged them to read…it assumed they already knew how to read.

To recap some of the freshtastic TV shows covered in Sunny Days:

Sesame Street: premiered on November 10, 1969

Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood started right before The Street on February 19, 1968.

(For Canadians Mr. Dressup beat em both: it premiered on February 13, 1967)

The Electric Company powered up on October 25, 1971.

Finally:
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids on September 9, 1972.

Schoolhouse Rock debuted on January 6, 1973. (Shoutout to Three Is A Magic Number. Yes. That’s my jam.)

Reading Rainbow came along in 1983; ten years after Schoolhouse Rock.

I mean that’s an impressive run and it’s not even a full complete picture.

I consumed all of those TV shows and I adored all of them.

And what’s amazing about Sunny Days is that it’s not a shrine to nostalgia. I put the no in nostalgia: I despise nostalgia.

Sunny Days doesn’t just look back for the sake of looking back. What makes the book relevant is that it looks ahead.

This is about our future as much as it is about our past. It is the sobering recognition we were once good coupled with an invitation to be good again.

Think about this: Sesame Street...Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Reading Rainbow on PBS got federal funding. We invested in the emotional well-being of children and equipped at-risk kids teaching them how to read, understand their emotions and the value of imagination and play.

Can you even imagine that happening now with our political landscape? We’re barely feeding children lunch right now.

We used to have Sunny Days but then we had massive thunderstorms. The good thing is after those storms have passed…we’ll get a Reading Rainbow.

And Sunny Days are here again.

Stream Butterfly in the Sky on Netflix and you’d be wise to read David Kamp’s Sunny Days: The Children’s Television Revolution That Changed America.

There’s a lot happening. I’m enjoying having the Sun out.

Today kicks off Inside Out an LGBTQ film festival in downtown Toronto. It runs from May 24 - June 1, 2024; check out the lineup see if anything captures your attention.

Last year for Inside Out I talked to actor Rivkah Reyes about the School Of Rock: 20th Anniversary. Super fun!

This year for Inside Out I spoke to Harrison Xu and Ivan Leung.

They’re the writers, directors and producers behind Extreme Unique Dynamic: “the (likely) first-ever and (possibly) award-winning meta-Asian-stoner-coming-of-age-bromantic-dramedy.”

See?