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Hey, glasses, what's this?

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An extra drop of reading

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eyes and ears are not deceiving

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you. This is a little preview

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of this year's bonus episode in

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which Bria and I talk about

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the beloved bookish TV shows of

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the 90s. Don't worry, we definitely

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talk about my childhood best friend,

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Witchbone. You can get this

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Enjoy. You're

1:10

listening to Reading Glasses, the show

1:12

about book culture and literary life designed

1:14

to help you read better. I'm author

1:17

and book devourer Mallory O'Mara. And I'm

1:19

Bria Grant, filmmaker and e-reader. This episode

1:21

is our special bonus episode for the

1:24

2024 Maximum Fun Drive. So hey, if

1:26

you're listening to this, we

1:29

want to thank you for supporting us and supporting

1:31

Maximum Fun. We appreciate it so much. You're the

1:33

reason that we can feed our

1:35

cats and I have a dog also every

1:37

week. You're the reason that we're here doing

1:39

this and we really appreciate that.

1:42

But today, we're gonna go into

1:45

beloved reading focus TV shows of

1:47

the 80s and 90s.

1:49

But first Bria, what are you reading? For

1:51

my book club, I just read

1:54

Different Seasons by Stephen King. One

1:56

Stephen King. Maybe you've heard of him?

1:58

Do you know who that is? Oh,

2:00

yeah, which contains four

2:02

different novellas. It's apt pupil, the body,

2:04

which is what Stand By Me was

2:07

based on. It is

2:09

what's the first one in there? Oh, it's

2:11

so it's Shawshank. And it

2:13

is one that has never been adopted. The breathing

2:15

method, which is, I would say, the only horror

2:17

story about the Lamaze method that I've ever read.

2:21

You think that story feels bad because it's like one

2:23

of the only ones that hasn't been adapted. Do you

2:25

think that story is like, what the fuck, man? It

2:27

is. It would be a hard one to

2:29

adapt. It's basically one of those

2:31

very Stephen King stories that starts and it's like there's a

2:33

club and a bunch of men go to it and it's

2:35

secret. It has all these secrets and they tell stories. And

2:38

then one of them tells the story. And that's the story

2:40

of that story. And

2:43

then you never find anything else about the club.

2:45

But it is a really good story. It is

2:47

a really fascinating story. Anyway, it was great. It

2:49

was it sparked a lot of discussions in my

2:52

book club because it's not. It's pretty rare you

2:54

read a novella anthology or whatever that has three

2:57

books, three of the four have been adopted. So

2:59

we had a lot to say about the adaptations and

3:01

like why those ones got adopted. It was very interesting.

3:03

I will say this, though. Apped

3:06

people to read cannot

3:08

recommend. I feel like

3:10

most people aren't reading Stephen King for a pick me up.

3:13

Yeah, but Shawshank is kind of a pick me up. I

3:15

mean, it has some dark stuff, but there's some there

3:18

is some stuff that you're like, OK, and I'm off.

3:20

Same with Stand By Me. Like there's darkness in there.

3:22

But yeah, you at the end, you're like, oh, it's

3:24

just these guys that all these guys

3:26

hang out together. I mean, actually, it's

3:28

not a very happy ending, but as

3:31

people who've Nazis, it's

3:33

tough. It's a tough one. So

3:35

it's breathing method. But it was really it was a great read

3:37

and it was a great discussion in my book club. What are

3:40

you reading? So I,

3:42

too, am reading a short story collection. You know, I've

3:44

been on my quest to read more of them. And

3:47

I am reading a short story collection from an

3:49

author that I really love. It's Here's Your Hat,

3:51

What's Your Hurry? by Elizabeth McCracken. And

3:53

Elizabeth McCracken is a literary fiction author,

3:55

but all her. It's like It's

3:58

like not weird enough to be. Pittard weird

4:00

Fiction. It's like Corky. Fiction Plague. It's

4:02

all like there's no magic. It's

4:05

all just like straight up like

4:07

real world stuff. but it's always

4:09

like a business. Really weird

4:11

people. In weird situations by the writing

4:13

is really beautiful and and always like

4:15

up. all these really weird situations always

4:17

reveal some like beautiful truth about humanity

4:19

but unlike the strangest way possible without

4:22

being supernatural. and it's so fine that

4:24

she's just A and she also from

4:26

Massachusetts which I love on a lot

4:28

of her story. Stick with New England

4:30

and I'm just really enjoying it. This

4:32

is her debut. Short story Collection: So

4:34

I'm I'm Five Pentagon. Like backwards and

4:36

her career as the Blast. I'm really,

4:39

really loving it. And that's here's your

4:41

hat. What's your Hurry by Elizabeth Mccracken

4:43

and my is Different Seasons by Stephen

4:45

Harold came to cynicism on whether or.

