TV Series · 1979

Roots: The Next Generations

96 min · Drama · Ended

Composite

7.6

IMDb

7.8 / 10

3,045 votes

TMDB

7.5 / 10

36 votes

Local

— / 10

No votes

Synopsis

Roots: The Next Generations is a television miniseries, introduced in 1979, continuing, from 1882 to the 1960s, the fictionalized story of the family of Alex Haley and their life in Henning, Lauderdale County, Tennessee, USA. This sequel to the 1977 miniseries is based on the last seven chapters of Haley's novel entitled Roots: The Saga of an American Family plus additional material by Haley. Roots: The Next Generations was produced with a budget of $16.6 million, nearly three times as large as that of the original.

Streaming availability

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Crew

Art

Robert MacKichan Art Direction

Camera

Joseph M. Wilcots Director of Photography

Costume & Make-Up

Thomas S. Dawson Costume Design

Crew

George Taylor Post Production Supervisor

Production

David L. Wolper Executive Producer
Stan Margulies Producer

Sound

Gerald Fried Original Music Composer

Writing

Alex Haley Writer
Ernest Kinoy Teleplay

Seasons & episodes

Miniseries (1 ep)

7. Part 7

Feb 25, 1979 · 60 min

In the exciting conclusion, it is now 1960 in Henning, Tennessee, 10 years after Alex's wife Nan left him, and Alex attends the funeral for his great Aunt Elizabeth. He has finally succeeded in a writing career by publishing free-lance articles including interviews with Minister Malcolm X of the Nation of Islam and George Lincoln Rockwell, head of the American Nazi Party. Alex lands a contract to ghost-write the autobiography of Malcolm X, although Malcolm is assassinated before the book is published. Alex then realizes that he should write a book about his own family and he obsessively researches his origins, alienating his new girlfriend in the process. After identifying the language of the words passed down to him, he manages to get an advance that will allow him to travel to Gambia, West Africa. Once there, he is taken by boat to the Griot for the Kinte clan. After the Griot retells centuries of history, Alex finally hears the name of Kunta Kinte and the story of the drum that lead to his capture into slavery, marking the end of his search for his family's roots.