Wednesday, November 07, 2007

An American Family

Some clips from the groundbreaking 1971 PBS program "An American Family." Probably the first TV reality show, "AAF" was a multipart cinema-verite documentary about the Loud family of Santa Barbara. Parents Pat and Bill try to cope with their five kids: Lance, Grant, Kevin, Delilah, and Michelle. They agreed to have their lives filmed over the course of one year. During that time Bill and Pat separted and decided to divorce. Lance moved to the Chelsea Hotel and took up with the East Village drag scene and the Warhol Factory crowd. The rest of the kids tried to cope with being hip and affluent during the late Viet Nam era.

Lance went on to be a journalist as well as the lead singer of The Mumps. He died in 2001. Here he is describing his siblings:



and hanging out with Holly Woodlawn:



More clips via Subterranean Cinema
Subcin's AAF page, with more info on the show.

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