4:49

Is Stephen King middle and now would you like that has

4:51

given middle name and mm oh we have to. we have

4:53

to look that up. Again on on. Stephen.

4:56

Hurricane. Season. Horror Kang?

4:59

What if he's changed his middle names

5:01

to Horror? Edwin? Edwin. Okay,

5:04

Great. Now he's a change into horror.

5:06

I think he's earned it. Will. Treat

5:08

for Stephen King, Say when.

5:12

You can email other reading glasses but

5:14

guess it's email.com os the one was

5:16

about those we talk about on the

5:18

show. Deliver to your inbox every month.

5:20

Incentive for our newsletter that link to

5:22

the show notes and so for the

5:24

special Twenty Twenty Four Maximum Fun Drive

5:26

Bonus Episode: Summer We've done. This is

5:29

our sixth or seventh drive. We have

5:31

a lot of bonus episodes including black.

5:33

Last year we. Did one every quarter.

5:35

So there's a lot you've just. Signed

5:37

up to support us the A Maximum

5:39

Fun again thank you but you will

5:42

be handsomely rewarded because we have many

5:44

hours and hours of bonus episodes for

5:46

you. Some of our favorite episodes we've

5:48

donner are bonus episodes. So. This.

5:51

one in particular this was a glass

5:53

or request that we thought was really

5:55

fun we decided to do what we

5:57

are delving into the reading focus tv

5:59

shows of the late 80s and early 90s. Why

6:02

the fuck were there so many of these shows? Which

6:05

ones were the best? So Bria, why do you

6:07

think there were so many bookish shows during

6:09

this time period? I

6:11

don't know. To be fair, some of these, I

6:13

don't even know some of these shows because I was a little too old

6:15

for some of them. But I

6:17

think specifically for kids, you

6:20

do wanna do something that's educational, right? You don't, I mean,

6:22

especially like in the 80s and 90s, I

6:24

think so now too. Although y'all, I've seen like

6:27

that Peppa Pig and she's not teaching me anything.

6:30

She's like, you're just like blowing balls. Bria's using this as a platform

6:32

to take down Peppa Pig. She's

6:35

coming for you, Peppa. So like, I mean,

6:37

for kids, you're like, oh, Carmen San Diego,

6:39

this is how you learn about countries. Oregon

6:42

Trail, that's how you learn to dive dysentery.

6:44

You know, so it's like these things to

6:46

you actually learned during the process, not that

6:48

you actually learned to dive dysentery, kidding. Correct

6:52

me if I'm wrong, Bria, but I feel like

6:54

there aren't as many reading specific shows nowadays.

6:56

Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I

6:58

don't know why specifically reading stuff because you're right. I don't

7:00

think there's as many reading shows as there are. There

7:03

were. I have several

7:05

friends with kids and I have

7:07

two sets of friends that have kids that are like four, five,

7:09

six, seven, eight, and like

7:11

in that area. And it's like,

7:13

it's bluey, it's Peppa

7:16

Pig, it's big city greens,

7:18

it's stuff like that. And I don't feel like any of

7:21

those shows are like specifically bookish where those shows that I'm

7:23

talking about, the shows we're gonna talk about in this episode

7:25

are like straight up about fucking books, you know? They're

7:28

about fucking books. Oh no, that's the shows that

7:30

I'm gonna make. Yeah. Different

7:34

show. Different kids, not a kids show, not

7:36

a kids show. So my theory is

7:39

that following, because this is also around the

7:41

time where like YA books kind of exploded.

