Related:MCN Review: 'Roots'

History on Memorial Day is launching its eight-hour Roots miniseries based on Alex Haley’s classic novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family. History general manager Jana Bennett says the network’s four-night Roots miniseries is more of a revision than a remake of ABC’s groundbreaking 1977 Roots miniseries that will feature a more definitive historical retelling of African Warrior Kunta Kinte and his family’s struggle over many generations to survive slavery and eventually regain freedom.

Here’s what Bennett and History want you to know about Roots.

This is not your father’s Roots: “If you think back to 1977 when the first Roots television series was launched and then think about now 39 years later, there’s a lot more scholarship that’s gone on about the history of Africa and the history of the middle passage – there hasn’t been a lot of historical examination of it including the numbers involved, the uprising of the slaves on the ship, and the nature of the trade economically. There’s a lot more about the culture and the cities in Africa, so we’ve been able to add a lot more scholarship to this new vision of Roots. It’s an update – not just in terms of television technique and a whole new generation of actors -- but actually new scholarship woven into the narrative. We are telling Kunta Kinte’s story as well as his descendants’ stories, but we’re also bringing in fresh eyes to the story. Every night has a different director to reflect their vision. It’s new on alot of levels.”

The reboot is relevant to today’s issues: “There’s shared history, which is something that should be understood and appreciated by people living in America today. It’s also an international story because it’s a very big piece of history in terms of how America was made and how it affected Africa, so there’s a universality to the story, which makes it relevant now and going forward. We tell stories in history, but also history doesn’t stand still, so there’s always new things to say. When we decided to do Roots, we didn’t know how this would fit with current events at the time. We didn’t know about #BlackLivesMatter rising as a movement, nor about the debate about race in this country and the forms that it has taken this year. But as time has gone by since we decided to make this revision of Roots I have to say it lands right in the middle of very current debates about the nature of this society, so I think its even more relevant than we would have thought it was going to be. It was already going to be a universally epic story shared by all Americans, but it’s even more relevant in terms of the current debates happening about society today.”

Roots is focused on historical authenticity: “What we’ve been able to achieve is a high level of authenticity which is obviously fitting for the History Channel to be able to offer that to viewers. That includes bringing in archeologists and historians to tell us how to depict the towns and kingdoms in Africa, but also [costume designer] Ruth Carter’s costumes and designs are absolutely wonderful. The color indigo you’ll see every night was drawn from what dyes we knew were being used then. Also, women’s roles are really powerful and even more vividly drawn and upfront.  You’ll see that from the roles of Matilda and Kizzy – they really put women more into the forefront because they do play a historical role in the story of Roots, and were very resilient. They literally brought through the next generations, so from all those respects we brought in a lot of historical resources to the telling of Roots. It enhances our understanding in a lot of different ways.”

Claudia Looze, program director at statewide public-affairs channel WisconsinEye, has her share of friends in the state’s press corps — none of whom expected to hear her question, via Facebook, asked during the PBS NewsHour Democratic presidential candidates’ debate in Milwaukee between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders last Thursday night (Feb. 11).

Looze didn’t even know it was coming, but it was the first Facebook-submitted question of the night. “That was shocking,” she told The Wire on Friday.

It was a good sign, though, that PBS had recommended she change her Facebook profile picture — to one of herself smiling from a found photo of a girl holding a chicken.

Her question, about the high rate of African-American male incarceration in Wisconsin, prompted thoughtful answers from the Democratic presidential contenders.

She said she was pleased that they spoke at length about incarceration and then about race relations, “which I think needs to be addressed.”

Afterward, she received many messages of congratulations, including from former co-workers at Milwaukee Public Television, which produced the telecast.

A longtime documentary filmmaker, Looze joined WisconsinEye before it launched in 2007. “I got bit by the political junkie bug and really love covering it. It’s really an interesting time to be covering state politics, especially, because so much happens in the state legislature that affects a citizen’s life, much more than at the federal level.” The channel's greatest hits include the documentary "Milwaukee: A City Built on Water" and it's currently doing a series of interviews with candidates for election in the state.

