An American Family (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

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An American Family is an American television documentary filmed from May 30 through December 31, 1971 and first aired in the United States on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in early 1973. 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.

Originally intended to be a chronicle of the daily life of the Louds, an upper-middle-class family in Santa Barbara, California, the groundbreaking program documented the break-up of the family via the separation and subsequent divorce of parents Bill and Pat Loud. The documentary inspired the MTV reality television series The Real World as well as spoofs such as the Albert Brooks feature film Real Life.

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

The series

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

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 January 22, 1921, Eugene, Oregon)
Patricia (Pat) Loud (born Patricia Russell, October 4, 1926, in Eugene, Oregon)
Alanson Russell (Lance) Loud (June 26, 1951 - December 22, 2001)
Kevin Robert Loud (born January 28, 1953)
Grant Loud (born May 5, 1954 in Eugene, Oregon)
Delilah Ann Loud (born October 15, 1955)
Michele Loud (born October 15, 1957)

Controversial at the time, the Louds' eldest son, Lance, came out to his family as openly gay during the course of the series. He is credited as the first openly gay character on television and subsequently became an icon within the LGBT community.

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. The article was titled "The Broken Family".

Legacy and influence

In 1974, the BBC made its own similar programme, called The Family. The programme 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.

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

The series inspired the MTV reality television series The Real World.

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. 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. The show was billed by PBS as the final episode of An American Family.

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

In April 2011, PBS rebroadcast the entire original series in a marathon format on many of its member stations, also coinciding with the then upcoming release of the HBO film Cinema Verite, based on the series.

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.

Present

In 2012, Pat Loud released a book about her son's life called, "Lance Out Loud".

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 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.

Credits

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

Conceived and produced by Craig Gilbert
Executive producer: Curtis W. Davis
Camera: Alan Raymond
Sound: Susan Raymond
Coordinating producer: Jacqueline Donnet
Associate producer: Susan Lester
Film editor: Ken Werner
Assistant film editor: Bob Alvarez
Additional photography: Joan Churchill
Additional sound: Peter Pilafian
Assistant cameramen: Tom Goodwin, Peter Smokler, Mike Levine
Series title film created by Elinor Bunin
Title-music supervision: John Adams
Film editors unit: Pat Cook, David Hanser, Eleanor Hamerow, Ken Werner
Editing assistants: Joanna Alexander, Ernie Davidson, Bob Alvarez, Janet Lauretano, Tikki Goldberg, Dan Merrill, Joe Lovett, Sue Steinberg

Apprentices: Jesse Maple, Hannah Wajshonig, Harvey Rosenstock
Sound editor: Thomas Halpin
Assistant sound editor: Peet Begley
Production managers: Kathleen Walsh, Michael Podell
Assistant: Janet Freeman
Location unit managers: David Burke, Bernard Katz, Peter Scarlet
Production secretary: Alice Carey
Production assistants: Kristin Glover, David Henry
Research: Will MacDonald
Sound mixer: Richard Vorisek
Engineering supervisor: Ed Reingold
Senior video engineer Art Emerson
Funding provided by the Ford Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
A production of WNET/13
Copyright 1973 Educational Broadcasting Corporation

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