The Reading Club (lost WHUT talk show; 1999-2001)
Logo of the show.
Status: Lost
The Reading Club was a public TV show that was made by Howard University Television, in cooperation with Dunbar Productions and WHUT, a local Washington, D.C. channel.[1] The talk show was hosted by former WCBS New York anchor Carol Martin, with Renee Poussaint taking over as host for the show's second season after "working on a documentary about a meeting between historian John Hope Franklin and Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa."[2] The first season of the talk show went on for 13 weeks.[3][4]
Premise
Allison J. Davis, one of the many executive producers of The Reading Club was inspired by her friends, to create and air a talk show on books.[5] The series focused on serving "the African American community by educating, informing and inspiring individuals to broaden their horizons through more reading." Each episode had different "club members," which were various African American women selected from book clubs across the U.S.[1] Usually, they would discuss various topics in several books like self-discovery and love.
Availability
The lack of video footage is due to the fact that The Reading Club only aired episodes for a short time. Only 26 half-hour episodes were produced.[6] It is speculated that the series aired reruns until September 30, 2002, when the PBS Kids Bookworm Bunch block was airing, thus kicking the show to obscurity.
| Television Station | Location | Date of Debut |
|---|---|---|
| WCEU | Daytona Beach, Florida | Sep 5, 1999 |
| KNME | Albuquerque, New Mexico | Sep 6, 1999 |
| WTBU | Indianapolis, Indiana | Sep 6, 1999 |
| WTVS | Detroit, Michigan | Sep 6, 1999 |
| WHUT | Washington, District of Columbia | Sep 7, 1999 |
| KDTN | Dallas, Texas | Sep 8, 1999 |
| WKMJ/KET 2 | Louisville, Kentucky | Sep 9, 1999 |
| KLCS | Los Angeles, California | Sep 10, 1999 |
| KLRU/2 cable | Austin, Texas | Sep 10, 1999 |
| WNET | New York, New York | Sep 10, 1999 |
| WPTO | Oxford/Cincinnati, Ohio | Sep 10, 1999 |
| KRCB | Rohnert Park, California | Sep 12, 1999 |
| WHUT | Washington, District of Columbia | Sep 12, 1999 |
| WGVK | Grand Rapids, Michigan | Sep 13, 1999 |
| KTCI | Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota | Sep 14, 1999 |
| WHMG | Schenectady, New York | Sep 26, 1999 |
| WLAE | New Orleans, Louisiana | Oct 1, 1999 |
| Kentucky ETV | Statewide Kentucky | Oct 2, 1999 |
| Mississippi ETV | Statewide Mississippi | Oct 2, 1999 |
| Nebraska ETV | Statewide Nebraska | Oct 2, 1999 |
| WXXI | Rochester, New York | Oct 4, 1999 |
| WYIN/Channel 56 | Merrillville, Indiana | Oct 6, 1999 |
| WKAR | East Landing, Michigan | Oct 18, 1999 |
| WYBE | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Nov 1, 1999 |
| WIPB | Muncie, Indiana | Jan 9, 2000 |
| Vermont ETV | Statewide Vermont | Unknown; Only mentioned June 18, 2000 |
Episodes
The series debuted on WCEU on September 5, 1999.[7]
Season 1 (1999-2000)
| # | Book | Host | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lawrence Graham's Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class | Carol Martin | Lost |
| 2 | Pearl Cleage's What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day | Carol Martin | Lost |
| 3 | Jill Nelson's Straight, No Chaser: How I Became a Grown-up Black Woman | Carol Martin | Lost |
| 4 | Benilde Little's The Itch | Carol Martin | Lost |
| 5 | Shireen Dodson's Mother and Daughter's Book Club | Carol Martin | Lost |
| 6 | Janet McDonald's Project Girl | Carol Martin | Lost |
| 7 | Iyanla Vanzant's Yesterday, I Cried | Carol Martin | Lost |
| 8 | Ralph Ellison's Juneteenth | Carol Martin | Lost |
| 9 | Edwidge Danticat's The Farming of Bones | Carol Martin | Lost |
| 10 | Harriett Cole's How to Be: A Guide to Conscious Living for African American People | Carol Martin | Lost |
| 11 | Sister Souljah's The Coldest Winter Ever | Carol Martin | Lost |
| 12 | Myrlie Evers-Williams' Watch Me Fly | Carol Martin | Lost |
| 13 | Linnie Frank and Andria Hall's This Far by Faith | Carol Martin | Lost |
| 13 | Renita Weems's Listening to God | Carol Martin | Lost |
Season 2 (2000-2001)
| # | Book | Host | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Color of Water by James McBride | Renee Poussaint | Lost |
| 2 | Diane McKinney's Blues Dancing | Renee Poussaint | Lost |
| 3 | Wilson Wesley's The Devil Riding | Renee Poussaint | Lost |
| 4 | Van Whitfield's Something's Wrong With Your Scale! | Renee Poussaint | Lost |
| 5 | Breena Clarke's River Cross My Heart | Renee Poussaint | Lost |
| 6 | Eric Jerome Dickey's Cheaters | Renee Poussaint | Lost |
| 7 | T.D. Jakes' Maximize the Moment: God's Action Plan for Your Life | Renee Poussaint | Lost |
| 8 | Douglas F. Greer's Blind Ambitions | Renee Poussaint | Lost |
| 9 | Shay Youngblood's Black Girl in Paris | Renee Poussaint | Lost |
| 10 | Tananarive Due's The Black Rose | Renee Poussaint | Lost |
| 11 | A'Lelia Bundles's On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam CJ Walker | Renee Poussaint | Lost |
| 12 | Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Talents | Renee Poussaint | Lost |
| 13 | Rene Swindle's Please, Please, Please | Renee Poussaint | Lost |
Gallery
This is the only video associated with the show to have been discovered.
External Links
- Official website (accessible via Wayback Machine) Retrieved 15 Feb '18
- A schedule page, mentioning The Reading Club. Retrieved 14 Feb '18
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Reading Club, Peabody Awards Collection, 2000049 PST 1 of 1, Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. Retrieved 13 Feb '18
- ↑ The Washington Times article about black history Retrieved 14 Feb '18
- ↑ The Washington Post article on The Reading Club. Retrieved 14 Feb '18
- ↑ A Chicago Sun-Times article on The Reading Club. Retrieved 14 Feb '18
- ↑ Black Issues Book Review article on the origin of The Reading Club Retrieved 14 Feb '18
- ↑ TV Guide page with a cast an inaccurate episode list Retrieved 14 Feb '18
- ↑ Official chart of when the series debuted across the U.S. Retrieved 15 Feb '18