Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    Nostalgia Central
    • Home
    • Blog
      • Lists
      • Playlists
    • Television
      • TV by Decade
        • TV – 1950s
        • TV – 1960s
        • TV – 1970s
        • TV – 1980s
        • TV – 1990s
      • Comedy
      • Drama
      • Kids TV
      • Variety
      • News & Sport
      • Advertisements
    • Music
      • Music by Decade
        • Music – 1950s
        • Music – 1960s
        • Music – 1970s
        • Music – 1980s
        • Music – 1990s
      • Artists – A to K
        • Artists – A
        • Artists – B
        • Artists – C
        • Artists – D
        • Artists – E
        • Artists – F
        • Artists – G
        • Artists – H
        • Artists – I
        • Artists – J
        • Artists – K
      • Artists – L to Z
        • Artists – L
        • Artists – M
        • Artists – N
        • Artists – O
        • Artists – P
        • Artists – Q
        • Artists – R
        • Artists – S
        • Artists – T
        • Artists – U
        • Artists – V
        • Artists – W
        • Artists – X
        • Artists – Y
        • Artists – Z
      • Artists – 0 to 9
      • Genres
      • Music on Film & TV
      • One-Hit Wonders
      • Online Radio
    • Movies
      • Movies by Decade
        • Movies – 1950s
        • Movies – 1960s
        • Movies – 1970s
        • Movies – 1980s
        • Movies – 1990s
      • Movies – 0 to 9
      • Movies – A to K
        • Movies – A
        • Movies – B
        • Movies – C
        • Movies – D
        • Movies – E
        • Movies – F
        • Movies – G
        • Movies – H
        • Movies – I
        • Movies – J
        • Movies – K
      • Movies – L to Z
        • Movies – L
        • Movies – M
        • Movies – N
        • Movies – O
        • Movies – P
        • Movies – Q
        • Movies – R
        • Movies – S
        • Movies – T
        • Movies – U
        • Movies – V
        • Movies – W
        • Movies – X
        • Movies – Y
        • Movies – Z
    • Pop Culture
      • Fads
      • Toys & Games
      • Fashion
      • Decor
      • Food & Drink
      • People
      • Technology
      • Transport
    • Social History
      • 1950s Year by Year
      • 1960s Year by Year
      • 1970s Year by Year
      • 1980s Year by Year
      • 1990s Year by Year
      • Events
    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Television»Drama
    Drama TV Shows - 1970s 6 Mins Read

    Roots/Roots: The Next Generation

    Share
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email

    1 9 7 7 – 1 9 7 8Β (USA)
    4 x 120 minute episodes
    4 x 60 minute episodes
    1 9 7 9 – 1 9 8 1 (USA)

    Suddenly, over eight consecutive nights in January 1977, there was Roots, a series about a black man’s search for his origins – a quest that took him back through American slavery to ancestors in a remote West African village.

    But not only blacks were watching. The whole of the USA was enthralled by Alex Haley’s story about the slave Kunta Kinte, his daughter Kizzy, her son Chicken George, and so on through four generations.

    The series chronicled the 100-year history of Kunta Kinte’s family, from capture in Africa by slave traders around 1750, to eventual emancipation in post-Civil War America.

    The story began in 1750 in the Mandinka village of Jufareh in The Gambia, West Africa, with the birth of Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton) to Binta (Cicely Tyson) and Omoro (Thalmus Rasula).

    roots_8

    Kunta grew up free and happy until, at the age of 17, he was taken prisoner by white slave catchers and shipped to America on a vessel commanded by the conscience-stricken Captain Davies (Edward Asner) and his cruel third mate, Slater (Ralph Waite).

    Kunta (played by John Amos as an adult) – being forced to adopt the new name of Toby by his new masters on a Tennessee plantation – remained rebellious for the rest of his life, making several attempts to escape and eventually losing a foot in the process.

    Then his daughter, Kizzy (Leslie Uggams), was born. She grew to womanhood and bore a son (after she was raped by her white owner), later to be named Chicken George (Ben Vereen), because he wasΒ skilled in the art of training fighting cocks.

    Chicken George was sent into servitude in England in the 1820s, as rumours of slave rebellions swept the American South. Thirty years later he returned, an old but free man, only to find America on the brink of Civil War.

    George’s son, Tom Harvey (Georg Stanford Brown), a plantation blacksmith, was recruited into the army, but after emancipation found that freedom meant little in a land of hooded nightriders and economic exploitation.

    As the series ended, Tom – the great-grandson of Kunta Kinte – struck out to start a new life in Tennessee, and sow the roots for a better life for his free descendants.

