Roots (1977 miniseries)

Roots

25th Anniversary DVD cover, 2001
Genre Historical
Drama
Based on Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Written by Alex Haley
Screenplay by Alex Haley
James Lee
Directed by
Starring
Theme music composer Gerald Fried
Quincy Jones (episode 1)
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of episodes 8 (re-edited to 6 for video)
Production
Producer(s) Stan Margulies
Cinematography Stevan Larner, ASC
Running time 570 minutes
Production company(s) Wolper Productions
Distributor Warner Bros. Television
Budget US $6.6 million
Release
Original network ABC
Picture format 480p, 1080i (HDTV)
Original release January 23 – January 30, 1977
Chronology
Followed by Roots: The Next Generations

Roots is an American television miniseries based on Alex Haley's 1976 novel, Roots: The Saga of an American Family; the series first aired on ABC-TV in January 1977. Roots received 37 Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won nine. It also won a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. It received unprecedented Nielsen ratings for the finale, which still holds a record as the third highest rated episode for any type of television series, and the second most watched overall series finale in U.S. television history.[1][2] It was produced on a budget of $6.6 million.[3][4] The series introduced LeVar Burton in the role of Kunta Kinte.

A sequel, Roots: The Next Generations, first aired in 1979, and a second sequel, Roots: The Gift, a Christmas TV movie, starring Burton and Louis Gossett Jr., first aired in 1988. A related film, Alex Haley's Queen, is based on the life of Queen Jackson Haley, who was Alex Haley's paternal grandmother.

In 2016, a remake of the original miniseries, with the same name, was commissioned by the History Channel, was screened by the channel on Memorial Day.

Plot

Colonial times

In The Gambia, West Africa, in 1750, Kunta Kinte is born to Omoro Kinte (Thalmus Rasulala), a Mandinka warrior, and his wife, Binta (Cicely Tyson). When Kunta (LeVar Burton) reaches the age of 15, he and a group of other adolescent boys take part in tribal manhood training, ending with a ceremony, after which they become recognized as men and Mandinka warriors. While trying to carry out a task to catch a bird and take it home unharmed, Kunta sees white men carrying firearms, along with their black collaborators. Later, while fetching wood outside his village to make a drum for his younger brother, Kunta is captured by black collaborators under the direction of white men. He is then sold to a slave trader and placed aboard a ship under the command of Capt. Thomas Davies (Edward Asner) for a three-month journey to Colonial America. During the voyage a group of rebels among the human cargo try but fail to stage a mutiny and to take over the ship.

The ship eventually arrives in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1767, where the captured Africans are sold at auction as slaves. John Reynolds (Lorne Greene), a plantation owner from Spotsylvania County, Virginia, near Fredericksburg, buys Kunta and gives him the name Toby. Reynolds assigns an older slave, Fiddler (Louis Gossett Jr.), to teach Kunta to speak English and to train him in the ways of living and working as a chattel slave. Kunta, in a persistent struggle to become free again, makes several unsuccessful attempts to escape. Further, to preserve his Mandinka heritage and maintain his Mandinka roots, he wants not to change his name, and he resists such a change. An overseer, Ames (Vic Morrow), gathers the slaves and directs one of them to whip Kunta after his latest attempt to escape and to continue whipping him until he finally acknowledges his new name. For events that occur in 1775, between the above period and the post-Revolutionary War, where the next section begins, see Roots: The Gift.

Late 18th century

In 1776 the adult Kunta Kinte (John Amos) experiences serving as a chattel slave and feels haunted by his Mandinka roots and his memories of freedom at home in Africa. John Reynolds, his owner, does not receive as much cash as he has expected from the sale of his crop of tobacco, so, to settle a debt to his brother, Dr. William Reynolds (Robert Reed), the local physician, transfers several of his slaves, including Kunta and Fiddler, to William. Kunta tries again to escape, but a pair of slave-catchers seize him, bind him, and chop off about half his right foot (to limit his ability to run away again). Kunta meets Bell (Madge Sinclair), the cook for William's family. Bell successfully treats both Kunta's mangled foot and his wounded spirit. By 1780 he eventually submits to the harsh life, and he marries Bell in a ceremony, which includes jumping across a broom. Bell bears a daughter, to whom Kunta gives the name Kizzy, which means "stay put" in the Mandinka language. Fiddler continues to mentor and befriend Kunta, and Fiddler eventually dies at an old age in 1790.