WisconsinEye is about to do a promotional push “to entice people to become informed and come watch their government at work, and the government that affects them the most on a daily basis,” the Wisconsin native said.

The channel — independently funded, with no money from the state (or from cable operators, though they provide carriage) — has for the first time hired an agency to help with promotion, she said.

And, since the first of the year, WisconsinEye programming is available on mobile phones and laptops, not just TV or desktops.

Looze hopes the channel might even host a debate of its own, in the big U.S. Senate race between Democrat Russ Feingold and incumbent Republican Ron Johnson, possibly partnering with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s JSOnline.

“That would be a big leap for us, but I think we are ready,” she said. No question about it.

— Kent Gibbons

Nat Geo’s ‘Gen X’ Series to Mark Overlooked Demo

Squeezed between the baby boomers and millennials is Generation X: People born between 1961 and 1981 who are rarely recognized for their role at the forefront of America’s cultural and technological development.

National Geographic Channel’s three-part series Generation Xseeks to shed light on these 65 million Americans. Nat Geo vice president of production and development Kevin Mohs (himself a Gen X-er) spoke with The Wire about the series, which premieres tonight (Feb. 15).

MCN:Why hasn’t there been a greater focus on Gen-Xers?

Kevin Mohs: This generation has been overlooked or portrayed as slackers who haven’t done much in their lives, and [as] just being disgruntled. But when you really step back and look, you see that seismic shifts have happened because of this generation.

MCN: What are some Gen X-er achievements?

KM: Take a look at Wikileaks. Why would somebody think it’s OK to leak national secrets to the world? But then you step back and say, what were the things that formed that person that did that? Then you look at Watergate and the Pentagon Papers and the culmination of all those things that created that mindset. Same thing with Google and Amazon — how did someone think so out of the box to create those services? But if you step back and look at the bigger picture at what influenced such disruptors — MTV, fast foods, Napster — all things that were breaking the mold, that’s how you come up with these great things. How does Obama become the first African-American president? We look at all the things within that generation that set the tone for what has happened today.

MCN: Will Gen X-ers ever get their due?

KM: This special will hopefully help to get that recognition because now the generation will be put on the map. We’re saying, look what this generation has accomplished, and here’s why. Hopefully people will begin talking about it … then we can be in the discussion with the baby boomers and the millennials.

MCN: So what will viewers discern from the series?

KM: We want to know what were the pivotal moments for the generation. It’s a really fast-paced way to explore the generation through the eyes of celebrities like Kevin Smith, Courtney Love, Sarah Palin and Molly Ringwald, along with a variety of experts and people providing different perspectives on the generation.

— R. Thomas Umstead

Childhood’s End, based on the popular science-fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke, begins with an alien invasion in 2016, but unlike other portrayals of extraterrestrial beings coming down to destroy earth, these “overlords” come in peace. In fact, the aliens actually bring about peace around the world as they quickly eradicate poverty, disease, hunger and any form of violence, from countries dropping bombs on their enemies to a local drug dealer shooting people after a deal gone bad.

The aliens chose a human, Missouri farmer Ricky Stormgren (Mike Vogel), to deliver its messages to the people, and he is quickly smitten by the aliens’ overtures. The only unsettling thing regarding the visitors is their reluctance to reveal themselves to the world, fearing that their appearance would be disturbing.

After years of relative calm and peace, the aliens — headed by a leader named Karellen (Charles Dance) — become accepted by the public at large. Others are not convinced that the aliens have humanity’s best interest at heart, though, and believe their benevolence is too good to be true.

The idea of an alien invasion is not new and has been portrayed many times both on film and on the small screen. But Syfy finds a way to distinguish itself from the others by providing an interesting and somewhat unsettling story that reveals a lot about human nature, morality and who is ultimately responsible for one’s own happiness and contentment.

If preliminary expectations and PR hype are accurate gauges of how a new addition to the fall primetime lineup will fare with viewers, Telemundo executives today are likely shouting “¡azuuuuuucar!”

