LeVar Burton

0:04Yeah, how you doing? Good. How are you? I'm cool. Nice. Where are you right now? I'm picking up my daughter from school in Southern California. So the collectible... The show. Yes, the collectible toy and comic show this Sunday. I mean, I'm sure you've been doing these conventions for years now. What are they like for you? Do you enjoy going to them? I have. I do. Although I collect neither toys or comic books. Right. But I do enjoy the show. Because I mean, I don't do a whole lot of them to tell you the truth. But I do... I try and find a nice balance so that I can continue to enjoy them. And what's great about them is the fans. You know, hanging out with the fans for a couple of days and interacting and having some laughs.

0:51Because such a fans, you know, are pretty funny people. You know, they tend to have good... A good food of humor. They must know more about you than you do at times. Like they must throw things at you that you have forgotten countless years ago. You know, that's like more of a cliché than it tends to show up in actual reality. But they do love the show. And they're very enthusiastic when they come to get an autograph. And I love that energy. It's great. Here's what you need to consider. When I was a kid and growing up, I watched the original Star Trek series. And I was a fan. I am to this day and have been all of my life or most of my life.

1:41A huge fan of the science fiction genre. And Jean's vision of the future was one where people of color were really represented. Michelle Nichols on the bridge of the Enterprise Mint when the future comes, according to Jean Roddenbearer, there was a place for me. That was huge. I grew up in the late 60s and early 70s. And there weren't all that many opportunities to see people of color in the popular culture. You follow me? I do. Things have changed drastically though. Oh my God. My kids, you know, they see themselves represented the popular culture all the time. And I truly believe that in the modern era, it is critically important for one to see one self reflected in the popular culture in order to develop a healthy self image.

2:29Do you think that's been completely taken care of? Is that finished with? Inclusion taken care of? No. You know, one of my mentors, Fred Rogers, used to say all television is educational. The question is, what are we teaching? Which is to say, yeah, today there are lots of opportunities for kids of color to see themselves represented in the popular culture in music via hip hop, in magazines, on television and films. However, not all of these images are what I would consider the best images on which to model one's life. Right. No, I know what you're saying. That's interesting.

3:14But how do you get away from that then? I don't even know if you have an answer to that. But any thoughts? Is it higher up? Is it marketing people, publicists and studio heads and this kind of thing? My philosophy is that there's room for everything and we must develop discernment. We have to develop media literacy. What do you mean by media literacy? You have to determine that which is good and beneficial for you and that which is not, you know, a healthy and balanced diet of television influence because we're all influenced by the media. I don't know anybody who is. Unless they're in the Himalayas and living in a cave and they don't have cable.

4:03So we are all influenced by the media. It is the most powerful tool ever created for in society. Why? Number one, because it's all pervasive. There are very few places on the planet you can go where the influence of the media does not reach, right? So what we need to do is develop what I call media literacy. You have to have a balanced diet, you know, along with your guilty pleasures, whatever they are of reality TV. You've got to find it. It's a polar opposite and give yourself a taste of that as well. A little sports, a little news, a little reality, you know, a little American Idol and, you know,

4:56while it lasts a little PBS, you know, while it lasts, you know, we're trying to do it. Yeah, why is it not working? The world has changed considerably. The public broadcasting model began to alter itself when PBS discovered that there was money to be made in programming, certainly in children's programming. And, you know, there's an argument to be made that if PBS is going to cut deals with producers and providers of content where they make money, then why should the government

5:41continue to float that boat? We have that same problem here in Canada with CBC. I know you've been on the CBC many times. I love the CBC. Yeah, and it's I guess the closest thing that you have in the States, right? Is PBS, you don't because you don't have a national broadcaster? No, we don't. But we do have PBS and it is supportive, you know, with federal dollars. And those dollars are, you know, the conversation is happening as we speak in Congress as to whether or not those dollars should be, if not curtailed, certainly curtailed and maybe even eliminated from the budget. That's crazy. Well, I guess it's a whole new world though. I mean, even with the kids the way they learn, I don't know if a show like reading