Turn of the 19th century

An adulterous relationship between Dr. William Reynolds and John Reynolds's wife (Lynda Day George) produces a daughter, Anne, whom John apparently believes to be his own offspring. Missy Anne (Sandy Duncan) and Kizzy (Leslie Uggams), about two years younger than Anne, become playmates and best friends within the social limits of the plantation culture. Anne secretly teaches Kizzy to read and write, and both Anne and Bell, Kizzy's mother, strictly and severely caution Kizzy to avoid allowing anyone else to learn about her clandestine and forbidden education. In 1806 Kizzy, in her teen years, falls in love with Noah (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs), another slave at William's plantation, but Noah runs away and is caught and returned. During a beating Noah reveals that Kizzy has forged for him a traveling pass by copying a similar pass which Anne has given to Kizzy. William has previously assured his slaves that he would keep them all together at his plantation, not selling away any of them against their will as long as they "follow the rules". However, William regards the pass and the escape to be such serious breaches of trust that he separately sells both Noah and Kizzy. Much weeping and wailing attend the departure of Kizzy, who desperately reaches out to Anne for help, only to be coldly shunned by her for helping Noah in his escape. William sells Kizzy to Tom Moore (Chuck Connors), a planter in Caswell County, North Carolina, who promptly rapes her, impregnating her with a son, to whom he gives the name George.

Early 19th century

In 1824 Sam Bennett (Richard Roundtree), a fancy carriage driver and a suitor who seeks to impress, takes Kizzy for a short visit to the plantation of Dr. William Reynolds, in the hope that she can see her parents. Kizzy learns that Bell has been sold away, and that Toby has died two years back. Kizzy sees her father's grave and his wooden marker; using a small stone, she scratches over the name Toby and writes below it "Kunta Kinte". George (Ben Vereen), under the tutelage of Mingo (Scatman Crothers), an older slave, learns much about cockfighting, and, by direction of Tom Moore, their master, George takes over as the chief trainer, the "cock of the walk". George befriends a free black man and fellow cockfighter, who informs him about the possibility of buying his own freedom. While George believes Moore to be a friend, he realizes his master's true feeling when he and his family are threatened at gunpoint by Moore and his wife, as a result of the Nat Turner rebellion. Although none of Moore's slaves are personally involved in the rebellion, they become victims of the paranoid suspicions of their master, so they start planning to buy their freedom. In an emotional scene Kizzy reveals to George the identity of his father. The adult George becomes an expert in cockfighting, thus earning for himself the moniker "Chicken George". Squire James (Macdonald Carey), Moore's main adversary in the pit, arranges for a British owner, Sir Eric Russell (Ian McShane), and twenty of his cocks to visit and to participate in the local fights. Moore eventually bets a huge sum on his best bird, which George has trained, but he loses, and he cannot pay.

Mid-19th century

In 1847, under the terms of a settlement between Moore and Russell, George goes to England to train cocks for Russell and to train more trainers and is forced to leave behind Kizzy (his mother), Tildy (Mathilda, his wife) (Olivia Cole), and his sons, Tom and Lewis (Georg Stanford Brown and Hilly Hicks). Moore promises to set George free after George returns. In one brief scene Kizzy and Anne Reynolds, both elderly, face each other one last time, and Missy Anne denies that she "recollects" a "darkie by the name of Kizzy". Kizzy then spits into Anne's cup of water without Anne's realizing.

The Civil War

George returns 14 years later, in 1861, shortly before the start of the Civil War. He proudly announces that Moore, after some reluctance on Moore's part and some persuasion on George's part, has kept his word by granting George his freedom. He learns that Kizzy has died two months before, that Tom and Lewis now belong to Sam Harvey (Richard McKenzie), that Tom (Georg Stanford Brown) has become a blacksmith on the Harvey plantation, and that Tom has a wife, Irene (Lynne Moody), and two sons. He also learns that his relatives have spoken well of him during his absence. He further learns that, according to a law in North Carolina, if he stays 60 days in that state as a freed slave, he will lose his freedom, so he heads northward, seeking the next stage in his career as a cockfighter and awaiting the end of the war, the emancipation of the slaves, and another reunion of his family.

