For eight consecutive nights in January 1977, a record-breaking 140 million Americans watched the captivating miniseries Roots. The epic program followed several generations of the of lives of a family of slaves.
To celebrate its 40th anniversary, Roots: The Complete Original Series is available for the very first time in Digital HD and will be on Blu-ray June 7. The new release also contains several bonus featurettes like Roots: The American Story Continues where Whoopi Goldberg, James Earl Jones, Blair Underwood and others talk about the impact the series had on them. There’s also an interview with Alex Haley by David Frost. In another featurette, original cast members reflect about the groundbreaking production which was nominated for 37 Emmys (with nine wins) and honored with a Peabody Award.
Louis Gossett Jr., the Oscar-winning actor who also won an Emmy for playing Fiddler talked to Parade about what it meant to be in Roots.
What went though your mind when you first learned about the series?
When I heard they were dong Roots, it was incomprehensible at that time. Finally they were going to do a story about our roots. We had seen everybody else’s. Many people didn’t know our story—including myself.
What did you think of Fiddler?
I was insulted when they decided to give me the part of Fiddler. He resembled Stepin Fetchit, the Uncle Tom part. But I said, “OK, I will take it. I’ll do something.” Then doing the research I realized there’s no such thing as an Uncle Tom. If it wasn’t for Fiddler, we wouldn’t be in America. He was a survivor. He understood both cultures and knew how to maneuver to stay alive and be solvent. We needed that lesson in order to survive here today. Having done Fiddler is a stripe on my uniform now.
I have wanted to make the Stepin Fetchit story and call it Absolution. Stepin Fetchit had this onus. [The first black actor to become a millionaire, Fetchit played a character in 1930s films called “the laziest man in the world.” Many felt he perpetuated a negative stereotype of African-Americans.] But the reality of Stepin Fetchit is that he lived next door to Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford. If you know Los Angles, he had all this land between Adams and Crenshaw all the way down to the L.A. Arena. He had nine servants and Rolls-Royces. He tried to teach his son that you could make it. At home he had two phones. One red, the other black. With the red phone, he played Stepin Fetchit. He would pick up that phone and say, “ya,’ sir.” When he answered the black phone he said “hello. That was survival. It was also Fiddlers’ message.
Did you ever have a sense that Roots was going to be so successful?
Absolutely not. I didn’t know it was going to be a phenomenon until it came out. It was a pleasant surprise. I also thought now that the story has been told, we may not work ever again. We were kind of troublemakers. But the series had the opposite global reaction. The numbers were outstanding. Better than ABC expected. Better than I expected.
What would you like people to know about this history?
We must know about our roots, our roots before slavery. African-American children don’t know about how deep our history is. It did not start with slavery. There’s a history that comes way before that. We need to know those lessons. The principal word now is forgiveness. We must work together to save the planet. That’s why we are here. We need to drop all agendas in order to do that.
Was there a moment during filming that really sticks out for you?
My best friend at the time was the late actor Vic Morrow. We hung out a lot. Before that Kunta Kinte whipping scene he said, “Louie,” which he called me, “Louie, I have to apologize.” I said, “What for?” Then he explained, “I’ve got to do this to my best ability.” And I said, “Oh, I got you.” He was so good that I hated him.
I had just met LeVar Burton [who played Kunta Kinte] and was acting beautifully. After the whipping when they cut him down the last line of the script was,“What you care what that white man call you, Toby? Kunta Kinte. That’s your name. That’s who you’ve always been.” That was the end of the script. But I looked at Vic and I looked at LeVar and said, “There’s going to be another day.” I said, “You hear me, there’s going to be another day.” That came out of me. I don’t know where it came from. I had to say it. Then they said, “Cut. Print.”
Did you ever think there would be an African-American president in your lifetime?
Never. I used to emcee the Congressional Black Caucus. Barack Obama introduced himself to me there saying, “my name is Barack Obama.” I said, “I know you because I saw your speech in Chicago.” He said, “I am running for president.” And I said, “congratulations.” But in my mind I said, fat chance.
When he was sworn in as president I was with Cicely Tyson. We looked up and it was about a 45-degree angle to watch him, Michelle and the Supreme Court judge. His hand was on the Bible. It was now official. Cicely collapsed in my arms and went down to the ground and I went with her. Have you ever seen a film when you are fast forwarding it? It was like fast forwarding all the atrocities, all the negatives in history. It all ended in tears, hugging and laughing. We hugged everyone we saw.
Learn more about Louis Gossett Jr.’s organization that he founded, www.eracismfoundation.org.
