Do you think The Way To Eden was inspired by the Manson Family?

[WildManWizard]

or just random hippy communes?

 

[Doctor Bombay]

Wow, good question.

I doubt it was directly inspired by ol' Charlie, but the gurus of that time and the pipe dreams they were selling.

But you never know.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

No.

 

[johnnybear]

It was a similar movement from that time but nothing was as bad as what Manson and his crazies did!
JB

 

[The Old Mixer]

It couldn't have been, because the Manson family murders didn't happen until summer of '69, well after the episode was produced and aired...and the whys and hows behind the murders came out later still, in court.

Hippie communes in general / the dangers of cult leadership? Sure.

 

[Henoch]

I wonder if Manson watched The Way to Eden. Hmm.

 

[Noname Given]

or just random hippy communes?

As someone who lived in that era - it was just a reflection of various Hippie Communes (as depicted in popular culture of the day.)

There were weird 'Gurus' all over the place.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Timothy Leary would be my guess.

 

[Mysterion]

Nope, just another stereotypical media depiction of 1960's youth culture transplanted whole into the 2360's.

 

[M'Sharak]

Do you think The Way To Eden was inspired by the Manson Family?

No. At the time that episode was written and produced, the Manson family was all but unknown. They wouldn't be news until well after the series' final episode had aired.

 

[Lance]

I suspect it was written as a general critique of hippie/commune culture, although leaning heavily into the group cult side of things, so it certainly has some resonance of the likes of the Mansons.

 

[plynch]

They were known in Hollywood. CM was friends/associates with various celebs before the murder. But I doubt TPTB of TOS knew of him.

 

[Qonundrum]

The hippie counterculture, despite Manson, still formed the basis of numerous "religious" cults over the next decade - and finding the "perfect" followers. Jonestown being the most widely known, Manson arguably the first, but there were others. To such an extent that even some sitcoms in the mid 1970s would parody it, and arguably doing a more entertaining way of it that TOS had. "Three's Company" being (arguably) the ultimate example as it pretty much avoided anything real-life and just allowed zany off-the-wall escapism; and worryingly enough its cult-themed episode aired just three weeks before the Jonestown massacre took place.

 

[Maurice]

or just random hippy communes?

Do you think you could just have Googled to see when the show aired and when the Manson family became news and realized the answer was "nope"?

 

[1001001]

Buncha Herberts….

 

[M'Sharak]

Buncha Herberts….

Definitely.

 

[WildManWizard]

They were known in Hollywood. CM was friends/associates with various celebs before the murder. But I doubt TPTB of TOS knew of him.

yes, like the beach boys , Terry Melcher, Dina Martin, and Deidre Lansbury (daughter of Angela)

 

[Lance]

The hippie counterculture, despite Manson, still formed the basis of numerous "religious" cults over the next decade - and finding the "perfect" followers. Jonestown being the most widely known, Manson arguably the first, but there were others. To such an extent that even some sitcoms in the mid 1970s would parody it, and arguably doing a more entertaining way of it that TOS had. "Three's Company" being (arguably) the ultimate example as it pretty much avoided anything real-life and just allowed zany off-the-wall escapism; and worryingly enough its cult-themed episode aired just three weeks before the Jonestown massacre took place.

Retrospectively, although a decade earlier than that fateful day, "The Way To Eden" in some ways closer echoes Jonestown than it does Charlie Manson. Particularly the ending, where the innocents looking for a better life in a tropical eden, were instead led by their charasmatic leader to a slaughter.

DS9's "Covenant" is more blatant, of course, in it's critique of death cults.