Progressive One

The time was right to ‘reimagine’ the s***ery epic, and the 1977 producer’s son and LeVar Burton signed on
BY GREG BRAXTON
Almost four decades after its premiere, “Roots” still stands as an elite landmark in TV history. The saga of author Alex Haley tracing his ancestral roots to a young African boy kidnapped and sold into s***ery was a phenomenon when it aired on ABC in 1977, gripping a nation with its brutal but ultimately triumphant tale.
Even the power of later projects such as “12 Years a S***e” has done little to dull the brand identification of “Roots.” That continuing resonance strengthened Mark Wolper, the son of original “Roots” producer David L. Wolper, to resist whenever he was approached about making a new version.
“Networks and studios have been coming to me for years, saying ‘Let’s do “Roots” again.’ ” said Wolper, who inherited its rights from his late father. “But I was scared to death. Why would you want to remake the greatest television show ever made? And why would you want to follow in your father’s footsteps on something so great?”
But his resistance crumbled when confronted with a reality check when he tried to get his 16-year-old to watch it.
Said Wolper, “I could not get him to sit still — I physically had to hold him down. Afterward, he said, ‘OK, Dad, I get and understand why this is so important. But it’s like your music. It doesn’t speak to me.’ ”
That blunt revelation prompted Wolper to do what he said he’d never do — plant his own “Roots.”
The result is a four-night, eight-hour miniseries premiering May 30 on History. Positioned as a “re-imagining” of Haley’s story, the new “Roots” is a more extensive, historically accurate account of Mandinka warrior-turned-s***e Kunta Kinte and the trajectory of his family’s story through American history.
The revised “Roots” is just one of several projects this year revolving around s***ery, including the WGN series “Underground” and the feature film “The Birth of a Nation.”
But “Roots” is different, Wolper maintains. “ ‘Roots’ is not a slice of history. It’s the story of a family through history.”
And despite its vivid depictions of oppression, the new “Roots,” like the original, remains a story of perseverance and triumph that Wolper believes has value in the current political dialogue surrounding race.
Burton returns
Joining him in the project is LeVar Burton, who portrayed the young Kunta Kinte in the original “Roots.” Burton, a co-executive producer of the History project, was unhappy when he learned that a new “Roots” was being developed.
“I was incredulous and felt a little bit of outrage,” Burton said. “I was skeptical at best — I just could not come up with a reason why this needed to be done.”
However, Burton, who followed his “Roots” debut with “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” the educational series “Reading Rainbow” and other projects, said Wolper’s reasoning “made immediate sense to me. I got it right away.”
He also sees himself as “the keeper of the spiritual flame” between the old and the new. “I figured it would be better to be involved and try and help make this as good as possible instead of being on the sidelines and judging.”
The cast of the new “Roots” includes Laurence Fishburne, Forest Whitaker, Anna Paquin and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Unlike the original, one actor — London-born Malachi Kirby — plays Kinte both as a youth and an adult.
“I was very aware of the original — I watched it several years ago and it impacted me greatly,” said the soft-spoken 26-year-old Kirby. “I felt a huge weight when I got the part, because I was scared of getting it wrong and how the retelling would affect those who had seen the original, positively or negatively.”
Fans of the original will see some familiar touchstones in the new “Roots,” including a scene when Kinte’s father, Omoro (Babs Olusanmokun), holds the infant Kunta up to the heavens and proclaims, “Behold the only thing greater than yourself!”
More Kinte background
But it’s clear that much is different in the retelling. More time is spent detailing the educated culture of the Mandinka people of Gambia where Kinte’s family lived.
In the ABC version, the young warrior Kinte is captured by white s***e traders. In this “Roots,” Kinte is ambushed by a rival tribe and sold to s***e traders.
Nancy Dubuc, president of A+E Networks, which oversees History, said this “Roots” is much more complex and detailed than the first edition. (The new series will be shown on A+E and Lifetime as well as History.)
“The original sparked a lot of work in academic circles, and technical advances really fleshed out the complexity of the original story,” said Dubuc.
And while viewers of the original may recall being horrified by its numerous scenes of oppression and brutality, those sequences pale to the rawness of the new “Roots.”
In one of the pivotal scenes of the story, Kinte is mercilessly whipped into submission and forced to say his s***e name, Toby. In the ABC version, Kinte is whipped by a fellow s***e about 10 times. In this “Roots,” Kinte receives 30 lashes across his back by a sadistic white overseer using a spiked whip.
Said Wolper: “The original misrepresents the intensity and the pain of the s***e experience. That’s as good a reason as any to do this again.”
Burton said he believes fans of the original and a new generation will respond to this new version: “If you are alive and living in this democracy, ‘Roots’ is your story.” greg.braxton@latimes.com  

