The New People is a 1969 American television series on ABC that focused on a group of young college students who were returning from a trip in Southeast Asia when their plane crashed on an island in the south Pacific Ocean. This program is an extremely rare example of a regularly scheduled network television series with 45-minute-long episodes (which ABC did to try and counteract the competition in the 8:00-9:00 slot, which included Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In); it aired at 8:15 (ET), immediately after The Music Scene, another 45-minute program.[1] Less than four months after its premiere, ABC canceled the show.
| The New People | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Drama |
| Created by | Larry Gordon Aaron Spelling |
| Developed by | Rod Serling |
| Directed by | Corey Allen Charles S. Dubin Harry Harvey Jr. George McCowan Nicholas Webster |
| Starring | Tiffany Bolling Zooey Hall Jill Jaress David Moses Dennis Olivieri Peter Ratray |
| Theme music composer | Earle Hagen |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 17 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Aaron Spelling Danny Thomas |
| Producer | Harold Gast |
| Running time | 45 minutes |
| Production company | Thomas/Spelling Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | September 22, 1969 – January 12, 1970 |
Plot
editA plane is shown carrying a number of college students back to the United States after a trip to Southeast Asia for a goodwill tour arranged by the State Department goes awry when they become outspoken about being used as a tool of goodwill that leads to the tour being called off. However, the plane crashes on an island, leaving only a select number of students alive, with the only surviving adult dying from his wounds not long after the crash. The surviving students are the only human life remaining on the island with no radio. The island, soon learned to be named Bomano, is discovered to be unusual in that it was built up as a site for a potential above-ground nuclear test which never took place, leaving all of the buildings and supplies untouched and ready for use by the survivors.[2] The New People reflected the youth-oriented counterculture of the 1960s.[citation needed] All people over 30 were now dead, and it was up to the young people to start a new society on the island, which would see bouts of sexism and racism in the fight to establish order. The pilot episode was written by Rod Serling,[3] credited as "John Phillips."[4]
Production
editWhen asked about his involvement in the show, Rod Serling stated it was Aaron Spelling's show, as "He brought me the idea and I wrote the pilot script. Beyond that, I have nothing to do with it. The show is somewhere between Gilligan’s Island and San Francisco State. It may work. But not with me." A 51-minute unaired pilot was screened at UCLA Film & Television Archive with a full Serling credit in 2012.[4]
Similar programs
editThe concept of having all the adults killed off leaving only the young people to survive was not a new one, nor was this to be its last appearance. This concept had also been used in William Golding's 1954 novel and subsequent film, Lord of the Flies, and in the 27 October 1966 Star Trek episode "Miri".
In 2004, ABC premiered the hit series Lost which also featured a group of plane crash survivors stranded on a strange island. Producer Damon Lindelof later joked that if he had heard of the series, he would have used the name New People for the band of character Charlie Pace.[5] In October 2005, NBC began broadcasting a Saturday morning series with a similar premise, Flight 29 Down.
Episodes
editThis article needs a plot summary. (August 2018) |
| No. | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Pilot" | September 22, 1969 |
| 2 | "Panic in the Sand" | September 29, 1969 |
| 3 | "The Tin God" | October 6, 1969 |
| 4 | "Murderer!" | October 13, 1969 |
| 5 | "Comes the Revolution, We Use the Girls' Shower" | October 20, 1969 |
| 6 | "Lifeline" | October 27, 1969 |
| 7 | "Marriage – Bomano Style" | November 3, 1969 |
| 8 | "Is This Any Way to Run an Island?" | November 10, 1969 |
| 9 | "The Dark Side of the Island" | November 17, 1969 |
| 10 | "A Bride In Basic Black: The Courtship"(part one) | November 24, 1969 |
| 11 | "A Bride in Basic Black: The Surrender"(part two) | December 1, 1969 |
| 12 | "The Pied Piper of Pot" | December 8, 1969 |
| 13 | "Speed Kills" | December 15, 1969 |
| 14 | "The Guns of Bomano" | December 22, 1969 |
| 15 | "The Prisoner of Bomano" | December 29, 1969 |
| 16 | "The Siege of Fern's Castle" | January 5, 1970 |
| 17 | "On the Horizon" | January 12, 1970 |
Original paperback novel tie-in
editThey Came from the Sea, an original tie-in novel based on the TV series was published in 1969 by Tempo Books, the young adult paperback imprint of Grosset & Dunlap. The author was the prolific tie-in specialist William Johnston, writing under the pseudonym "Alex Steele."
References
edit- ^ Gent, George (March 1, 1969). "A. B. C. Plans to Replace 12 TV Programs in Fall; Two 45-Minute Segments on List as Network Bids to Hold Audiences". The New York Times. p. 63.
- ^ Gould, Jack (June 7, 1970). "It Wasn't the Best of Seasons, But It Could Have Been Worse". The New York Times. p. 103. Retrieved September 1, 2011.
- ^ Buck, Jerry (July 21, 1970). "Serling Says He Prefers The 'Sidelines' of TV". The Owosso Argus-Press. Owosso, Michigan. Associated Press. p. 3. Retrieved September 1, 2011.
- ^ a b "The New People". March 11, 2009.
- ^ Before there was Lost..., Entertainment Weekly