My PBS Station is Doing a Retrospective on The 1970s Loud Family

I think anyone who grew up in Santa Barbara could easily relate to the Louds...

Lance Loud was the most interesting when he was in the punk rock group, The Mumps in the late 1970s. It's a shame his life of excess, drugs (especially meth), alcohol and indiscriminate sex, led to his death at age 50.

I agree that they were upper middle class, verging on wealthy. Not all that typical, either, with Dad shagging every broad in Santa Barbara and Lance being, well... Lance.

But I think many people did identify with them to some extent. That's why the show had such an impact and why it's still remembered today.

I knew the Louds pretty well. Lance was kind of a cool guy, but how could anyone have not known he was gay? Grant dated a friend of mine and gave her an STD. But Pat was the one I knew best because she became a literary agent and we used to lunch now and then. She was actually quite smart and fun to talk to.

But no, OP, they were not rich. They were, at best, middle class to upper middle class. Like most of their sort at the time, they were living in debt, big debt, and spent as much as they could do keep up with their neighbors. Also, if I recall, they lived in the Valley. Back then, anyone could like in the Valley like a king. Or queen.

Santa Barbara has a Valley?

[quote]Lance was kind of a cool guy, but how could anyone have not known he was gay?

Was he ever in the closet?

My memory of the show was everyone knew he was gay.

R4 you knew them pretty well, but you don’t remember what area they lived in?

Pbs lost the plot years ago.

It didn't take as much to live well in the 70s. We were upper middle class and had a nice house, nice cars, country club, private schools and colleges, housekeeper, yard services, pretty much anything we wanted clothes wise, money for this and that. All on my dad's income. But we were like a LOT of people and were definitely not considered rich. Times have gotten much harder. Sadly.

Is there a place where I can watch An American Family? Has the entire series ever been repeated?

The show is basically “Company” - a thing for the bourgeois set.

The younger girls in the family seemed to see Lance as some kind of rock star. They worshipped him.

Of course they were rich. How did Lance move to NYC and then hang out in Paris? He was too ugly to be hooking.

I wish PBS would repeat old documentaries/proto reality television.

Lance was HIV+ but IIRC it was the Hep C that killed him. Hepatitis C claimed my non-biological uncle's life too unfortunately.

Not the best quality, R10, but the episodes are available here.

We watched that in Sociology class in high school back in the 80's. I watched the HBO movie based on it too with Diane Lane.

Thanks r16 wish we had something to watch with better quality

This really was the very first "reality show."

My mother was obsessed with this series, and I used to watch it with her when I was a very young gayling.

It confused me so much when Lance flew off to Europe to "find himself." I remember asking my mother, "Is there something wrong with his brain? Why does he want to find himself when he's right here?"

Never heard of it or them.

The Louds were NOT rich. They were Upper Middle Class.

R20 It was HUGE in the 1970s.

PBS literally just turned the cameras on and followed the family. It was the first example of a reality show, before reality shows were staged pieces of theater.

[quote]Of course they were rich. How did Lance move to NYC and then hang out in Paris? He was too ugly to be hooking.

I knew Lance toward the end of his life. After his HIV diagnosis he became convinced he'd frittered away his life and vowed to make up for it. He volunteered many, many days at a Hollywood home for those with AIDS (I wish I could remember the name). I think by that point he was so broke he lived in a fleabag apartment and had to take the bus everywhere.

He wasn't a classic beauty, but he was absolutely magnetic, very gentle, and a real sweetheart.

Once I saw a '70s New York porn about gladiators that was hilariously bad (Rome in papier-mache temples and Styrofoam) and there was Lance as one of the background actors. I asked Lance about it and he said he didn't remember that specifically but had "probably" done it — "I'd do anything for crystal in those days."

I felt a little bad for Stevie Nicks when Lance Loud interviewed her for Details Mag back in '94 and he asked her point blank "So, the rumor... did roadies blow coke up your snatch or what?"

I watched when I was a kid. We were what I would call lower middle class but I never thought the Loud family was wealthy. They reminded me of my parents friends who lived way beyond their means but we're always in debt. My mom used to brag that we didn't have alot (we lived in an apt over a grocery store) but we were never in debt and our one credit card was strictly for emergencies.

I think the Up series was a reality show before this one. 7 Up broadcast in 1964.

The UP series were documentary films, not reality TV.

R23 Was it "Centurians of Rome" from 1980?

That movie has a helluva story of its own.

R20 Me either. I’m a guy in his 50’s who grew up on PBS from Sesame Street to All Creatures Great and Small. Never heard of this Loud family, but they sound exhausting.