MEL MELCON Los Angeles Times
LeVAR BURTON, left, shares a bond with Malachi Kirby: Both have played Kunte Kinte — Burton in the 1977 original and Kirby in the new version of “Roots.”

STEVE DIETL A+E Networks
FIDDLER (Forest Whitaker) plays a tune for Kunta Kinte (Malachi Kirby) in History’s “reimagining” of “Roots.”

MEL MELCON Los Angeles Times
“ROOTS” is “the story of a family through history,” Mark Wolper says.

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

Wow.... we get remake of a big fat lie! Haley was downright dishonest, and I think that Stanley Crouch says it better than anyone, Haley, Crouch insists, was a “ruthless hustler” and “one of the biggest damn liars this country has ever seen.” Crouch likens Haley to Tawana Brawley, the young black woman who infamously lied about being raped and humiliated by a white police officer. Like the lie concocted by Brawley and abetted by the likes of Al Sharpton, Haley’s story is also a “h**x” that beautifully illustrates “how history and tragic fact can be pillaged by an individual willing to exploit wh**ever the naïve might consider sacred.” And Haley was not the real author of Roots' the real author was Murray Fisher. And even he "borrowed" from Harry Courlander's book The African. And he sued Haley....

Progressive One

Almost four decades after its premiere, “Roots” still stands as an elite landmark in TV history. The saga of author Alex Haley tracing his ancestral roots to a young African boy kidnapped and sold into s***ery was a phenomenon when it aired on ABC in 1977, gripping a nation with its brutal but ultimately triumphant tale.

Hemiman Loc: Communist California

Yawn💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤 yawn💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤💤

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

Yes indeed, it was a well made mini series..... but NONE OF IT WAS REAL! Haley did not even write the book!

Hemiman Loc: Communist California

All someone has to mention is black and KHH1 bites right in.

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

Some things don't change. khh1 still posts the same things, never bother to check to see if wwhat he is posting is based on fact or not.... and then he still responds with profanity.

reconreb Loc: America / Inglis Fla.

Hey kuntakinta , D.2016 , Khh1 , jack2014 .. stick this in your Roots http://www.martinlutherking.org/roots.html

reconreb Loc: America / Inglis Fla.

You do know you are free to return to Africa don't you ..If you are a African American then return to your home land kunta , what is keeping you here when you can improve the lives of your brothers in africa with your vast education and knowladge ..

Progressive One

That is okay, maybe you should leave and go back to where everyone is a pale pasty color and very very nasty and h**eful. You can improve the lives of poor w****s in America but like most bigots, you people never express concern for what ails people that look like you. You are people of resentment and h**e and never display compassion-even towards other w****s....simply amazing that God would even create such a creature...makes you not believe in none of it once you take a look around.