6:27rainbow or Mr. Rogers or even those would fly in today's world. You need stuff so quickly and it's also fast pace and flashing and I don't know if you can have that same kind of... Now, I don't know if you can... Exactly. I agree wholeheartedly. Television, you know, for a long time is the one-way medium. It was, you know, when we started reading rainbow, the idea was to go to what I call the point of purchase, which, you know, was television. Where are our kids hanging out, you know, in the 70s and the 80s, it was TV. Right. But not so much. Television is only a part of the diet of, you know, entertainment and information that our kids are consuming. They're wired. This is the wired generation. Is it a good thing you're a bad thing?

7:13They are. It's just is, you know. I mean, there was a whole conversation, you know, in the late 50s and early 60s. There's television, a bad thing. It turned out that, you know, it just is. Change is the most constant thing in the universe. It's the most constant force in the universe. Human beings are adaptable to change, but, you know, we have the ability to adapt, but sometimes we lack the desire, the will, to adapt to change. Well, I was going to say, but it's almost like the kids are lacking a personal aspect with all the things they're doing. Like, when I was growing up, I had you on TV and I had Fred Penner, and it was almost like a teacher. There was a human being to teach you these, well, in your case books and reading and what

7:58not and with Fred Penner music, but the iPad apps or whatever the kids are using nowadays don't have that personal aspect. And I feel, I don't know if it's a bad thing or not. Like you said, change is always a good thing. Whatever it is, we'll adapt. But I feel like... And here's the wonderful thing about living in a free market economy. I too have identified that gap, if you will, in the marketplace. And as far as I can see what's really lacking it, you were just really speaking to the very issue. What's really lacking is what we call curation. Right. Right. In cyberspace. So, I've been working very, very hard, very diligently for the past year, to launch a new

8:46company, which is all about providing for kids and their parents and their teachers a reading rainbow-like experience that they can consume via an app on a smartphone, on a tablet computer, over the internet. And when you launch the app, you will find Lvar and you will find a universe that you can navigate that is fun and enriching and is centered around books, digital books. When you were studying theater in California, you ever think that this would be your main not in priority, but like this was the life you were going to lead? This is so far off from theater, right? It is.

9:32It's a far cry from what I envision my life to be as a theater major. And I'm good with it. I love what I do. And I see that I have an opportunity to really bring something of value to people. And that, you know, if there's a thread through the 30 years of my career, I'd like to believe that that's a part of it. I've been a part of efforts in the popular culture, in the medium, that have been more than just entertaining, that have brought a little something additional to the table. Do you think that all would have happened without roots? Because roots was such a big cultural phenomenon. No, no. And yeah, roots at the standard, it gave me the opportunity to aspire to that ideal for,

10:29you know, for the last 30 years. How did it change things? Because it's before my time. I mean, I hear stories of how it was like, you know, it was such a huge pivotal moment in the late 70s. But I mean, I was born in 83. So this is all before my time. I don't really understand it. How important was it? Good God in this club. And you were born in 83. I was. Wow. Where do I feel? Oh, come on. Don't go there. I grew up with you. It's fun. I won't. I won't go there. I won't go there. I was a momentary lapse. I take it back. All right. Roots. Roots. You know, there's a, I believe that there is a, there is a through line.

11:15There is a thread that begins in North America, let's say, host of a war, reconstruction of the south through the Great Migration West, North and West out of the south through civil rights, the civil rights movement in the 60s. Roots is the milestone. It is that milestone marker in the 70s that leads us to Barack Obama being elected President of the United States. It was one of those typical events in this culture that was absolutely necessary in order

12:03for us to be where we are today. And it was an event unique unto its time in that it was a shared experience. We don't watch television the same way as we did in 1977. Not only are there many more choices, but our television viewing habits are controlled by our time schedules. We all have digital video recorders and we speak to the commercials. But back in the day, there were basically those PBS. And when you launched a thing, the opportunity was to capture an audience. And Roots definitely did that.

