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In order to honor the show’s 35th anniversary, Oprah will interview Cicely Tyson, Leslie Uggams,  LeVar Burton, John Amos, Louis Gossett, Jr., and Ben Vereen (all pictured above from left to right) at her Montecito, Calif., estate.

Original clips from the miniseries will also be aired, and the actors will share personal anecdotes on what it was like to work on such a historical undertaking.  Since the airing of “Roots,” no TV program has approached the problem of slavery and its aftermath as honestly as Haley’s work. “Roots: 35 Years Later” will premiere on Monday, January 16, at 8 p.m., EST on Winfrey’s OWN network.

“Roots,” which was watched by more than 100-million viewers, was considered to be a monumental television phenomena, because it was the first time that audiences from all colors and creeds witnessed the unsanitized version of slavery.  Viewers were exposed to the dehumanizing experiences of Blacks who were stolen from the Motherland and forcefully brought to a country that treated them as less than human. Haley’s 12-hour miniseries depicted a people, whom despite the physically brutal acts of abuse and psychological degradation, were able to maintain some semblance of dignity and self-esteem.

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VIA:  Biography.com

(born August 11, 1921, Ithaca, New York, U.S.—died February 10, 1992, Seattle, Washington) American writer whose works of historical fiction and reportage depicted the struggles of African Americans.

Although his parents were teachers, Haley was an indifferent student. He began writing to avoid boredom during voyages while serving in the U.S. Coast Guard (1939–59). His first major work, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), was an authoritative and widely read narrative based on Haley’s interviews with the Black Muslim spokesman. The work is recognized as a classic of African American literature.

Haley’s greatest success was Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976). This saga covers seven American generations, from the enslavement of Haley’s African ancestors to his own genealogical quest. The work forcefully shows relationships between generations and between races. Roots was adapted as a multi-episode television program, which, when first broadcast in January 1977, became one of the most popular shows in the history of American television and galvanized attention on African American issues and history. That same year Haley won a special Pulitzer Prize. A successful sequel was first broadcast in February 1979 as Roots: The Next Generations.

Roots spurred much interest in family history, and Haley created the Kinte Foundation (1972) to store records that aid in tracing black genealogy. Haley later admitted that his saga was partly fictional; the book was also the subject of a plagiarism suit, which Haley settled out of court.

View this 1983 interview with Alex Haley:

View this clip from the Roots Mini Series: