BET aired Roots today :)

[ChitHappens]

Watching this at 45 is so much different than watching as a teen. While a magnificent production, I can't remember the last time I cringed so much! Yes, there were many vile characters, but if I had to choose which character to bury alive, it would have been Missy Ann - one of the most vapid self absorbed demonic bitches I've ever seen on a show (Sandy Duncan was great). Even her uncle looked sick at the sight of her!

There were some good performers, great actors (LeVar Burton, Sandy Duncan, Robert Reed, Lawrence Hilton Jacobs, Louis Gossett JR, etc), and then the person who stole the show, Madge Sinclair! She gave some of the most powerful performances I'd ever seen. Absolutely broke my heart when Kizzy was sold, a performance for the golden vault!

Have to add this to my collection...

[SFK]

I noticed that it was on today. They were already up to part 3 (where I believe Kizzy is sold according to the Comcast synopsis). I have never sat down and watched Roots (half-black card revoked?) and I didn't want to start in the middle.

[ChitHappens]

It's an excellent production and the most watched mini-series in the history of television. You will not be disappointed!

[Eric83]

Love this and the first 2 parts of Roots: The Next Generation.

I remember my mother checking this out at the library and I was thinking "Mr. Brady is a slaveowner " LOL but this is very good and I do cringe and have to switch channels at certain parts. Kizzy being sold gets me every time. I remember Leslie Uggams saying after they shot that scene she was so shooken up.

Have you ever watched Queen, Chit?

[ChitHappens]

Queen? Refresh my memory...

[ReddFoxx]

I first watched in the 90s when I was very young, then as an adult a couple of years ago when TVOne aired it. I watched a few hours of it today and it's still gut wrenching to me.

Sandy Duncan said that she was not able to watch the entire series and still hasn't seen it all to this day, because it was just too intense.

[Eric83]

It was a 3 part mini series starring Halle Berry. Queen was Alex Haley's paternal grandmother. Her mother was half black/half native american and her father was the slave master. It tells her story, she tries passing for white for a little while and ends up being diagnosed as a schizophrenic later in life. It was really good, it first aired on CBS in the early 90's.

[quartermainefan]

I watched it when it aired and haven't watched it since but it was excellent. I think the character that I remember most other than Kunta Kinte was Chicken George. Roots II was not nearly as good. It's too bad TV doesn't have the capability of making shows half the country watches together. I guess too many channels killed the mini series or something.

[DRW50]

I was reading some comment where someone said the villainous white women in The Help were probably based on Missy Anne.

So the final scenes between Kizzy and Missy Anne, when they were older, were written just for the TV version?

Donald Bogle wrote about Roots and among other things mentioned how he felt Leslie Uggamms was just the safe, smiling TV singer until this and how much he enjoyed her work here.

[NothinButAttitude]

Glad to hear others watched it too. IDK why I watched it though when I own the entire series. But doing some research, I didn't know that Alex Haley supposedly plagiarized portions of Roots. I've wondered if that's why he isn't featured in my college Af. American lit classes. Regardless, I still think his powerful text and miniseries impacted the world, and opened the eyes of other races about our struggles here in America.

[Cheap21]

I loved Queen! I remember watching it when I was younger and one memory that always ticks out to me was when the guy cheated on her, my mother said to me "the men always cheat with ugly women.'' Of course she was speaking from experience bc my father cheated on her and yes my mother did look better than that beast

[Eric83]

LOL my fave part of it was when she was passing for white and ended up falling for a white man and she told him who her father was and he sent him a telegram asking for her hand in marraige. She starts freaking out. He comes over one night and he says that having sex will be okay since they are to be married, in the midst of that he realizes she's black and raped her. Like I was scared to look at the scenes all the way through I didn't know what was going to happen. Civil War era is so interesting to me so I love looking at stuff set in and around that time period.

Do you remember the lady that played Queen's friend when she was passing? She played in Jungle Fever too. I always thought she was more believable as a black woman passing than Halle Berry, but they prob went with Halle bc she was younger.

[Eric83]

Nevermind I found her. Lonette McKee

[DRW50]

McKee was the lead in Sparkle (the first one). She was also on ATWT briefly in the late 90s.

[quartermainefan]

Lonette McKee is also a really good singer.