This Friday, Who Do You Think You Are? premieres on NBC and every day this week, Hollywood the Write Way will present you with reviews of every episode.
From Executive Producer Lisa Kudrow (“Friends,” “The Comeback”) — in conjunction with her production company Is or Isn’t Entertainment and the U.K.’s Wall to Wall productions, “Who Do You Think You Are?” is an adaptation of the award-winning hit British television documentary series. The seven-episode program will lead celebrities on a journey of self-discovery as they unearth their family trees that reveal surprising, inspiring and even tragic stories that are often linked to crucial events in American history.
In the second episode, football star, Emmitt Smith aims to trace his roots as far back to his ancestors in Africa. In the beginning, viewers are introduced to his wife and children. His wife wife mentions that Emmitt has missed out on attending many family reunions and cookouts due to his football schedule, so right away, viewers understand all the more why he wants to find out about his ancestry, as he has missed out many opportunities to jump start this journey. His search takes him from his current residence in Texas to his parent’s house in Florida to Alabama, Virginia, and lastly, Africa.
At his parents’ house, viewers will find out that ultimately, Emmitt knows very little about grandparents background simply because they did not like to talk about their past. Just imagine how much easier it would have been to trace back his ancestry and appreciate what those who lived before him endured so that Emmitt could be here today. No matter, it is still gratifying as his journey did lead him to Africa. Through a DNA test, Emmitt learns that he is 81% African American, 7% Native American, and 12% European. Through ancestry.com, and meeting with a genealogy archivist among other genealogy researchers, Emmitt is able to trace his roots back to the 1800s. One of the heaviest moments of the episode occurs when Emmitt is faced with the reality of segregation when the archivist pulls out a record book of marriage licenses for the “Colored.”
What really sets his search into full gear is the discovery of an 11 year old girl, Mariah whom you will learn much about when this episode airs. Slavery plays quite a big part in Emmitt’s family history as he learns in the South of America and in Africa. In his visit to Africa, at a Museum of History that has been converted to a slave fort, Emmitt seemed surprised to know that slavery and children trafficking still take place in Africa. It is no secret that this whole journey is a learning experience for him, but that should have been known knowledge already and it is quite surprising that he did not have dozens of questions to ask, because I know that I do.
While this episode ultimately helped Emmitt fill out many names in his family tree, he was unable to trace back any ancestors to Africa and find out where it all began for his family in Africa so his search was success but not as successful as one would hope. Though it seems Emmitt is more connected to Africa than he was before and possibly he will take his entire family for more soul searching. Something tells me this is only the beginning of his search and what a fabulous start it is.
Who Do You Think You Are? premieres March 5th at 8/7c on NBC.