The Journal News from White Plains, New York • Page 172

3 OThe cover story EI LeVar goss back to his Roots' 'J1 III'1 I LeVar Burton as Kunta Kinte. Roots: The Gift Network: ABC (Channel 7). Tlmettonightat9. Format: Made-for-TV movie. Genro: Holiday drama.

Starring: Lou Gossett LeVar Burton, Avery Brooks. Director? Kevin Hooks. Plota The characters from the original "Roots" become involved in the Christmas Eve escape attempt of a group of runaway slaves. Playing Kinte is still painful, Trek' star says By Jerry Buck AP Television Writer LeVar Burton has been living in the Star Trek future for the last year, but he returns to the past to reprise his role as Kunta Kinte in ABC's "Roots: The Gift." The two-hour Christmas special (9 tonight on Channel 7) reunites Kunta with Fiddler, the crafty, aging slave played by Louis Gossett for the first time since "Roots" became a landmark miniseries 12 years ago. Burton, who now stars as Lt.

Geordi La Forge in the immensely successful "Star Trek: The Next Generation," made his acting debut as the young Mandinka warrior snatched from his home in Africa and forced into slavery in the American colonies. The final sequel "I'm glad this is the last time I'll play this character," said Burton. "I didn't have any fun. It was hard, for a lot of reasons. First of all, I personally am not a fan of the 1700s.

I hate the 1700s. It was not a bright spot in terms of the human condition. It was a time of ignorance, and for Kunta it was an especially bad time. "We pick up the story seven years after he arrived in this country and four years after you last saw me in the role in We start with the whipping scene and use the film from the original show." Burton added: "For me, Kunta was always a proud, brave, strong African warrior. And when we first see him in this show that flame is all but gone.

Spiritually and emotionally, he's in pain. And for me to portray that, I'm in pain. I have a strong identification with this character. There are some areas in our lives where we just overlap." In the movie, Kunta, who is between Kunta and Geordi, and I am in the middle," he said. "If I were playing my own life story I'd be playing a Kunta of the '80s.

I have a great life. I have the most charmed existence in this life. This year has been the most rewarding financially for me in 12 years as an actor. I'm doing 'Star I did 'Roots: The Gift' and I'm doing my PBS series 'Reading In the current season of "Star Trek" (Saturdays, 7 p.m., Channel 11), Burton's character has been promoted from helmsman-navigator to chief engineer. "Geordi will have more authority and more responsibility," he said.

"This will give him more physical presence." Last year they had to introduce a new cast, so the focus went to Captain Picard, Data and Riker. Geordi never had that particular expertise to contribute. It was important to find his niche. "We came up with this promotion and it solves a lot of problems. I now have a better working schedule for one thing," Burton said.

The first two days of each shooting schedule are bridge days, and since I'm rarely on the bridge now I have those days off." Burton said he doubts that he will have much time during next year's hiatus except to work on "Reading Rainbow." The writers strike last summer has pushed the production schedule back. He is not signed for any future projects but has his eye on a feature film being prepared by George Lucas on the black "Tuskegee airmen" of World War II. "The project's been kicking around for 12 years," he said. "I hope that when it finally comes up it'll coincide with my hiatus. I really want to be in on this.

It's a terrific story of the black pilots nobody wanted. They were put into their own fighter squadron and had the best kill ratio in the war. Then they were completely ignored by the country they served." hungering for freedom, becomes involved with the underground railroad smuggling slaves out of the South. Fiddler is reluctant to jeopardize the privileges he has spent a lifetime earning, yet becomes Kunta's fellow worker on the railroad. "Roots: The Gift," set at Christmastime 1775, also stars Avery Brooks as a "free man of color," Shaun Cassidy as a secret Southern abolitionist running the railroad, Kate Mulgrew as a runaway slave catcher, and John McMartin and Michael Learned as Cassidy's slave-owning parents.

A modern Kinte Burton in some ways sees himself as a modern-day Kunta Kinte, the free man of Africa. "There is a direct thread The TV Book, Sunday, December 1 1, 1988 Page 5.