Roots: The Next Generations

i am watching this now on cable TV ONE station which over here is channel 173. amazing film/movie and i plan to order it on DVD as i seen the commercial it is FINALLY BEING RELEASED,in October 07 on DVD. i want it and i love it so much but love even MORE THE ORIGINAL ROOTS. just love it so much can watch it as i do almost each and every year soon to own i my mid 30's the whole collection. no wonder why roots won so many awards and multiple additional nominations..

EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH THIS,SHAME ON THE BLACKS LATINOS AND OTHER MINORITIES WHO HASN'T WATCHED,and EVERYONE who believe in STRENGTH, SURVIVING what your thinking,at the time is just too impossible to "survive"and achieve.

GOD BLESS YOU ALEX HALEY for this incredible multi-part saga,encompassing QUEEN with HALLE BERRY talented lovely self and others.

Bless,all of our ancestors,who came before all of us,may you RIP..

Never tired of watching the beautiful talented IRENE CARA,and the handsome beautiful,fine actor,he is of our time under-rated IMO)(in my opinion)Dorian Harewood.Going to watch with an amigo today again.

adios

Without a doubt, this family saga eclipses John Galsworthy's 'The Forsythe Saga' as well as 'The Thorn Birds' and 'North and South'. All of them are dwarfed by Alex Haley's work. This offering features the last three generations after the American Civil War leading up to Alex Haley in the 20th century. He is the benchmark for 'Black Writing', family sagas and period dramas. Even the period dramas that Sidney Poitier and Hattie McDaniels appeared pales into insignificance compared with this work. More than that, this piece of entertainment delivers high quality acting, good dialogue, solid characters and engaging story lines. I had to watch this again and again to absorb it because it was so good.

As great as the original ROOTS was, this sequel was even better. Boasting more top-line established movie greats than the original, such as Marlon Brando (who received an Emmy), Henry Fonda and Olivia De Havilland, it was just better made. Of course the power this continuing saga had was based on the original's greatness, so without the original this could not stand. But the lives of Kunta Kinte's descendants depicted here, from where the original left off around 1870, to the adult Alex Haley (masterfully played by James Earl Jones)working on his incredible genealogical novel, was spellbinding and immensely touching throughout every chapter.

Carrying over from the original, Georg Stanford Brown as Chicken George's son, Tom Harvey, Brown sets the tone for this sequel with his thoughtful performance as a man dealing with freedom for the first time in his life, and how it affected his daughters, one of whom would become the grandmother of Alex Haley. Irene Cara and Dorian Harewood would add to the roster of stellar acting as Alex's parents, and extremely notable too were efforts by Beah Richards, Bernie Casey, Andy Griffith, Howard E. Rollins, Richard Thomas, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Damon Evans (as a young adult Alex Haley), and many others. A thoroughly rich and rewarding experience made even more spectacular because of its important subject matter.

Sorry, but i can't accept the user rating for ROOTS: THE NEXT GENERATIONS. 5.6/10!!!!. Is that all!!!. This is a brilliant series in it's own right not to mention being the perfect continuation of Alex Haley's classic saga, 'Roots'.

I suppose the best part of NEXT GENERATIONS is the final part, the one we've all been waiting for. Alex Haley 'finding' Kunta Kinte in the African village of Juffaree where he was born all those years ago. James Earl Jones was an excellent choice to play Alex Haley. If you've seen ROOTS then you must see NEXT GENERATIONS without fail. It's just as good and just as touching.

Does anyone ever sit down to watch Part One of Roots without the other? I didn't even know it was separated into two parts until looking up the information online. As is the case with nearly every miniseries saga, the modern era is far less interesting than the historical ancestors. However, The Next Generations spends the vast majority of its episodes still as a period piece, from the 1880s through WWII. So, while Levar Burton is no longer in it, we still get to completely immerse ourselves in sympathetic and determined characters played by Dorian Harewood, Ruby Dee, Debbi Morgan, Marc Singer, Georg Stanford Brown, Avon Long, Irene Cara, and at long last James Earl Jones.

As was the case in the original, tons of Hollywood stars flocked to the small screen to be a part of the life-changing miniseries, and in Part Two, you'll see Olivia de Havilland, Henry Fonda, Marlon Brando, Harry Morgan, Beah Richards, Claudia McNeil, Brock Peters, Paul Winfield, Ossie Davis, Diahann Carroll, Dina Merrill, Richard Thomas, Debbie Allen, Andy Griffith, Paul Koslo, Pam Grier, James Broderick, and Michael Constantine all show up through the seven episodes, adding interesting faces and unique acting styles to an already fascinating story. On a completely unrelated note, I got a kick out of seeing Howard Rollins and Brian Stokes Mitchell both included (though in different episodes) since they both ended up playing Coalhouse Walker Jr. In Ragtime; Rollins starred in the film, and Mitchell was onstage in the musical (one of my favorites).