I just finished watching "Roots"!- Page 2

[Marquise]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 5:00am

ROOTS is an excellent novel and an equally excellent mini series. Looking back at the time both made an impact it was an important event because it forced us to look at the atrocities of our history's past and it also catapulted a phenomenon of tracing one's lineage. The only thing that tarnished ROOTS was the discovery that Alex Haley was sued for plagiarism because certain parts of ROOTS were "borrowed" from another novel THE AFRICAN by Harold Courlander.

Courlander sued Haley and Haley admitted passages from Courlander's novel were lifted and used in ROOTS. He later stated it was "unintentional". Also genealogists have since come to the conclusion that Kunta Kinte is not a Haley ancestor.

All in all it is a great read, an important work of fiction and a landmark television mini series despite all the controversy that eventually surrounded it.

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 9:01am

It seems like such a great idea (if that is the right word) that the family would always pass on that story!

For those who originally saw it, I know that they showed it for 8 consecutive days...however, there are only 6 episodes, so how did they do it?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 9:54am

I didn't remember that they showed it over 8 consecutive days.

I thought it went

Sunday - 2 episodes
Monday - 1 episode
Tuesday - 1 episode
Wednesday - 1 episode
Thursday - 1 episode

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 10:06am

From imdb:
Originally broadcast on ABC as eight one-hour and two-hour episodes as follows: Episodes 1,2,6, and 8 were two hours; Episodes 3,4,5, and 7 were one hour. Presented on VHS, DVD, and rebroadcast as six two-hour episodes.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 10:24am

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).

I just thought I owed it to this post to let it make it to another page.

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 11:00am

Mid-'70s TV was the zenith for the "mini-series" and "TV movie" formats. I'm not saying they were all good, or than no others outside of the mid-'70s were good.

But you had Roots and its followup. You had Miss Jane Pitman. You had Sybil. You had Holocaust.

It just didn't and DOESN'T get any better than that. Things started changing quickly after that. The introduction of cable, Pay-TV, and their movies. Then VHS and eventually DVD. They all contributed to the shift in these "grand television events."

And to this day, the single most-watched television event (of any kind) in history was the final episode of M*A*S*H. It was a huge deal, but also ... you just don't get viewing audiences anywhere near that size anymore. Same thing with the miniseries, etc.

And I'm also not just talking about the ratings.

If Sally Field or Cicely Tyson's acting efforts had been released in movie theatres, they would have taken home Academy Awards for their work as Sybil and Jane Pitman, respectively. They weren't only the best TV performances those two years, they were the best on any-sized screen.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 11:16am

"Mid-'70s TV was the zenith for the "mini-series" and "TV movie" formats."

And the variety show format as well(Burnett, Sonny & Cher, etc)

I think today's tv doesn't want to put the money into the big event mini-series.

Plus would today's actors want to lay aside their ego to perform in an ensemble piece like Roots?

[Craig]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 11:35am

"Plus would today's actors want to lay aside their ego to perform in an ensemble piece like Roots?"

Yes.. and they have. That's not the issue

The real issue is that tv/cable now has hundreds of channels competing for attention. As Besty said - you can't and will never get the same viewership that MASH and ROOTS got.

[Craig]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 11:36am

Additionally - I'll argue that timing is everything. Roots appeared on TV at the right time. If the same miniseries hit the airwaves today, it would be well received - but I doubt it would be the phenomenon that it has become.

[Q]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 11:36am

"I think today's tv doesn't want to put the money into the big event mini-series."

So I just imagined things like JOHN ADAMS and BAND OF BROTHERS?

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 11:40am

yes, you did, q. it come from drinking samuel adams and listening to jimmy hendrix band of gypsies.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 11:59am

(Time for some people to lay down their Howard Zinn and face truth)

I'm sorry, I have to go back to this. Because some African Tribal leaders were culpable and some freed black slaved owned other slaves, is the implication that slavery was mostly (hell, even EQUALLY) the fault of black people?

[Craig]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 12:09pm

PRS

Yes.. didn't you know this? And anyone who is sexually assaulted was asking for it. I though this was common knowledge.


(oh - for the people randomly google searching this thread. SARCASM!)

