Levar Burton

Click here to download TV listings for the week of Feb. 3 - 9, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies       CBS This Morning Dr. Sanjay Gupta; Jonathan V. Last. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Super Bowl ads; Jenny McCarthy; Louis Gossett Jr., LeVar Burton and Leslie Uggams. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC Good Morning America (N) 7 a.m. KABC Live With Kelly and Michael Russell Brand; Pauley Perrette. (N) 9 a.m. KABC The View Guest co-host Alex Martin; Levar Burton, Louis Gossett Jr. and Leslie Uggams; Amy Webb.

Click here to download TV listings for the week of Feb. 3 - 9, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies       CBS This Morning Dr. Sanjay Gupta; Jonathan V. Last. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Super Bowl ads; Jenny McCarthy; Louis Gossett Jr., LeVar Burton and Leslie Uggams. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC Good Morning America (N) 7 a.m. KABC Live With Kelly and Michael Russell Brand; Pauley Perrette. (N) 9 a.m. KABC The View Guest co-host Alex Martin; Levar Burton, Louis Gossett Jr. and Leslie Uggams; Amy Webb.

Books may not exactly be the final frontier, but how we read is certainly in transition. So when "Reading Rainbow" host and "Star Trek" actor LeVar Burton saw a need and opportunity for reconnecting today's youth with a love of reading, he decided to make it so. "It is no longer appropriate for me as an American to sit by and expect my government to get it done," Burton said in a casual conversation with The Times. Reading Rainbow is starting a new chapter as an iPad app, bringing with it the engaging storytelling that was the essence of the TV show that encouraged generations of children to love reading.

Butterfly in the sky I can fly twice as high ... Children of the '80s, this one is for you: The beloved kids' show "Reading Rainbow" and its host LeVar Burton are the latest PBS icons to get the remix treatment, thanks to the efforts of PBS Digital Studios and the Auto-Tune song maker John D. Boswell, a.k.a. Melody Sheep. PBS Digital Studios started its remixing project in June with its most popular (and I'd argue best) video, "Garden of Your Mind," featuring Fred Rogers (i.e., Mister Rogers)

Actor-director LeVar Burton will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Literacy in Media Awards 2000, taking place Thursday at the Universal City Hilton. Actor Gerald McRaney, a longtime literacy advocate, will be the keynote speaker at the event, which honors television, film and radio programs that promote literacy.

A USC theater department student sits alone in a friend's apartment, engrossed in the premiere of the ABC miniseries "Roots: The Saga of an American Family." The 19-year-old is excited that the TV adaptation of Alex Haley's epic bestseller is finally on the air. He hopes others are watching but isn't sure if they are.

Butterfly in the sky I can fly twice as high ... Children of the '80s, this one is for you: The beloved kids' show "Reading Rainbow" and its host LeVar Burton are the latest PBS icons to get the remix treatment, thanks to the efforts of PBS Digital Studios and the Auto-Tune song maker John D. Boswell, a.k.a. Melody Sheep. PBS Digital Studios started its remixing project in June with its most popular (and I'd argue best) video, "Garden of Your Mind," featuring Fred Rogers (i.e., Mister Rogers)

Joseph M. Wilcots, a trailblazing African American cinematographer whose credits include the landmark 1970s TV miniseries "Roots" and "Roots: The Next Generations," has died. He was 70. Wilcots died Dec. 30 at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster of complications from a stroke he suffered in 2008, said his manager, Phyllis Larrymore Kelly. The first African American to join the International Cinematographers Guild -- in 1967 -- Wilcots initially worked on camera crews for TV series such as "The F.B.I."

"What's to keep you from rebooting the nanobot once I've given you the assembler?" You have to hand it to Walmart; when it does a thing, it does it big. "The Jensen Project," a two-hour, self-described family-friendly movie produced by Walmart and P&G and airing Friday night on NBC, is not just bad, it's super bad. So bad, in fact, that it's almost worth watching for its "Mystery Science Theater 3000" potential. Nothing bonds a family more than the opportunity to predict cheesy dialogue — "all the systems have been shut down!"

