Revealing mistake: In episode 2, when Kunta Kinte is on the slave ship 'Lord Ligonier', the slaves are trying to take over. During the fight, one of them is going up to a white man and if you look up in the sky you can see a trail from an airplane.
Part 1 Roots: The Saga of An American Family - S1-E1
Revealing mistake: The young men are all in a lineup, preparing to be circumcised, when the camera pulls back to an obtuse shot of the lineup, whence they're all wearing African drawers. Either for modesty purposes, or purely a filming error.