THE WEEK OF JIMMY CARTER’S inauguration, ABC aired an eight-part television miniseries version of Alex Haley’s best-selling slavery epic, Roots. Executives had worried that sixteen hours of slavery would turn off viewers, so rather than waste a weekly prime-time spot for two months, they ran it on consecutive nights. It turned out their worries were misplaced. When the next week’s Nielsen ratings were published, the top eight slots were occupied by Roots.
