Young Pioneers

1 9 7 6 (USA)
2 x 100 minute episode
1 9 7 8 (USA)
1 x 120 minute episode
2 x 60 minute episodes

The made-for-TV movie Young Pioneers aired in March 1976 on the ABC Television Network’s Monday Night Movie and was intended as a pilot for a TV series.

It told the story of courageous young teenage newlyweds Molly (Linda Purl) and David (Roger Kern) Beaton, whose love for each other helped them build a life for themselves in a newly opened wilderness in the Dakota Territory in the 1870s (although filming actually took place near Sonoita, Arizona, south of Tuscon).

The young couple battled injury, claim-jumpers, blizzards, near-starvation and a crop-destroying grasshopper plague, and the nearest town (Wildrose) was half a day’s journey away. It had a doctor and an undertaker but no sheriff or church.

The film was seen in over 17 million American homes by over 40 million people but no series was forthcoming, although a holiday special – Young Pioneers’ Christmas – was broadcast in December 1976 as the ABC Friday Night Movie.

David and Molly had lost their baby son and took solace in helping their neighbours, particularly the Peters family and Dan Gray (Robert Hays) who had his property taken by the railroad who were pushing across the prairie country.

ABC finally produced a short-lived series in 1978. Over the course of three episodes, David and Molly were held hostage by Indians, treated their neighbour’s children for diphtheria, and survived a dust storm which injured Molly.

Molly Beaton
Linda Purl
David Beaton
Roger Kern
Mr Beaton
Charles Tyner
Dan Gray
Robert Hays
Mr Peters
Robert Donner
Nettie Peters
Shelly Juttner (1)
Kay Kimler (2)
Mare Winningham (3)
Flora Peters
Michelle Stacy
Charlie Peters
Jeff Cotler
Circling Hawk
A Martinez
Juniper
David Huddleston

Episodes

Young Pioneers || Young Pioneers’ Christmas || Sky in the Window | A Kite for Charlie | The Promise of Spring