Roots 

A dramatization of author Alex Haley's family line from ancestor Kunta Kinte's enslavement to his descendants' liberation.

Stars:

LeVar Burton, Todd Bridges, Robert Reed

Top Rated TV #212 | Won 1 Golden Globe. Another 16 wins & 35 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Todd Bridges	...	Bud Harvey (8 episodes, 1977)
Robert Reed	...	Dr. William Reynolds (5 episodes, 1977)
John Amos	...	'Toby' / ... (5 episodes, 1977)
Madge Sinclair	...	Bell Reynolds (5 episodes, 1977)
Louis Gossett Jr.	...	Fiddler (5 episodes, 1977)
Vic Morrow	...	Ames (5 episodes, 1977)
Brad Davis	...	Ol' George Johnson / ... (4 episodes, 1977)
LeVar Burton	...	Kunta Kinte / ... (4 episodes, 1977)
Lynda Day George	...	Mrs. Reynolds (4 episodes, 1977)
Olivia Cole	...	Mathilda / ... (4 episodes, 1977)
Ben Vereen	...	'Chicken' George Moore / ... (4 episodes, 1977)
Carolyn Jones	...	Mrs. Moore (4 episodes, 1977)
Leslie Uggams	...	Kizzy Reynolds / ... (4 episodes, 1977)
Chuck Connors	...	Tom Moore (4 episodes, 1977)
Sandy Duncan	...	Missy Anne Reynolds (4 episodes, 1977)
Edward Asner	...	Capt. Thomas Davies (3 episodes, 1977)
Ji-Tu Cumbuka	...	Wrestler (3 episodes, 1977)
Ralph Waite	...	Slater (3 episodes, 1977)
Lorne Greene	...	John Reynolds (3 episodes, 1977)
Thayer David	...	Harlan (3 episodes, 1977)
Lloyd Bridges	...	Evan Brent (2 episodes, 1977)
Georg Stanford Brown	...	Tom Harvey (2 episodes, 1977)
Maya Angelou	...	Nyo Boto / ... (2 episodes, 1977)
Moses Gunn	...	Kintango (2 episodes, 1977)
Thalmus Rasulala	...	Omoro (2 episodes, 1977)
Hilly Hicks	...	Lewis Harvey (2 episodes, 1977)
Hari Rhodes	...	Brima Cesay (2 episodes, 1977)
William Watson	...	Gardner (2 episodes, 1977)
Lynne Moody	...	Irene Harvey (2 episodes, 1977)
Renn Woods	...	Fanta (2 episodes, 1977)
Richard McKenzie	...	Sam Harvey (2 episodes, 1977)
Sally Kemp	...	Lila Harvey (2 episodes, 1977)
Paul Shenar	...	John Carrington (2 episodes, 1977)
Gary Collins	...	Grill (2 episodes, 1977)
Austin Stoker	...	Virgil Harvey (2 episodes, 1977)
Lane Binkley	...	Martha Johnson (2 episodes, 1977)
Lee de Broux	...	Trumbull (2 episodes, 1977)
Beverly Todd	...	Fanta / ... (2 episodes, 1977)
Tanya Boyd	...	Genelva (2 episodes, 1977)
Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs	...	Noah (2 episodes, 1977)
Raymond St. Jacques	...	The Drummer (2 episodes, 1977)
Pat Corley	...	Referee (2 episodes, 1977)
Scatman Crothers	...	Mingo (2 episodes, 1977)
Stan Haze	...	Field Singer / ... (2 episodes, 1977)
John Dennis Johnston	...	Man at Cockfight (2 episodes, 1977)
John Schuck	...	Ordell (2 episodes, 1977)
George Hamilton	...	Stephen Bennett (2 episodes, 1977)
Roxie Roker	...	Melissa (2 episodes, 1977)
Richard Roundtree	...	Sam Bennett (2 episodes, 1977)
Elma V. Jackson	...	Mama Ada (2 episodes, 1977)
Lillian Randolph	...	Sister Sara (2 episodes, 1977)
Davis Roberts	...	Leonard (2 episodes, 1977)
Doug McClure	...	Jemmy Brent / ... (2 episodes, 1977)
Cicely Tyson	...	Binta (2 episodes, 1977)
Tina Andrews	...	Aurelia (2 episodes, 1977)
Ernest Thomas	...	Kailuba (2 episodes, 1977)
Ann Weldon	...	Mary (2 episodes, 1977)
Rebecca Bess	...	Girl on Ship (2 episodes, 1977)
Fred Covington	...	Auctioneer (2 episodes, 1977)
Joe Dorsey	...	Calvert (2 episodes, 1977)
Brion James	...	Slaver (2 episodes, 1977)
Rachel Longaker	...	Caroline (2 episodes, 1977)
Tracey Gold	...	Young Missy Reynolds (2 episodes, 1977)

Storyline

A saga of African-American life, based on Alex Haley's family history. Kunta Kinte is abducted from his African village, sold into slavery, and taken to America. He makes several escape attempts until he is finally caught and maimed. He marries Bell, his plantation's cook, and they have a daughter, Kizzy, who is eventually sold away from them. Kizzy has a son by her new master, and the boy grows up to become Chicken George. He's a legendary cock fighter who leads his family into freedom. Throughout the series, the family observes notable events in U.S. history, such as the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, slave uprisings, and emancipation.

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Plot Keywords:

escape attempt | tv mini series | freedom | civil war | slave | 

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Taglines:

The Saga of an American Family.

