TV fans of a certain age fondly recall the glory days of the miniseries. Ah, good times.
I'm not talking about the measly two-parters that pass themselves off as miniseries these days. I mean the real, immersing TV events watched by half the nation that dominated the airwaves and enthralled millions of viewers.
These days, they would be considered limited series and be thrilled to pull in 10 million viewers.
Examples? Rich Man, Poor Man, based on the novel by Irwin Shaw, was broadcast by ABC in 12 one-hour episodes in 1976. It starred a young Peter Strauss and Nick Nolte.
Also in 1976, The BBC's I, Claudius amazed viewers of PBS' Masterpiece Theatre with its frequently sensationalist subject matter. The miniseries starred Derek Jacobi in the title role and featured (among many others) Patrick Stewart and John Rhys-Davies.
Shogun, starring Richard "Dr. Kildare" Chamberlain, captivated NBC viewers for 12 hours over five nights in 1980.
The Thorn Birds held 1983 viewers spellbound with the saga of a handsome priest's devotion to God and his love of a woman. Chamberlain portrayed Father Ralph, and Rachel Ward was Meggie Cleary.
There were later good ones (The Winds of War, Lonesome Dove, Angels in America) but none matched the impact of 1977's landmark Roots, the most popular miniseries ever.
For 12 hours over eight consecutive nights an estimated 140 million viewers tuned to ABC and saw all or part of Alex Haley's tale of young Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton) and his descendants. Kunta was captured in Africa and brought to America as a slave in the mid-18th century.
A Hollywood Who's Who was in the cast. John Amos portrayed Kunta Kinte as an adult. Louis Gossett Jr. won a Best Actor Emmy as Fiddler. Leslie Uggams played Kizzy and Ben Vereen played Chicken George.
Others included Ed Asner, Sandy Duncan, Lorne Greene, Chuck Connors and Robert Reed.
The series won nine Emmy Awards and changed television.
And now comes the Roots-esque miniseries The Book of Negroes, an ambitious undertaking from BET that will air on the cable channel at 7 p.m. Monday through Wednesday.
The six-hour miniseries (BET's first) is based on the best-selling 2007 novel of the same name by Canadian author Lawrence Hill. In the United States, the novel was published under the title Someone Knows My Name.
Canadian filmmaker Clement Virgo and Hill wrote the screenplay, with Virgo directing. The miniseries stars Aunjanue Ellis and Oscar winners Cuba Gooding Jr. and Gossett.
The miniseries, which traces its origins to the historical document Book of Negroes, tells the tale of the remarkable Aminata Diallo (Ellis) after her abduction as a 12-year-old from her West African village of Bayo in 1750. It follows her transportation to South Carolina, where she was enslaved and put to work on an indigo plantation.
Aminata wants nothing more than to secure her freedom and one day return home. Intelligent, beautiful, shrewd and a gifted linguist and midwife, Aminata "cuts a powerful swath through a world that is predisposed to underestimate her."
Aminata works her way through the American Revolution, ending up in New York. In Manhattan, Aminata helps pen The Book of Negroes, a 1783 list of some 3,000 slaves who worked for the British Army during the Revolution in order to qualify for freedom in Nova Scotia.
Aminata journeys to Canada and eventually returns to her still dangerous homeland. She ends up in England, where her life story helps bring about the end of the British slave trade.
At the recent TV critics winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif., Hill noted, "It's a really painful history, but this is about a woman's life and shows her persevering. At its core, it's showing the bravery of the human encounter."
"Ultimately Aminata was a survivor," Ellis added. "She was earnest and proud. She believed that what she was carrying out was surviving for her husband and her community."
Lyriq Bent co-stars as Aminata's husband Chekura. Gooding plays free black tavern owner Sam Fraunces, and Gossett is Daddy Moses, a blind, grizzled church leader in Nova Scotia who doubles as community organizer and father figure to Aminata.
• Now this. History Channel has announced it plans to remake Roots with Allen Hughes as director. Thanks to the popularity of such movies as Django Unchained and 12 Years a Slave, the History Channel feels the time is right for a new eight-hour remake of the miniseries.
History Channel has had dramatic success of late with Vikings, The Bible and the hit miniseries Hatfields & McCoys. It'll be interesting to see how a modern version of Roots compares with the 1977 original.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Style on 02/15/2015