###Answer the question from the input provided. Please answer from input only.

###Input: In the spring of 1975, Fred Pierce, the newly appointed president of ABC Television, convinced Fred Silverman to become the first president and director of programming of the independent television production subsidiary ABC Entertainment, created from the network's namesake programming division. In 1974, ABC premiered the detective series S.W.A.T. That same year, the network made the decision to compete with NBC's morning news-talk program Today. Its first attempt at such competition was AM America; however, that show's success was not straightforward. One of its affiliates, WCVB-TV premiered morning show Good Day!. First premiering in 1973 as Good Morning!, it was groundbreaking for being entirely produced on the road and broadcasting from locations outside of the Boston area. Also, in the summer of 1975, ABC discovered that its Cleveland affiliate WEWS-TV was producing its own morning program The Morning Exchange, which debuted in 1972 and was now locally pre-empting AM America; it was the first morning show to utilize a set modeled after a living room, and established a concept now commonplace among network morning shows in which news and weather updates were featured at the top and bottom of each hour. Discovering that their formats seemed to appeal to their viewers, the network became the first to adopt them for a new national morning show, Good Morning America, which debuted on November 3, 1975.

The 1970s were highlighted by several successful comedy, fantasy, action and superhero-themed series for the network including Kung Fu, The Six Million Dollar Man, Wonder Woman, Starsky & Hutch, Charlie's Angels, The Bionic Woman, Fantasy Island and Battlestar Galactica. Many of these series were greenlit by Silverman, who left ABC in 1978 to become president of NBC's entertainment division. The rousing success of Happy Days also led to a successful spin-off series, Laverne & Shirley, which debuted in 1976. Charlie's Angels and Three's Company (which debuted in 1977) were two prime examples of a trend among the major networks during the 1970s known as "jiggle TV", featuring attractive, often buxom, women in main and guest roles.

For its part, the television network produced a few new hits during 1977: January saw the premiere of Roots, a miniseries based on an Alex Haley novel that was published the previous year; in September, The Love Boat, a comedy-drama anthology series produced by Aaron Spelling which was based around the crew of a cruise ship and featured three stories centered partly on the ship's various passengers; although critically lambasted, the series turned out to be a ratings success and lasted nine seasons. Roots went on to become one of the highest-rated programs in American television history, with unprecedented ratings for its finale. The success of Roots, Happy Days and The Love Boat allowed the network to take first place in the ratings for the first time in the 1976–77 season. On September 13, 1977, the network debuted Soap, a controversial soap opera parody which became known for being the first television series to feature an openly gay main character (played by a then-unknown Billy Crystal); it last ran on the network on April 20, 1981.

Meanwhile, ABC News, which formed as a newly separate division, sought to become a global leader in television news. In 1977, Roone Arledge was named president of the new ABC News in addition to being president of ABC Sports. That same year, ABC launched a major expansion of its office facilities in New York City. The company first constructed a new 10-story building on land previously occupied by an abandoned warehouse on the corner of Columbus Avenue and West 66th Street; the facility that was built in its place is nicknamed "7 Lincoln Square" (although it is actually located at 149 Columbus Avenue). Meanwhile, a former parking lot, located at 30 West 67th Street, was transformed into an impressive 15-story building. Both buildings were completed in June 1979. WABC-TV moved its operations from offices at 77 West 66th Street to 149 Columbus Avenue, freeing up space for the ABC network to house some of its operations.

In June 1978, Arledge created the newsmagazine 20/20; after its first episode received harshly negative reviews, the program – which debuted as a summer series, before becoming a year-round program in 1979 – was immediately revamped to feature a mix of in-depth stories and interviews, with Hugh Downs appointed as its anchor (later paired alongside his former Today colleague Barbara Walters). In February 1979, ABC sold its recording division to MCA Inc. for $20 million; the label was discontinued by March 5 of that year, and all of its 300 employees were laid off (the rights to the works of ABC Records and all of MCA's other labels have since been acquired by Universal Music Group).



###Question: The Roots miniseries was based on a novel by what author?

###Answer: {'answer':'Alex Haley'}