Roots (TV Miniseries)

Roots (TV miniseries)

Roots is an American television miniseries based on Alex Haley's novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family, which aired on ABC in 1977. Roots received 36 Emmy Award nominations, winning nine. It also won a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. It received unprecedented Nielsen ratings with the finale still standing as the third-highest rated U.S. television program ever. It was shot on a budget of $6.6 million.

The series introduced LeVar Burton in the role of Kunta Kinte. A sequel, Roots: The Next Generations, was broadcast in 1979, and a second sequel, Roots: The Gift, was produced as a Christmas film which starred Burton and Gossett.