While the war continues to its inevitable end, a hungry and destitute young white couple from South Carolina, George and Martha Johnson (Brad Davis and Lane Binkley), arrive and ask for help, and the slave family take them in. Martha soon gives birth, but the child is stillborn. The white couple stays on with Tom and his wife, and becomes a part of their community. Tom Harvey meets harassment at the hands of two brothers, Evan and Jemmy Brent (Lloyd Bridges and Doug McClure). Eventually, a month before the surrender by the South, Jemmy deserts the Confederate Army during the final desperate days of the war, and he shows up at Tom's blacksmith shop. Tom reluctantly runs an errand for Jemmy. When he returns, he arrives while Jemmy tries to overpower Irene so that he can rape her. During the resulting fight, Tom drowns Jemmy in the quenching tub. Later Evan, then an officer in the Confederate cavalry, arrives at the shop, demands to know about Jemmy, gets no answer, and angrily tells Tom that he has not yet finished with him.

After the war several local white men, led by Evan Brent and wearing white hoods (made from fabric sacks from Evan's store) begin to harass and terrorize Tom, his family, and other members of his community. Tom emerges as the leader among his group. As the local blacksmith, Tom devises a horseshoeing method to identify the horses involved in the raids by the hooded men. But when Tom reports his suspicions and his evidence to the sheriff, in sympathy with Evan and knowing every member of the white mob, tips off Evan. Evan's mob leads another raid against Tom, during which Tom is whipped savagely. George Johnson, in his capacity as the overseer of the plantation, intervenes and is forced to whip Tom once, to his own horror and disgust, in order to save his friend's life.

Meanwhile, the former owner of the farm, Sam Harvey, is forced to surrender all of his property to Senator Arthur Justin (Burl Ives), a local politician intent on acquiring as much land as possible. Under the terms of the surrender, his former slaves are allowed to stay on as sharecroppers, with eventual rights to own a part of the land. However, because no written deed has been filed, the senator deems the agreement void and imposes heavy debts on the black farmers.

Postwar

Several years later Chicken George unexpectedly returns, raises the spirits of his relatives and friends, and begins to plot their next step. He reports that he has bought some land in Tennessee. Using some cunning and deception of their own, the group makes preparations for their move away. After one final confrontation with Evan and his gang, George and his company start their trek from North Carolina to Tennessee. In the last scene George and his group arrive on his land in Henning, Lauderdale County, Tennessee, to start their new life. George retells part of the story from Kunta Kinte in Africa to himself in Tennessee. Then Alex Haley briefly narrates a montage of photographs of family members connecting Tom's daughter, Cynthia, a great-great-granddaughter of Kunta Kinte, to Haley himself. For the continuation of the story from the late 19th century into the 20th century, see Roots: The Next Generations

Cast

Number in parentheses indicates how many episodes in which the actor/character appears.

Production

The miniseries was directed by Marvin J. Chomsky, John Erman, David Greene, and Gilbert Moses. It was produced by Stan Margulies. David L. Wolper was executive producer. The score was composed by Gerald Fried, and Quincy Jones for only the first episode. ABC television executives "got cold feet" after seeing the brutality depicted in the series and attempted to cut the network's predicted losses by airing the series over eight consecutive nights in January in one fell swoop.[5] The Museum of Broadcast Communications recounts the apprehensions that Roots would flop, and how this made ABC prepare the format:[6]

Familiar television actors like American [sic] actor Lorne Greene were chosen for the white, secondary roles, to reassure audiences. The white actors were featured disproportionately in network previews. For the first episode, the writers created a conscience-stricken slave captain (Edward Asner), a figure who did not appear in Haley's novel but was intended to make white audiences feel better about their historical role in the slave trade. Even the show's consecutive-night format allegedly resulted from network apprehensions. ABC programming chief Fred Silverman hoped that the unusual schedule would cut his network's imminent losses—and get Roots off the air before sweeps week.
— Encyclopedia of Television, Museum of Broadcast Communications

Many familiar white TV actors, like Chuck Connors (from The Rifleman), Lorne Greene (Bonanza and later Battlestar Galactica), Robert Reed (The Brady Bunch), and Ralph Waite (The Waltons), were cast against type as slave holders and traders.

