''The New People'' is a 1969

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

television series on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

that focused on a group of young college students who were returning from a trip in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

when their plane crashed on an island in the south

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. 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.

Plot

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 Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by ...

which never took place, leaving all of the buildings and (improbably) supplies untouched and ready for use by the survivors. 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 Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. ''The New People'' reflected the youth-oriented

counterculture of the 1960s The counterculture of the 1960s was an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon that developed throughout much of the Western world in the 1960s and has been ongoing to the present day. The aggregate movement gained momentum as the civil rights mo ...

. 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 Rodman Edward Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, and narrator/on-screen host, best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his anthology television series ' ...

, credited as "John Phillips."

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 had also been used in

William Golding Sir William Gerald Golding (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) was a British novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel ''Lord of the Flies'' (1954), he published another twelve volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 1980 ...

's 1954

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

and subsequent film, ''

Lord of the Flies ''Lord of the Flies'' is a 1954 novel by the Nobel Prize-winning British author William Golding. The plot concerns a group of British boys who are stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves. Themes i ...

'', and in the 27 October 1966 ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...

'' episode "Miri". In 2004 ABC premiered the hit series ''

Lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

'' which also featured a group of plane crash survivors stranded on a strange island. Producer

Damon Lindelof Damon Laurence Lindelof (born April 24, 1973) is an American screenwriter, comic book writer, and producer. Among his accolades, he received three Primetime Emmy Awards, from twelve nominations. In 2010, ''Time'' magazine named him one of the ...

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 Charlie Pace is a fictional character on ABC's ''Lost'', a television series chronicling the lives of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island. Played by Dominic Monaghan, Charlie was a regular character in the first three seasons, a ...

.Before there was Lost...
Entertainment Weekly In October 2005,

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

began broadcasting a Saturday morning series with a similar premise, ''

Flight 29 Down ''Flight 29 Down'' is an American adventure comedy-drama television series about a group of teenagers who are stranded on an island. It was produced by Discovery Kids. The show was created by Stan Rogow (''Lizzie McGuire'', ''Darcy's Wild Life'') ...

''.

Episodes

Original paperback novel tie-in

''They Came from the Sea'', an original tie-in novel based on the TV series was published in 1969 by

Tempo Books Grosset & Dunlap is a New York City-based publishing house founded in 1898. The company was purchased by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1982 and today is part of Penguin Random House through its subsidiary Penguin Group. Today, through the Penguin Gro ...

, the young adult paperback imprint of

Grosset & Dunlap Grosset & Dunlap is a New York City-based publishing house founded in 1898. The company was purchased by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1982 and today is part of Penguin Random House through its subsidiary Penguin Group. Today, through the Penguin Gro ...

. The author was the prolific tie-in specialist William Johnston, writing under the pseudonym "Alex Steele."

References

External links

*
Television Obscurities – The New People
{{DEFAULTSORT:New People, The 1969 American television series debuts 1970 American television series endings 1960s American drama television series 1970s American drama television series American Broadcasting Company original programming English-language television shows Television series by CBS Studios Television series created by Aaron Spelling Television series created by Rod Serling Television series set on fictional islands