Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 18, 1992 TAG: 9201180404
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
`ROOTS' SAGA TO PLAY AGAIN ON CABLE
On Jan. 23, 1977, the Sunday evening that the landmark miniseries "Roots" premiered on ABC, Alex Haley had dinner and watched the first episode with Warren Beatty in the actor's hotel suite in New York."We just sat there and the whole time neither one of us spoke," Haley recalled recently during a telephone interview from his home in Henning, Tenn. "Then when it stopped, Warren stood up and said, `Your life will never be the same again.' I remember it seemed kind of odd to me. The fact was he was right."
Television also was never the same after the 12-hour "Roots" aired over six consecutive nights that week in 1977.
Based on Haley's best-selling account of his search for his African ancestors, "Roots" became the highest-rated miniseries of all time; the final episode was watched by 98.2 million Americans. The series received the Emmy for outstanding limited series and spawned the 1979 miniseries "Roots: The Next Generation" and the 1988 movie "Roots: The Gift."
This week, the Family Channel will rerun the original episodes nightly (starting Monday at 8 p.m.). The cable channel's "The Alex Haley Special," premiering next Saturday, retraces the author's own journey to find his roots.
Haley, 70, who is now writing a non-fiction book about his hometown, said that he cannot believe 15 years have passed since the nation followed his family's story, which begins with Kunta Kinte's (LeVar Burton) capture by slave traders in West Africa and ends a century-and-a-half later in Tennessee.
Originally, Haley said, ABC planned to air "Roots," which was produced by David L. Wolper and Stan Margulies, in two-hour weekly installments.
"But by the time it was in post-production, the gossip was that it was crazy to think that much black material will make it on prime time and not bomb out," he said. Executives in "high places" at the network "couldn't dump it," he said. "They had too much invested, but they could get rid of it quickly. That was how the decision was arrived to show it on consecutive nights. That was the thing that really grabbed the audiences."
Haley, who spent 12 years researching and writing "Roots," immediately felt the impact of the series. The day after the first episode aired, he arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York to catch a plane for California. "I remember it was American Airlines," he said. "I got out of the taxi and ordered a Sky Cap. He [Sky Cap man] did a double take and said, `Alex Haley.' "
Within minutes, Haley was surrounded by throngs of people who had seen the show. "It was like being in a mob scene," he said.
Haley said that before "Roots" he was "leading an ordinary life like you lead all of your life and then things would happen like this.
"It was awesome," he said. "If people would recognize you they would rush up and physically grab you. I never saw so many teeth in my life. It was incredible."