Following the success of the original novel and the miniseries, Haley was sued by author Harold Courlander, who asserted that Roots was plagiarized from his own novel The African, published nine years prior to Roots in 1967. The resulting trial ended with an out-of-court settlement and an admission from Haley that certain passages within Roots had been copied from Courlander's work.[7] Separately, researchers refuted Haley's claims that, as the basis for Roots, Haley had traced his own ancestry back through slavery to a very specific individual and village in Africa.[8][9] After a five-week trial in federal district court, Courlander and Haley settled the case with a financial settlement and a statement that "Alex Haley acknowledges and regrets that various materials from The African by Harold Courlander found their way into his book, Roots."[10] During the trial, presiding U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Ward stated, "Copying there is, period."[11] In a later interview with BBC Television, Judge Ward stated, "Alex Haley perpetrated a hoax on the public."[12] During the trial, Alex Haley had maintained that he had not read The African before writing Roots. Shortly after the trial, however, a minority studies teacher at Skidmore College, Joseph Bruchac, came forward and swore in an affidavit that he had discussed The African with Haley in 1970 or 1971 and had given his own personal copy of The African to Haley, events that took place well before publication of Roots.[13]

Broadcast history

Episode list

Roots originally aired on ABC for eight consecutive nights from January 23 to January 30, 1977. In the United Kingdom, the BBC screened the series in six parts, starting with parts 1 to 3 over the weekend of April 8 to April 11th, 1977. The concluding three parts were broadcast on Sunday nights, from April 15 to May 1. The 6-part version screened by the BBC is the version released on home video.

Original run # Re-edited version # Approximate time period Featured Kinte descendant(s)
Kunta Kinte Kizzy Chicken George Tom Harvey
Part I (90m) 1750–1767 Yes
Part II (90m) 1767–1768 Yes
Part III (45m) Part III (90m) 1776 Yes
Part IV (45m) 1780–1790 Yes Yes
Part V (45m) Part IV (90m) 1806 Yes Yes
Part VI (90m) 1824 Yes Yes
Part V (90m) 1841–1847 Yes Yes Yes
Part VII (45m) 1861–1865 Yes Yes
Part VIII (90m) Part VI (90m) 1865–1870 Yes Yes

U.S. Television ratings

The miniseries was watched by an estimated 130 million [14][15][16] and 140[17][18] million viewers total (more than half of the U.S. 1977 population of 221 million – the largest viewership ever attracted by any type of television series in US history as tallied by Nielsen Media Research) and averaged a 44.9 rating[17] and 66% to 80% viewer share[17] of the audience. The final episode was watched by 100 million viewers and an average of 80 million viewers watched each of the last seven episodes.[6] Eighty-five percent of all television homes saw all or part of the miniseries.[6] All episodes rank within the top 100 rated TV shows of all time.[19][20]

Episode Nielsen Ratings Date
All-time ranking Viewers
(millions)		 Rating Share
1 Roots Part I #8228.84 40.5% 61% January 23, 1977
2 Roots Part II #3231.40 44.1% 62% January 24, 1977
3 Roots Part III #2731.90 44.8% 68% January 25, 1977
4 Roots Part IV #3531.19 43.8% 66% January 26, 1977
5 Roots Part V #2132.54 45.7% 71% January 27, 1977
6 Roots Part VI #1832.68 45.9% 66% January 28, 1977
7 Roots Part VII #5030.12 42.3% 65% January 29, 1977
8 Roots Part VIII #336.38 51.1% 71% January 30, 1977

On February 16–18, 2013, in honor of Black History Month and the 36th anniversary of Roots, cable network BET aired both Roots and its sequel miniseries, Roots: The Next Generations. Celebrating the 35th anniversary of Roots, BET premiered the miniseries on a three-day-weekend showing in December 2012, which resulted in its being seen by a total of 10.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings, and became the number-one Roots telecast in cable-television history. As for the BET network, its 35th-anniversary airing of Roots became its best "non-tentpole" weekend in the network's history. On Sunday, October 18, 2015, TVOne rebroadcast Roots in high definition.

DVD release

Warner Home Video, which released a 25th-anniversary 3-disc DVD edition of the series in 2002, released a four-disc (three double-sided, one single-sided) 30th-anniversary set on May 22, 2007. Bonus features include a new audio commentary by LeVar Burton, Cicely Tyson and Ed Asner among other key cast members, "Remembering Roots" behind-the-scenes documentary, "Crossing Over: How Roots Captivated an Entire Nation" featurette, new interviews with key cast members and the DVD-ROM "Roots Family Tree" feature.

