Roots Roots (Lionsgate Home Video-2016) In 1976, the original Roots miniseries was a defining cultural event.  It was not the first of the miniseries – or “novels for television,” as they dubbed the form at the time.  A 1974 version of Leon Uris’ QB VII was the first miniseries to be filmed by the American networks. Irwin Shaw’s Rich Man, Poor Man was the first miniseries to really capture the imagination of the public, becoming very popular and critically acclaimed. However