When LeVar Burton launched a Kickstarter campaign to re-launch Reading Rainbow into schools, the campaign nearly doubled its million-dollar goal within a day, allowing Burton to post this tearful, charming video as a thank-you to all his backers. In the past month, the campaign has passed even loftier milestones, allowing Burton to expand his reach—which will now go twice as high thanks to the help of wealthy benefactor Seth MacFarlane.
Running through the campaign’s close on July 2, MacFarlane will match every pledge dollar-for-follar up to one million dollars. This isn’t the first educational series that MacFarlane has helped bring back—he spearheaded the revival of Cosmos in Fox’s Sunday night lineup earlier this year–but as the as the Associated Press reports, MacFarlane decided to step in and match the donations to ensure that the campaign hits $5 million, an amount that Burton said would be needed to bring Reading Rainbow to smartphones and set-top boxes like the Roku—and also to expand its free subscription program for schools. Burton has posted another video to the Kickstarter page, where he gleefully announces MacFarlane’s involvement, which also serves as the Family Guy creator’s latest make-good for having made A Million Ways To Die In The West.