The New People

I too was a very young 10 at the time. For some reason I always thought the show was called "The Young American's". I remember the plane crash, and their attempt to form a new Utopia. I don't recall individual story lines or the characters, but I also remember it followed David Steinberg's show. I do remember that Three Dog Night played Eli's Coming on that. I would love to see it again, but it would probably be like watching My Three Son's grow up and get real long(shoulder length) hair. Would original copies of this still be archived anywhere? Send an e-mail if available.

Even though I was only three years old at the time this show came out, for some reason it stuck with me. One reason is the fact that it is one of the few failures in the illustrious career of the master television writer Rod Serling. It also marked one of the few failures for Aaron Spelling, who had just produced the Mod Squad and would later go on to dominate the 1970's with such shows as Charlie's Angels and the Love Boat. Another reason is the concept of the show. The whole concept of this show was that a plane carrying a group of college students on the way back from a trip abroad gets caught in a storm and crashes on a seemingly deserted island. However, this seemingly deserted island was an abandoned nuclear test site, which was completely stocked with enough provisions to keep them alive almost indefinitely. They then go about creating their own society complete with their own rules as they try to survive on the island. This show definitely was a product of its time, the late 1960's, when youth rebellion was was very prevalent. I think that this would have been better if instead of being a weekly series that it should have been either a movie of the week or maybe a mini-series and maybe it would have been remembered better.

I will never forget one gripping episode of The New People.It had to do with the budding romance of one of the white guys with the very pretty black female.The person who"tripped"the most over this daring relationship was one of the black males in the stranded group.

The reason I was so struck by this episode was that at the time I was going through some similar"changes"in my own life.I had befriended a couple of black women but also was alarmed and frightened by some of the reactions to these friendships among black men.Some whites were pretty hostile as well but 1969 was the time of Black Power and militancy so that vibe predominated back then.

Ironically,I was a big supporter of black causes(list provided upon request)but on a personal level that fact was often not considered during the heat of the times.

Rod Serling as "Creator" is deceptive. He was probably in an executive capacity with little "creative" contribution. In other words, they used his august name.

If memory serves, this programme did not last a full season, and its 45 minute running time is a mystery. THE NEW PEOPLE was very much a product of its time, inspired much less by LORD OF THE FLIES than MOD SQUAD. It showed. To be honest, however, during the late '60s -- which I remember very well -- more than one middle-aged individual wondered how well all these griping young people could do if they were left to re-shape society. It is a small detail that starting from scratch in an environment red of tooth and claw is not the best way to test a high-falutin' hypothesis. The only "old guy" dies a long and expository death in the first episode, and life, such as it is, begins for the new society. Of course, by 1970 both great powers had high resolution spy satellites, although with non-Pacific targets, and it would be a matter of maybe two or three casualty filled years before things would be put to right. If they ever gave it a thought, that is probably how the "creators" planned to end the series.

For some bizarre reason, however, I found the theme attractive. Perhaps as a failed man in his middle-20s, I wanted to be off by myself on a non-desert isle with a nice high mountain at centre from which to watch the Sun go down and the Moon come up.

It is ironic that the top show on TV in the early 21st century, "Lost" echos greatly the rarely seen 1969 TV series, "The New People'. Like "Lost", "The New People" concerned the survivors of a plane crash in the pacific. "The New People' however was a reflection of the social issues of the day and in the pilot episode it featured the only adult in Richard Kiley. Kiley did a superb job in the clash of generations and made the pilot episode seem like a 1969 episode of The Twilight Zone.

All of the existing episodes of the New People aired only once on US TV and have never been even surfaced on internet tape trading sites. Recently however all of the episodes have been found at the UCLA video library. It would be great, now that "Lost" is such a big hit, to show people....new people, (ahem) what the original plane crash survivor show was like...and issue these episodes as a boxed set....for Christmas....perhaps even track down the original cast for commentary....etc......The New People shouldn't be lost forever.....(ahem)