PBS was always on at our house growing up, so I watched it when I was 13 and it first aired.

All I remember is being bored to death.

If you're in your 50s, you were too young to remember this show, since it aired in 1973.

Albert Brooks did a comedy film in 1979 based on "An American Family" called "Real Life." It was hilarious.

The Up series was originally reality TV: “ The first instalment was made as a one-off edition of Granada Television's series, World in Action”

Maybe the loud family was produced based on people who knew about the original reality TV show, Up.

I remember discussing in class the episode where Pat has black boys over for dinner

In retrospect, that may be considered the first reality show.

The Family was the British version. I think all of it is on YouTube.

r16 You'll watch a lossy VHS tape and like it!

R6 here -- my bad, they didn't live in the Valley, but I didn't know them until long after the show aired and the family had broken up. I knew Pat when she lived in NYC.

R33, just stop. The Up series was clearly a documentary and not reality TV as it’s been defined. The kids are interviewed on camera in documentary format.

I will not just stop. It was reality on television. That makes it reality TV.

Stop being so American centric with your “we did everything first” nonsense.

I was fascinated by the Louds. Never missed an episode. Every night, to the consternation of anyone watching Jeopardy! with me, I yell out "Michelle Loud!" Because her name is in the credits. Yes it's the same little sister. I looked it up. Bill, Pat, Lance, Kevin, Delilah, Michelle. Did I leave any out? I feel like I'm missing one of the boys.

R40 is a moron.

Grant! I forgot Grant.

Very different from what passes for reality TV today. Nothing was staged. The camera crew lived with the family and we're always filming. During the season the parents marriage fell apart, the younger daughter clearly had a drinking problem and, of course, Lance came out as gay. Wasn't it obvious he was gay? Not to everyone. This was a time when many people thought Liberace was straight and was still looking for the right girl. Lance was a trailblazer.

[quote]Was it "Centurians of Rome" from 1980?

No, I think it was this No Wave downtown movie, "Rome '78," with Kristian Hoffman, John Lurie, and Lydia Lunch as well as Lance. It looks like it's got nudity but no sex. I saw it in the background at a party and I guess I just assumed it was from a porno.

R42 is DuMont.

Go back to Europe, trash.

I agree, R9. Times were different. I grew up with all the amenities you mentioned. It was an upper middle class upbringing based solely on my Dad's income. I'd add, too, that we went away for the summer, like other upper middle class families.

I don't remember the documentary when it first aired, but have seen it as PBS marked its various anniversaries. I'd say they were typically upper middle class, albeit WASPy and California-ish.

R40 really, really wants "Up" to be reality TV, even though, as others have said, it's your standard boiler plate documentary in every way, shape, and form.

"An American Family," on the other hand, was true reality TV. The cameras simply filmed the family. No interviews, no "confessionals." Just the camera as the fly on the wall.

I remember the episode where Pat Loud served her husband with divorce papers. They were both so non-emotional and business like about it. It was odd to watch,

I remember Grant was in a rock band, and one night they crashed the van, and when Delilah needed to start taking birth control, and at one point it looked like the wildfires were going to threaten their house. I'd love to see the series again, but it's not available except for a short recap they did when Pat flew out to see Lance in NYC and shortly thereafter he died of AIDS.

R50 I remember the wildfire episode! Weren't the girls hosing down the roof or something?

R51 I think you're right. And if Lance died of Hep C I stand corrected. Id love to watch them all again, if only for the "time capsule" aspect.

I used to own a copy of the book that his siblings and mother wrote, called 'Lance Out Loud'. It was composed of photos and captions.

And I also read Pat Loud's autobiography where she described their post-divorce life as financially difficult.

Well I just checked for the first time in years and the series is finally available now on DVD. Guess I know what I'll be buying next.

I love that Pat cared for Bill when he got sick later in life and he even moved in with her.

Iirc the last footage of Edie Sedgwick was part of "An American Family". I forget what the event was, but as Lance said later, she was "drawn to the cameras".

The Internet Archive has every episode! Plus the two specials from 1983 and 2003. Link below.

Is the 2003 special the one that shows a memorial service in what looks like a San Francisco backyard, with Rufus Wainwright singing "Over The Rainbow" as a tribute?

I preferred the Quiet Family.

Fuck, I knew we didn’t have a lot of money when I was a kid, but if having a pool and going to Europe every summer was considered “middle class”, we were fucking dirt poor.

[quote]and, of course, Lance came out as gay. Wasn't it obvious he was gay? Not to everyone.

