That was the verdict of America’s ABC network in 1977. They had paid $6.6 million (unheard of at the time) to produce a miniseries based on Alex Haley’s best-seller chronicling his African ancestors journey from their homeland, via slave ships, to the American plantations.[32] " The drama, based on the book by Alex Haley, traced several generations of a slave family, beginning with Kunta Kinte, a young West African man kidnapped by slave traders and shipped to America.[33]