Starring: Louis Gossett Jr., LeVar Burton, Robert Reed, John Amos, Ben Vereen, Lynda Day George, Olivia Cole
Continuity mistake: When Chicken George comes back for the first time and sees Matilda, he walks towards her and takes off his white gloves. He is then seen hugging her with the white gloves back on.
Continuity mistake: At the camp, holding the black people after cruising them away, the man steals the drum sticks. He plays the drums with one stick upside-down, and in the next scene, they are gone.
Part 1 Roots: The Saga of An American Family - S1-E1
Factual error: The slave ship 'Lord Ligonier' flies the White Ensign. This has always been reserved for the Royal Navy; British merchant ships (as American ships were in 1765) have flown the Red Ensign since 1674.
Kunta Kinti: What's snow, Fiddler?
Fiddler: Never you mind, boy, never you mind. Let's get on back to home. I got enough trouble teaching you the difference between manure and massa. 'Course there ain't all that much difference when you gets right down to it.
Trivia: Madge Sinclair and Leslie Uggams play mother and daughter. In real life, Sinclair was only five years older than Uggams.