That’s the sugar-filled Spanish-language shout that helped cement Celia Cruz as the global “Queen of Salsa.” Celia, the new telenovela adaptation of the salsa icon’s life, is expected to be the network’s queen of the 8 p.m. timeslot.

Celia is a first for Spanish-language broadcast television, as it borrows from the success of English-language primetime series Empire and Glee by injecting musical performances into the storyline.

Portraying Cruz in her younger years (in her acting debut) is Jeimy Osorio; Aymee Nuviola has been cast as the older Cruz. A contemporary salsa music star, La India, is contributing to the show’s soundtrack.

Meanwhile, in a first for Telemundo, the first three episodes of Celia were made available via video-on-demand ahead of the network premiere. Celia is a Fox Telecolombia production.

To help promote Celia, a special tribute to Celia Cruz was incorporated into the inaugural Latin American Music Awards, which aired as a live telecast Oct. 8 on Telemundo as its proprietary answer to rival Univision’s long-running Premio lo Nuestro a la Música Latina. The segment featured Osorio alongside co-star Modesto Lacen, with a medley of the songstress’ greatest hits performed by Nuviola and La India.

The Latin American Music Awards mirrors the long-running American Music Awards and is also produced by Dick Clark Productions.

RELATED:Special Report: Limited Series, Limitless Potential

Time-shifted data has a significant effect on the average ratings for scripted programming, and it’s no different when it comes to miniseries and anthology series. SundanceTV’s 2014 series The Honorable Woman averaged the fewest total viewers of the 10 mini/anthology series depicted at right. The eight-part Middle East political thriller averaged 127,000 total live-plus-same-day viewers, but tallied 294,000 live-plus-7-day viewers. That’s a 131% increase in average total viewers, thanks to L7 data.

FX’s American Horror Story: Freak Show is the top-rated and most-watched mini/anthology series since the start of 2014. Freak Show averaged 3.9 million total viewers on a live-plus-same- day basis and more than 7.6 million viewers live-plus-7-day. That’s a 95% bump in average total viewership.

Few cable series receive a more significant bump from time-shifted data than AHS. One that does might be fellow FX anthology Fargo. The original live-plus-same-day numbers for the Emmy-winning series doubled when measured on a live-plus-7-day basis. Season one averaged 1.9 million live-plus-same-day viewers. That number ballooned to around 3.8 million on a live-plus-7 basis. No wonder FX wants to do away with live-plus-same- day ratings.

HBO anthology series True Detective averaged 2.6 million live-plus-same- day viewers, but over 4 million per live-plus-7-day data.

History’s Sons of Liberty was cable’s most-watched and highest-rated miniseries over the past 12 months, averaging 3.1 million viewers on a live-plus-same-day basis, and 4.5 million live-plus-7-day viewers. Texas Rising also averaged 3.1 million live-plus-same-day viewers, but benefited less from time-shifted data, finishing its run with a 4.1 million live-plus-7-day average.

BET’s The Book of Negroes benefited the least from time-shifting, getting just an 18% bump from live-plus-7-day data. Spike TV’s Tut jumped 65% on a live-plus-7 basis, a more significant bump than Texas Rising, Sons of Liberty or Book of Negroes.

RELATED:Miniseries, Anthologies Fail to Grow Stale

One of the big Emmy Awards storylines was the Television Academy’s move to rename and reposition the 46-year-old Outstanding Miniseries or Movie category to better reflect innovation within the genre.

Considered by many to be a stepchild to the more-prestigious scripted drama series, the miniseries has recently come of age with several star-studded, four-to-six-episode projects that show little resemblance to the stuffy U.K.-produced shows and extravagant historical pieces of years past.

HBO’s drama series Olive Kitteridge, SundanceTV’s espionage thriller The Honorable Woman, FX’s graphic and spooky American Horror Story: Freak Show and ABC’s terrorism-driven American Crime — all of which were nominated for Emmys in the new Outstanding Limited Series category — have helped broaden the miniseries genre and are rivaling traditional TV series for viewers and critical acclaim.