Lance didn't come out because he was already out of the closet and everyone knew he was gay.

And a little piece of trivia: While the 2nd episode aired is the one where Pat goes to visit Lance living in NY, that was actually shot first.

But the producers wanted to draw the audience in by introducing the family living in CA first and THEN introducing Lance.

They were skittish that starting with Lance would alienate some viewers who wouldn't watch beyond that episode

An American Family: Anniversary Edition and An American Family at 50 are available on my PBS station if you are a member of PBS Passport.

An American Family was before my time, but I've seen bits and pieces of it and it's an interesting time capsule of a world long gone by.

R57, I went to archive.org and I put in An American Family and nothing is coming up! I’m trying to watch it on my iPad.

I don't know what to tell you, R64. It should be there at the link at r57. I watched the first episode there this morning.

Yeah the Louds seemed (seem?) like nice people r55.

[quote]Every night, to the consternation of anyone watching Jeopardy! with me, I yell out "Michelle Loud!" Because her name is in the credits. Yes it's the same little sister. I looked it up. Bill, Pat, Lance, Kevin, Delilah, Michelle. Did I leave any out? I feel like I'm missing one of the boys.

It's confusing, but the Michelle Loud (nee Silverman) who works on "Jeopardy" is Grant Loud's wife, not his sister. Grant worked on "Jeopardy" too for 25 years and retired in 2022.

I wish they would rerun it. I caught some of them on YouTube years ago. Pat was never without a cigarette in her hand. I was a teen when it was a big deal in the 70s but I didn’t pay any attention to it.

[quote]Pat was never without a cigarette in her hand.

Amazing that she lived to be 94!

I don't know if it was inspired by this reality series, but Donald R. Katz's book "Home Fires: An Intimate Portrait of One Middle-Class Family in Postwar America" (1992) is like an East Coast version, complete with a gay son (the composer Ricky Ian Gordon) and various addictions. I found the book hard to put down.

Well the Louds were inspired by my family, a respectable middle-class family from the not nearly as pretentious Pasadena, CA. Our son didn't come out of the closet, how could he when he never left the house! But we had headache enough with our eldest daughter, Nancy, who in another place and time, when father's weren't so protective of their daughters, would have been called a slattern and thrown out on the street by the time she hit puberty! Now if you'll excuse me, I have some coffee cake sitting out on the kitchen table that I need to pick at throughout the afternoon.

There was an abridged version of the show some years back. The original was waaaay too long and needed massive editing. I’m female and liked Lance best. He was the only interesting character among all of those nasal teenagers.

This show struck much too close to home when it first aired. I was the gay boy in a financially precarious (we were all over the map financially in the 70s--my father made millions in the early 70s, then in '72 his partner embezzled all the money and disappeared in South America) family with five kids living in California suburbia. I was the youngest, only 10, but otherwise the kids and parents were not far from the Louds' respective ages. Same drug and alcohol problems with the older kids. My parents had just divorced. This reality show was too real for me and I wondered why anyone would want to watch what was dreary everyday life. I'd outgrown The Brady Bunch. So it was Maude, MTM, Carol Burnett, The Mod Squad, Room 222, Night Gallery, The Sixth Sense, and Movies of the Week for me.

I wish they had done a flashback episode: this might have been as exciting as the Brady Bunch in Hawaii.

They should have chosen the Sedaris family to do this show.

Thanks for posting that link R57. I had seen short clips and the anniversary special, but not the complete series, which I just binge-watched. Pat and Bill both seemed most open and honest (and least performative and aware of the cameras) when they were drinking a lot: the scene in the restaurant, and the scene with Pat's brother and his wife. Delilah's group dance number in culottes was far out. Lance's comment on Santa Barbara to the check-in clerk at the airport in New York was worthy of Lana Turner or Joan Crawford: "It's more than just a home. It 's a way of life."

I couldn’t take Pat. She always seemed to me to be doing a Jackie Kennedy impersonation, but trying to sound what passed for intelligent and well read in the 1970s. She over enunciated her worlds and spoke stilted verbiage. Bill was an ecological disaster. He was involved in strip mining some of the most beautiful land in the country. Lance was very self-involved and a mama’s boy. I wonder why his parents named him “Alanson.” Maybe it was the maiden name of Bill’s mother or something. Grant was a typical1970’s snotty,, cynical teenager. Kevin seemed like a nonentity. Delilah was spoiled and Michelle was The Quiet One.

They all complained about the show but there’s no way they would’ve had the jobs they later had in life if they hadn’t been made famous.

