# A TV series called Earth Abides **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [December 5, 2024, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184 "2024-12-05T08:21:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/1 "2024-12-05T08:21:16Z")
I was looking for something on the Internet Movie Data Base and saw an ad for a new series. It’s based on the book _Earth Abides_ I read it growing up. My dad once mentioned, when he saw me with a copy, that there had been a radio version of it. Has anyone else heard of or seen this? It’s supposed to have started, if I saw it right. I’m wondering how closely it will follow the plot of the book. I noticed there are two characters, a white man and a black woman. If I remember in the book the woman was a fair skinned woman “passing” for white. Perhaps when the book was written it was the way to get around an interracial relationship. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/2 "2024-12-05T08:46:55Z")
[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Abides_(TV_series)) says it started on December 1, 2024. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/3 "2024-12-05T09:12:52Z")
Thank you for that, I didn’t think of Wikipedia in looking for it. The Wiki article did mantion a 1950 radio show, like my dad mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/4 "2024-12-05T12:11:21Z")
For any show-biz related question, wiki is my first go-to. Almost always there’s an article. If so, it probably gives you whatever you wanted to know, and if not, the bibliography gives you lots of Google-fodder. IMO IMDB is not nearly the useful reference resource it was 15+ years ago. Being now more ads than content, it is however a useful way to learn of new shows. 🤪 ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/5 "2024-12-05T12:19:10Z")
Title changed to be more descriptive. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/6 "2024-12-05T12:45:59Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > IMO IMDB is not nearly the useful reference resource it was 15+ years ago. Being now more ads than content, it is however a useful way to learn of new shows. But you don’t watch TV. Are you [the grampa from _The Lost Boys_](https://clip.cafe/the-lost-boys-1987/you-have-a-tv-no/)? ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/7 "2024-12-05T12:54:24Z")
I didn’t know there was a streaming service called MGM+. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/8 "2024-12-05T13:08:43Z")
I’ll have to check it out. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/9 "2024-12-05T13:11:36Z")
Probably my most favorite book. I’ve not read any other book more times than this one. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/10 "2024-12-05T13:42:52Z")
You’re right I pretty much don’t. My comment was a ref back to the OP who inadvertently discovered this show from an IMDB ad. Presumably while consulting IMDB for something else. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/11 "2024-12-05T14:18:36Z")
I read George R. Stewart’s _Earth Abides_ back when I started reading science fiction. My library had a copy, and I saw paperback editions on the shelves. Stewart wasn’t a noted science fiction author – our library had copies of his other books, and they were all disaster books with titles like **Fire!** or **Storm!** (“Storm” was used as the basis for a show that introduced the song “They Call the Wind Maria”). AFAIK (and as the Internet Speculative Fiction Database confirms), _Earth Abides_ was his solo fantastic fiction effort. Nevertheless, it’s been in print almost continually since it first came out. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/12 "2024-12-05T17:21:00Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > (“Storm” was used as the basis for a show that introduced the song “They Call the Wind Maria”) I’m pretty sure that song is from a 1951 Lerner and Loewe stage musical, Paint Your Wagon. Is that the show you mean? It’s about the California gold rush, so I’m not clear how storms would come into it. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/13 "2024-12-05T17:25:11Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I didn’t know there was a streaming service called MGM+. There are _many_ streaming services (dozens, maybe?), most of which few subscribe to. It’s a shame as that limits the audience for those shows. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/14 "2024-12-05T17:41:06Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > I’m pretty sure that song is from a 1951 Lerner and Loewe stage musical, Paint Your Wagon. Is that the show you mean? It’s about the California gold rush, so I’m not clear how storms would come into it. > [@](#): > > His 1941 novel _[Storm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_(Stewart_novel))_ inspired [Alan Jay Lerner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Jay_Lerner) and [Frederick Loewe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Loewe) to write the song “[They Call the Wind Maria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Call_the_Wind_Maria)” for their 1951 musical _[Paint Your Wagon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint_Your_Wagon_(musical))_ .[[6]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_R._Stewart#cite_note-6) > **[George R. Stewart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_R._Stewart)** > > George Rippey Stewart Jr. (May 31, 1895 – August 22, 1980) was an American historian, toponymist, novelist, and a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley. His 1959 book, Pickett's Charge, a detailed history of the final attack at the Battle of Gettysburg, was termed "essential for an understanding of the Battle of Gettysburg". His 1949 post-apocalyptic novel Earth Abides won the first International Fantasy Award in 1951. > Stewart was born in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, to e... ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/15 "2024-12-05T19:50:58Z")
Interesting. The Wikipedia reference is to an un-attributed paragraph on an historical NOAA FAQ page. I haven’t read the book, but I suspect only the title of the song may have been inspired by the book, and the actual lyrics were Lerner’s own complete fabrication, since they are not related to storms but to loneliness and longing. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/16 "2024-12-05T20:21:06Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > Probably my most favorite book. I’ve not read any other book more times than this one. Please say more about this. I think I’ve been missing out. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/17 "2024-12-05T20:31:09Z")
Well, i won’t give a plot, as wikipedia and other resources would do better. Its a post-apocalyptic novel set in the California Bay area, where the population has been largely wiped out by a fast spreading and deadly disease. The main character, Isherwood (Ish) Williams was partly inspired by Ishi the Yahi native who stumbled out of the California woods as the sole survivor of his tribe who were largely wiped out by deadly disease. The novel is largely about how the survivors come to terms of complete loss of their civilization and rebuild their own tribe and traditions from the physical ruins of the mythical Americans. I was attracted because as a younger person, I was halfway expecting our civilization to end (not with a bang) but with a faltering of infrastructure ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/18 "2024-12-05T20:45:04Z")
I read the book as a teen. It has stayed with me for these many, many years. The ending disturbed me greatly, probably because I was so young. I had the world opening up for me, I had plans for so much to see and do. As a child of the Sixties, I nurtured a blossoming liberal mindset, that things should and could, and with fellow liberals linking arms and working together, things would get better for all. I wasn’t a hippie love child, by any means, just a young idealist. The book is about an apocalypse of sorts, brought on by a virulent epidemic. It focuses on one group of survivors who just manage to come together and form a community. They have children and watch them grow, and occasionally interact with outsiders. There’s really no interest in the future. Nobody really cares about the infrastructure from before, there is no desire to learn about it, to find a way to fix everything, to perhaps have lights or running water. When the carpenter of the group dies, their houses fall apart. You wonder if everyone will live in caves again. Knowledge in libraries would moulder and disintegrate, and there was no one to care. I would be moody for days whenever I re-read that book. _Alas Babylon_ did a job on me, too. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/19 "2024-12-05T21:30:17Z")
I’ve never read the book, although I’m familiar with the story and how it ends. I did buy a copy of it a few weeks ago but haven’t started reading it yet, so I’ll probably do that before I watch the show. Has anyone ever seen Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play? It debuted in 2012 and it borrows a lot from Earth Abides in that it’s about an apocalypse and the rise of a new low-tech society over several generations, with a focus on a specific episode of The Simpsons (specifically Cape Feare, the episode where Sideshow Bob gets out of prison and the family moves to Terror Lake to get away from him), and how over the course of generations it transforms from something survivors reminisce about to remind themselves of better days, to a mythical tale acted out as a play-within-a-play to teach young people about the fall of the old civilization and the importance of how love lives on in memory even after the ones you love are gone. I highly recommend it. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184/20 "2024-12-05T22:45:52Z")
This book is the one containing the phrase “better than Ezra” in it and is one of the rumored sources for the name of the band. I wonder if that will show up in the TV series. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tv-series-called-earth-abides/1011184.md?page=2)