Finding Your Roots
| Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. |
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Title card from the second season
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| Genre | Family history Genealogy Documentary Series |
| Written by | Henry Louis Gates, Jr. |
| Directed by | John Maggio Jesse Sweet Caitlin McNally Jack Youngelson Sabin Streeter Julia Marchesi |
| Presented by | Henry Louis Gates, Jr. |
| Composer(s) | Michael Bacon |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 30 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Henry Louis Gates, Jr. |
| Producer(s) | Rachel Dretzin Leslie Asako Gladsjo Dyllan McGee Peter Kunhardt Stephen Segaller |
| Running time | 51–53 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Kunhardt McGee Productions Inkwell Films Ark Media |
| Release | |
| Original network | PBS |
| Original release | March 25, 2012 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Faces of America |
| External links | |
| [{{#property:P856}} Website] | |
Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is a PBS television series hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The first season aired on PBS from March 25 to May 20 of 2012. It was broadcast in the 8–9 p.m time slot (EDT). The series returned for a second season on September 23, 2014 and finished on November 25, 2014.[1] Season three began airing on January 5, 2016.[2]
Contents
Premise
The series uses traditional genealogical research and genetics to discover the family history of well-known Americans. Genetic techniques include Y-chromosome DNA, mitochondrial DNA, and autosomal DNA analyses to infer both ancient and recent genetic relationships. The series has examined the family histories of celebrity guests with African American, Asian American, Chinese American, Greek American, Indian American, Irish American, Italian American, Jewish American, and Latin American heritage.
Each celebrity guest is given a book of life, which contains all of the information discovered about the guest's genealogy by researchers. Included in or with the book are comprehensive genetic results, a family tree that is as complete as paper research allows, copies of historical records used to assemble each tree, and photos of newly found family members. In some episodes, particularly episodes in which original DNA research must be used to establish a past ancestor's parental link, guests are reunited with long-lost relatives. However, in most episodes, each guest is predominately shown seated opposite Gates as he guides them through their book of life. To show correlations between the guests family stories, each episode cuts back and forth between two or three guest stories. To draw further correlations Gates uses examples from his own genealogy quite frequently. Examples of this would be a grandmother of his' having multiple children with a white man whose name she never revealed, as well as Gates' membership into the Sons of the American Revolution.
In addition to celebrity guests, everyday people are sometimes featured in an episode to create a third or fourth story line. Usually the non-celebrity guests are a group of peers. An example of this would be the episode in which Gates has his friends at his local barbershop take a DNA test to determine their ethnic makeup, each friend betting on their percentages of African, European, and Native American genetic heritage. Another episode uses a similar guessing game with students at a local school. Singular secondary guests include Robert Downey, Sr. and Margarett Cooper, the latter being a friend of Gates'.[3]
Background
The series has seen two past incarnations on PBS, both of which were hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. In 2006 and 2008 the series African American Lives aired. Both seasons of the series consisted of a season-long story line as well as an all African American cast. In 2010 Faces of America aired. Though it continued to use the season-long plot from the prior installment, it was the first installment hosted by Gates to include Americans of all ethnic and racial backgrounds. Starting with Finding Your Roots in 2012, the series redirected from a season-long plot, to having plots extending only within a single episode. In doing so it has allowed the series to extend its number of episodes each season to ten, opposed to the prior four episodes a season.[1]
Ethics problem
The show's third season was postponed after it was discovered that actor Ben Affleck had persuaded Gates to omit information about his slave-owning ancestors.[4][5][6]
Episodes
Series overview
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | |||
| 1[3] | 10 | March 25, 2012 | May 20, 2012 | |
| 2[3] | 10 | September 23, 2014 | November 25, 2014 | |
| 3[3][7] | 10 | January 5, 2016 | March 8, 2016 | |
Season 1 (2012)
| No. in series |
No. in season |
Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr." | March 25, 2012 |
| Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr., fellow jazz musicians, grew up together in New Orleans. | |||
| 2 | 2 | "John Lewis and Cory Booker" | March 25, 2012 |
| Georgia Congressman John Lewis and then Newark Mayor Cory Booker meet each other before they explore their family heritages. | |||