    Over the course of the saga, viewers saw brutal whippings and many agonising moments, rapes, the forced separations of families, slave auctions . . . but through it all,Β Roots compelled America to face its chequered past. It was hardly a serious history of slave trading, but the emotional charge of a monstrous injustice was still there.

    It was a landmark TV mini-series that towered over the decade, with 130 million viewers – over half of the population of the USA – tuned in to the last episode. In Britain, around 19 million viewers also became hooked on what turned out to be a decent yarn despite its comically unlikely sets of African villages – with manicured lawns and dwellings straight out of an Ideal Hut exhibition.

    Two years after Roots made television history, the sequel Roots: The Next Generation picked up the story once again, this time in 1882Β by which time Tom Harvey, great-grandson of Kunta Kinte, had established a marginal existence as a blacksmith in Henning, Tennessee.

    Relations between the races were strained, and old prejudices survived. Tom forbade his daughter’s marriage to a light-skinned black man because he was “too white”, and town patriarch Colonel Warner (Henry Fonda) disowned his own son Jim (Richard Thomas) when he dared to marry a black schoolteacher.

    Before long, “literacy tests” were being used to deny blacks their recently won right to vote, and “lynch law” had reappeared.

    Tom’s younger daughter, Cynthia (Bever-Leigh Banfield), married a hardworking young man named Will Palmer (Stan Shaw), who, despite the oppression, had risen to ownership of the local lumberyard.

    In time Will would succeed Tom as leader of the local black community as Ku Klux Klan terror swept the South. Will and Cynthia’s daughter, Bertha (Irene Cara), became the first descendant of Kunta Kinte to enter college. There, in 1912, she met ambitious young Simon Haley (Dorian Harewood), son of a sharecropper, whose education was being sponsored by a philanthropic white man.

    After serving in a segregated combat unit during World War I, Simon returned to wed Bertha and begin teaching agriculture at a black college in Alabama. While Simon was organising farmers during the New Deal, his son, Alex (Christoff St. John as a child and Damon Evans as a young man), soaked up family lore from the older generation.

    As World War II approached, Alex enlisted in the Coast Guard, where he spent the next 20 years. When he retired in 1960 (now played by James Earl Jones) he turned to writing, interviewing such national figures as black activist Malcolm X (Al Freeman Jr), whose ‘autobiography’ he helped write, and American Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell (Marlon Brando) – who held a gun on him throughout their conversation.

    Then a visit to his boyhood home of Henning reignited his interest in his family’s past, all the way back to the ‘Old African’ Kunta Kinte, and started him on a journey to Africa to begin his greatest work.

    Roots: The Next Generation was repeated as a weekly series from May to July 1981.

