{"id":47643,"date":"2016-06-20T00:05:33","date_gmt":"2016-06-20T07:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=47643"},"modified":"2016-06-20T00:57:19","modified_gmt":"2016-06-20T07:57:19","slug":"americas-first-reality-tv-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2016\/06\/americas-first-reality-tv-show\/","title":{"rendered":"America’s First Reality TV Show"},"content":{"rendered":"
The following is an article from Uncle John\u2019s Bathroom Reader<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n

\"american-family\"<\/a>Survivor and The Real World may have seemed innovative at the time they debuted, but they owe a huge debt to a show that hasn\u2019t aired since 1973 and has largely been forgotten, despite being named one of the greatest shows of all time by TV Guide. Here\u2019s the story of the show that started it all.<\/em><\/p>\n

GET REAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1971 a documentary film producer named Craig Gilbert came up with a novel idea for an educational TV show: film the lives of four American families in four different parts of the country\u2014the West Coast, the Midwest, the South, and the East Coast. A different film crew would be assigned to each family and would film their lives for four straight weeks, from the moment the first person got up until the last person went to bed. Many hours of footage would be filmed, then it would be edited and condensed into four one-hour documentaries, one on each family. The documentaries would be broadcast on PBS.<\/p>\n

Television programming was a lot different in those days\u2014for years viewers had been fed a steady diet of decidedly unrealistic family shows like Ozzie and Harriet<\/em>, Father Knows Best<\/em>, The Waltons<\/em>, and The Brady Bunch<\/em>. Gilbert figured viewers might be interested in a new aspect of American family life: reality.<\/p>\n

FAMILY SECRETS<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the West Coast family, Gilbert chose the Louds, an upper middle-class family living in Santa Barbara, California\u2014parents Bill and Pat, and their five teenage children: sons Lance, Kevin, and Grant, and daughters Delilah and Michele. \u201cThey basically said, \u2018How would you like to star in the greatest home movie ever made?\u2019\u201d Lance Loud remembered. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have to do anything, just be our little Southern California hick selves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilbert hired two filmmakers, Susan and Alan Raymond, to film the family. Shortly after production got underway, he decided to dump the four-family concept and focus exclusively on the Louds\u2014for a longer time period. To this day it is unclear whether Craig Gilbert knew it at the time, but the Louds\u2019 marriage was in serious trouble (thanks to Bill\u2019s philandering), and their son Lance, who lived in New York, was gay. The Louds had assumed that keeping their family secrets for four weeks wouldn\u2019t be that difficult; but now Gilbert was asking them for permission to film for months on end. Could they withstand this invasion of their privacy?<\/p>\n

Bill and Pat thought it over\u2026and decided to take a chance. \u201cI thought I might get away with just saying, \u2018These are my children and my kitchen and my pool and my horses, over and out.\u2019\u201d Pat Loud recalled years later. \u201cWhat naifs we were!\u201d<\/p>\n

OPEN HOUSE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bill and Pat need not have worried about protecting Lance Loud\u2019s privacy\u2014he was completely open about his sexuality, even when the film crew was present. He was the very first openly gay teenager ever shown on American television; for many viewers, he was the first out-of-the-closet homosexual they had ever seen.<\/p>\n

As for the Louds\u2019 marital problems, they proved both impossible to hide and impossible to repair. As the weeks passed and Pat became more comfortable around the cameras, she began to open up about the problems she was having with Bill. Their marriage continued to deteriorate until finally, a few months into filming, Pat threw Bill out of the house. The Raymonds were there, and they captured it all on film.<\/p>\n

12-STEP PROGRAM<\/strong><\/p>\n

By the time the Raymonds wrapped up production, they\u2019d been filming the Louds for seven solid months. They had so much raw footage\u2014more than 300 hours worth\u2014that it took them the better part of two years to edit it down to the 12 one-hour episodes that would air as An American Family<\/em> beginning in January 1973.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons the Louds agreed to allow the film crew into their home in the first place was because they didn\u2019t think many people would ever see the finished product. This was a documentary, after all, and one being made for educational television at that. PBS wasn\u2019t even broadcast in Santa Barbara in 1971 (by 1973, it was); besides, Pat didn\u2019t watch much educational television and she didn\u2019t think anyone else would, either. \u201cWe erroneously believed the series would be a simply interminable home movie that no one in their right mind would watch for more than five minutes,\u201d she recalled in 2002. Lance Loud thought of the film as \u201ca very odd, never-to-be-noticed project.\u201d<\/p>\n

HITTING THE BIG TIME<\/strong><\/p>\n

But when An American Family<\/em> finally hit the airwaves in January 1973, more than 10 million people tuned in, making it one of the most-watched series in PBS history. The viewers were there for episode 2, when Lance\u2019s sexuality was revealed; they were there for episode 9, when Pat Loud asked Bill for a divorce; and they stayed glued to their sets until the series came to an end in episode 12.<\/p>\n

Overnight, the Louds became one of the most famous families in America. They were on the cover of Newsweek<\/em> (underneath the banner \u201cBroken Family\u201d), they made the national television talk shows, appearing with Dick Cavett, Dinah Shore, Mike Douglas, and Phil Donahue, and their problems were discussed around the water coolers of every workplace in America. Everyone knew who they were.<\/p>\n

ROUGH GOING<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, more than 30 years later, the Louds may be remembered with fond nostalgia, but that wasn\u2019t the case in 1973. Many viewers were stunned by what they saw. The Louds were an upper middle-class family, more affluent than most of the viewers who watched them. Like the fictional TV families people were used to seeing on the tube, the Louds seemed to have it all: They lived in a big, beautiful house in sunny Southern California; they had steady, high-paying jobs; they had four cars, five beautiful children, three dogs, two cats, a horse, a swimming pool\u2014seemingly everything that anyone could possibly want. So why weren\u2019t they happy? Why couldn\u2019t Bill and Pat save their marriage? Why was Lance Loud gay? What on Earth was wrong with these people?<\/p>\n

