Roots?
Season: 8
First Shown: 24 December 1981
For Mr. Grace's 90th' birthday, the staff decide to do a little skit based on Mr. Grace's lineage. That sounds simple, right? And it would be, except that tracing Mr. Grace's roots turns out to be one convoluted trip! Mr. Rumbold's brother just happens to be a genealogist (with a full head of red hair!) and it seems like every five minutes he dredges up a new root to the Grace lineage. First Mr. Grace's family is traced to Wales, and the staff works on a Welsh-themed skit to present in Mr. Grace's honor. But then there's a change: turns out that Mr. Grace's roots go further back, into Scotland (enter Scottish-themed skit here)...then Somerset (another skit)...until finally (at last!) the end of the lineage is reached. But what was found at the end?
This is one of the hardest to find episodes of AYBS out there. Without spoiling it, let's just say that the ending can be considered a bit controversial by some. To add to the confusion, according to several reliable viewers of the show, there are two endings to Roots?: The original (and arguably controversial) ending, and an alternate ending that truncates the show one root up. I've never seen the truncated episode so I'm not sure exactly how it ends.
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