The CW Resurrecting ‘70s British Cult Classic, The Tomorrow People
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The U.S. and the U.K. have had a longstanding tradition of collaboration when it comes to television programming. By which I mean, they make good shows, and then when turn them into shitty Americanized versions that last two or three episodes before being cancelled, incinerated, and buried at the bottom of a limestone quarry. Okay, okay, occasionally we get an American versions that is just as good and/or successful as its across-the-pond progenitor. I’m thinking here Shameless, All in the Family, The Office (at least for a while). Which fate awaits the CW’s just-announced update of ‘70s British SF series The Tomorrow People? All I know is, I don’t want them to update the costuming or set decoration at all.
Deadline reports that Greg Berlanti and Julie Plec are teaming up to reboot the cult classic. For those of you not well versed in ‘70s British television, The Tomorrow People was basically a spin on the X-Men concept: young teenagers develop strange powers and then team up to fight evil, yadda yadda yadda. As with Marvel’s mutants, the TP kids are supposed to be the “next stage in human evolution” (hence the “Tomorrow). So we will almost certainly get to see the kids’ powers used as a metaphor for real-world intolerance. As long as they teach that it’s not a good idea to pick on the kid who can set fire to you with his brain or teleport you into the stratosphere. That’s an important lesson for the kids today.
The original Tomorrow People was created by Roger Price and ran from 1973 – 1979 on ITV. Both Berlanti and Plec, who have been friends since college, loved the show in their younger years and have been trying to acquire the TV rights to remake the show for some time now. It’s unsurprising they were able to set the new Tomorrow People up at the CW, because they’re co-creators and EPs of two of that network’s best-rated series: Berlanti on Arrow and Plec on The Vampire Diaries.