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 12:17pm

"Because some African Tribal leaders were culpable and some freed black slaved owned other slaves, is the implication that slavery was mostly (hell, even EQUALLY) the fault of black people?"

Because some black people were brought to America as slaves, is that the fault of all white people?

If you put my post in context, it relates to killertofu saying "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."

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 12:21pm

Ah, I guess you don't know how to register hyperbole. Is that the darkies' fault, too?

[Craig]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 12:24pm

Gothampc. How come you can argue with "Because some black people were brought to America as slaves, is that the fault of all white people?"

and yet you can't digest that all liberals, democrats, etc are individual?

[killertofu333]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 12:31pm

Phyllis, I tried to be as diplomatic as I could be with regards to Goth's previous comments...but I soon just found them comical as usual and resigned myself to that fact. Oh and thank you for totally getting what I was saying about my Grandmother

As in my previous posts, some people's hands just weren't clean at the time. That includes white, black, Native Americans, and others who had a hand in slavery.

Because some black people were brought to America as slaves, is that the fault of all white people?

Goth, there you go again. *sigh* The only person here even suggesting that ALL white people were to blame is you. By continually saying that blasphemous word when referring to Caucasians, it clouds that fact that obviously NOT ALL white people participated in slavery. Have we already forgotten about, dare I say, WHITE abolitionists who helped escaped and freed slaves?

Updated On: 3/5/09 at 12:31 PM

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 12:37pm

i blame mr. yacub. after all, he created us blue-eyed devils.

[killertofu333]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 12:41pm

Papa, you are a sick individual...and that's why I secretly HEART you.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 12:46pm

and i thought it was just 'cuz my daddy was a sharecropper (no, i'm not kidding, he really was).

[Q]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 12:46pm

I openly HEART papa.

It's other things with him that are a secret.

[killertofu333]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 12:51pm

Well, Q? Don't be shy, do tell. I have to live vicariously through others...*waiting with bated breath*

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 3:03pm

Q---As much as you might have enjoyed John Adams and Band of Brothers, they were pay-cable "events." And while HBO has a nice subscription base which helps pay for the production of these (excellent) mini-series examples, they don't even come CLOSE to the viewership of anything back in the '70s.

They don't even come close to the viewership of one episode of "Roseanne" back in the '80s.

So, yes, you imagined them. For many out there in TV land, they don't even "exist."

TV viewership has been on a huge decline in the past 15 years. Mostly due to the oversaturation of "specialty" channels. And the rise of on-demand, internet broadcasting, DVR and DVD.

"They don't make 'em like they used to" is arguable, but "they don't watch 'em like they used to" is fact. I think certainly production values and technology are FAR better than what was available in the '70s. I was actually surprised to go back and watch "Roots" a few years ago. It felt a bit "cheap" by today's standards, because I'm so spoiled by the possibilities now. But what wasn't "cheap" (and was arguably even better) was the acting and especially the writing of the '70s examples mentioned above. And there's no amount of HD or CGI you can throw at the screen today that will compensate for a well-told, well-acted story.

But viewership? Can't argue. The '70s blow today out of the water. As much as HBO wants you to think "John Adams" is a nationwide event? It's reaching about a tenth of the audience that "Roots" did.

Years ago, in the mid-'80s, before the Internet, and when VCR rentals were still relatively new, I remember Spielberg reacting when somebody told him that "E.T." was one of the highest grossing films of all-time. He said, "Yes, but the viewership of just 3 episodes of the Cosby Show outdo the entire worldwide viewership to date for E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial."

I thought that was pretty fascinating. That's how big TV was at one time. And viewership was DOWN in the mid-'80s from the mid-'70s!

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 3:10pm

twelvy, is total viewership actually down, or is it that we only had 3 networks, 2 local stations and 1 pbs station to choose from? What choice did we have?

[KrissySim]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 3:15pm

Not to stir up the argument any further, but America long ago outlawed slavery and there is now a Black president in office.

Yet in many countries of the world slavery still exists on a large scale, even in places where it is illegal. Even in Africa.

I would venture to say that in spite of its dubious past, America has it above other countries as far as slavery goes. With Roots, America was owning up to its past, unlike Turkey with Armenia and many, many other examples.