Video: Roots’s LeVar Burton, Anika Noni Rose & Mark Wolper

NEW YORK: LeVar Burton, Anika Noni Rose and Mark Wolper sat down with TV Drama to give an inside look at A+E Networks’s brand-new miniseries Roots.

For eight consecutive nights in January 1977, some 80 million people tuned in to ABC in prime time to follow a family saga that began in West Africa and journeyed through the darkest times in American history. Based on Alex Haley’s ancestral novel about Kunta Kinte, an African man sold into slavery, Roots made ratings history. Its finale is still one of the most-watched episodes ever, with some 100 million viewers. And it swept the Emmys that year, winning nine out of 37 nominations.

On May 30, HISTORY will premiere an ambitious new version of Roots, with a star-studded cast that includes Laurence Fishburne, Anna Paquin, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Matthew Goode, Forest Whitaker and Anika Noni Rose. The new Roots is executive produced by Mark Wolper, whose father, David Wolper, exec produced the original, and Burton, who captivated audiences in 1977 as Kunta Kinte. A+E Networks launched the show at MIPTV with the World Premiere Screening, and the miniseries has now been licensed by broadcasters in more than 50 territories around the world.

This interview is available with subtitles in Spanish, Mandarin and French.