Roots was the most-watched miniseries in the US when it aired in 1977. Can the remake match it? Jennifer Keishin Armstrong takes a look.
When ABC network executives decided to air a miniseries based on Alex Haley's novel Roots in 1977, they took every possible precaution to cut their losses.
Even though black characters were more prominent than ever on primetime US television - Good Times and The Jeffersons were hits - the network's entertainment president, Fred Silverman, was nervous about airing a drama about an African family as it endures American enslavement and eventually achieves freedom.
To hedge their bets, Silverman and his executives filled the cast with familiar names such as John Amos (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Good Times), poet Maya Angelou, football star OJ Simpson, and Robert Reed (The Brady Bunch). They added a character, a morally conflicted white slave ship captain played by Edward Asner - his conscience was meant to make white audiences feel better about their ancestors' role in slavery.
The white actors featured prominently in promotional spots, and the series was set to run for eight consecutive nights, essentially to get it over with quickly.
At least if it bombed, the failure would be over in little more than a week.
When it first went out on 23 January 1977, something entirely different happened: an incredible 29 million households tuned in.
The audience grew as the week progressed.
The eight-night run culminated in a finale that drew an audience of 36 million households, or about 100 million people.
It was, at the time, the most-watched single episode of US television in history (a record broken by the M*A*S*H finale in 1983).
It became a worldwide sensation, the first TV miniseries to do so.
Many who watched took the series' lessons to heart and were inspired to investigate their own family histories.
Television audiences for individual series have shrunk dramatically since then, with the fragmentation caused by cable and streaming options.
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