THE NEW PEOPLE (1969): FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

THE NEW PEOPLE (1969) – It’s another Balladeer’s Blog look at a forgotten television program.

The New People was part of a brief and very odd experiment with television programs that ran just 45 minutes INCLUDING commercials.

These shows were always paired with a sister program that also ran 45 minutes total, thus the two back- to- back programs filled a total 90 minute block. In the case of The New People that sister show was The Music Scene. 

The New People was sort of like “Lord of the Flies Meets the 60’s Counterculture”. An airplane crashes on a desert island in the Pacific. Only one adult survives the crash but even they eventually pass away.

The other survivors were all 60’s teenagers as only middle-aged television executives could picture them. These made-for- tv hippies then struggled to start their own society on the island. 

The program provided a nice arena for weighing what network executives thought the counterculture wanted  against the practical necessities of having a functioning society. Only 17 episodes were made before the show was axed. Rod Serling wrote the pilot episode and Aaron Spelling was the executive producer. 

FOR MORE FORGOTTEN TELEVISION CLICK HERE: https://glitternight.com/category/forgotten-television/       

FOR WASHINGTON IRVING’S 1809 depiction of an invasion from the moon click here:   https://glitternight.com/2014/05/05/ancient-science-fiction-the-men-of-the-moon-1809-by-washington-irving/

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