An American Family debuted 35 years ago on PBS

We'd like to take a moment to commemorate the anniversary of a major gay television milestone: On January 11, 1973, An American Family debuted on PBS. Today we can find similar series all over the TV schedule, but in 1973 the series was a trailblazer. A film crew followed the Loud family of Santa Barbara and turned some 300 hours of footage into a 12-episode series about a family struggling with modern problems. Made possible by technical advances like wireless microphones and lighter cameras, An American Family is considered the first reality series, though things have changed quite a bit in 35 years. (Am I the only one who's struggling with the realization that shows like The Simple Life and Sons of Hollywood owe their origin to PBS?)

An American Family is known for two major moments, the first being when Pat had a frank discussion with her gay son Lance about his life, a scene regarded as Lance coming out to his family and to the nation. Later in the series, Pat memorably told her husband Bill that she wanted a divorce. The series caused a sensation when it aired (and scored a Newsweek cover) for its depiction of a family dealing with divorce and for featuring an openly gay man.

I never got to see An American Family, though I remember learning about the series when The Real World debuted and An American Family would get mentioned as The Real World's intellectual predecessor. Thankfully, I've been able to get a glimpse of the series thanks to a section dedicated to the series at Subterranean Cinema and through a PBS website focused on Lance Loud.

Subterranean Cinema also includes a script for the first two episodes, peppered with screencaps and the occasional YouTube clip. In the second episode, we see Pat visiting Lance in New York, where he is fully immersed in the gay culture of Greenwich Village. They run into drag performer (and Andy Warhol colleague) Holly Woodlawn in Lance's hallway, and for Pat's first night in the city they take her to see a drag show starring more of Warhol's crew, Jackie Curtis and Candy Darling.

Check out this amazing clip, and more about this groundbreaking series) below...

The next day, Pat and Lance talk about his life, the difficuties he had as a child and his current life in New York. After initially asking when he would be moving out of Chelsea, Pat tells her son that she's happy to see him in a place where he can be himself. Worlds like "gay" or "homosexual" don't come up during the episode, but it's pretty clear that Pat knows her son is gay and only cares that he seems happy.

While An American Family aired in 1973, it was filmed in 1971 when Lance was 20 years old. Thirty years later, Lance was dying from hepatitis C and contacted the filmmmakers behind An American Family to capture his last days. Lance died in December 2001 and in January 2003 PBS aired what it called the final episode of An American Family. The episode functioned as both a look back at the series on its 30th anniversary and a memorial for Lance. It was aired along with the second episode of An American Family. Lance explains his goals in having his last days filmed in one of the moving moments of the film:

...when last seen in this series, we were a desperate group. My parents were divorcing. I was headed towards drugs and slow destruction. Everyone was cut off from each other. And that's not the case of what we've become. We're stil together. We still love each other very, very much.

Lance became a bit of a gay icon from his appearance on An American Family; he was, after all, an early glimpse of a gay man who is accepted by his family and seems happy with himself. Lance was hesitant to accept the attention, but grateful feedback led him to embrace his following. He went on to lead a band, The Mumps, which was highly regarded in the heyday of (influential music club) CBGBs, even though they never managed to strike it big. Lance moved on to journalism while staying active in the arts. The tributes to Lance on PBS' website include (along with words form Lance's family) memories from Rufus Wainwright who remembers how Lance mentored him as a young musician.

Considering how reality TV has been a genre where gay visibility has made many of its major steps, it seems fitting that the first reality show would be one to prominently feature a gay man who, despite a difficult journey, had an impact on gay culture and American culture in general. It's too bad there's so little of An American Family to be found today, as it still has plenty to say about who we are.