It wasn’t called reality tv back then, it was “cinema verite.” Who would’ve thought back then that cinema verite would become Real Housewives?

Thanks for the genre clarity R17 - Cinema Verite was big at the time because of the faster film stocks and the lightweight Eclair 16mm camera / Nagra tape deck combo. Everything that is filmed gets manipulated in the editing, and just the presence of a camera changes the dynamic of what is happening - but calling this Reality TV is almost an insult - modern Reality is so heavily pre-produced and staged it might as well be scripted.

wait a minute R72, I always thought my family was the less complicated and less affluent version of the family. There was me, the gay son and my brother who is a composite of all the boys. Bill had a much more procedures job than my dad, managed the 250 unit apartment building we lived in in Anaheim.

The strongest similarities are that my parents got divorced in 1974 and my mom was a lot like Pack independent, caring, had a point of view, good leadership skills, etc. She was not strikingly gorgeous, but she was pretty and she knew how to dress and take care of herself. And most of all, she was the coolest mom on the block. all of the neighbor kids would've gladly traded their mom for mine; it was an energy she possessed in spades that they were attracted to.

[quote] Lance died of Hep C

I think that this is more typically associated with intravenous drug use, not sexual activity.

I have always wanted to visit Santa Barbara, especially after reading the Alphabet series by Sue Grafton

Just started watchin episode 1, the older brother on there is cute I like the David Cassidy hairstyle

I enjoyed this exchange between Lance and a fellow American in Paris who, unlike Lance, spoke French:

Question from Lance: "How did you learn to bounce around in the French language so well?"

Answer: "By having a very very bouncy and very high bouncing I.Q."

I think Pat fancied herself a character in a Joan Didion novel.

Damn I loved Pat. To me, she exuded California-style class. I also read her book and liked it. And Cinema Verite with Diane Lane and Tim Robbins was good as well. I used to see Lance around NYC. I was at a party once and he came in with a guy who was dressed in leather with rhinestone-studded clothes pins on his nipples. They took over the bathroom for a quick fuck and then left.

I hope they cleande up after themselves before they left, R85

Lance has been dead for 23 years.

Thanks R67- today I learned. Somehow being Grant's wife makes it even more interesting. Got my DVDs today!

Has anyone else been watching An American Family?

I've just finished episode 9, with Pat greeting Bill with the news that she's divorcing him. It's off to the Lemon Tree Motel for Bill!

In episode 8, Pat tells her brother and his wife Yvonne about Bill's epic infidelities stretching all the way back to the '50s, and the stupid sister-in-law tells Pat that it's her fault because she doesn't "let your husband be the man," meaning he calls the shots and drags her around by her hair or something. I wanted to slap her. I wonder if Pat's brother ever cheated on her? I hope so!

It's strange how none of the kids really talk in any depth about the parents' separation. It's also odd that Bill says they almost separated two years earlier but agreed to wait for the boys to finish school, yet they agreed to film the series when their split was so obviously imminent. Were they chosen because divorce would be such good reality drama and ratings? Some critics of earlier cinema verite efforts noted how obvious the manipulation of the material into a conventional "scene" was in spite of the low budget documentary look of the footage itself; this is especially evident in the scene where Lance emerges from the plane when he returns to Santa Barbara, which seems as conventionally edited and scripted for effect as any scene from "Airport."

From what I've read, the fact the parents were on the verge of divorce is a large part of the reason they were selected. That fact guaranteed lots of drama for the cameras to record.

When Reality Shows became a big thing in the early aughts, someone interviewed Pat Loud and told her the money was quite a bit larger than the 1970s when the Louds started the trend. They asked her if she would be interested in being cast in one. Pat said, "Oh honey, I'm a whore. Of course I would."

R40 I worked for Delilah Loud at King World. The deepest voice I'd ever heard on a woman. She set her brother Grant up with a job on Jeopardy! Delilah was professional, no nonsense. Not what you'd call warm. At company parties, she knew how to tie one on. As most of the executives who worked for the King brothers did.

After King World was desolved, she got a job at Sony Television. Her eventual firing was described in one of the wikileaked Sony emails. It was described that she took it well, but said she never really got a chance to show what she could do. So they increased her severance package.

I was working with her when Lance died. I sent her a note, which she appreciated.

Lived in a nice home in Hancock Park. I hope she's doing ok. Not a bad person at all.

I never thought the Loud family was really a PBS appropriate series

I'm currently reading "Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV" that has a chapter on 'An American Family'. I was a teenager when it aired but never saw the show. For anyone interested there is lots of information on the family post series. Emily Nussbaum is an excellent writer and I highly recommend the book.

