The New People is a 1969–70 American television series on ABC that focused on a group of young college students who were returning to the United States from a trip in Southeast Asia when their plane crashed on a deserted island in the remote South Pacific Ocean. This program is an extremely rare example of a regularly scheduled network television series with 45-minute-long episodes (which ABC proposed to counteract the competition in the 8:00–9:00 p.m. slot, which included Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In); it aired at 8:15 p.m. (ET), immediately after The Music Scene, another 45-minute program. It is also distinctive because its unusual premise made it perhaps the only American television series of its era that engages with the social, political, and cultural issues raised by the youth rebellion of the late 1960s through the genre of speculative fiction.For a general discussion of the impact of the youth rebelliuon of American television, see Aniko Bodroghkozy, Groove Tube: Sixties Television and the Youth Rebellion (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001). Less than four months after its premiere, ABC canceled the show, but it remains a largely forgotten precedent for the later and more successful television series Lost.
Plot
A group of college students are flying back to the United States after a goodwill tour to Southeast Asia arranged by the State Department goes awry when they become outspoken about being used as tools of the government and the tour is called off. However, during a severe storm, the plane crashes on a deserted island, leaving only a select number of students alive; the sole surviving adult dies from his wounds not long after the crash. The survivors, with no radio, are the only humans on the island. They learn that the island is Bomano, which has been built up as a site for a potential above-ground nuclear test that never took place, leaving all of the buildings and supplies untouched and ready for use. The New People reflects the youth-oriented counterculture of the 1960s. All people over 30 are now dead, and it is up to the young people to start a new society on the island, which will see bouts of sexism and racism in the fight to establish order. The pilot episode is written by Rod Serling, credited as "John Phillips."
Cast
Main cast
Tiffany Bolling as Susan Bradley: daughter of a United States senator Zooey Hall as Robert (Bob) E. Lee: white Southerner with racist views David Moses as Eugene "Bones" Washington: Black militant Peter Ratray as George Potter: former Marine Jill Jaress as Ginny Loomis Dennis Olivieri as Stanley Gabriel
Recurring cast
Clive Clerk as Jack Elizabeth Berger as Laura Dennis Redfield as Rube
Notable guest cast
Richard Dreyfuss as Dr. Owen Rudd A Martinez as Gradis Billy Dee Williams as Heath Tyne Daly as Kathy
Production Aaron Spelling and Larry Gordon created The New People for Thomas-Spelling Productions, a production company that Spelling and Danny Thomas formed in 1966. It was the company's follow up to The Mod Squad, a popular ABC crime drama about three unconventional police officers that had premiered in 1968. Like The Mod Squad, The New People was designed to attract the youth market. At a time when many youths were rebelling against mainstream society, it asked: Can young people create a new utopian society by themselves if they are freed from the constraints of the older generation? Spelling and Gordon originated the concept and then hired Rod Serling, whom Spelling admired, to develop it into a series.
In November 1968, Serling began writing the script for a 60-minute pilot, which is reminiscent of typical episodes of The Twilight Zone in plot and tone. In January 1969, Thomas-Spelling announced that it was producing the pilot. ABC, which had a reputation for innovative programming, bought it. Spelling claimed that he and Gordon did not ask Serling to make any changes to the first draft of the script because they thought it was perfect. However, Serling's biographer Nicholas Parisi notes that Serling's copy includes numerous comments from both Spelling and the network. After the pilot was filmed, ABC cut it to 45 minutes. This decision frustrated Serling, who replaced his name in the credits with the alias "John Phillips." Parisi observes: "On the title page of his personal copy of the script, Serling wrote, 'This provided a great deal of money but ABC cut 20 minutes out of it & it bled to death.'" His involvement with the show ended with the pilot, but he would work with Spelling on two other projects in the early 1970s. When asked about his involvement in the show, Serling stated it was Spelling's show: "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." Other notable writers who wrote for the show include Stephen Kandel, who penned two episodes, and Edward J. Lakso, who wrote one.
On March 3, 1969, ABC announced that it had scheduled the show for the upcoming fall season. It would air on Monday evenings from 8:15 to 9 p.m., immediately after The Music Scene, which would air from 7:30 to 8:15 p.m. One industry observer described the proposed series as "one of the most intriguing TV projects of the season." Another characterized the pilot as one of the season's best, but acknowledged that the show would face stiff competition. This competition included Laugh-In on NBC and Gunsmoke and Here's Lucy on CBS, which were very popular. ABC's programmers assumed that viewers who had tuned in to The Music Scene would continue to watch The New People because they had missed the first 15 minutes of Laugh-In, which began at 8 p.m. Both shows were "major investments" for ABC; according to a media report, ABC planned to allocate $23–25 million to its all-new Monday primetime schedule. Commercials airing during The New People were initially priced at $43,000 per commercial minute.