12:50And then that will never happen again. Yeah. Not in that way. Oh, for sure. You must not have known, I was going to say at the time, how powerful and how meaningful it was. Obviously it was your first job as an actor. You must have just been like, oh my God, I'm on set. This is awesome. Or did you feel how important it was at the time? I felt how, here's what I felt. I felt, wow, I'm being paid to do what I want to do with my life. And even though it's not on Broadway, it's on TV. This is very cool. I'm working with Slee Tyson my first day as a professional actor. And Doug Palmaangelo. And oh my God, here's a little coffin. Right? And all of these people who I had been a fan of, who I had watched on television and movies

13:36all of my life, they were coming in, fired up and excited. Because in their careers, this was special. They saw Roots as unique in their long and storied careers. You got to remember. The book and the miniseries was the first time that the story of slavery was told from the point of view of the Africans. That was very different. Revolutionary, in fact. Back to the reading rainbow thing that you're putting out, you were mentioning, the app or whatever. When can we see it? What is it going to be? It will be an app that launches you to our storefront. And we anticipate being in the marketplace in town for the holiday season. Ah, just right in time, perfect. Yeah.

14:21I've seen you more recently in a lot of stuff. You took like what, 10 years off or something like that? And then I see you in community the other way because you in Big Bang Theory, there was that movie on Super Channel a couple of years ago. Why the decision? Was it just too much? Was it just too busy doing rainbow and Star Trek at the same time? I missed acting. I took a 10 year break from acting and I really missed it. And I spent most of my time directing and producing. And I really, to get back to my first love. And what are you doing to do that now? Besides, we just saw in community, which was amazing. I'm blitzing the airways. Are you working on anything though? Do you want to do theater again? Do you want to do TV?

15:08I want to work. I did a pilot for TNT and we are awaiting orders to whether or not it gets picked up. I did a pilot with Eric McCormick called Perception. So hopefully that gets picked up and that puts us back on TV on a weekly basis. And then that will provide the balance for the rest of my life, which will be our kids. Right. How was acting changed and going to these conventions being a father? I guess your kids are probably in their teens now I think. Yeah, my daughter is 16. That must be interesting. Starting the dating world. Yeah. I can imagine. I mean, my family life isn't affected at all by the convention circuit.

15:57My goal is to find balance in all things. To find an appropriate place for all of the things that I love to do. That's one of the things I really enjoy about my life. I mean, I have a life that is really varied. No two days are alike. And as I sit down and look at a week, I know I'm not going to get bored because there's just a lot of different things that I have an opportunity to do. We do something on the show called Five Questions. Five quick questions. One more answers. Okay. You ready? Star Trek or Reading Rainbow? Reading, well, reading. Okay. Lennon or McCartney. You said one word answers.

16:42I did. All right. Fair enough. Yeah, true. Lennon or McCartney. Lennon. Your favorite book doesn't need to be one word. But there's a story behind it which I don't have enough words to tell you. No, go for it. We'll open it up for you. We'll open it up for you. Seriously? Yeah, yeah. Captain's Courageous was the book that I was reading. I guess I was in the third of the fourth grade when I really got reading. It was the book that the light bulb went on. I spent a couple of weeks reading this book at the end. I finished the story and then I was really sad because I wasn't going to be hanging out with these people in this universe that I was so actively involved in my imagination.

17:34To this very thing, when I'm reading a good fiction novel, I slow down the last couple of chapters because I want to forestall that inevitable depression that happens when you finish a really fantastic book. So Captain Courageous, Rudyard Kipling, a seminal experience. Role you're most proud of. Wow. An old stuff one. Laver. That's, you know what? I've done 400 or so of these. I've never heard that. That's good. I like that. Yeah. And that actually leads us to the final question. In one word, Laver Burton. Wow, one word. Awesome.

18:20Not as good as the last answer, but I'll take it. No, give me another shot. Give me another shot. All right. In one word. Laver Burton. Hmm. Um, reader. That's a good one. I like that. Yeah. Reader.