Regarding the "UP" series, it was definitely intended as a documentary but the reality series 'Real World' was conceived by Jonathan Murray who credits 'UP' with giving him the idea for it. This is in the book as well.

R90 - I've edited a number of docs and some "cinema verite leaning" reality TV episodes -- the thing most people don't realize is that "Real Life" moves v-e-r-r-r-r-y sloooooooooooooowly.

So on the one hand, assuming a competent camera guy, you have PLENTY of material to shape into something that resembles a conventional film scene; on the other hand you really must do that, otherwise you end up with something so dull as to be unwatchable. Screening dailies is the reason God invented coffee.

[quote]"Real Life" moves v-e-r-r-r-r-y sloooooooooooooowly.

Not when I was being filmed. I was engaging, I was entertaining, not a moment of film was wasted and the days just flew by!

r73, me too. My father didn't make millions, but we were at one time upper-middle class in N. CA suburbia. I was 12. Parents had already divorced, dad was an alcoholic, and my older siblings were druggies. I was 12. The program was always on the TV. I thought it was boring. My Mom was fascinated. I think she enjoyed watching another WASP family fall apart.

Everyone talked about Lance Loud. I learned not to be flamboyant and to not bring attention to myself.

A few years later, we were watching SNL when The LOUD Family skit happened. At the time, I don't think my mom and I had ever laughed and rolled on the floor.

When I came out of the closet in the 1980s, my mom and older siblings yelled at me really LOUD and called me "Lance". I was so serious and afraid. They couldn't stop laughing. My strategy of coming out at Thanksgiving when the whole family was together and drunk paid off. One of my brother-in-laws guessed (correctly) that my childhood best friend was my boyfriend. We had "sleepovers" from age six through age 23. Adam's conservative Catholic parents didn't allow demonic PBS shows on their TV.

Regarding Santa Barbara, it seemed more of a small, Central California beach town back then, rather than the exclusive enclave of today.

I ended up binging the show from a link someone provided upthread. I watched on 1.5 playback speed and still had to do some fast forwarding. This series was very poorly edited. Those long and tedious dance recital scenes. Seriously? This family was so boring because they never talked about anything real. Their conversations were so shallow.

All that said, I feel like Pat knew what was going on with her son when she visited him at the Chelsea. She wanted to talk to him about it but he was so guarded. Sad ending all around.

R98, you're right, back then Santa Barbara was just a simple place with simple people.

An American Family was long before my time, but I've watched a few episodes and it's an amazing time capsule of that era. Very interesting to see downtown NYC in the early 70s when it was gritty and grimy and not the Disneyland for oligarchs it is today. Weird to think that "regular" people could actually afford to live there, once upon a time.

R101 That is why downtown Manhattan became a breeding ground for artistic expression during 1950s - 1980s. Music, art, poetry, literature, journalism, cultural integration, etc. Once the zoning changed to favor corporate interests, it all started going downhill rapidly.

r102 it was really a shame. Manhattan is nothing but a playground for the international mega-rich now. You can't be a "young artist" there anymore unless you have rich parents and a trust fund.

[quote]Weird to think that "regular" people could actually afford to live there, once upon a time.

Up until the late 1990s, you could find some decent deals. Yorkville had lower rents because they hadn’t extended the subway yet and it was a hike over to the single line at Lexington Avenue. The lower East Side had cheaper rents because many apartments hadn’t been modernized. It was common to find a bathtub in the kitchen and the toilet was in what used to be a closet.

It wasn't just the old tenement apartments that were affordable. It was the LES area in general. Loisada.

The PBS Doc was focusing on the Chelsea Hotel where many artists were also staying at the times.

I lived in Yorkville in 1980s- early 2000s. There were some large middle income Mitchell Lama apartment buildings there. I paid $1500 for a 2 BR, 2BA in a doorman building. The area was dangerous when I moved there. We cleaned up the neighbor so well that rich people decided it was safe enough to steal the place from us, Had friends living in Tribeca and Midtown who also lived in middle income housing. All the buildings were taken out of Mitchell Lana and converted to condos or market-rate apartments.

The Bowery was for what we now call homeless, the upper east side was for the rich, the lower east side was for immigrants, the upper west side had brownstones and SROs.

When I first moved to NYC, I was told not to go into Alphabet City. I didn’t, but they had cheap apartments. I was studying at HB Studios and most of the other students lived in Manhattan. Some in studios and some had rooms in one of the Upper West Side brownstones, which were owned by older widows who still got up every morning and swept off the front stoop.