# Remake of Roots: will you watch **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 31, 2016, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-roots-will-you-watch/750779 "2016-03-31T20:35:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-roots-will-you-watch/750779/21 "2016-04-01T19:18:45Z")
Thought the first version was stupid. Will definitely skip the remake. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-roots-will-you-watch/750779/22 "2016-04-01T19:34:59Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > Thanks **Sampiro**! I couldn’t recall any of the white character’s names from the original so had no idea what these roles were. I seem to remember finding Chuck Connors (or his character anyway) especially vile and my sweet baby Jonathan does vile _very well_ \. Tom Lea (called something else in the original) and Chicken George have one of the few interesting relationships in the book. Each knows they are father-son but neither openly acknowledges it, and a definite sort of affection- even a sort of father-son relationship- develops between them, but at the same time he never considers manumitting George or his family and you get the notion that if Lea were to die the family- his former concubine and son and daughter-in-law and grandchildren and a couple of their spouses and infant great-grandchildren- a not inconsiderable tribe by this time- would be at the mercy of his heirs. (The real Tom Lea may have been Haley’s ancestor but otherwise had little in common with the character in the book/miniseries; Haley’s character is a white-trash boy who became relatively well to do through cockfighting and gambling and- distant third- farming and had no legitimate children with his wife, while the real Tom Lea was from a rich family and had a large white family.) Madison Hemings recalled Thomas Jefferson as having been good to him and his siblings and giving them a few minor special privileges (better clothes, freedom from hard labor, apprenticeship to a trade), but nothing remotely like a father-child relationship and they were servile to their much older white half-sisters and their white nieces/nephews and cousins who visited Monticello. He said the biological relationship was never acknowledged. I would imagine that was the norm in the shockingly common situation. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-roots-will-you-watch/750779/23 "2016-04-02T03:26:27Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Probably. It looks like it was well done, and while I watched the original, it was sooooooo long ago it might as well have never happened. I guess it depends on what it’s competing with at the time. Right now, there isn’t that much on that I like. Something like this. The length of it will make it unlikely I’ll invest the time. The first one at least had some mystery of how it would be handled on network TV. Standards have changed a lot since then and if they attempt to have the same impact it will seem overdone. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-roots-will-you-watch/750779/24 "2016-04-02T04:57:28Z")
I might record it. When is it on? ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2016, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-roots-will-you-watch/750779/25 "2016-04-04T16:11:38Z")
Memorial Day weekend. At least they’re giving it a good slot. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2016, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-roots-will-you-watch/750779/26 "2016-04-05T01:33:32Z")
I’ll watch it if I don’t need to make much of an effort to find it on demand. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-roots-will-you-watch/750779/27 "2016-04-06T23:32:46Z")
Only way I’d watch if if they cast a white guy as Kunta Kinte for diversity. Just kidding, I still wouldn’t watch it. This needs a remake as much as Star Wars does (cue jokes about Ep 7). Just leave the original be. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remake-of-roots-will-you-watch/750779.md?page=1)