Word: alex
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Roots 11 begins in 1882, twelve years after the close of Roots I, and ends in 1967, the year Alex Haley went to Africa to search for traces of his ancestor Kunta Kinte. In the hours be tween, the show charts the lives of four generations of the author's family. The first segment ends with the death of Kun ta Kinte's grandson, Chicken George (Avon Long); by the final episode the viewer has briefly seen Haley's own chil dren. As before, public events are dramatized in terms of their effect on one black family...
...mammoth undertaking. "Each show is like a period movie made in 18 days," explains John Erman, who directed three episodes. The sets are lavish and the money was intelligently spent. Interiors have accurate period furnishings and products. Such minor locations as a 1930s gas station, where young Alex is barred from the men's room, are as full of vivid details as the Dust Bowl sets in Bonnie and Clyde. At a cost of $1.8 million, ABC built the town of Henning, Tenn., where Haley's family settled at the end of Roots 1, and updated its streets...
...Roots 11 we're concerned with the hangover of slavery, the scars. There's less hitting the audience over the head. It's no longer 'Wow, look what we did to those people!' Now the show is about connecting with the emotional problems of Alex Haley's family...
...watch he show by loading the cast with TV stars," says Stoddard. "This time we put a greater emphasis on performance." Once the actors arrived on the set, they worked hard and fast. Harewood, 28, an actor of enormous range who ages 50 years in the lengthy role of Alex's father, had to get by on three hours' sleep to keep up with memorizing his lines. Says he: "That constant struggle alone made me look 20 years older...
...finally went to Africa has already passed into American legend, but the reenactment of the scene at the end of Roots 11 still has strong impact. When a tribal oral historian, a griot, confirms the Haley family account of Kinte's capture by white 18th century slave traders, Alex's joy is overwhelming. "You old African! I found you! I found you! I found you! I found you!" shouts out James Earl Jones, his voice bursting with sobs. The TV audience may well sob along with him. Now as before, Roots occupies a special place in the history...