10TH ANNIVERSARY OF MINISERIES : REUNION CELEBRATES THE EPIC ‘ROOTS’

Kunta Kinte was there. Chicken George was there. So was Fiddler . . . and the blacksmith Tom, and Bell, and Missy, and the Squire.

There were handshakes and hugs, memories and recollections, and an outpouring of pride and camaraderie befitting a special occasion: the 10th anniversary of the epic ABC miniseries, “Roots.”

“Ten years ago tonight--Jan. 23, 1977,” executive producer David L. Wolper told the gathering, “we shared a moment in TV history.” So, he had called his players back together “to reminisce, remember and renew old friendships.”

The setting for this “Roots” family reunion Friday night was the Crystal Room of the Beverly Hills Hotel, a long, long way from the front porch in Henning, Tenn. (pop. 540), where as a boy, author Alex Haley heard the family stories that he would eventually set down in “Roots.”

Haley’s book has sold 7 million copies and has been translated into 31 languages. And the eight television episodes of “Roots,” which were broadcast on consecutive nights in an unusual scheduling move a decade ago, still hold audience viewing records.

But Wolper recalled that while many critics lauded “Roots” as impressive, monumental, landmark television 10 years ago, some wondered, “Why do we have to bring back those (slavery) days?” and called it “a pinko plot.” The Ku Klux Klan, he said, charged that “Roots” was a vicious malignment of whites and wanted equal time to present its own eight-part story.

Lou Rudolph, who as ABC’s vice president for movies and miniseries at the time was involved in bringing Haley, Wolper and ABC together, remembered that as the air date for “Roots” neared, ABC executives became jittery.

“We were about to ask America to watch 12 hours about a black family,” Rudolph said. “Fred Silverman (then head of ABC) felt that it could be catastrophic, but since ABC was saddled with the project, we should just schedule it in one week and take our losses.”

Instead, “Roots,” from its first night on, piled up records as viewers across the country got caught up in this story of the black African Kunta Kinte and his progeny. The final episode drew 71% of the audience (an estimated 100 million viewers) to become the most-watched dramatic program ever.

Haley, in informal remarks that had his audience spellbound and brought him a standing ovation, said modestly, “Any time you see a turtle on top of a fence post, you know he had some help.”

Saying he viewed himself as a “conduit, a spectator, a listener,” he recalled the summer evenings when as a boy he would listen to his grandmother and aunts--”these seven girls, now all gray-haired women”--as they sat in their rocking chairs on the porch “and talked about Tom, the slave blacksmith, the scandalous Chicken George, Miss Kizzy who was the daughter of the African. Always, they talked about the African.

“It was the oldest rite of its kind in all of human culture,” Haley said. “It’s not that far back that there was no writing, and memories were passed along from the mouths of the elders to the young.

“By 11, I had grown up with and become enthralled with these family stories. Later, by accident, I became a writer.” And some years later, he happened into the National Archives and found records of his family dated 1870. “That was my first bite of the genealogical bug, for which there is no cure,” he said. “Roots” was the ultimate result.

Haley had high praise for Wolper “for having the guts to do ‘Roots’ ” and for producer Stan Margulies, whom he called superb.

“ Sic transit gloria mundi ,” Margulies noted, “but our gloria mundi was not transitory. We were lucky enough to be part of a truth that needed to be spoken to all people.”

In addition to the reflections of the author and the producers, various cast members came to the microphone after dinner to add a few words or entertain. Madge Sinclair (who was Bell) slipped on eyeglasses--and asked: “Does that prove I’m 10 years older?”--before reading an excerpt from “Roots.”

Ben Vereen (Chicken George) said, “I wouldn’t miss this reunion for gold . . . ‘Roots’ enlightened people for generations to come.”

Louis Gossett Jr. (who won an Emmy as Fiddler) emceed the party, and noted that he went from an Emmy to an Oscar (for “An Officer and a Gentleman”), “but without ‘Roots,’ there would be no Oscar,” he said.

Neither ABC nor Wolper nor Warner Bros., which hosted Friday’s reunion with Wolper, could say when or if “Roots” would be shown again. But all agreed that it should.

Others from the “Roots” family who attended the anniversary reunion included John Amos, Georg Stanford Brown, LeVar Burton, Macdonald Carey, Olivia Cole, Chuck Connors, Ji-Tu Cumbuka, Brad Davis, Sandy Duncan, Dorian Harewood, Doug McClure, Ian McShane, Robert Reed and Beverly Todd.