7:44

Like people were like, oh, let's make books

7:46

for children. Make money off of teenagers. Yeah,

7:48

basically. So I think that this is the

7:51

first time TV executives were like, I

7:54

pee, baby. Oh,

7:56

interesting. Because a lot of these shows, like I was rewatching some

7:58

of them and they're just straight up like. people

8:00

reading from a book with a

8:02

little bit of animation, but sometimes not

8:05

even that really. I think a lot of these

8:07

executives were like, oh, we can get a

8:09

lot of content by just licensing some

8:12

of these authors. And

8:15

most authors are poor and starving and are

8:17

happy to be on Reading

8:19

Rainbow or whatever. So

8:21

I think that's what it was. It

8:23

was like, this is the first time

8:26

where publishers started really looking at teens

8:28

and kids as a lucrative market. Plus,

8:31

the TV executives were like, hey, can we have? Oh,

8:33

you're publishing all the books? Can we have that? Yeah.

8:36

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you're right. So we're going to

8:38

go through the list of the most prominent ones.

8:40

We're going to pick our favorites, ones

8:42

that we didn't even know about, ones that we didn't care about. First

8:45

one obviously has to go the

8:47

tippity-top of all reading shows, the

8:49

one that wears the crown reading

8:52

rainbow. Brianna, what's reading rainbow? Butterfly in

8:54

the sky. I can go twice as high. It's

8:57

the LaVar Burton hosted show. People, you

8:59

had to be living under a rock to know

9:02

this one, where he went to places from the

9:04

books. He had adventures. The characters, he interviewed people.

9:07

Reading Rainbow was just such a staple. I think

9:09

it was on PBS. But they

9:12

also read from books. Yeah. And

9:14

it was educational. Whereas

9:16

some of these are more IP-based, this

9:18

one was just like, what if the kids read

9:20

books? The show literally was just,

9:22

hey, books are cool. And I

9:25

was watching, I rewatched an episode of this. And

9:27

it was literally just LaVar Burton hanging out in

9:29

a place and talking to people. And then most

9:31

of the episode was just somebody reading this book.

9:34

I think the book was by Mary Hoffman.

9:36

And then showing the illustrations. It was just

9:38

like a TV version of

9:40

somebody reading to your children. And honestly,

9:42

fucking genius. You know what children

9:44

love? Looking at stuff and having people read to

9:46

them. And so

9:49

did you watch reading Rainbow? You were too old for reading

9:51

Rainbow? No, no, no. I

9:53

liked reading Rainbow. My favorite part was at the end, they

9:55

would say this thing where they would say, now, what

9:58

did they say? Now it's about you.

10:00

or something. They had this part at the end where

10:02

then kids would talk about what they were reading, what

10:04

books they liked. And I always liked that part a

10:06

lot. Oh no, but don't take our word for it.

10:08

That's what it was. But don't take our word for

10:10

it. And then they'd cut to these kids who would

10:12

talk about the book. And now decades

10:14

later, we make reading glasses. And I get to talk

10:16

about the book. Maybe

10:20

we should do that, do a segment on

10:22

reading glasses where we just have people like send

10:24

in their recordings of what they're reading. And

10:27

it's called, But Don't Take Our Word For It? Yeah,

10:29

I think that's Oh my God, that's a good idea.

10:31

Mallory, we should set up a Google voice box.

10:34

Okay. Table that. Listen,

10:38

there was a bonus episode, you're getting

10:40

inside peek into Mallory and my process

10:42

here. That'd be really fun. But

10:44

I also loved reading Rainbow. I think everybody

10:47

if you had access to reading rain to

10:49

know reading Rainbow is to love reading Rainbow.

10:51

And yeah, I mean, LeVar

10:53

Burton, just such a wonderful, charismatic

10:55

man, like who would have

10:57

dreamed to have LeVar Burton talk to you

10:59

about books and lovely, because it's like, it's such

11:02

a simple premise for the show. But I

11:04

really, I loved it. And

11:06

I it's funny, I never I didn't consider this

11:08

until you said something. But I

11:10

do think that a part of it was like seeing

11:12

other kids that also liked reading. And it was like,

11:14

I think I feel the way about reading Rainbow that

11:16

some people feel like when they listen to the show

11:18

is like, Oh, I just want to listen to people

11:21

and be around other people that like books. Yeah,

11:23

that's so cute. Fuck

11:25

yeah, reading Rainbow. All right, what's our next one? Did

11:31

you enjoy what you just heard? If

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