An American Family

An American Family
The Loud Family (Back, from left: Kevin, Grant, Delilah and Lance. Front, from left: Michele, Pat and Bill)
Genre Documentary/Reality
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 12
Production
Producer(s) Craig Gilbert
Editor(s) Pat Cook
Eleanor Hamerow
David Hanser
Ken Werner
Production company(s) WNET New York
Release
Original network PBS
Picture format 16mm film[1]
Audio format Monaural
Original release January 11 (1973-01-11) – March 29, 1973 (1973-03-29)
Chronology
Followed by An American Family Revisited: The Louds 10 Years Later
Lance Loud!: A Death in an American Family

An American Family is an American television documentary filmed from May 30 through December 31, 1971,[2] and first aired in the United States on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) from January 11, 1973,[3] to March 29, 1973.[4] After being edited down from about 300 hours of raw footage, the series ran one season of 12 episodes on Thursday nights at 9:00 p.m.

The groundbreaking documentary is considered the first "reality" series on American television. It was originally intended as a chronicle of the daily life of the Louds, an upper middle class family in Santa Barbara, California but ended up documenting the break-up of the family via the separation and subsequent divorce of parents Bill and Pat Loud.[5]

A year after this program was broadcast, the BBC in 1974 filmed its own similar 12-episode program, called The Family, focusing on the working-class Wilkins family, of Reading, Berkshire, England.

Series

In 2011, The New York Times reflected on some of the controversy the series engendered:

For the viewing public, the controversy surrounding An American Family doubled as a crash course in media literacy. The Louds, in claiming that the material had been edited to emphasize the negative, called attention to how nonfiction narratives are fashioned. Some critics argued that the camera’s presence encouraged the subjects to perform. Some even said it invalidated the project. That line of reasoning, as Mr. Gilbert has pointed out, would invalidate all documentaries. It also discounts the role of performance in everyday life, and the potential function of the camera as a catalyst, not simply an observer.[6]

The show included footage of intimate family interactions, including an on-camera separation demand from wife Pat to her husband, and the coming-out of one of the children who was gay. In 2002, An American Family was listed at #32 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time list. It is the earliest example of the reality television genre.

Synopsis

The Loud family members profiled were:

  • William Carberry (Bill) Loud (born in Eugene, Oregon; January 22, 1921 – July 26, 2018[7])[8][9]
  • Patricia (Pat) Loud (born Patricia Russell in Eugene, Oregon on October 4, 1926)[5][8][9]
  • Alanson Russell (Lance) Loud (June 26, 1951 – December 22, 2001)
  • Kevin Robert Loud (born January 28, 1953)
  • Grant Loud (born in Eugene, Oregon on May 5, 1954)
  • Delilah Ann Loud (born October 15, 1955)
  • Michele Loud (born October 12, 1957)

Lance Loud is credited as the first continuing character on television who was openly gay[10] and subsequently became an icon within the LGBT community.[11] He later became a columnist for the national LGBT news magazine The Advocate.

One of the more notable moments of the series was when, after 21 years of marriage, Pat asked Bill for a divorce and to leave the house. Pat's saying to her husband "You know there's a problem" – with Bill's response, "What's your problem?" – was chosen as one of the Top 100 Television Moments by TV Guide.

The series drew over 10 million viewers and considerable controversy. The family was featured in Newsweek on March 12, 1973, in the article "The Broken Family".[12]

Legacy and influence

In 1974, the BBC made its own similar program, called The Family. The program consisted of 12 half-hour episodes, showing the daily lives and concerns of the working-class Wilkins family, of Reading, Berkshire, England.

In 1979, Albert Brooks spoofed the series in his film Real Life.[13]

In 1983, HBO broadcast An American Family Revisited: The Louds 10 Years Later.[14]

The series inspired the MTV reality television series The Real World.[13]

In 2003, PBS broadcast the show Lance Loud!: A Death in an American Family, shot in 2001, visiting the family again at the invitation of Lance before his death.[14] The same family members participated in the documentary, with the exception of Grant. Lance was 50 years old, had gone through 20 years of addiction to crystal meth, and was HIV positive. He died of liver failure caused by a hepatitis C and HIV co-infection that year.[15] The show was billed by PBS as the final episode of An American Family.[16]

