I just finished watching "Roots"!

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 2:55pm

WOW! This was amazing, and I'm so happy to have seen it! I am very touched :)

[Tom's Cat]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 3:00pm

You can't imagine the impact it had on everyone when it was first broadcast on television. People stopped going to movies and eating out and doing almost anything else - just so they wouldn't miss the next episode. It was all anyone could talk about the next day at schools and work.

A fabulous series.

[KrissySim]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 3:01pm

I watched the first episode of that recently. It looked like a good production for its time, though giving something of a romanticized depiction of tribal life before the capture. I couldn't get over seeing that thug, O. J. Simpson portraying a tribal leader or something similar.

Still, when I get the chance I'll try to see the rest of it.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 3:02pm

It was wonderfully acted, which for tv was quite amazing.

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 3:04pm

It really stands the test of time extremely well.

The hardest thing was seeing Kizzy being sold away from her parents...I don't think I'll ever take a kitten or puppy away from their parents again!

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 3:12pm

Nothing since has surpassed this miniseries. Uggams and Madge Sinclair were my favorites.

[jaystarr]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 4:11pm

OMG! Its been awhile since I saw this miniseries like in the early 80s-more than 20 years ago along with another tv miniseries- NORTH & SOUTH. I gotta revisit this miniseries again!

J*
Updated On: 3/4/09 at 04:11 PM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 4:21pm

As long as you're revisiting miniseries, go for "Backstairs at the White House".

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 4:35pm

Also "Holocaust".

I really recommend reading "Roots" as well. The book is paced very differently. Much more detail of Kunta Kinte's childhood.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 4:40pm

BTW, the mini-series encouraged a national hobby of tracing ancestors.

[supportivemom]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 4:52pm

Roots was a brilliantly acted mini-series! I remember the days before cable when mini-series ruled the airways. People would stay home every night to watch Roots, Shogun, Holocaust... We didn't have VCR's back then and there were only 4 channels. I kinda miss those days. Jane Seymour was the Queen of the mini-series. I was in Junior High when Roots first aired and I remember how moved I was. Most of us at that age hadn't really heard of all the adrocities. Holocause was extremely moving (especially since I am Jewish). Meryl Streep was brilliant!

[killertofu333]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 5:11pm

For a long time I actually avoided watching it because I didn't want to have any malice in my heart for the events that took place in that time period. But I finally saw the whole miniseries a couple years ago when I was 20, and immediately fell in love with it. My grandmother told me that when she saw it when it first aired, she had to restrain herself from just hitting a random white person in the streets of Philadelphia.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 5:18pm

she didn't killa. it ruined my grade school trip to philly which i think is a teensy bit worse than that whole slavery thing. thanks.

i didn't care for it. not enough boobs for me.

[killertofu333]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 5:29pm

i didn't care for it. not enough boobs for me.

Well Papa you should have watched a Blacksploitation film instead...they had plenty of boobs to go around. Superfly, Shaft, Foxy Brown, Coffee Brown, Decaf Black those movies always had some form of nip in them, and as my uncle told me so eloquently once, "They always knocked whitey down a peg or two." I'm pretty sure he was drunk when he said that. He's got a lot of pent up aggression, who am I kidding he's a whack-job.

Updated On: 3/4/09 at 05:29 PM

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 5:36pm

pam grieer was whack fodder before i even knew how to whack it.

[killertofu333]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 5:39pm

GAWD was she hot!!!

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 5:51pm

"My grandmother told me that when she saw it when it first aired, she had to restrain herself from just hitting a random white person in the streets of Philadelphia."

Yeah, because we know that whitey was to blame for the whole slavery thing. Not one African tribal chief profited off of the deal. Not one black person owned slaves in America. Nope, obviously all whitey's fault. (Time for some people to lay down their Howard Zinn and face truth).

[killertofu333]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 6:06pm

Whoa, whoa Goth. Who said that it was just white people who owned slaves...I certainly didn't. If we want to get uber technical Native Americans owned and traded slaves as well. But I'm not blaming any one RACE of people for slavery...I do however dislike those PARTICULAR people who had a hand in slavery, not their race whether they were Caucasian or not. Just like I don't blame every single German for the Holocaust at that time.

And as for my grandmother, I wasn't alive when it first aired but I'm sure emotions ran very high when everyone sat at home and watched it after dinner. She told me that that had been her first reaction after seeing it that's all.

Updated On: 3/4/09 at 06:06 PM

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 6:13pm

Actually, in Roots there was a black man who had brought his freedom and said that he owned another black man. He made a lot of money from****fighting.

[killertofu333]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 6:19pm

Yeah some people's hands just weren't clean at that time, no matter their race.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 6:25pm

Wow I wish I had Pam Grier's waistline in the picture.

Anyway, I was very young when this first aired. I should rent it....I'm sure I'd appreciate it alot more now.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 6:38pm

I watched the mini-series for the first time in the late 1990's, when it was re-broadcast as some special anniversary or something. I enjoyed it so much, I read the novel. Both are great, but I loved the amount of detail the novel had about his childhood in Africa.

[KingKong]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 6:55pm

I think they showed it to us in Jr. High, but it may have been 9th grade.

[nmartin]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 6:59pm

When that first aired, it was like the whole country stopped and watched. Things like that don't happen anymore.

[Tom's Cat]

Posted: 3/4/09 at 7:31pm

You're right Doodle - the book is excellent. And a good read along with watching the mini series. One doesn't detract from the other.