The show focused on six characters who represented a cross-section of young people critical of the older generation who were forced to work together to build a new society that reflected their respective and often clashing values. According to TV Guide, they included "all sorts of conflicting types, of course—senator's naïve daughter, black militant, vicious racist, well-meaning premed student, knuckleheaded football hero, grass-smoking hippie, Ivy League conservative, etc. They attempt to resolve their conflicts in numerous ways, most of them luridly melodramatic." Cast member Peter Ratray commented: "This will not be another Gilligan's Island. … The students will try to set up the rudiments of a society on their island. They will confront the problems that are facing the young people today, such as civil rights, drug use, and war. And they will try to get answers for these problems before they become a threat to life on the island."
Production officially began in June 1969. The majority of the actors were unknowns.See also Carol Hart, "'I'll Never Go Back!' Declares Pete Ratray," Indianapolis Star, July 20, 1969, 134; Vince Leonard, "Pete and Jill: Couple of 'The New People,'" The Pittsburgh Press, August 22, 1969, 46; Mary McBride, "Local Girl in TV Series" [Tiffany Bolling], Fort Lauderdale News, August 1, 1969, 79. Most of the beach exteriors were filmed in Malibu. Producer Harold Gast and story editor Earl Booth were looking forward to developing the six protagonists into more well-rounded characters. However, Booth later remarked: "It was during the last half of production that distinct displeasure came to the forefront. The network was unhappy with the way the show was developing, and it led to bitter battles. ABC wanted to make it, purely and simply, an adventure show." Kandel commented: "There was friction [with the network] from the beginning. The original premise was that the students would experiment with social ideas. Communism. Fascism. … Pacifism. Hedonism. … The pilot, by Rod Serling, was striking. For the weekly series, the network wanted a cross between Gilligan's Island and Beverly Hills, 90210. The New People was postulated upon ideas, and that's always risky. With the best and the worst of intentions, it foundered quickly."
Episodes
Reception The New People premiered on ABC on Monday, September 22, 1969. The premiere received a rating of 10.7 and a share of 15, compared to 11.9/17 for Here's Lucy and 30.9/43 for Laugh-In. The second episode's ratings did not improve: 11.9/17, compared to 16.4/23 for Here's Lucy and 35.8/50 for Laugh-In. In early November, ABC cancelled the series. It would be the last show produced by Thomas-Spelling, which dissolved in 1969. Spelling attributed its cancellation to its scheduling and its 45-minute length, which he claimed made it impossible to syndicate or sell to foreign television stations. Yet, in his autobiography he spoke about it fondly and described it as "one of my favorite flops."
Reviews of the show were mixed, as reflected in excerpts of 13 reviews published in the September 28, 1969, issue of the industry magazine Broadcasting. For example, the New York Times commented that the premiere "began with many cliché contrivances but has an interesting potential," the Boston Globe predicted that it should be "popular, particularly among the young," and the San Francisco Chronicle noted that it was the "most fascinating program idea of the new season, but … characters will need to display more humor and honor." By contrast, the New York Daily News characterized it as "preachy," the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner described it as "loaded with slogans and abstractions masquerading as flesh-and-blood," and the Washington Post described it as "somewhere between Gilligan's Island and Lord of the Flies."
Themes and analysis Although it was a ratings disappointment and received mixed reviews, The New People was one of the most innovative and imaginative series of its time. It exemplified the trend among certain American television dramas in the late 1960s to address the social, political, and cultural changes wrought by the youth rebellion. In particular, it epitomized the drive for "relevance" in television programming—a trend that would accelerate in the early 1970s.See Todd Gitlin, "The Turn Toward Relevance," in Inside Prime Time (New York : Pantheon Books, 1985), chap. 10; Aniko Bodroghkozy, " Make It Relevant: How Youth Rebellion Captured Prime Time in 1970 and 1971," in Groove Tube: Sixties Television and the Youth Rebellion (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001), chap. 6. Yet, by adopting a highly unusual premise and embracing the genre of speculative fiction, it distinguished itself from more conventional crime, law, medical, or family dramas. A 1969 press release stated: "We are enormously excited over the challenge to create meaningful, quality programming that will make young people feel, 'This is our show.'" The critic Cecil Smith noted in the Los Angeles Times: "The young appeal of New People is that it offers dissident youth the opportunity to run the kind of society they visualize—one based on the ethical, moral, nonmaterialistic standards they preach." Like science fiction series of the era, such as Star Trek and Land of the Giants, The New People addressed contemporary issues that many young people deemed relevant, including racial conflict, medical ethics, mental illness, women's rights, police violence, gun rights, and individual liberties, by imagining what might be possible in an alternate reality.