The New People

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(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 17
Production
Executive producer(s) Aaron Spelling
Producer(s) Harold Gast
Running time 45 min.
Production company(s) Thomas/Spelling Productions
Distributor Worldvision Enterprises
Paramount Television
CBS Paramount Television
CBS Television Distribution (current as of 2007)
Release
Original network ABC
Original release September 22, 1969 – January 12, 1970

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. The crash killed several of the college students, and all but one of the adults, who was badly injured and later died. The surviving students were the only human life remaining on the island. The island was unusual in that it had been built up as a site for a potential above-ground nuclear test which never took place, leaving all of the buildings and (improbably) supplies untouched and ready for use by the survivors.[1] The trip to Southeast Asia was a goodwill tour arranged by the State Department showcasing what American youth were like, but it went awry when one of the students disrupted it, feeling that what they were doing was fake and a way to gloss over what was going on in the country and with relations to the Vietnam war.

The New People reflected the youth-oriented, counterculture of the 1960s. All people over 30 were now dead, and it was up to the young people to start a new society on the island. The pilot episode was written by Rod Serling,[2] credited as "John Phillips."

This program is an extremely rare example of a regularly scheduled network television series with 45-minute long episodes; it aired immediately after The Music Scene, another 45-minute program.[3]

Similar programs

The 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 was also used in William Golding's 1954 novel and subsequent film Lord of the Flies.

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.[4] In October 2005, NBC began broadcasting a Saturday morning series with a similar premise, Flight 29 Down.

References

  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ 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.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ Before there was Lost..., Entertainment Weekly

External links


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