SHORT-FORM GOES BIGGER

Network executives said a new generation of quality, shortform miniseries and limited series — six- to 10-episode series with a definitive ending, but that can return for future seasons with a new storyline and characters — are also attracting increased interest from both top producers and actors, such as Ryan Murphy and Susan Sarandon, who are looking to develop such projects for the small screen.

“The [miniseries] phenomenon is not new, but what you’re seeing is a renaissance in the way people are embracing the model,” HBO president of programming Michael Lombardo said.

Miniseries have been around for decades as major “television events” that have drawn big numbers for both broadcast and cable networks. Roots — ABC’s landmark 1977 historical miniseries based on Alex Haley’s book — reached more than 140 million viewers over eight episodes. On the cable side, History’s Hatfields & McCoys in 2012 reached a cable-record 13 million viewers over its three episodes.

By the turn of the decade, though, an influx of quality scripted drama series on broadcast, cable and over-the-top services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Instant Video had ushered in what many observers call the second “Golden Age of Television” — mostly overshadowing the minseries genre.

And changing viewing patters — specifically binge viewing — as well as networks’ use of the scripted drama series as a brand-building vehicle, helped to foster that genre’s rise to prominence.

Yet, it’s been the glut of scripted-series content that’s helped spur renewed interest in minseries from both viewers and producers, several network executives said.

SNACKABLE TV

As viewers sometimes struggle to catch up with every episode of Game of Thrones or Orange Is The New Black, a two- to four-episode miniseries provides a quick way to watch quality content with a storyline that has a beginning, middle and end, according to Dirk Hoogstra, executive vice president and general manager for History.

“There has been a proliferation of serial dramas and nobody can keep up with them all,” Hoogstra said. (UPDATE: After deadline for this article, A+E Networks promoted Jana Bennett to president and general manager of History, and said Hoogstra was returning to his roots in independent production.)

History has been very busy in the miniseries space, developing projects over the last two years such as the Mark Burnett-directed The Bible and the Adrien Brody-starrer Houdini.

“There’s something appealing about knowing that they will get the entire story in a few hours, and then it’s over,” added Hoogstra.

Spike this July used the genre to reintroduce original scripted fare to its lineup with Tut. The three-part series averaged more than 2.2 million viewers across consecutive nights from July 19-21 — more than double the network’s primetime average, according to Spike officials.

And Tut’s big-event nature brought in new viewers — more than one-third of its audience consisted of first-time Spike watchers, executive vice president of original series Sharon Levy said. Further, Tut generated repeat viewership in its core 18-49 audience, showing a 150% increase in live-plus-seven-day viewing compared to live viewing within the demo, Levy said.

“It’s as close to binge-viewing as we can get for our viewers,” said Levy, adding Spike will continue to look for miniseries opportunities as it rolls out several traditional scripted dramas in 2016.

Another draw for Tut was the casting of film star Sir Ben Kingsley in a major role. Miniseries and limited series provide opportunities to attract big-name actors and directors who are interested in television, but don’t want to commit to a longterm project, executives said.

Lifetime was able to secure the services of Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon for its two-night miniseries, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe, because the project required a short-term commitment, senior vice president of original movies Tanya Lopez said.

“A six-hour or four-hour project better fits into their schedule than trying to get someone to commit to 10 hours or a show over several years,” she said. “It enables you to get talent you wouldn’t ordinarily expect to get.”

HBO president of programming Michael Lombardo said he’s taking calls from a number of film-industry players looking to develop limited series. For instance, True Detective writer Nic Pizzolatto had a vision for a show that made sense for a limited amount of episodes, rather than multiple seasons, he said.

“What you’re seeing is that there is a place for talent to do a kind of show that should be told in longform, but not over multiple years,” Lombardo said. “You can find an audience for that.”

Indeed, True Detective found an audience and critical acclaim right out of the box.

The limited series was nominated for 12 Emmys in 2014 for its freshman campaign, which featured Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as detectives pursuing a serial killer.

A second season of True Detective featured a new ensemble cast, led by Colin Farrell, and a completely different storyline from the first season.

