Henry Louis Gates Jr. jokes about doing a Watchmen-inspired episode of Finding Your Roots

New York Post

Gates' PBS genealogy series had a big fan in Damon Lindelof, who offered him a cameo role that the PBS host and Harvard professor initially turned down. “I go, ‘What? I’m busy, I’m making PBS films!’” Gates recalls. “He kept writing to me and finally we had dinner and he said, ‘Your work on the Tulsa riots in 1921 … contributed to the plot.’ Now, here’s an example of how a history series on PBS helped to shape popular culture. It was great. We shot my scene, I didn’t know how it would fit in until they sent me a link a day before it was about to air, and then I see Regina King come up and talk to me and I’m a hologram. It cracked me up. I figure turnabout is fair play — we’re going to have an all Watchmen episode (of Finding Your Roots).”