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>> 29 1 Roots and the Perils of African American Television Drama in a Global World Prior to the runaway worldwide popularity of the 1977 miniseries Roots, few television series featuring African Americans circulated internationally, and none had sufficient success in foreign sales to catch the eyes of program merchants . Amos ’n’ Andy (1951–1953) appeared in the United Kingdom, Australia , Guam, and Nigeria in the 1950s and 1960s, and a smattering of African American situation comedies of the 1970s sold sporadically, including Good Times (1974–1979) and Sanford and Son (1972–1977), but none of these series did much to change the dominant perception at the time that few African American television series could appeal to white American viewers, much less viewers abroad. Roots likewise faced a good deal of resistance among industry insiders, and its global popularity not only defied conventional wisdom at the time, but also paved the way for a slew of miniseries on the world markets. In fact, the success of Roots abroad helped solidify a business model for funding miniseries production that relied heavily on international sales. However, prevalent industry lore at the time tended to deflect attention from the distinctly African American elements of Roots in explaining the miniseries’ success abroad, focusing instead on historical themes and supposedly universal family themes. Consequently, the majority of miniseries that followed in Roots’ wake told stories about white American and European history. Roots grew out of a moment of racial ferment in the United States. The early 1970s had witnessed the growing economic, political, and cultural clout of diverse African American groups, including black nationalists, black separatists , and the Black Power movement. Roots picked up on and recirculated a range of African American discourses, chief among them the extreme psychological , cultural, and communal ruptures that slavery caused; the importance of reconnecting with the past and with Africa; and the historical and contemporary culpability of whites and white power structures. At the same time, the miniseries retained more conservative discourses of racial integration , the American melting pot, and the availability of the American Dream; simply the alteration in the subtitle between Alex Haley’s book and David Wolper’s television series—from Roots: The Saga of an American Family to 30 > 31 at the time, when 71 percent of the viewing public tuned in to watch the final episode, or about thirty-six million viewers (Warner Brothers, n.d., a). ABC had sold advertising slots based on an expected 35 percent audience share, so the miniseries obviously did exceed the network’s expectations by a large margin (Quinlan, 1979). Still, Silverman had doubled both the length and the budget of the miniseries when he arrived at ABC in 1975, suggesting that he might have had more confidence in the series’ performance than is popularly assumed (Wolper, 2003). Regardless of the precise facts, however, it seems clear that both trepidation and high hopes circulated around the Roots project from the beginning. Its budget surpassed that of even the most expensive television genre of the time, the movie of the week, topping $500,000 per hour versus an average $425,000 per hour for television movies (Russell, 1975). Nevertheless, the producer David L. Wolper went more than $1 million in debt to help finance the project, a debt that surely contributed to his decision to sell his production company to Warner Brothers in early 1976 for $1.5 million (Wolper, 2003). Always the astute businessman, however, Wolper retained his domestic and international syndication rights for Roots in the deal, demonstrating his confidence in the profitability of the program. The uncertainty about whether Roots would become the hit television program that its producer was sure it would infiltrated the international markets as well, where Wolper turned, rather unsuccessfully, to help finance his increasingly ambitious and expensive undertaking. Wolper pursued both direct sales to foreign buyers and arrangements with well-known international syndicators in his efforts to garner sales revenues up front. Channel 7 in Sydney, Australia, bid early for the project, and feverishly worked to retain its purchase rights after Wolper sold his company to Warner Brothers, which had an exclusive distribution contract with its rival Australian network, Channel 10 (Kinging, 1976). Apparently, both commercial broadcasters had high hopes for the miniseries. Meanwhile, half a world away, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) had similar interests in acquiring the series, and requested the opportunity to preview the rough cuts of the first few episodes in 1976 (Somerset-Ward, 1976). Rounding out the...

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