TMP Television Edition: Book Adaptations

When I think book adaptations, I think movies. And this is Thursday Movie Picks, after all. However, since it's the last Thursday of the month, this is the television edition. I had to put my thinking cap on. A few minutes passed. A few more passed. Finally, I came up with something that would meet the criteria set by our host, Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves. Here it goes.

Roots

(1977)

Based on the historical novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley

You had to be there to really understand how big this mini-series was. Slavery was always a part of the fabric of America, but it's horrors had never been confronted this boldly by the entire nation. For decades, pop culture softened the blow by depicting those in bondage as content, even willing to serve their human masters because that is their purpose in life. Slaves were thought of like kind pets happy to do the bidding of those who owned them. In other words, by the 1970s, much of White America had no inkling how harshly and, frankly, evil their ancestors behaved. This put that behavior on display. Many people, Black and White had seen any parts of the lives led by Blacks before they were enslaved. When it aired, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who wasn't watching. All of its 8 episodes are still among the 100 most watched shows in American history with the finale being 3rd on that list. Let's put it this way. Almost every night during its run, part of my homework was to watch that evening's installment of Roots so we could talk about it the next day. And I was in 2nd grade. And many students all over the country had the same assignment.  

Roots: The Next Generation

(1979)

Based on the historical novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley

Two years after the landmark Roots aired, we got a sequel, based on the last 7 chapters of the same book. Where the first one focused on the 18th century through the Civil War, this one starts of during the Southern Reconstruction era, shortly after the war, and winds its way to the 1960s following the descendants of Kunta Kinte, the original protagonist of the first mini-series. Much like its predecessor, The Next Generation was a huge success, and once again got the nation talking about its treatment of African-Americans. Yup, this was also assigned for homework.

Alex Haley's Queen

(1993)

Based on the historical novel Queen: The Story of an American Family by Alex Haley and David Stevens

When Alex Haley passed away, he wasn't quite finished with his latest book. Knowing this to be a possibility, he left instructions for it to be completed by David Stevens who obliged. The resulting work was adapted into a three-part miniseries entitled Alex Haley's Queen. It was based on the life of Haley's grandmother and had Halle Berry in the lead role, a biracial woman living through the last year of slavery and into the 20th century. Though not the earth-shattering mega success of the two Roots films, it was still watched by quite a few people and offered insight into a part of Black (and White) life not often explored on screen.

By now, you've seen that Alex Haley authored all of the books that these adaptations are based on. What you may not know is that Mr. Haley is one the greatest writers of the 20th century. On top of the impact of Roots, he has two other things that cement him as an American legend. Of course, Playboy magazine will always be known for pictures of nude women. The running joke among men who perused it on a regular basis was that they read it for the articles. However, there is some truth to this, thanks to Haley. He conducted the mag's first interview, with jazz great Miles Davis. He conducted quite a few more which were heralded as some of this country's finest journalism. His subjects include Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King Jr., Melvin Belli (Jack Ruby's defense attorney), Johnny Carson, and George Lincoln Rockwell. If you don't know who Rockwell is, he was the leader of the American Nazi Party in the 1960s, and Haley is undeniably Black.

Another of Haley's Playboy interviewees, Malcolm X, is a huge part of Haley's greatest success. Haley is the ghost writer behind The Autobiography of Malcolm X. It was created from a series of separate interviews and has been a perpetual best seller for 50 years. More importantly, it is consistently cited as one of America's most important books. 

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