Picks and Pans Review: Most Revolutionary Programming Innovation

UPDATED 03/05/1984 at 01:00 AM EST • Originally published 03/05/1984 at 01:00 AM EST

LeVar Burton was the slave Kunta Kinte in Roots (1977), which brought "miniseries" into the language and opened the way for Centennial (1978), Shogun (1980) and The Thorn Birds (1983), among other serial epics.