    Kunta Kinte/TobyΒ 
    LeVar Burton (boy)
    John Amos (man)
    BintaΒ 

    Cicely Tyson
    OmoroΒ 

    Thalmus Rasula
    Nyo BotoΒ 

    Maya Angelou
    Kadi TourayΒ 

    O. J. Simpson
    The WrestlerΒ 

    Ji-Tu Cumbuka
    KintangoΒ 

    Moses Gunn
    Brimo CesayΒ 

    Hari Rhodes
    FantaΒ 

    Ren Woods (1)
    Beverly Todd (2)
    Captain DaviesΒ 

    Edward Asner
    Third Mate SlaterΒ 

    Ralph Waite
    GardnerΒ 

    William Watson
    FiddlerΒ 

    Louis Gossett Jr
    John ReynoldsΒ 

    Lorne Greene
    Mrs ReynoldsΒ 

    Lynda Day
    George AmesΒ 

    Vic Morrow
    Carrington
    Paul Shenar
    Dr William ReynoldsΒ 

    Robert Reed
    BellΒ 

    Madge Sinclair
    GrillΒ 

    Gary Collins
    The DrummerΒ 

    Raymond St. Jacques
    Tom MooreΒ 

    Chuck Connors
    Missy AnneΒ 

    Sandy Duncan
    NoahΒ 

    Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs
    OrdellΒ 

    John Schuck
    KizzyΒ 
    Leslie Uggams
    Squire JamesΒ 

    Macdonald Carey
    MathildaΒ 

    Olivia Cole
    MingoΒ 

    Scatman Crothers
    Stephen BennettΒ 

    George Hamilton
    Mrs MooreΒ 

    Carolyn Jones
    Sir Eric RussellΒ 

    Ian McShane
    Sister SaraΒ 

    Lillian Randolph
    Sam BennettΒ 

    Richard Roundtree
    Chicken GeorgeΒ 

    Ben Vereen
    Evan BrentΒ 

    Lloyd Bridges
    Tom Harvey

    Georg Stanford Brown
    Ol’ George JohnsonΒ 

    Brad Davis
    LewisΒ 

    Hilly Hicks
    Jemmy BrentΒ 

    Doug McClure
    Irene Harvey

    Lynne Moody
    MarthaΒ 

    Lane Binkley
    JustinΒ 

    Burl Ives
    Elizabeth Harvey
    Debbi Morgan
    Cynthia Harvey Palmer
    Bever-Leigh Banfield
    Cynthia Harvey Palmer (old)
    Beah Richards
    Col. Warner
    Henry Fonda
    Mrs Warner
    Olivia de Havilland
    Jim Warner
    Richard Thomas
    Andy Warner
    Marc Singer
    Will Palmer
    Stan Shaw
    Bertha Palmer Haley
    Irene Cara
    Chicken George Moore
    Avon Long
    Earl Crowther
    Paul Koslo
    Lee Garnett
    Roger E. Mosley
    Bob Campbell
    Harry Morgan
    Simon Haley
    Dorian Harewood
    Queen Haley
    Ruby Dee
    Big Slew Johnson
    Rosey Grier
    Dr Horace Huguley
    Paul Winfield
    Alex Haley (child)
    Christoff St. John
    Alex Haley (young man)
    Damon Evans
    Alex Haley (adult)
    James Earl Jones
    Nan Branch Haley
    Debbie Allen
    Malcolm X
    Al Freeman Jr
    George Lincoln Rockwell
    Marlon Brando
    Cousin Georgia
    Lynn Hamilton

    Video

    Related Posts

    • Holocaust
      Holocaust
      1 9 7 8Β (USA) 1 x 180 minute episode 2 x 120 minute episodes 1 x 150 minute episode HolocaustΒ first…
    • Our Five Daughters
      Our Five Daughters
      1 9 6 2Β (USA) NBC launched the 30-minute five-day-a-week daytime serialΒ Our Five DaughtersΒ on 2 January 1962 - ousting the long-running…
    • Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, The
      Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, The
      Β 1 9 5 1 - 1 9 5 8Β (USA) 113 x 30 minute episodes "James Butler Hickok, mister" our hero…
    • Hamish Macbeth
      Hamish Macbeth
      1 9 9 5 - 1 9 9 7Β (UK) 20 x 50 minute episodes Robert Carlyle starred as the easy-going…
    • Outcasts, The
      Outcasts, The
      1 9 6 8 - 1 9 6 9 (USA) 26 x 60 minute episodes β€œIn the decade following the…
    • Quest, The
      Quest, The
      1 9 7 6 (USA) 15 x 52 minute episodes This NBC series told the story of two reunited brothers…
    • Young Dan'l Boone
      Young Dan'l Boone
      1 9 7 7Β (USA) 4 (8) x 60 minute episodes From 1964 to 1970, Daniel Boone (Fess Parker) roamed the…
    • Kizzy
      Kizzy
      1 9 7 6Β (UK) 6 x 30 minute episodes Adapted from (Margaret) Rumer Godden's 1972 novel The Diddakoi, the only…

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleRumpole of the Bailey
    Next Article Sweeney, The

    Comments are closed.

    Follow us
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    You May Also Like
    • Boy Who Turned Yellow, The (1972)
      John Saunders (Mark Dightam) loses his pet mouse, Alice, on a […]
    • Fired Up
      1 9 9 7 – 1 9 9 8Β (USA) 28 x 30 minute episodes When Gwen […]
    • Primal Scream
      Originally a guitar pop band formed by earlyΒ Jesus & Mary […]
    • Jokes
      1 9 7 9Β (Australia) 4 x 25 minute episodes This short-lived […]
    • What’s Up Nurse? (1977)
      When bumbling young Dr Robert “Sweeney” Todd […]
    • Pob’s Programme
      1 9 8 4Β (UK) 52 x 30 minute episodes This Channel 4 Sunday […]
    Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons

    OUR LATEST FACEBOOK POSTS

    www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-64558222 ... See MoreSee Less

    Link thumbnail

    David Bowie's handwritten Jean Genie lyrics sold for £57,000

    www.bbc.co.uk

    The handwritten sheet was given to the founder of the inaugural David Bowie fan club by the star.
    14 hours ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 0
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 0

    Comment on Facebook

    edition.cnn.com/2023/01/30/entertainment/cindy-williams-dead/index.html

    More sad news 😒
    ... See MoreSee Less

    Link thumbnail

    'Laverne & Shirley' star Cindy Williams dead at 75 | CNN

    edition.cnn.com

    Cindy Williams, the dynamic actress known best for playing the bubbly Shirley Feeney on the beloved sitcom "Laverne & Shirley," has died, according to a statement from her family, provided to CNN by a...
    1 week ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 1
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 0