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | History | War

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1977 (USA)

Also Known As:

Racines

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$6,600,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

David L. Wolper Productions, Warner Bros. Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

570 min (8 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Novelist Harold Courlander successfully sued author Alex Haley for plagiarizing works which led to the book that served as the basis for the mini-series. Haley paid $650,000 in an out-of-court settlement.

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Goofs

According to the story's timeline, the Akan and Kunte Kinte discuss running north to the safety of the abolitionist movement in the late 1700's. The abolitionist movement was a fringe movement until the early 1800s.

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Quotes

Kunta Kinti: I'm a Mandinka warrior!
Fiddler: [turns to stable horse] Horse! I hear tell that you ain't a horse at all. I hear tell that you think you a mighty crow! I hear tell that you fly from here 'bouts all the way to Annapolis and back again. Now horse... you look mighty like a horse to me. And you sure SMELLS mighty like a horse. So I'm saying to you, that you... is... a horse! What you think you is don't matter a damn bit.

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Connections

Featured in Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust (2004)

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Soundtracks

Oluwa
by Quincy Jones

User Reviews

The Best TV Miniseries Ever Offered by a Major Commercial Network Before Cable

Two of the most important American television programs are "The Civil War" by Ken Burns (1989), and the epic narrative miniseries "Roots" (1977) based on the book "Roots: The Saga of an American Family" by Alex Haley. Despite the controversy surrounding the book, and the facts of Haley's ancestry (for example, the slave Toby aka "Kunte Kinte", may never have fathered Kizzy and therefore may not be a direct ancestor of Haley) the series is an important and ground-breaking work in its stunning portrayal of slave life in America from the late 18th century to the mid-19th century.

For decades, the United States has been largely in denial of its treatment of African-Americans both as slaves and later in post-Civil War periods. The south of the 19th century had fabricated the reality of slave conditions and down-played the brutality inflicted on both slaves and anti-slave sympathizers. Racial hatred and brutality continued into the 20th century, largely fueled by white traditions that have (and continue to) concoct misrepresentations of historical reality to younger generations. By the middle of the 20th century, nearly 100 years after the end of the American Civil War, President Johnson signed Civil Rights legislation into law with the White Southern community kicking and screaming all the way. If legislation couldn't change people's hearts and minds, what could?

Americans love movies, story-telling/narrative film depictions of reality. There had never before been a nationally distributed film production that honestly told the story of the African-American slave experience. Fourteen years after Johnson's legislation, "Roots" was broadcast on national television by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). I regard those network executives that green-lighted the broadcast in great esteem for their willingness to take a chance on this most-important series. I doubt whether US commercial television will ever produce and broadcast such a high-caliber and controversial program again in the near future. And to give credit to the American viewing public, "Roots" was a huge success.

From beginning to end, "Roots" is an absolute triumph of film production, the best-ever miniseries offered by a corporate network prior to the rise of cable television. The acting and the script are top-notch. Almost every notable African-American acting talent of the time was solicited to join the cast, from LeVar Burton and John Amos (Kunte Kinte, Toby) to Lou Gosset Jr (Fiddler) to Ben Vareen (Chicken George) to James Earl Jones (Alex Haley). Even OJ Simpson makes an appearance. A lot of notable white talent appears as well, such as Ed Asner and Sandy Duncan.

Slavery is a tragedy and "Roots" is a tragic story. "Roots" has its light moments, its inspiring moments, although it is its heartbreaking moments that stay with you: The moment the young African Kunte Kinte is shackled, sold as chattel and forced to board the slave ship bound for America. The whipping of the young Kunte Kinte to "break" him into slavery. The selling of Kizzy, Toby's daughter, to another slave master because of her involvement with a scheme to help a runaway. These are the moments that make Roots' larger point. Another aspect that makes Roots effective in its rhetoric is that it never seeps into sentimentality to makes its point. The story relies on an honest narrative and the audience is left to draw their on conclusions. Is it brutal? Yes. Unjust? Definitely. And that is what it was. (If you don't believe "Roots", sell yourself into slavery and see how you like it.)

Two aspects occur to me about what this story means beyond just the plain inhumanity of the institution of slavery. One aspect is that the benefit of slavery is terribly minute when compared to the staggering price paid by the slaves themselves and everyone else. Simultaneously, non-slaves were pressed into service to maintain slavery as an institution. Such titanic sadness, misery, hopelessness brutality, and inhumanity is forced upon people (both slave and non-slave) in return for a more comfortable life for a minuscule segment of the population. And yet the amount of work, effort, and money to maintain the inhumane infrastructure seems more burdensome than if these people were free. The average white southerner could not afford to own slaves, and many worked for slave owners as overseers, slave-catchers, auctioneers, and other positions designed to maintain the institution. In short, misery for thousands with a little comfort for a few.

The other tragedy is the denial of positive contribution to society. Those who were slaves were denied giving their love, their knowledge, their inspiration, and their culture to society. All this beauty sacrificed so a few white aristocrats can laze around on sofas in front of fireplaces in giant mansions. Someone once said that if we don't help foster the gifts in other people, we run the risk of never seeing how our world could be made better. Slavery is a tragedy for the people enacting it as well, although the suffering aspect is less apparent.

"Roots" is a story that needs to be told and retold. Shown and re-shown. I would encourage any teacher trying to convey the reality of slavery in America to consider showing at least a segment or two of "Roots". There is no question that the film is mesmerizing. It saddens me that there are still those in America that want to hang onto southern myths that propagate that slavery wasn't that bad. These are some of the same people that are convinced the holocaust is a fabrication. It is better to forgive than the forget. We have to embrace our roots.