Tracing "Roots...
We were riveted to our TV sets for 8 consecutive nights back in 1977 starting on this night, January 23rd by an ABC-TV mini-series that would average a phenomenal 44.9 rating and 66% audience share. "Roots" remains one of television's landmark programs, not only for its overwhelming numbers but for it's programming content as well...
Executive Producer David Wolper used a blend of both fiction and fact in tracing the roots of slavery based on Alex Haley's best selling novel, "Roots" in which Haley followed several generations of his African ancestors starting with Kunta Kinte played by LeVar Burton. Each episode was a compelling portrayal of the story, chapter by chapter, through the generations and contained one of the best casts ever assembled. In addition to Burton there was John Amos, Cicely Tyson, Edward Asner, Louis Gosett, Jr., Lorne Greene, Vic Morrow, Robert Reed, Chuck Connors, Sandy Duncan, Leslie Uggams, Lloyd Bridges and my favorite character, Chicken George played by Ben Vereen...
ABC programming chief Fred Silverman was looking for a way to cut his network's rating and revenue losses and gambled that "Roots" would be the vehicle that would do it and did it, it did, indeed. 80 million viewers watched each of the last seven episodes on average and 100 million, almost half of the country saw the final episode which still claims one of the highest Nielsen ratings ever recorded, a 51.1 with a 71 share, a stunning 85% of all television homes saw all or part of the mini-series...More "Roots" stats in my commentary...
More January 23 Memories...
1789) Georgetown University is established in Washington, D.C...
1929) Jacob Rupert, co-owner of the New York Yankees announces that in the coming season the team will wear uniform numbers to help identify the players (the team starts using numbers based on the batting order, Ruth #3, Gehrig #4, etc...
1962) Bob Feller and Jackie Robinson are elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame...
1968) John Fred and his Playboy Band are #1 with "Judy in Disguise (with Glasses)"...
1968) North Korea seizes the U.S. Navy ship Pueblo holding the crew for 11 months on suspicion of spying...
1971) UCLA loses to Notre Dame (UCLA then wins their next 88 games in a row and that streak will be broken by ? You guessed it, Notre Dame)...
1973) President Richard Milhous Nixon announces an accord ending the Vietnam War...
1975) Ralph Kiner is elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame...
1975) "Barney Miller" debuts on ABC-TV (the series will run 7 years, ending September 9, 1982)...
1977) "Roots" debuts as a mini-series on ABC-TV (feature story)...
1978) Chicago's Terry Kath dies after accidentally shooting himself in the head with a pistol he didn't know was loaded. Kath was just 32...
1979) Willie Mays is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on the 1st ballot...
1983) The Jets 14-year wait for an AFC championship ends dismally (sound familiar ?) when QB Richard Todd is intercepted 5 times in a 14-0 loss to Miami (Miami advances to the Super Bowl but loses to the Redskins)...
1985) O.J. Simpson becomes the 1st Heisman Trophy winner to be elected to Pro Football's Hall of Fame...
1986) The 1st annual induction ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is held in New York City (Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley are inducted)...
1988) "The Way You Make Me Feel" by Michael Jackson is #1 (The song is the 3rd consecutive #1 hit from "Bad"...
1989) Surrealist painter Salvador Dali dies in his native Spain at 84...
1997) Richard Berry, R&B pioneer who wrote "Louie Louie" dies at the age of 61...
1998) President Bill Clinton assures his cabinet that he was innocent of charges that he had had an affair "with that woman, Miss Lewinsky", a White House intern (Mr. President, your uh-nose is gonna grow)...
2002) EMI gives Mariah Carey a $28 million kiss goodbye to end their association which was supposed to last for several albums estimated at $100 million (somehow Mariah struggles by)...
2005) The Patriots win the AFC championship with a convincing 41-27 victory over Pittsburgh and are headed for Super Bowl XXXIX to face Philadelphia (and we know what happens there, don't we ?)...
(To ensure accuracy, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline...)
Happy Birthday To...
1933) Chita Rivera...
1948) Anita Pointer (Pointer Sisters)...
1953) Cheap Trick's Robin Zander...
1957) Monaco's Princess Caroline...
1958) Anita Baker...
1964) Mariska Hargitay...
Commentary...
More "Roots" info:
- The final night held the single episode ratings record until 1983 when the finale of M*A*S*H aired on CBS-TV...
- Roots almost single-handedly spawned a new television format, the consecutive mini-series (previously the 1976 series Rich Man, Poor Man ran in weekly installments...
- There was a sequel to Roots, called Roots: The Next Generations that performed extremely well with a total audience of 110 million...
Today is the 23rd day of 2006 with 342 days remaining in the year but 56 days until Spring and better yet only 24 days until pitchers and catchers...