FX has taken full advantage of the format with its Ryan Murphy-penned American Horror Story franchise — Hotel, its fifth installment, is set to launch next month — as well as Fargo, last year’s Emmy miniseries winner.

“What we we’re finding was that people were coming in with really great stories, but they could not be sustained over a long period of time,” FX Networks and Productions president of original programming Eric Schrier said. “You get writers and directors that wouldn’t normally play in the television sandbox that are finding it to be a very vibrant place to tell stories that you don’t have to stretch over seven years.”

And unlike a traditional TV series, where multiple writers pen various episodes, the limited-series format gives one writer a chance to thoroughly explore a singular creative vision, Lombardo said.

“The thing that you can do in eight hours that you can’t do in eight years is hand-craft [a series],” he said. “When you’re doing eight hours, that person is writing all eight episodes and sometimes directing them. It lends itself much easier to a passion-driven piece of programming, and that’s what the audiences are responding to.”

The recent development and success of limited series, which also includes Starz’s The Missing, has forced changes in the way the industry views drama series — and in how it rewards them for success.

The Television Academy earlier this year redefined its definition of the miniseries category. The move was prompted by HBO’s 2014 submission of True Detective as a drama series — after FX had campaigned to get American Horror Story a place in that category for years — even though the show technically had a limited number of episodes and a closed-ended storyline.

The new Emmy category, Outstanding Limited Series, defines a limited series as a non-recurring story of two or more episodes totaling 150 minutes of run time, with no recurring characters.

While the limited series has worked for HBO, Lombardo says the network is still committed to traditional series like Game of Thrones.

“There’s nothing more exciting than when a series connects and you can bring back those characters the following year an grow and audience and dig into stories and characters over multiple years,” he said. “But not every story has to be that to be great television.”

MORE ON THE WAY

Several networks will test that notion with a number of miniseries and limited-series projects in development. BET, coming off of its February miniseries Book of Negroes, is developing a musical-themed miniseries based on the 1980s R&B group New Edition.

FX will spin off American Horror Story into the crime genre next year with American Crime Story: The People v. O.J Simpson, according to Schrier.

HBO is working on several shows in the genre, including The Young Pope, a Jude Law-Diane Keaton vehicle, and Crime, an eightpart miniseries starring John Turturro. Lombardo also said the network is also exploring a potential limited-series comedy.

In 2016, Lifetime will tackle Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel War and Peace as well as a miniseries based on Agatha Christie’s murder mystery And Then There Were None. It’s imperative for women- targeted Lifetime to offer a diverse lineup of both traditional scripted series and short-form miniseries to compete in an ultra- crowded television environment, Lopez said.

History’s Hoogstra said the network would also remain aggressive in the genre, having already green-lighted a remake of Roots.

The network recently said it has signed Academy Award winners Forrest Whitaker and Anna Paquin to star in the reboot produced by LeVar Burton, star of the 1970s original.

The miniseries genre will continue to blossom as both consumers and networks demand quality programming fare in all forms and lengths, History’s Hoogstra said.

“The are so many amazing stories out there to be told but they couldn’t work as an ongoing series,” he said. “They need to be told, and we have the ability to tell them.”

History once again takes its “historical fiction” approach — the tack it took with its enjoyable series Vikings — and applies it to the miniseries event Sons of Liberty, a three-night mini series that follows the events leading up to the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution.

The action in Sons of Liberty swirls around Sam Adams (Ben Barnes), a charismatic Boston bon vivant who has run afoul of colonial Gov. Thomas Hutchison (Sean Gilder), for failing to pony up tax revenue that he was hired to collect. Adams is pursued by British soldiers in a local Boston bar, and makes his escape. The ensuing fracas sparks a riot that snowballs into the destruction of the governor’s mansion.

Adams flees to the countryside home of his cousin, John Adams (Henry Thomas), who isn’t keen to involve himself in his relative’s trouble.

With Adams on the run and the Boston natives restless, Hutchison enlists the help of John Hancock (Rafe Spall), an influential and wealthy trader, to “take care” of him. Hancock does so by taking care of Adams’s debts, to Hutchison’s consternation.

