Page 4 - 2016TVTimes.May29

4 May 29 - June 4, 2016
El Dorado News-Times
cover story
Back to their ‘Roots’
History remakes the massively popular 1977 miniseries
A/Lifetouch Hospice B/Timberlane Meat Market 2 x5
If you are dealing with a serious
If you are dealing with a serious illness, call us, we can help!
illness, call us, we can help!
4013
1-866-378-0388
1-800-378-0388
By Jacqueline Spendlove
TV Media
In a seemingly never-ending sea of
TV and movie remakes, the original “Roots” is one series that set the bar particularly high. Undaunted, however, History is taking a crack at a reboot, and it’s off to a good start with an all-star cast.
Based on author Alex Haley’s 1976 novel,“Roots:TheSagaofanAmerican Family,” the original miniseries debuted in 1977 to explosive ratings and rave reviews.The show launched the career of then-unknown actor LeVar Burton (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”)
and was lauded for opening a dialog between black and white Americans on previously tabooed subject matter. The highly anticipated “Roots” remake premieres Monday, May 30, on History, A&E and Lifetime.
Baby-boomer fans who followed the original miniseries may decry an attempt to remake the wheel, but ar- guably there’s no reason the material should stay in the past. Haley’s book chronicles the life of Kunta Kinte — a young man snatched from The Gambia during the 18th century and sold into slavery in the United States — down through the lives of his descendants, to Haley himself.
Stepping into the role that a young, fresh-faced Burton brought to life 40
years ago is Malachi Kirby (“East- Enders”), the remake’s Kunta Kinte.
The series follows Kunta from his youth in West Africa, where he’s accosted by slave traders and tossed aboard a ship, to endure the grueling three-month journey to Colonial America. Upon his arrival, he’s sold to a plantation owner who changes his name to Toby, and from there we witness Kunta’s persistent struggle for freedom and to preserve his Mandinka heritage and name.
The first in his line to arrive in Amer- ica, it’s around Kunta Kinte that the story forms, but it doesn’t end with him. He eventually marries Belle (Emayatzy Corinealdi, “The Invitation,” 2015), a fellow slave, and they have a daughter, Kizzy (Anika Noni Rose, “The Good Wife”). Kizzy, in turn, is raped by the man to whom she’s later sold and has
a son, George (Regé-Jean Page, “Survi- vor,” 2015). George fathers eight chil- dren, and so on, with the story following each generation’s individual struggles through to the American Revolution and the Civil War, the dawn of the Ku Klux Klan, the slave uprisings and eventual emancipation.
The rest of the cast boasts some big names, including Forest Whitaker (“The Last King of Scotland,” 2006) as Fiddler, an older slave who takes the newly ar- rived Kunta under his wing and teaches him English; Jonathan Rhys Meyers (“The Tudors”) as the farmer who buys Kizzy and fathers George; and Anna Paquin (“True Blood”) as the fiancée of a vicious Confederate soldier, who has her own agenda in regards to the han- dling of slaves. Hollywood heavyweight Laurence Fishburne (“The Matrix,” 1999) plays Haley himself.
Haley’s book became a cultural sen- sation in the United
States, spending
46 weeks on The
New York Times Best Seller List, with almost half that time spent in the top spot. It won both
a Pulitzer Prize
and the National Book Award, sold more than a million copies in the first year,
and is considered by many to be one of the most important works of the 20th century.
The original miniseries, which first aired on ABC in 1977, raked in a whop- ping 37 Emmy nominations, winning nine, as well as a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. Roughly 130 million viewers tuned in to the miniseries, with nearly 85 percent of all TV households seeing some or all of it, and the last episode was the second-most-watched series finale in U.S. television history.
Big shoes to fill? I’d say so. But the minds behind the remake have every confidence in the new version and the decision to bring the story to a new gen- eration of viewers.
“It was time — almost 40 years had passed,” Burton, an executive producer on the remake, told the Associated Press. “It made sense. If we want to keep these stories alive in the cultural consciousness, we have to reinvent them and retell them.”
Though there’s been some plagiarism controversy surrounding Haley’s work, with the author acknowledging that most of the book’s dialog and incidents are fictional, he did maintain that the framework for the story is built around real people and history. His dogged re- search into his bloodline included a visit to the Gambian town of Juffure, where Kinte was born, and, combined with oral history passed down by his grand- mother, led him to learn that he was the great-great-great-great grandson of Kunta Kinte.
Regardless of the accuracy of details, the work is considered a highly impor- tant depiction of slavery in America and the impact it had on those who lived through it, and the story is every bit as vital today.
“It expanded the consciousness of people,” Burton told the Sun Sentinel back in 1987, a decade after the
show’s run.“Blacks and whites began to see each other as
human beings, not as ste- reotypes.And if you throw a pebble into the pond, you’re
going to get ripples. ... ‘Roots’ is part of a changing trend, and it’s
still being played out.”
His words still hold true.The
eight-hour, four-night revival of “Roots” premieres Monday, May 30, on History, A&E and Lifetime.
Regé-Jean Page as seen in “Roots”
Get Your Car or Truck Ready For Warmer Weather!
1825
A/Vanhook Tire B/Medic Pharmacy 2 x2
2880 N.W. Ave • El Dorado • (870) 863-8156
• Oil Change • Fluid Check • Tires
• Lift Kits
Laparoscopy
Su
ity
Colposcopy Mammography
Laparoscopy Assisted Vaginal Hysterectomies
D&C’s
708 W. Grove 870-863-8444
When you need the best.
Cervical Cancer Screening
Incontinence
Endometrial Ablations Birth Control Needs
Sterilization by Laparoscopy
rg
ery
fo
s
r
Str
a
s
o
l
ess
Urin
ar
y
Cryosurgery
A/South Ar
en’s
C
n
c
k
a
n
W
m
B
i
i
on
e
D
en
s
B/Audibel Hearing Services
Hysteroscopy
2 x3
Abdominal Hysterectomies
Normal & High Risk Obstetrics
Menopausal Disorder
2
26
63
3
3
3
3
1151