by eff Probst, Paula Abdul, and the Blair Witch should be thanking a small suburban family from Santa Barbara every time they cash a paycheck.
In 1971, cameras were allowed into a seemingly normal and happy middle American home. When PBS aired “An American Family” in 1973, the facade of normalcy and morality rooted in the 1950s completely imploded as a nation watched in stunned (and morbid) fascination.
With the exception of All in the Family, no other series in the 1970s blew the lid off the family secrets millions of Americans hid in their closets, including divorce, domestic abuse, and homosexuality, all taboo subjects in 1973. And all of this was real and exposed by cameras for everyone to see.
Nothing like this had ever been done before, and public reaction was visceral and extreme. People were outraged that Bill and Pat Loud would not only separate, but also make plans for divorce-out in the open. Just as inexcusable, their oldest son Lance played up to the cameras with over-the-top flamboyance, and became the first openly gay character on television by simply living his life in front of a camera.
The experiment all but ruined the lives of several members of the Loud family, but television executives sat up and took notice of the attention. Realizing the public’s fascination with reality on their screens, Scared Straight followed in 1978, Real People the following year, and, ultimately, the one from which a genre exploded, Survivor in 2000.
Even fictionalized movies (The Blair Witch Project) and shows (Arrested Development) jumped on the bandwagon, making scripted situations appear real.
This weekend, HBO aired a dramatization of the Loud family’s experiences entitled “Cinema Verite,” starring Diane Lane and James Gandolfini. The irony was not lost on me that a fictionalized “movie of the week” was showcasing what was the birth of reality television and the impending death of said dramas.
And, for better or for worse, we have the Louds to thank for Clay Aiken, Paris Hilton, and The Real Housewives
