Reading Rainbow

Name: Reading Rainbow
Genre: Documentary

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LeVar Burton reading to children for twenty-three years, and "but you don't have to take my word for it".

Reading Rainbow opens with a main title sequence of 48 seconds.

At 48 seconds, it opens well above the 37-second median for documentary sequences in this catalogue.

It arrived on PBS in 1983, when Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, The Joy of Painting and 3-2-1 Contact were also on the network.

The opening titles

48s

Fan upload of the 1983 original open.

1987–2002NBCDocumentary

Robert Stack in a trench coat, a synthesiser and a fog machine — the most frightening thing on American television that was not fiction.

1988–2013FoxDocumentary

The programme Fox launched itself on, and the one that turned a network into a switchboard.

1989–MTVDocumentary

Sixteen seconds and an acoustic guitar — a format whose whole argument is in the title card.

1986–ITVDocumentary

Say what you see, and a golden robot called Mr Chips who was the reason anyone watched.

1980–1988SyndicationDocumentary

The weekly chart countdown as a dance routine, with its own troupe named after it.

1980–BBC TwoDocumentary

The BBC's late analysis programme, opening on a rotating globe of headlines rather than a presenter.