Progressive One

Connecting threads
History’s ‘re-imagining’ of ‘Roots’ continues the storytelling tradition of the famous 1977 original
MARY McNAMARA TELEVISION CRITIC
With a splendid cast both well and little known, History’s new version of “Roots,” which premieres Monday night, is the very model of a modern major miniseries.
Billed as a “re-imagining,” it follows the same characters and timeline as the iconic ABC miniseries but has been reconfigured (four two-hour episodes, each filmed separately under a different director), multi-platformed (it will be shown simultaneously on History, A&E and Lifetime) and historically fine-tuned.
Though sleeker and more graphically brutal than its ancestor, “Roots” remains a celebration of resistance through survival.
More important, it reminds us precisely what all the fuss was about the first time around.
And that’s important; sometimes the success of a creative work can overwhelm its real significance.
The 1977 miniseries has come to stand for many things. A surprise hit that enthralled the nation, “Roots” defined the notion of a “television event,” with more than 100 million people watching the final episode.
Playing out over eight successive nights, it turned the miniseries, previously an occasional oddity, into a popular American art form.
Its success helped identify the historically overlooked black audience while disproving the notion that white viewers were interested only in stories about white people.
And though some complained about certain characters being softened, “Roots” also provided a stinging and long overdue antidote to the “Tara’s Theme” sentimentality that still hung over the early history of the American South.
All of which was and is important. Just not as important as the thing itself: a chronicle of American s***ery told by four generations of s***es.
That is most certainly a story worth retelling, especially now. Amid all the heated conversations about r****m, demographically specific anger and national identity, we need to be reminded of our actual history, which, on civilizations’ timeline, occurred the day before yesterday.
This “Roots” begins with some of its best “re-imagining ” — an extended look at Kunta Kinte’s (Malachi Kirby) life in West Africa as he trains to be a Mandinka warrior.
Though inter-tribal hostilities, enflamed by the s***e trade, threaten the area, Kunta’s father (Babs Olusanmokun) holds fiercely to Mandinka traditions of faith and family, which means he openly opposes those tribes that sell captives to white s***ers but also Kunta’s dream of life in the larger world.
Though Kunta rebels against his father, it is those values that sustain him after he is sold into s***ery, and that dream becomes a living nightmare.
Monday’s first episode follows his journey from Africa to a plantation in Virginia. Stirring moments of outright r*******n — captives singing plans to take the ship even as the s***ers force them to dance; Kunta, calling to the field s***es to help after he briefly frees himself — give way to a more seeth ing fury.
Kunta is put in the care of the seemingly “assimilated” s***e Fiddler (Forest Whi taker), who, because he can play violin, is treated slightly better than the field s***es.
But as Fiddler attempts to tame Kunta, Kunta reanimates Fiddler; the desire to pass on the essential nature of the Mandinka war rior fuels the series.
A lullaby becomes one of the threads connecting the generations to their original home, as does a naming ceremony and a necklace of beads.
But most important is the storytelling itself. Kunta tells stories of his homeland; his children and grandchildren tell stories of him (which makes the notion of a remake symbolically fitting).
As in the original, “Roots” follows Kunta’s lineage; in the second episode, we meet his daughter Kizzy (Anika Noni Rose), who also is brutally broken until she manages to rebuild herself. She in turn fights to keep the Mandinka spirit alive in her son, Chicken George (Regé Jean-Page); his son, Tom (Sedale Threatt Jr.) lives to see emancipation and to pass on the story of Kunta Kinte.
With television more graphic than ever, the grim realities of s***ery — from the crowding of the s***e ships to the horrors of rape and torture — are even more disturbing.
But for all its righteous refusal to sentimentalize s***ery for even one moment, “Roots” is not a polemic; it’s a very human drama, with deep belief in the ability of love, family and personal courage to transcend even the most brutal circumstance, even the most painful history. mary.mcnamara
@ latimes.com  

STEVE DIETL A+E
FIDDLER (Forest Whitaker, left) attempts to tame Kunta Kinte (Malachi Kirby), which in turn reanimates Fiddler in “Roots.”
‘Roots’
Where: A&E, History Channel, Lifetime
When: 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday
Rating: TV-14-LV (may be unsuitable for children under age 14, with advisories for coarse language and violence)

STEVE DIETL A+E Networks
MALACHI KIRBY plays Kunta Kinte to Emayatzy Corinealdi’s Belle in “Roots.”

Hemiman Loc: Communist California

I will be doing something else when this drivel is on again,I get plenty of the black situation daily on media of every kind and I am totally s**k of all the bull s**t.

Progressive One

Good for you-there will plenty of viewers and I doubt if you get a phone call asking you to please watch.

Hemiman Loc: Communist California

I think you may be surprised at the lack of viewers.

Progressive One

Not viewers like you, but check the ratings when it shows.