“The Young Rebels”

As the Revolutionary War raged on around them, a group of young people in the colonies did their best to help bring about independence while maintaining a publicly neutral facade. The series was part of a wave of relevant, youth-oriented programs that the networks premiered in the fall of 1970. Only fifteen episodes were broadcast.

The Young Rebels

As the networks unveiled their new schedules for the 1970-1971 television season, critics noted the prevalence of youth and relevance, both in the titles of new programs and their descriptions [1]. ABC had The Young Lawyers, about a group of fresh faced, civic-minded young lawyers.

On CBS there was The Interns, a medical drama focusing on a crop of new doctors interning at a hospital. And on NBC, Nancy, a sitcom centered on the teenaged daughter of the President of the United States of America. In the words of one television critic, new fall shows would “be dripping with social consciousness” [2].

Also on ABC’s schedule, announced in February of 1970, was The Young Rebels [3]. It was an hour-long drama set in 1777 during the American Revolutionary War. Four young revolutionaries banded together to form the Yankee Doodle Society, a seemingly innocent front from which they attacked British forces. The series premiered on Sunday, September 20th, airing from 7-8PM on Sundays, opposite Lassie on CBS and the first half of Wonderful World Of Disney on NBC.

Rick Ely starred in The Young Rebels as Jeremy Larkin, who hated following rules. This was an unfortunate problem for the young man: he was the son of the mayor of Chester, Pennsylvania and Chester was under the control of the British. Wanting to do his part to overthrow the British forces, Jeremy and several of his friends formed the Yankee Doodle Society, with Jeremy the leader of the group. Its goals were subterfuge and sabotage rather than outright killing. Intercepting orders, destroying cannons and otherwise disrupting the movement of British troops.

Henry Abington, played by Alex Henteloff, was the group’s explosives expert. He looked, sounded and thought like Ben Franklin, his idol. Lou Gossett portrayed Isak Poole, a former slave who bought his way out of slavery and became a blacksmith. Rounding out the group was Elizabeth Coates (played by Hilarie Thompson), Jeremy’s girlfriend, who lived with her strict uncle. He wasn’t fond of letting her out alone, even to go to church. French General Lafayette (played by Philippe Fourquet) was aware of the Yankee Doodle Society’s ulterior motives and joined forces with the rebels whenever possible.

The series was quite obviously a social commentary on the radicalization of the American youth during the 1960s. The previous decade had been turbulent; the youth of America were no longer satisfied with their government, their society and their elders. The long hair Rick Ely sported in the series poked fun at those who looked down at young men who wore their hair long. By focusing on the youth of the Revolutionary War, The Young Rebels attempted to compare the revolutionaries of the 1770s with the revolutionaries of the 1970s.

Elizabeth Coates

The series never caught on with the target demographic. The timeslot it shared with Lassie and Wonderful World of Disney had long been associated with family viewing, which may have turned off the very group of people the show was supposed to attract. The fact that repeats of the series wound up on the Christian Broadcasting Network probably explains why a lot of “rebellious youths” didn’t watch.

The series blended historical fact with television fiction to create an adventurous, hour-long look at the young people during the Revolutionary War. The scripts were supposedly based on actual events and every episode ended with an on-screen explanation of the historical reality of the story that had just been presented. Overall, however, The Young Rebels suffered greatly from trying to blend too many genres. Combining historical fiction with a half-drama, half-comedy adventure series just didn’t work.

Although the comedic elements of the show worked on occasion — Jeremy in particular was witty and could be very amusing at times and the three male members of the Society playing off one other well — other aspects of the series didn’t work out so well. The romance between Jeremy and Elizabeth (”Jeremy Larkin, you are jealous!”) was probably an attempt to keep the youthful female demographic watching. But Elizabeth seemed entirely out of place, the token female tending to the wounded and hanging around so British soldiers can comment about how they don’t wage war on little girls.

The writers wove in historical figures into various episodes, in addition to General Lafayette. Monte Markham appeared in one episode as William Billings, who was an actual composer during the Revolutionary War. He wrote a famous song entitled “Chester” that, in the episode, was rewritten due to Billings encounter with the Yankee Doodle Society. In another episode, Brandon De Wilde showed up as Nathan Hale, Connecticut’s homegrown patriot executed by the British.

Henry Abington

Episodes were what one would expect from a show set during the Revolutionary War: the Yankee Doodle Society and a group of British soldiers must work together after all are stuck in a mineshaft after a cave-in. They have to find and stop an assassin from killing George Washington, the only problem is, the assassin has infiltrated their group. Other episodes saw Jeremy posing as a British sympathizer to hand over false information to the British.

Another had Isak being captured, while yet another saw Isak facing facts when he learns that his brother is in with the British. Henry had his share of trouble. One episode involved his cousin plotting a massive campaign against the British that could kill civilians. In the final episode, entitled “To Kill A Traitor,” Jeremy encounters an American spy who has turned against America and is working for the British.

Each episode would end with a voiceover from one of the cast, reading aloud text that scrolled on the screen. The text explained what happened due to the events that took place in the episode. For example, young British soldiers who are impressed with the young rebels return to England, changed men Additionally, at the end of each episode’s closing credits appeared the following disclaimer: “Some of the events and people in this episode were fictional.”

In November of 1970, ABC announced the cancellation of six new programs, including The Young Rebels [4]. All would broadcast their final episodes in January. Rather than replace the 7-8PM Sunday night timeslot that The Young Rebels had occupied, ABC returned the hour to its affiliates, fulfilling an FCC-mandated order to return airtime to affiliates by October of 1971 [5]. The last episode of The Young Rebels, its fifteenth, aired on January 3rd, 1971.

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Last Updated June 26th, 2008