The “deal” is seen by Hutchison as a challenge, and prompts him go stop looking the other way when it comes time to collect Hancock’s tariff s. Hancock and Sam Adams then find themselves as business partners, as Hancock looks to Adams and the future Sons of Liberty to help him skirt customs officials.

The ensuing unrest has Hutchinson send to Britain for help, and eventually Gen. Thomas Gage (Marton Csokas) is dispatched to the New World to deal with Adams & Co., setting the stage for the unrest that will lead to rebellion.

Pleading the case for the colonists in London is Benjamin Franklin (Breaking Bad’s Dean Norris), an unofficial colonial emissary in London who eventually gets deported for defending the colonists and, upon his return to Philadelphia, is enlisted to rally them together.

Sons of Liberty is fast-paced and action-packed and, in episode one, the exposition comes so fast and furious that it’s di_ - cult to match the familiar names to the faces who are portraying them. Once the skirmishes between the colonists and redcoats turn deadly, though, the scenes can pack and emotional punch.

The performances are strong and both Thomas (best known for his childhood turn as Elliott in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial) and Norris make you forget their more contemporary characterizations. But the first episode’s constant flash-cutting between England and Boston as tensions head up can confuse the viewer at times.

Sons of Liberty will no doubt please those familiar with the Revolutionary period, but less exposition and more characterization might be better for contemporary viewers who don’t know quite so much about history.

Related: Check out what might have been on the dining tables of the Boston radicals here.

Libby O'Connell, chief historian at History, has a nifty new book out, The American Plate (Sourcebooks, November 2014), which breaks down many of our culinary traditions, from before Columbus to today, into two- or three-page, highly-readable narratives or “bites.”

The Wire wondered what she might recommend viewers serve at a viewing party for History’s upcoming Sons of Liberty (check out MCN's review here), about the Boston radicals who lit the spark for the American Revolution.

O’Connell suggested a couple of ways to go, one of which involved starting with a lot of plates on the table at once: raw oysters, a salad with kale and pickles, a meat pie. Followed by more plates, including oxtail soup and smoked meats. And on and on.

The Wire preferred her simpler option: Chowder with bread and cheese.

The chowder would be a fish chowder: “Boston is a very active seaport, and fish is one of its big commercial items.” Include potatoes (popular then via the Irish), carrots, onions and some bacon. “It would be a tasty stew, and it would be the type of thing that people would eat in the wintertime.”

Sourdough bread, or cornbread, on the side. Some sharp cheddar cheese, too. And butter. “They ate a lot of butter.”

Hot apple pie served with heavy cream for dessert. “You’re not worried about calories because you’re working hard every day. Getting your 10,000 steps in was never something people had to worry about.”

Wash it down with a mug of hard cider (available today at most grocery stores) or some local beer. Rum also was popular then.

“And before we are shocked by the quantity of alcohol these folks drank, remember they did not have prescription pain relievers,” O’Connell reassured The Wire. Instead of an Advil for a sore knee, a doctor might recommend a shot of alcohol, administered orally.

The author said her own viewing party, including some French neighbors (appropriately, our emerging nation’s first friends), will feature “a big fat chicken, roasted with Madeira.”

Sons of Liberty, a three-night event, kicks off on Sunday, Jan. 25, at 9 p.m.

A fine New England fish chowder recipe is in The American Plate and on our website at multichannel.com/Jan19.

This article originally appeared as part of Through The Wire in the Jan. 19 edition of Multichannel News.

FX's adaptation of Fargo won cable's first Golden Globe at the 72nd Annual Hollywood Foreign Press Awards show, bringing home the trophy for best TV miniseries or movie.

The show topped Starz's The Missing and HBO's trio of True Detective, The Normal Heart and Oliver Kitteridge.

FX and Fargo quickly doubled their total as Billy Bob Thonton took home the Globe for best actor in a TV miniseries or movie. Thornton, who kept his acceptance, short and safe from getting him in any trouble, topped fellow Fargoer Martin Freeman, HBO's initial True Detective duo of Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, and Mark Ruffalo for the premium network's The Normal Heart.