The New People

The New People was a short-lived 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, killing some of the college students and all but one of the adults. The only surviving adult was badly injured, and after he 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 but then never actually used as such, leaving all of the buildings (and, improbably, even supplies) untouched and ready for use by the survivors.

The pilot episode was written by Rod Serling. "The New People" reflected the youth-oriented, counter culture of the 60's. All people over 30 were now dead, and it was up to the young people to start a new society on this island. 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 October 2005, NBC began broadcasting a Saturday morning series with a similar premise, Flight 29 Down. In 2004 ABC premiered the hit Lost which also featured a group of plane crash survivors stranded on a strange island.

This program is an extremely rare example of a regularly-scheduled network television series with 45-minute long episodes.