Many viewers\u2014not to mention pundits and TV critics\u2014came to see Bill and Pat Loud as unfit parents and their family as the personification of everything that was wrong with American families in the early 1970s. Newsweek<\/em> called the Louds \u201caffluent zombies\u201d and described the series as \u201ca glimpse into the pit.\u201d The New York Times Magazine<\/em> called Lance Loud a \u201cflamboyant leech,\u201d the \u201cevil flower of the family,\u201d and an \u201cemotional dwarf.\u201d<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t at all how the Louds had expected to come across. \u201cPeople were shocked, and we were shocked that they were shocked,\u201d Lance Loud remembered.<\/p>\n

We thought people would be on our side and sympathize with a family responding to all the different moods and trends of the times. But they didn\u2019t sympathize; they misunderstood, thinking that we were arrogant in our stupidity. They were totally wrong.<\/p>\n

NO HOLLYWOOD ENDING<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the end, nearly everyone associated with the film ended up regretting ever getting involved. Bill and Pat accused the Raymonds of distorting their family life, zooming in on problems and controversies at the expense of everything else. \u201cIt seemed that the entire series was all about Lance being homosexual and my husband and I divorcing,\u201d Pat Loud says. \u201cMy other four children and their friends seemed to be of no real interest to the editors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Raymonds had their own regrets. Though they did make two more films about the Louds\u2014in 1983 and 2003\u2014they swore off making documentaries about any other family. \u201cIt was too brutal,\u201d Susan Raymond says. \u201cWe made films on policemen, on a prison warden, on a principal of a school\u2014people who are public officials. But we didn\u2019t do anything on ordinary people or families. We didn\u2019t think they could handle that kind of scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

FINAL CHAPTER<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the show ended, Lance Loud spent several years as the lead singer of a punk rock band called the Mumps, but though his fame brought the band some notoriety, it also made it harder for them to be taken seriously. The Mumps broke up in 1980 and Lance returned to Southern California, where he worked as a freelance journalist, published in magazines like The Advocate<\/em>, Interview<\/em>, and Vanity Fair<\/em>. He also abused intravenous drugs for nearly 20 years, which caused him to become infected with hepatitis. In 1987 he learned that he was HIV positive.<\/p>\n

In late 2001, his health failing, Lance checked into an L.A. hospice and called the Raymonds to see if they would document his relationship with his family during this final phase of his life. They agreed. Why did Lance want to do it? Felled by years of unsafe sex and drug addiction, he\u2019d come to see his life as a cautionary tale. But he also wanted to show viewers that for all the problems the Louds had gone through, 30 years later they still loved each other and were close. \u201cHe could have asked for a priest or a minister, but he called for his filmmakers,\u201d Susan Raymond says.<\/p>\n

Lance Loud died on December 22, 2001, at the age of 50\u2014the same age his father was when An American Family<\/em> premiered in 1973. Lance Loud! A Death in an American Family<\/em> aired on PBS in January 2003.<\/p>\n

After the original series ended, Pat Loud moved to New York and became a literary agent. She has since retired and now lives in Los Angeles. Bill Loud remarried in 1976; he is retired and also lives in Los Angeles. Kevin Loud lives with his family in Paradise Valley, Arizona; Grant, Delilah, and Michele Loud and their families all live in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

DUBIOUS ACHIEVERS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alan and Susan Raymond, credited with filming the first-ever reality TV show, are still making documentaries\u2026but they refuse to watch any of the shows their work has inspired. Anthropologist Margaret Mead predicted that An American Family<\/em> would come to be seen \u201cas important a moment in the history of human thought as the invention of the novel,\u201d but judging from the shows that have followed it\u2014it\u2019s a safe bet she was wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike Frankenstein\u2019s monster, it\u2019s a mixed blessing to be considered someone who spawned this reality TV genre,\u201d Alan Raymond says. \u201cI think it\u2019s a largely superficial, stupid genre of television programming that I don\u2019t think as a documentary filmmaker I take much pride in.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Final Note. For all it cost them personally, how much money were the Louds paid for letting a crew film them for seven months? Not much. \u201cThe family received no compensation for their participation in the film,\u201d Pat Loud says. \u201cThe only money we got was a check for $400 to repair the kitchen where the gaffer\u2019s tape had pulled the paint off the walls.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>This article is reprinted with permission from The Best of the Best of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader<\/a><\/em>. They’ve stuffed the best stuff they\u2019ve ever written into 576 glorious pages. Result: pure bathroom-reading bliss! You\u2019re just a few clicks away from the most hilarious, head-scratching material that has made Uncle John\u2019s Bathroom Reader an unparalleled publishing phenomenon.<\/p>\n

Since 1987, the Bathroom Readers\u2019 Institute<\/a> has led the movement to stand up for those who sit down and read in the bathroom (and everywhere else for that matter). With more than 15 million books in print, the Uncle John\u2019s Bathroom Reader series is the longest-running, most popular series of its kind in the world.<\/p>\n

If you like Today I Found Out<\/a>, I guarantee you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books, so check them out<\/a>!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is an article from Uncle John\u2019s Bathroom Reader Survivor and The Real World may have seemed innovative at the time they debuted, but they owe a huge debt to a show that hasn\u2019t aired since 1973 and has largely been forgotten, despite being named one of the greatest shows of all time by TV Guide. Here\u2019s the story […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":47732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-i-found-out","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47643"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47733,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47643\/revisions\/47733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}