Years before Bart and Homer or Roseanne, the Loud family made their mark as a controversial TV family. On Thursday, January 11, 1973, The American public experienced the first reality show ever. An American Family was 12 hour episodes that encapsulated seven months in the day-to-day lives of the Loud family of Santa Barbara, California. The Loud family consisted of:  William (Bill) Loud (father), Patricia (Pat) Loud (Mother) and their children Lance, Grant, Kevin, Delilah and Michele.

The show portrayed a shocking view on middle class American families. The show centered on the failing relationship between Bill and Pat and the oldest son’s (Lance) gay lifestyle.  Lance was the first openly gay person to appear on television.

Until An American Family the TV families were all roses and smiles like the Brady’s and the Cleavers.

One of the most talked about parts of the show was Lance dressing in women’s clothes and wearing lipstick.

Alan and Susan Raymond were the filmmakers of the original series. They also produced and directed An American Family Revisited: The Louds 10 Years Later in 1983, which aired on HBO. In 2002, the show was listed on TV Guide’s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

The show Lance Loud!: A Death in an American Family aired in 2003, on PBS. The show was filmed in 2001 and visited the family again at the invitation of Lance before his death. Most of the family members participated, 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 December 22, 2001, of liver failure caused by a hepatitis C and HIV. In his final appearance on camera in the 2003 documentary Lance Loud: A Death in An American Family, as mother Pat holds him in her arms, he states, “When Louds love, they love long and deep: about six feet deep.”

An American Family gave us the first taste of reality TV and dysfunctional families. And wouldn’t you know it? America took to it like ice cream on a hot day.