YAHOO! TV: LeVar Burton returns to TV on ‘Perception,’ talks ‘Reading Rainbow’ 2.0
By Suzy Byrne
Aug 16, 2012
Depending on when you were born, you will likely have different associations when you hear the name “LeVar Burton.” There was his groundbreaking role in the 1977 miniseries “Roots” that first put him on the map. You don’t have to be a hard-core Trekkie to remember his “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (1987-1994) character Geordi La Forge, the visor-wearing helmsman of the Enterprise. And for 26 years, children went on educational adventures with him as host of the beloved PBS series “Reading Rainbow.” Since the kids’ show ended its run in 2009, Burton has been “gliding under the radar” he tells Yahoo! TV, but now he’s back in a big way with a guest role in “Perception” – and a re-imagined version of “Reading Rainbow.”
The 55-year-old makes his debut as a university dean on TNT’s new crime drama “Perception,” which stars Eric McCormack as a schizophrenic college professor who helps the FBI solve crimes, on Monday, August 20. The role – playing Deal Paul Haley – reteams Burton with show creators Ken Biller and Mike Sussman, who worked on “Star Trek.”
“When I read this pilot, I knew Ken had something on his mind; he draws characters really beautifully,” Burton says. “Then I saw that he had gotten together with Eric McCormack – who I really respect as an actor, and he’s a producer on this – about this idea around mental illness and what our perception of reality actually is, it was just really interesting stuff that I thought deserved to be on TV and I wanted to be part of it...”
Perception airs Monday at 10/9C on TNT.
No comments:
Post a Comment