    Comment on Facebook

    www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64442824 ... See MoreSee Less

    Link thumbnail

    Television frontman Tom Verlaine dies at 73

    www.bbc.co.uk

    His band rose to fame in the 1970s New York punk scene, scoring UK hits including Marquee Moon.
    1 week ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 0
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 0

    Comment on Facebook

    www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64418847 ... See MoreSee Less

    Link thumbnail

    Mr Blobby costume sells for more than £62,000 on eBay

    www.bbc.co.uk

    The character, made famous by BBC show Noel's House Party, had been in storage since the 1990s.
    2 weeks ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 0
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 0

    Comment on Facebook

    Put some beefiness into your mid-week menu with these recipe ideas published in a Birds Eye advertisement from the Radio Times on 30 September 1965.

    Put some "beefiness into your mid-week menu" with these recipe ideas published in a Birds Eye advertisement from the "Radio Times" on 30 September 1965. ... See MoreSee Less

    2 weeks ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 3
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 1

    Comment on Facebook

    They were awful. An overpowering savoury flavour that lingered in your mouth for hours. Heaven knows what unmentionable parts of a bull went into making them 😳

    More sad news πŸ˜ͺ

    ... See MoreSee Less

    Link thumbnail

    US rock legend David Crosby dies aged 81

    www.bbc.co.uk

    Crosby, who co-founded both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills and Nash, had been ill for some time.
    3 weeks ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 0
    • Shares: 1
    • Comments: 0

    Comment on Facebook

    This is what they promised us when I was a kid. What happened? 

All I have is 700 channels of rubbish on the TV in High Def, TikTok, Facebook and a phone I can take photographs with . . .

    This is what they promised us when I was a kid. What happened?

    All I have is 700 channels of rubbish on the TV in High Def, TikTok, Facebook and a phone I can take photographs with . . .
    ... See MoreSee Less

    3 weeks ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 54
    • Shares: 22
    • Comments: 7

    Comment on Facebook

    I thought we would have moving pavements by now when I was a kid πŸ˜‚

    Totally agree!!!

    The new Tesla, 4.6 next century.

    We got transvestite story hour instead

    We appear to be going backwards

    There's actually a very good David Graeber essay on this very topic: thebaffler.com/salvos/of-flying-cars-and-the-declining-rate-of-profit

    The Jetsons strike again.

    View more comments

    Renowned Australian singer Renee Geyer is dead at 69 following complications from hip surgery. Such a fabulous voice. RIP😒

https://nostalgiacentral.com/music/artists-l-to-z/artists-r/renee-geyer/

    Renowned Australian singer Renee Geyer is dead at 69 following complications from hip surgery. Such a fabulous voice. RIP😒

    nostalgiacentral.com/music/artists-l-to-z/artists-r/renee-geyer/
    ... See MoreSee Less

    3 weeks ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 0
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 1

    Comment on Facebook

    That is so sad to hear πŸ˜₯ rest in peace πŸ™ πŸ•Š xx

    Gina Lollobrigida: Italian screen star dies at 95
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64292026

    Gina Lollobrigida: Italian screen star dies at 95
    www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64292026
    ... See MoreSee Less

    3 weeks ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 5
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 1

    Comment on Facebook

    😍😍😍😍

    Vale Jeff Beck. Dead at 78. 😒

    ... See MoreSee Less

    Link thumbnail

    Jeff Beck: British guitar legend dies aged 78

    www.bbc.co.uk

    One of rock's most influential guitarists, he was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice.
    4 weeks ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 1
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 0

    Comment on Facebook

    Load more
    Please note


    Nostalgia Central covers the period 1950 to 1999 and contains some words and references which reflect the attitudes of those times and which may be considered culturally sensitive, offensive or inappropriate today.
    Popular Tags
    1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1975 1976 Action Figures Amicus Arcade games Australia Beach movies Beatles Blaxploitation Board games Britpop Canada Crime Disney Doo-Wop Elvis Presley Girl groups Glam Goth Hammer Heavy Metal Irwin Allen Labels Merseybeat Mod revival Motown New Romantic New Wave NWOBHM Oi! One-hit wonders Power Pop Pub rock Punk Radio Scotland Ska Soul music Sport Surf music
    Search Nostalgia Central
    Copyright Β© 1998, 2023 Nostalgia Central
    • About Nostalgia Central
    • Contact
    • FAQ

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.