Fiddler: Freedom, is that something that make a man want to risk his life? Kunta: Fiddler, it's a chance to be who you was born to be. And you don't have to ask no white man or nobody for nothing. --A scene from "Roots: The Gift" They're back. After 11 years, just in time for Christmas, those legendary characters from the landmark miniseries "Roots," based on Alex Haley's multigenerational novel, have returned--not in reruns, but in a new two-hour movie, "Roots: The Gift."

Books may not exactly be the final frontier, but how we read is certainly in transition. So when "Reading Rainbow" host and "Star Trek" actor LeVar Burton saw a need and opportunity for reconnecting today's youth with a love of reading, he decided to make it so. "It is no longer appropriate for me as an American to sit by and expect my government to get it done," Burton said in a casual conversation with The Times. Reading Rainbow is starting a new chapter as an iPad app, bringing with it the engaging storytelling that was the essence of the TV show that encouraged generations of children to love reading.

"What's to keep you from rebooting the nanobot once I've given you the assembler?" You have to hand it to Walmart; when it does a thing, it does it big. "The Jensen Project," a two-hour, self-described family-friendly movie produced by Walmart and P&G and airing Friday night on NBC, is not just bad, it's super bad. So bad, in fact, that it's almost worth watching for its "Mystery Science Theater 3000" potential. Nothing bonds a family more than the opportunity to predict cheesy dialogue — "all the systems have been shut down!"

Joseph M. Wilcots, a trailblazing African American cinematographer whose credits include the landmark 1970s TV miniseries "Roots" and "Roots: The Next Generations," has died. He was 70. Wilcots died Dec. 30 at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster of complications from a stroke he suffered in 2008, said his manager, Phyllis Larrymore Kelly. The first African American to join the International Cinematographers Guild -- in 1967 -- Wilcots initially worked on camera crews for TV series such as "The F.B.I."

"Brevity," wrote the Bard, "is the soul of wit." Just ask anyone who has ever sat through a rambling Oscar speech. There's an art to creating a haiku of narcissism. Perhaps that's why many in the industry are flocking to Twitter, the social-networking site that lets stars -- and wannabe stars -- communicate directly to fans in 140-character messages transmitted in real time over the Internet. Ellen DeGeneres, Britney Spears and band members from Coldplay are among the techno-savvy celebs who want to tell you what's on their minds.

A USC theater department student sits alone in a friend's apartment, engrossed in the premiere of the ABC miniseries "Roots: The Saga of an American Family." The 19-year-old is excited that the TV adaptation of Alex Haley's epic bestseller is finally on the air. He hopes others are watching but isn't sure if they are.

Actor-director LeVar Burton will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Literacy in Media Awards 2000, taking place Thursday at the Universal City Hilton. Actor Gerald McRaney, a longtime literacy advocate, will be the keynote speaker at the event, which honors television, film and radio programs that promote literacy.

Talk about a defining moment. For LeVar Burton that would be March 27, 1976, when he screen-tested for "Roots." He was a USC drama major at the time. By mid-April, he was a 19-year-old college sophomore and a working actor in the starring role of Kunta Kinte. He was nominated for an Emmy for his performance in the 12-hour adaptation of Alex Haley's novel, which ABC ran in January 1977. Fast forward: Burton, now married and with a young daughter, played Lt. Cmdr.

LeVar Burton Role: Kunta Kinte MEMORIES: "I was the first one there [on location] in Savannah. Everyone came in after I arrived, and the buzz among the actors was, 'This is material that we do not often see.' These were all veterans in the industry and really venerable actors in my eyes, and they all had a special feeling in their voices when talking about the script. "There's such a thing as the 'Roots' family.

Talk about a defining moment. For LeVar Burton that would be March 27, 1976, when he screen-tested for "Roots." He was a USC drama major at the time. By mid-April, he was a 19-year-old college sophomore and a working actor in the starring role of Kunta Kinte. He was nominated for an Emmy for his performance in the 12-hour adaptation of Alex Haley's novel, which ABC ran in January 1977. Fast forward: Burton, now married and with a young daughter, played Lt. Cmdr.

LeVar Burton Role: Kunta Kinte MEMORIES: "I was the first one there [on location] in Savannah. Everyone came in after I arrived, and the buzz among the actors was, 'This is material that we do not often see.' These were all veterans in the industry and really venerable actors in my eyes, and they all had a special feeling in their voices when talking about the script. "There's such a thing as the 'Roots' family.