Word: haleys
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...also galvanized the country. Suddenly both the history of slavery and genealogy were national obsessions. Theaters and restaurants emptied out during the show; hundreds of colleges started Roots courses; the National Archives in Washington found itself flooded by citizens' requests for information about their ancestors. Writer Alex Haley, whose search for his African heritage had led to the book that led to Roots, became a folk hero. A TV smash hit became a cultural landmark...
...that matter, definitive history, but it is a show-biz tour de force. An exceedingly clever and affecting soap opera, Roots II manages to play on the most basic sentimental feelings about democratic ideals and familial love. When, in the final hours, the tale turns to Alex Haley's career, it also becomes an irresistible American success story. Taken as a whole, Roots 11 is a compendium of pop cul ture: it mixes elements of Gone With the Wind, Uncle Tom 's Cabin, March of Time newsreels, Horatio Alger sto ries and even Fiddler on the Roof...
...show has its lapses, but they are amusing rather than offensive. When Episode Six inexplicably dramatizes the young Haley's first visit to a brothel, it is time to take a break and send out for pizza. This too is a legitimate part of the fun of any fully satisfying TV viewing experience...
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...
...When Haley (James Earl Jones) interviews him for Playboy, Brando devilishly sprays his office with disinfectant and sings racist jingles...