Awards and nominations

Won

Primetime Emmy Awards:

Golden Globe Awards:

Nominations

Primetime Emmy Awards:

Golden Globe Awards:

Historical accuracy

Remake

The History channel produced a remake of the miniseries after acquiring rights from David L. Wolper's son, Mark Wolper, and Alex Haley's estate. The new eight-hour miniseries, with Mark Wolper as executive producer, drew on Haley's novel and the original miniseries albeit from a contemporary perspective.[21] Lifetime and A&E also simulcast it. Will Packer, Marc Toberoff and Mark Wolper executive produced it, alongside Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal. LeVar Burton, and Korin Huggins co-executive produced it.[22]

The four night, eight-hour event series premiered on Memorial Day, May 30, 2016. The ensemble cast includes Forest Whitaker as Fiddler, Anna Paquin as Nancy Holt, Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Tom Lea, Anika Noni Rose as Kizzy, Tip "T.I." Harris as Cyrus, Emayatzy Corinealdi as Bell, Matthew Goode as Dr. William Waller, Mekhi Phifer as Jerusalem, James Purefoy as John Waller, introduces Regé-Jean Page as Chicken George and Malachi Kirby as Kunta Kinte, and Laurence Fishburne as Alex Haley.[23]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Top 100 Rated TV Shows Of All Time, TV By the Numbers". Tvbythenumbers.com. Retrieved 2012-11-17.
  2. ↑ Hyatt, Wesley (2012). Television's Top 100. US: McFarland. p. 167. ISBN 978-0-7864-4891-3.
  3. ↑ "New Roots series expected to yield big bucks for ABC". Ottawa Citizen. February 20, 1979. p. 54. Retrieved 2010-02-28.
  4. ↑ Courtis, Brian (February 19, 1979). "Roots...Second Time Around". The Age. p. 2. Retrieved 2010-02-25.
  5. ↑ "Roots, episode 1, review: 'Brit actor Malachi Kirby is exceptional in this powerful remake'".
  6. 1 2 3 Horace Newcomb (ed.). "Museum of Broadcast Communications". Museum.tv. Retrieved 2012-11-17.
  7. ↑ kaplan, Robert; Buckman, Harry; Kilsheimer, Richard (October 17, 1978). "Plaintiffs' Pre-Trial Memorandum and Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law". United States District Court, Southern District of New York; Harold Courlander, et ano., v. Alex Haley, et al: p. 1, Vol. I.".
  8. ↑ Stanford, Phil (April 8, 1979). "Roots and Grafts on the Haley Story". The Washington Star: F.1.
  9. ↑ Kaplan, Robert; Buckman, Harry; Kilsheimer, Richard (October 17, 1978). "Plaintiffs' Pre-Trial Memorandum and Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law". United States District Court, Southern District of New York; Harold Courlander, et ano., v. Alex Haley, et al: p. Woods 13, Vol. III.".
  10. ↑ Stanford, Phil (April 8, 1979). "Roots and Grafts on the Haley Story". The Washington Star p.F.1.
  11. ↑ "Trial Transcript, United States District Court, Southern District of New York; Harold Courlander, et ano., v. Alex Haley, et al". 1978. p.1327".
  12. ↑ "The Roots of Alex Haley". BBC Television Documentary. 1997.".
  13. ↑ Stanford, Phil. ""Roots and Grafts on the Haley Story".". The Washington Star: p. F.4. Check date values in: |access-date= (help);
  14. ↑ Rich, Frank (February 18, 1979). "Television: A Super Sequel to Haley's Comet". Time. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
  15. ↑ "ABC Soard in Ratings With 'Roots' Sequel". Schenectady Gazette. February 24, 1979. p. 12. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
  16. ↑ "110 million see 'Roots' video special". The Tuscaloosa News. March 1, 1979. p. 8. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
  17. 1 2 3 "'Roots' Ratings Dip". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. February 28, 1979. p. 29. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
  18. ↑ Hanauer, Joan (February 28, 1979). "ABC Takes "Roots" Again". The Bryan Times. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
  19. ↑ Gorman, Bill (May 21, 2009). "Top 100 Rated TV Shows Of All Time". Retrieved 2010-02-17.
  20. ↑ "Nielsen Ratings: Top Programs of 1990-91" (PDF). University of Oregon. Retrieved June 21, 2015.
  21. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (November 5, 2013). "History To Remake Iconic 'Roots' Miniseries". Deadline. PMC. Retrieved November 6, 2013.
  22. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (2015-04-30). "'Roots' Remake Set For History, A&E, Lifetime; Will Packer, LeVar Burton Produce". Deadline. Retrieved 2015-05-17.
  23. ↑ wilsonmorales. "HISTORY's "Roots" Set to Premiere Memorial Day 2016 | blackfilm.com/read". Blackfilm.com. Retrieved 2016-02-12.
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