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. It was produced on a budget of $6.6 million. 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 and screened by the channel on Memorial Day.
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.
...
Wikipedia