| 3 | 3 | "Barbara Walters and Geoffrey Canada" | April 1, 2012 |
| Barbara Walters and Geoffrey Canada both discover their families' original surnames in the episode. | |||
| 4 | 4 | "Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon" | April 8, 2012 |
| Married couple Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon discover they share distant ancestry. | |||
| 5 | 5 | "Rick Warren, Angela Buchdahl and Yasir Qadhi" | April 15, 2012 |
| All three guests, Rick Warren, Angela Warnick Buchdahl, and Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi, are religious leaders in their respective faiths. | |||
| 6 | 6 | "Robert Downey, Jr. and Maggie Gyllenhaal" | April 22, 2012 |
| Robert Downey, Jr. and Maggie Gyllenhaal both descend from European-American immigrants. Robert's father, Robert Downey, Sr., acts as the episode's unofficial third guest, sitting with Henry as he reads his book of life. | |||
| 7 | 7 | "Samuel L. Jackson, Condoleezza Rice and Ruth Simmons" | April 29, 2012 |
| Samuel L. Jackson, Condoleezza Rice, and Ruth Simmons trace their genealogical backgrounds into slavery, and with the help of DNA analysis, back to Africa. | |||
| 8 | 8 | "Martha Stewart, Margaret Cho and Sanjay Gupta" | May 6, 2012 |
| Martha Stewart, Margaret Cho, and Sanjay Gupta are all the offspring of first or second generation immigrants. | |||
| 9 | 9 | "John Legend and Wanda Sykes" | May 13, 2012 |
| John Legend and Wanda Sykes[8] explore their rich and extensive free negro heritages. Margarett Cooper also makes an appearance in the episode, appearing only a year before her death in 2013.[9] In keeping with the theme of the episode, Cooper seeks help from Gates to answer long-held questions about her free heritage. | |||
| 10 | 10 | "Michelle Rodriguez, Adrian Grenier and Linda Chavez" | May 20, 2012 |
| In this episode Michelle Rodriguez, Adrian Grenier, and Linda Chavez explore their Hispanic roots. | |||
Season 2 (2014)
| No. in series |
No. in season |
Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | 1 | "In Search of our Fathers" | September 23, 2014 |
| Celebrity guests: Stephen King, Gloria Reuben, and Courtney B. Vance | |||
| 12 | 2 | "Born Champions" | September 30, 2014 |
| Celebrity guests: Derek Jeter, Billie Jean King, and Rebecca Lobo | |||
| 13 | 3 | "Our American Storytellers" | October 7, 2014 |
| Celebrity guests: Ken Burns, Anderson Cooper, and Anna Deavere Smith | |||
| 14 | 4 | "Roots of Freedom" | October 14, 2014 |
| Celebrity guests: Ben Affleck, Khandi Alexander, and Benjamin Jealous | |||
| 15 | 5 | "The Melting Pot" | October 21, 2014 |
| Celebrity guests: Tom Colicchio, Aarón Sánchez, and Ming Tsai | |||
| 16 | 6 | "We Come From People" | October 28, 2014 |
| Celebrity guests: Angela Bassett, Valerie Jarrett, and Nas | |||
| 17 | 7 | "Our People, Our Traditions" | November 4, 2014 |
| Celebrity guests: Alan Dershowitz, Carole King, and Tony Kushner | |||
| 18 | 8 | "The British Invasion" | November 11, 2014 |
| Celebrity guests: Deepak Chopra, Sally Field, and Sting | |||
| 19 | 9 | "Ancient Roots" | November 18, 2014 |
| Celebrity guests: Tina Fey, George Stephanopoulos, and David Sedaris | |||
| 20 | 10 | "Decoding Our Past Through DNA" | November 25, 2014 |
| Celebrity guests: Jessica Alba and Governor Deval Patrick (also appearing are Anderson Cooper, Valerie Jarrett, and more). Gates' relationship to Wilmore Mail is described. | |||
Season 3 (2016)
| No. in series |
No. in season |
Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | 1 | "The Stories We Tell" | January 5, 2016 |
| Celebrity guests: Donna Brazile, Kara Walker and Ty Burrell | |||
| 22 | 2 | "The Irish Factor" | January 12, 2016 |
| Celebrity guests: Soledad O'Brien, Bill O’Reilly and Bill Maher | |||
| 23 | 3 | "In Search of Freedom" | January 19, 2016 |
| Celebrity guests: Maya Rudolph, Shonda Rhimes and Keenen Ivory Wayans | |||
| 24 | 4 | "Tragedy + Time = Comedy" | January 26, 2016 |
| Celebrity guests: Jimmy Kimmel, Norman Lear and Bill Hader | |||
| 25 | 5 | "Visionaries" | February 2, 2016 |
| Celebrity guests: Richard Branson, Maya Lin and Frank Gehry | |||
| 26 | 6 | "War Stories" | February 9, 2016 |
| Celebrity guests: Patricia Arquette, Julianne Moore and John McCain | |||
| 27 | 7 | "Family Reunions" | February 16, 2016 |
| Celebrity guests: Sean Combs and LL Cool J | |||
| 28 | 8 | "The Pioneers" | February 23, 2016 |
| Celebrity guests: Neil Patrick Harris, Gloria Steinem and Sandra Cisneros | |||
| 29 | 9 | "The Long Way Home" | March 1, 2016 |
| Celebrity guests: Azar Nafisi, Lidia Bastianich and Julianna Margulies | |||
| 30 | 10 | "Maps of Stars" | March 8, 2016 |
| Celebrity guests: Mia Farrow and Dustin Hoffman | |||
See also
References
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External links
- Pages with broken file links
- Official website not in Wikidata
- American documentary television series
- PBS network shows
- 2012 American television series debuts
- 2010s American television miniseries
- Historical television series
- Television series about family history
- 2010s American television series
- English-language television programming
- Genetic genealogy
