News Burton Sued Over Reading Rainbow

[AutoAdmin]

A new news article has been published at TrekToday:

Eight years after reviving Reading Rainbow, Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s LeVar Burton is being sued for “hijacking the long-running PBS show.”...

Continue reading...

 

[DataRules]

If LB and his partner bought the rights to the show and the brand, what's the problem? I hope this lawsuit goes nowhere.

I hope PBS doesn't think they can reboot Reading Rainbow while LB is still alive after all the work he's done over the past 10 years since the show went off the air.

 

[cultcross]

That's the most dramatic description of reading stories to kids I've ever heard

 

[Kor]

This kind of petty squable is the reason I have no respect whatsoever for this industry.

Kor

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Isn't PBS technically a nonprofit enterprise? I mean, if WNED is operated as a public broadcasting station, and therefore affiliated with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, then this claim:

WNED believed that RRKidz would “take over digital distribution of the series while the broadcaster would focus on making new episodes. Profits were to be split.”​

Is very very silly. Also, I was under the impression that Burton basically took over the production of new episodes when the network dropped the ball anyway... have I not been paying attention or something?

Also:

In addition, they don’t want Burton to use the Reading Rainbow catchphrase “But you don’t have to take my word for it,” on his LeVar Burton Reads podcast.
​

​

 

[BillJ]

Isn't PBS technically a nonprofit enterprise? I mean, if WNED is operated as a public broadcasting station, and therefore affiliated with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, then this claim:

Just because it is a non-profit, doesn't mean it that it wants its properties to not be profitable. PBS takes the profits from one show and rolls them into other shows and administrative costs.

 

[JRoss]

PBS has nothing to do with this. The network does not create the shows, it is only a distribution platform. WNED is acting on its own. PBS affiliates create show and distribute them to other affiliates.

LeVar should talk to the Fred Rogers Company and see how they got out from their affiliate. That is if they are independent of the Pittsburgh station that originally produced Mr. Rogers.

 

[KennyB]

That's just weak..........

 

[Kor]

Mr. Burton talking about how he wanted to do an adult version of Reading Rainbow makes one wonder just how "adult" it would be.

Kor

 

[Vger23]

I'm waiting for Star Trek fans to sue CBS for emotional damages associated with

-Bridge sets that are too dark
-Klingon prosthetics
-"EYE KAINT PAY $8 2 WATCH TEH STREEMING CBS U BASTIDS!!!!"

 

[KennyB]

-"EYE KAINT PAY $8 2 WATCH TEH STREEMING CBS U BASTIDS!!!!"

That one is the one that bugs me the most.

 

[Vger23]

That one is the one that bugs me the most.

EYE KEN AFORD IT, BUTT ITZ THE PRINCIPAL OF TEH HOLE THING!!!!!

 

[KennyB]

EYE KEN AFORD IT, BUTT ITZ THE PRINCIPAL OF TEH HOLE THING!!!!!

The sad part is your spelling is a perfect representation.

 

[Vger23]

The sad part is your spelling is a perfect representation.

Admittedly, it's far FAR worse on Facebook and other places than it is in our community here!

 

[Jedman67]

BREAKING: LeVar Burton to create a "Reading Rainbow Film Academy"
In an exciting deal just announced, LeVar Burton has signed a licensing deal with PBS to make a week-long "Reading Rainbow Film Academy". Featuring former Reading Rainbow cast and directors as instructors, initiates will have the opportunity to step into the Reading Rainbow Universe; as an actor, a grip, a sound engineer or makeup artist, to take a script and turn it into a polished short-film.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

People are already paying similar costs for Netflix and Hulu. Really it's the collision of the modern feeling of entitlement to consume all content ever created with he more reasonable distaste for the industry deconsolidating into multiple separately paid subscription services.

It's a little comical to see cold legal minutia applied to a beloved children's show.