# 1970's Reality Show-The "Loud Family" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 7, 2009, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-reality-show-the-loud-family/488608 "2009-03-07T00:58:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-reality-show-the-loud-family/488608/1 "2009-03-07T00:58:08Z")
Are DVDs of this show available? I’d like to rewatch them, to see what they were like (and compare to what’s on TV today). Was this considered a terrible show? I recall the family was upper-middle class, but their home life was a mess. Did the parents wind up divorcing? I ecall that the family came in for a lot of criticism, when the show was on. I wonder what critics would make of it today? ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-reality-show-the-loud-family/488608/2 "2009-03-07T01:16:47Z")
I remember this show from when I was a kid, and it was especially interesting to me once I moved to Santa Barbara, the town where the Loud family lived. The one thing I remember was the controversy when Lance Loud came out of the closet which was a REALLY BIG THING back then. He ended up being in the punk band The Mumps, which was famous in it’s own right. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-reality-show-the-loud-family/488608/3 "2009-03-07T01:20:18Z")
Oh, yeah, Lance coming out of the closet? It was HUGE! Unheard of! The parents marriage breaking up right on camera wasn’t half so interesting as Lance. Didn’t he die some years ago? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-reality-show-the-loud-family/488608/4 "2009-03-07T01:29:31Z")
The actual title is _An American Family._ Amazon says it “will” be available but doesn’t give a release date. And, yeah, it was definitely a Big Thing. Even soap operas didn’t show a family coming apart that completely. Lance coming out of the closet was only a sideline (I disagree with **salinqmind** but only by a matter of degree.) Yes, the parents did divorce, and yes, Lance died several years ago. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-reality-show-the-loud-family/488608/5 "2009-03-07T02:45:49Z")
While you’re waiting, you can watch Albert Brooks _Real Life_, which is partly a parody of it and also presages more modern shows. It was made when Brooks was actually really funny. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-reality-show-the-loud-family/488608/6 "2009-03-07T03:31:57Z")
> [@panamajack](#): > > While you’re waiting, you can watch Albert Brooks _Real Life_, which is partly a parody of it and also presages more modern shows. It was made when Brooks was actually really funny. His first in fact. BRILLIANT beyond my capacity to describe it. Top ten American comedies of all time, you ask me. Top five. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1970s-reality-show-the-loud-family/488608/7 "2009-03-07T12:55:56Z")
I still remember the hilarious SNL parody of the Loud Family-everybody was scraming at the top of their lungs!