Subsequent to the showing of A Death in an American Family, Pat and Bill Loud moved back in together,[17] granting one of Lance's last wishes. They lived very close to three of their four surviving children—Grant, Michelle and Delilah—and keep in close contact with Kevin and his family, who live in Arizona.[18]

In April 2011, PBS rebroadcast the entire original series in a marathon format on many of its member stations, before the release of the HBO film Cinema Verite, based on the series.[19][20]

On July 7, 2011, most PBS stations presented An American Family: Anniversary Edition, a two-hour film by Alan and Susan Raymond that featured selected moments from the documentary series, in tribute to the 40 years since the series began filming in 1971. It was subsequently released on DVD.[21]

Present

In 2012, Pat Loud released a book about her son's life called Lance Out Loud, which was published by Glitterati Incorporated.

Cinema Verite

HBO premiered Cinema Verite on April 23, 2011, a fictionalized examination of the process of making An American Family. With a script by David Seltzer[22] and under the direction of Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, the cast includes Tim Robbins as Bill, Diane Lane as Pat, Thomas Dekker as Lance and James Gandolfini as Craig Gilbert.[23]

Credits

An American Family episode nine end-credits; rerun airdate April 24, 2011, 7 a.m., WNET-TV

References

  1. ↑ Heffernan, Virginia, "Too Much Relationship Vérité", The New York Times, April 17, 2011
  2. ↑ "An American Family Screenings" Archived April 28, 2016, at the Wayback Machine., Paley Center for Media, 2011, New York.
  3. ↑ - An American Family Archived May 8, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ - "Live radio broadcast of March 30, 1973" Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. 1 2 Cf. Loud, Pat, Pat Loud: A Woman's Story, 1974
  6. ↑ Lim, Dennis, "Reality-TV Originals, in Drama’s Lens", The New York Times, April 15, 2011; online; print edition p. AR22, April 17, 2011
  7. ↑ "Family Announcement". Facebook.
  8. 1 2 Cf. episode "Going Back Home"
  9. 1 2 Cf. episode "An American Family: an introduction" narrated by producer Craig Gilbert, January 1, 1973
  10. ↑ PBS.org - An American Family Archived April 16, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.
  11. ↑ "Lance Loud". The Independent. April 4, 2002. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
  12. ↑ Ruoff, Jeffrey (2002). An American Family: A Televised Life. University of Minnesota Press. xviii. ISBN 0-8166-3561-7.
  13. 1 2 Roberts, Michael. "The Unreal World" Archived January 28, 2015, at the Wayback Machine.. Denver Westword. March 14, 1996
  14. 1 2 "About the film". PBS.org. Archived from the original on 15 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
  15. ↑ "Lance: His life and legacy". PBS.org. Archived from the original on 1 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
  16. ↑ "Top 50 TV Shows of All Time From TV Guide". EZ-Entertainment.net. Archived from the original on 14 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
  17. ↑ Jensen, Elizabeth (2003-01-06). "Lance Loud's last testament". Los Angeles Times. p. 3. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
  18. ↑ "America's First Reality TV Show". Neatorama. Retrieved 2011-08-26.
  19. ↑ Braxton, Greg, "PBS' KOCE to broadcast landmark 'An American Family'" Archived March 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine., Los Angeles Times, April 13, 2011
  20. ↑ "PBS looking to revisit 1973's 'An American Family'" Archived October 11, 2012, at the Wayback Machine., Associated Press, January 11, 2011
  21. ↑ An American Family: Anniversary Edition Archived July 2, 2013, at the Wayback Machine., PBS
  22. ↑ Westal, Bob (2010-07-29). "A chat with Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, directors of "The Extra Man"". TV.com. Archived from the original on 2013-02-04. Retrieved 2010-08-07.
  23. ↑ Karpel, Ari (2010-07-25). "A Mash Note to Offbeat New Yorkers". The New York Times. p. AR6.

Further reading

  • An American Family: A Televised Life, by Jeffrey Ruoff. (University of Minnesota Press; 2002) ISBN 0-8166-3561-7.
  • Pat Loud: A Woman's Story, by Pat Loud and Nora Johnson. (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan; 1974) ISBN 0-698-10578-8.
  • Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched by Mark Andrejevic. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.; 2003) ISBN 0-7425-2748-4; ISBN 978-0-7425-2748-5.
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